Democratic intervention
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A democratic intervention is a military intervention by external forces with the aim of assisting democratization of the country where the intervention takes place.[1] Examples include intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.[1] Democratic intervention has occurred throughout the mid-twentieth century, as evidenced in Japan and Germany after World War II, where democracies were imposed by military intervention.[2]
Democratic intervention can be facilitated by the mechanisms of military aggression but can also involve non-aggressive methods.[3] The legal grounds for democratic intervention remain disputed and surround the tension between narrow legislative interpretations and the weak binding nature of international law regimes.[4]
States engage in democratic intervention for a variety of reasons, ranging from national interests to international security.[5] Proponents of democratic intervention acknowledge the superiority of democracies to autocratic regimes in facets of peace, economics and human rights.[6] Criticisms of democratic intervention surround the infringement of state sovereignty of the country where the intervention takes place and the failure of democratic intervention to consider a nation's cultural complexities.[7]