Foreign intervention in African conflicts

Abstract

Abstract taken from Dissertation Abstracts International, vol 50, no 6, December 1989, p. 1793-A:

Since African independence, foreign intervention in African conflicts has been not only pervasive, but also one of the most important issues in the study of African international relations as prolonged foreign intervention in African conflicts has threatened the peace, development, and security of the African continent. Although there is a large volume of research on this subject, most studies of the literature have made relatively little effort to examine both internal and external conditions resulting in foreign intervention. In attempting to explain the act of intervention, many studies tend to view the problem either from the standpoint of the external actors' motivations or from the structural aspect of the international system providing opportunities for intervention. On the other hand, these studies largely neglect the internal conditions within which internal conflict in the fragmented state attracts foreign intervention

Therefore, the objective of this study is to make a balanced and comprehensive study of foreign intervention in internal conflict by discussing both the internal and external conditions resulting in intervention and to provide the empirical background for the exploration of the causes of foreign intervention. For this purpose, this study selects the Angolan conflict as a case study and employs C. R. Mitchell's conceptual framework in an attempt to identify a variety of internal and external factors causing foreign intervention. Utilizing Mitchell's framework, this study identifies the following variables - (l) internal fragmentation, (2) the pre-existing ties between the external and internal parties, (3) the motives for intervention, and (4) the international environment - as major contextual ones contributing to the generation of foreign intervention in an internal conflict of another state and examines the relationships between internal conflict and foreign intervention. Seven propositions are suggested to examine the relationships between each of the four contextual variables and foreign intervention

The Angolan case of intervention provides the empirical background against which the four contextual variables interact to facilitate intervention. By studying the Angolan case, this study intends to provide a basis for the study of foreign intervention in some other African conflicts