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

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