When Intervention Flounders: An Introductory Note on the Political Consequences of Foreign Intervention in Liberia

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue III, March 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705

When Intervention Flounders: An Introductory Note on the Political Consequences of Foreign Intervention in Liberia

Baala, Gawuga Thompson* & Obuah, Emmanuel Ezi
Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria
*Corresponding author

Abstract: – Foreign intervention is a foreign policy tool. It is deployed by one state or group of states to halt ongoing crisis or forestall possible outbreak of war for the avoidance of humanitarian crisis. Thus, most interventions launched in Africa in the recent past lacked elements of consent. The ‘international community’ arguably intervened once it could reasonably establish that the rights of citizens may have been violated or the threats to these right imminent. Thus, embattled regimes have been removed in preference for ‘international community’s’ backed opposition governments. The aftermaths of foreign interventions in some African states negatively destroyed any foreseeable roadmap for sustainable peace in the region. Using the realist theory of international politics, the study argued that foreign intervention in Liberia failed to sustain peace in the country in 1997 and 2003 because most states involved pursued their national interests. It fingers the United States, a country with the military and diplomatic capabilities to intervene in Liberia. Based on a survey research design, the study showed the linkage between the pursuit of national interest and failed intervention in Africa. It negatives the outcome of foreign intervention in Liberia. It also identifies some political consequences of foreign intervention in the country and concludes that foreign intervention in Liberia has its own cost. It recommends the construction of local post–intervention peace-building regime to create enduring peace in war ravaged states

Keywords: Foreign Intervention, Humanitarian Intervention, Transitional Justice, Peace-building.

I. INTRODUCTION

Liberia was greatly helped by international friends and regional allies to overcome its devastating crisis from 1989-2003. In fact, most Liberians admitted the country could not have fixed the problem timeously the way it did but for foreign supports and international involvements in the crisis. Joseph Pratt, a valuable interviewee, put foreign assistance in resolving the Liberian conflict in range given his assessment of how some countries role proved helpful and how other did not (Pratt, 11:01:18). Whatever foreign supports Liberia got during the war drew on her relations with the intervening states. The states too each weighed their actions against their national interests before committing themselves.

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