Are Economic Motives Relevant to Military Intervention in Africa?
How Relevant are Economic Motives when States Decide to Intervene Militarily in Africa? An Example of Mind Triumphing over Matter Introduction Modern history is littered with examples of Western military interventions in Africa, and although Western governments cited humanitarian obligation as the driving force, the military actions often masked economic ambition. Many commentators, certainly the more cynical ones, believe economic motives underline every foreign intervention – the Iraq War being the prevalent example. In this essay I seek to illustrate how economic factors are inconsequential when two giant ideological philosophies clash on the world stage. Despite the détente, international politics of the 1970s were dominated by the Cold War. The relaxed tension between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) was unable to repress their geopolitical ambitions when faced with new, non-aligned African nations. This ushered in a second ‘scramble for Africa’ in the form ...