Historical Perspectives External Interventions in Conflict

Conflicts There was a time when war usually involved aggressive states trying to control populations and natural resources. States would try to create military alliances with other States in order to protect themselves or boost their power of attack.

Conflicts... External interventions in conflicts were linked to alliances. Since the mid 20 th century, conflicts have been managed by international organizations (UN). Lets look at some examples...

A brief history of conflicts In the 18 th century, Europe was involved in numerous wars that pit coalitions formed to fight a common enemy against one and other.

Napoleon Bonaparte

In the 19 th and 20 th centuries nations signed non-aggression and mutual support pacts in the event of an attack. It was these alliances that led the world into two global conflicts: World War I ( ) World War II ( )

The Great War

Tensions In the early 20 th century relationships between European powers are tense and increasingly dangerous, some examples are: disputes over African and Asian colonies, fierce trade competition and nationalist claims from certain ethics groups put a strain on these countries.

It started with a gunshot! In 1914 the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated by a Serbian student. Austria Hungary suspects Serbia of being behind the attack and declares war against it. This local incident turned into a global conflict due to various alliances that these countries have.

The Alliances!

Who Else? The Commonwealth Countries: Countries that recognize the King of England as their head of state: Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa.

WWI The fighting was primarily done in Europe The United States joined the Triple Entent. The war ends in 1918 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. 9 million people died. The League of Nations was created.

History repeats itself... WWII In some ways WWII is a return to the battles that were waged during WWI. Germany had been declared solely responsible and war reparations were imposed on the country. Global economic crisis of the 1930’s.

Germany’s head of state Adolf Hitler annexes Austria and invades Poland. These events trigger the hostilities that lead to the largest global conflict to date. WWII was primarily fought in Europe

Axis VS Allies

WWII It is the most deadly conflict in history which resulted in about 62 million lives being lost.

Atomic Bomb

New Superpowers Two states emerged from war with superpower Status: 1) The United States 2) The USSR The world is from this point on divided into two blocs.

Peacekeeping Force The peacekeeping force created by the United Nations was only enforced as of Known as the blue helmets the Peacekeeping force started to conduct military interventions. The United Nations force offer impartial interventions to ensure peace and civilian protection.

Ideological Conflicts Splitting the world into two camps one capitalist, the other communist, quickly let to a period of tension known as the Cold War. The Cold War involved many conflicts notably the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Vietnam Vietnam was split in two: 1-North Vietnam = Communist 2-South Vietnam = Capitalist The USSR supported the North Vietnam while the United States supported South Vietnam. The United States lost. Victory was seen as a show of force by the communist world.

The Media

Identity Conflicts Conflicts with a strong identity component such as ethnicity or religion often turn into a civil war. Some identity conflicts end in genocide. Definition of genocide: the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.

Rwanda

Race issues Rwanda a country of 10.2 million people belong to two ethic groups: the Hutus and the Tutsis. Colonizing countries like Germany and Belgium made an official order stating that the Tutsis were racially superior to the Hutus. Tutsis had access to education and power.

Conflict between the two groups To avenge the assassination of the Rwandan president who was of Hutu origin a group of Hutu extremists urged the Hutu population to murder Tutsis and moderate Hutus. This resulted in a 3 month genocide died in the genocide.

The UN and the international community has been criticized for failing to stop this genocide. Another cause for the lack of interest by the international community was because Rwanda does NOT have abundant natural resources nor does it have a geostrategic position.

The Kosovo War

Ethnic Tensions Kosovo, an autonomous Serbian province with a large Albanian population was fighting for independence. Serbia refused to grant independence to the Kosovars. The result was an armed conflict between the Serbians and the Kosovars. Rumours of ethics cleansing begin to circulate.

After 78 days of NATO bombings the Serbs pull out of Kosovo. On February 17, 2008, Kosovo declared independence which has not been recognized by the UN but 56 states including Canada and the United States recognize Kosovo’s independence.

TEXT BOOK TIME! Answer 5 questions from 191, 192, 196, 197, 198