Prosperity: The Military Intervention Instrument

Paul Collier starts of his brief chapter on military intervention in The Bottom Billion this way:

After Iraq it is difficult to arouse much support for military intervention. For me this chapter is the toughest in the book because I want to persuade you that external military intervention has an important place in helping  the societies of the bottom billion, and that these countries’ own military forces are more part of the problem than a substitute for external forces. (124)

Indeed, others have been critical of Collier’s position here. Last week I linked a lengthy critique by William Easterly (one of my favorite experts on these issues) on just this topic. Still, Collier maintains that intervention can play three important roles: restoration of order, maintain postconflict peace, and preventing coups.

Collier is skeptical about building up local military presence too quickly in a postconflict context. An outside presence that is willing to take causalities is usually necessary. U.N. Peacekeepers that avoid engagement at all costs are useless. The massively expensive and hubris laden efforts in Iraq unfortunately poison the water for intervention strategies. Yet Collier reminds us that the consequences of such reluctance are likely to result in future holocausts like the one in Rwanda a decade ago. Furthermore, there are examples of effective interventions in other regions of the world. Collier lifts up the underreported and little acknowledged success of British troops in Sierra Leone during Operation Palliser. The challenge in the future will be to discern what contexts warrant taking such interventionist risks.

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