Democracy by Force: Us Military Intervention in the Post-Cold War World

By Karin von Hippel

Book Overview

Since the end of the Cold War, the international community, and the USA in particular, has intervened in a series of civil conflicts around the world. In a number of cases, where actions such as economic sanctions or diplomatic pressures have failed, military interventions have been undertaken. This 1999 book examines four US-sponsored interventions (Panama, Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia), focusing on efforts to reconstruct the state which have followed military action. Such nation-building is vital if conflict is not to recur. In each of the four cases, Karin von Hippel considers the factors which led the USA to intervene, the path of military intervention, and the nation-building efforts which followed. The book seeks to provide a greater understanding of the successes and failures of US policy, to improve strategies for reconstruction, and to provide some insight into the conditions under which intervention and nation-building are likely to succeed.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521650518
• ISBN13: 9780521650519
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The Cold War's Over: Let's take some names

The Berlin Wall came crashing down in November 1989. The Cold War ended with neither a bang nor a whimper but - true to 1980s form - with a party. Two unfortunate things came about from this. One, the only 80s person more annoying than Rodney Dangerfield - David Hasselhoff - sang for freedom atop the wall. The second was the turning off the spigot of billions of dollars to prop up regimes throughout the world. What were formerly acceptable regimes as US or Soviet clients were now totally unacceptable. The New World Order of "humanitarian" and democracy based intervention had come. While Karin von Hippel touches briefly upon why each post war intervention happened, her main focus is the success of the intervention itself. She tacitly accepts that interventions into small troubled or failed states will continue to happen. Therefore we must do our best to do it right. From Panama to Kosovo she looks find the lessons that were learned from each intervention and how such lessons can be put into practice later. But, what is the most interesting is the lessons unlearned. If one were to take each of the lessons from Panama, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo and place them on a grid next to the main problems facing the US in Iraq, one sees either lessons ignored or unlearned by the new administration. Written in 1999, and therefore before the Iraq War or the issue of WMD - right or wrong - it is instructive to see that people did see the problems that could be faced in Iraq coming. Von Hippel's style is clear and concise. Very little jargon or classic Political Science turgidness is found in this book. The small-scale, low-intensity war will be the use of the military over the next decades. It is therefore refreshing that someone is willing to look to the interventions not as to whether or not it should have happened but how could it be better? Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Unfortunately, this administration apparently did not read Democracy by Force.

Useful survey of US interventions

This book analyses the developments in nation-building following US-sponsored military intervention by examining the four post-Cold War cases in which both took place: Panama, Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia.The UN did not authorise the US intervention in Panama. President Bush launched the invasion `to restore democracy', after thirty years of supporting the drug-trafficking dictator General Noriega. As von Hippel writes, `the democracy excuse rang hollow'. 37% of the people are still below the poverty line. Its debt is 70% of its GDP. US troops are still there. The US government intervened in Somalia in 1992-95 under what von Hippel calls `the humanitarian pretext'. The Security Council breached the UN Charter by authorising the intervention. Several thousand Somalis were killed. In the `Blackhawk down' incident in Mogadishu, 300 Somalis were killed and 700 wounded; 30% of the casualties were women and children. Intervention cost $4 billion, used 50,000 troops and worsened an already dire situation. The World Bank has no figures for the economy, but knows that the country owes exactly $2.3 billion. Over Haiti, the Security Council again broke the UN Charter by sanctioning military intervention, for another `unique' situation `requiring an exceptional response'. Haiti was no threat to `international peace and security', so Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela opposed intervention. The CIA funded corrupt, drug-running fascist generals, which von Hippel calls `somewhat unpredictable and bizarre', despite noting the similarity with US support for Noriega. Structural Adjustment Programs and sanctions, as usual, worsened the country's problems, causing 60% unemployment. 80% of the rural population still live below the poverty line. The US intervention in Bosnia has produced a military protectorate, with the economy destroyed. In 1997, Serbia's unemployment rate was 50% and in the Republic of Srpska, part of Bosnia, 90%.Von Hippel notes that foreign aid and international charity cause aid dependency. In Somalia, for instance, foreign aid funded 70% of the national budget, before the collapse. She writes that aid "tends to enrich only the elite at the expense of the masses."Her accounts show that nations cannot be built from outside, especially not by US military intervention.

Jolly good read

Karin von Hippel presents an excellent analysis of the US military in the post-Cold War era. She gives a intriging looks at what the future holds for the US military and what kinds of projects it is most likely to behold. She observes most of the factors causing intervention, even those not included in administration publications. Hopefully we can look forward to further editions.

A must-read for anyone interested in 20th-century history

Karin von Hippel is an up-and-coming foreign policy thinker whose academic credentials (Yale, London School of Economics)are reinforced by stints in Kenya, Somalia, Haiti and Kosovo. As a result, her examination of US military interventions in the post-Vietnam era is refreshingly clear-headed and readable, as well as being extremely smart. Von Hippel looks at four instances of US intervention--Panama, Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia--and discusses why the US got involved in those countries, whether US intervention worked, and what Americans can learn from those experiences. What I particularly liked about this book is that it's insightful and intelligent at a level academics would find satisfying. But I'm not an academic, and I found it really interesting. Definitely worth a read if you're interested in modern American history.