Scholars continue to debate whether public opinion in democracies influences the foreign policy preferences of their leaders. We intervene into this literature through a survey experiment which we asked 101 British members Parliament (MPs) for views about UK military presence South China Sea. Using random assignment, some MPs received information from poll issue. who polling information, compared with those did not, voiced opinions closer public. This finding advances state knowledge because...

This article seeks to reconcile a fundamental normative tension that underlies most international reconstruction efforts in war-torn societies: on the one hand, substantial outside interference domestic affairs of such societies may seem desirable secure political stability, set up inclusive governance structures, and protect basic human rights; other is inherently paternalistic—and thus problematic—since it limits policy options broader freedom maneuver actors. I argue for paternalistic...

Scholars argue that the 1991 Gulf War, when United States worked hard to secure approval from Nations (UN), set a precedent for legitimate military intervention other states, especially liberal democracies, subsequently felt compelled follow. France, however, continued intervene unilaterally in its traditional African sphere of influence several years, without seeking UN or regional bodies. Even after France drew widespread opprobrium support murderous regime Rwanda, French leaders deployed...

Abstract Recent scholarship has fruitfully investigated the effect of international organization (IO) approval on public support for military intervention. Following Jentleson and Britton [Bruce W. Rebecca L. Britton, “Still Pretty Prudent: Post-Cold War American Public Opinion Use Military Force,” Journal Conflict Resolution 42, no. 4 (1998): 395–417], scholars argue that IO does not increase already high “foreign policy restraint” (FPR) operations intended to coerce “aggressively...

Approval from the United Nations or NATO appears to have become a necessary condition for US humanitarian military intervention. Conventional explanations emphasizing pull of legitimacy cannot fully account this given that policymakers vary considerably in their attachment multilateralism. This article argues America's leaders, who are consistently skeptical about intervention and tend emphasize its costs, play central role making multilateral approval necessary. As long as top-ranking...

Abstract Even scholars who support multilateralism in principle frequently question the value of securing approval from existing multilateral bodies for humanitarian intervention. The United Nations (UN) and regional organisations such as NATO, argument goes, are far democratic; furthermore, is often a recipe doing nothing; therefore, unauthorised intervention should be permissible circumstances ‘humanitarian necessity’. This article maintains that although today’s related procedures...

Safe areas established by powerful states can improve short-term civilian protection during ethnic civil wars. Paradoxically, however, they may worsen the plight of vulnerable civilians over medium term. This occur in three ways. First, when safe encompass sizeable territories within a broader conflict zone, reduce incentives for protected groups to compromise peace negotiations, thus prolonging hostilities. Second, there is nontrivial possibility that will use as base launching high-risk...

What motivates the United States, world’s most powerful country, to seek multilateral approval from Nations or NATO for its military interventions? Drawing on interviews with top-level US policymakers and combining process tracing a structured-focused comparison of several cases, this article reveals that American leaders do not value primarily avert negative issue linkage, ‘soft balancing’ in other policy domains. Instead, they are motivated by narrower concerns. Their main goal is...

After the end of Cold War, Paris’s traditional, paternalistic interference in Francophone Africa became increasingly questioned. Partly response to that, over last two-and-a-half decades, France’s policy has emphasised multilateral cooperation and local capacity building through United Nations, European Union, various ad hoc frameworks. This special issue aims unpack assess efforts (a) re-legitimise its military presence on African continent by securing political endorsements from bodies;...

The conventional wisdom about the 1992 US intervention in Somalia is that it was a quintessentially humanitarian mission pushed by President George H. W. Bush. This article challenges interpretation, drawing on newly declassified documents. intervention, I argue, largely pragmatic response to concerns held military. In late 1992, as small UN collapsing, senior American generals worried being drawn into resulting vacuum. Hence they reluctantly recommended robust expectation this would allow...

Abstract Research suggests that military interveners often seek endorsements from regional international organizations (IOs), in addition to approval the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), reassure and domestic audiences. Toward end, should endorsement of continent-wide IOs with broadest most diverse membership, which are likely be independent. In practice, however, subregional narrow membership aggregate preferences similar their own. This weaken reassurance/legitimation effect...

Journal Article Did Chirac Say 'Non'? Revisiting UN Diplomacy on Iraq, 2002-03 Get access Stefano Recchia STEFANO RECCHIA is lecturer in international relations at the University of Cambridge. He author Reassuring Reluctant Warriors: U.S. Civil–Military Relations and Multilateral Intervention (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Press, 2015). Search for other works by this on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 130, Issue 4, Winter 2015, Pages 625–654,...

Scholars and policymakers in the West commonly hold that liberal countries intervene to stop genocide subsequently ought establish democratic political institutions enable peaceful collective self-determination. I argue this guidance is problematic. First, introducing electoral democracy deeply ethnically divided societies – especially but not only after often results either tyrannical majority rule or deadlocked decision making rather than inclusive Second, normatively speaking, John Rawls...

The history of the transatlantic standoff between France and United States over Iraq has been told many times. In 2004, Philip Gordon Jeremy Shapiro offered a useful first draft in their Allies at War. That was followed by numerous journalistic accounts, scholarly analyses, insightful, if often self-serving, memoirs. Drawing on wealth French diplomatic documents, Frédéric Bozo presents more fine-grained picture government thinking during crisis than hitherto available. shows that there were...

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