(This is an archived extract from the book Patterns of Power: Edition 2)
Governments make military interventions in other countries to strike against their enemies, or to protect groups of people, without trying to acquire or protect territory. The groups they are trying to protect may or may not be their own citizens. The interventions may involve an invasion force (7.3.2.1), or be carried out from a distance – either by air-strikes against military targets (7.3.2.2), or by unmanned drones against individuals suspected of terrorism (7.3.2.3).
Unless such interventions are explicitly authorised by the UN Security Council they rely upon a trial of strength, rather than upon a governance framework, so this book classifies them as Self-Protection. They are invariably seen by the target country as acts of war.
A country making interventions from a distance doesn’t put its own military personnel at risk, so its action is more politically acceptable at home – but there are still adverse political consequences of any use of force (6.7.7.1) and it can worsen the overall security situation, as reviewed later (7.4.7).
© PatternsofPower.org, 2014