Obama's new war

Running head: Political Science
Politic science research paper: “Obama’s New War”
{Insert student’s name}
{Insert instructor’s name}
October, 10th 2011.
Abstract
The interventions in war torn nations by the western countries such as France, United States of America and Britain among others have faced major contradictions. Thus this paper is out to establish whether the presidents Obama’s call for democracy and is applied actions are justified and honest. It will also highlight the past interventions and the theories of existing interventions. In addition to that the element of Bricmont data will be presented. The paper is organised into a number of sections from introduction to conclusion.
Table of Contents
 TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc305996987"
Abstract  PAGEREF _Toc305996987 \h
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Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc305996988 \h
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Background  PAGEREF _Toc305996989 \h
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Theoretical positions  PAGEREF _Toc305996990 \h
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Severity of conditions on the ground  PAGEREF _Toc305996991 \h
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Domestic Political Influences  PAGEREF _Toc305996992 \h
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Geopolitical Considerations  PAGEREF _Toc305996993 \h
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Past interventions (Somalia, Bosnia)  PAGEREF _Toc305996994 \h
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Capitalism theory as an intervention tool  PAGEREF _Toc305996995 \h
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Current non-interventions (Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, and others)  PAGEREF _Toc305996996 \h
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Data from Bricmont  PAGEREF _Toc305996997 \h
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Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc305996998 \h
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References  PAGEREF _Toc305996999 \h
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“Obama’s New War”
Introduction
Continuous conflicts in the Middle East in countries such as Syria, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt among other countries has made the whole world to be concerned (Chaneel 4, 2011). The revolution itself started in Tunisia and the same was led by the former president Mr Ben Ali. Mr Ali ruled the country without applying democracy (Foucault ,2002). Thus with Tunisia being the reference of the study, there has been calls for democracy by America and other western nations not only in Tunisia but in other parts of the worldHYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3ACheldelin%2C+Sandra.&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" (Cheldelin, HYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3ADruckman%2C+Daniel%2C&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" Druckman &HYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3AFast%2C+Larissa&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" Fast, 2008). Lack of democracy and oppressions have made the people to organise revolts and protests with an aim of demanding for their rights. Most of the activists groups have formed associations which are determined to fight for their democratic, social, economic and political rights (Dalton, 2011). But according to Foucault (2002) this can only be achieved if there is capitalism in the society.
Therefore, this paper highlights the effects of intervention applied by NATO and USA via the resolution of the United Security Nations Council which was passed in 1973. The passed resolution called for the members of the council to make use of all measures in protecting the civilians from attacks by military forces which are loyal to Moamar Gaddafi.
Background
The United States of America calling for other nations to ensure that all nations promote democracy is an element that resulted into mistrust in some parts of the world especially Middle East (Bush, George,1990_08_05). This is because the Middle East region has been involved much with terrorism acts in which America and other western countries have tried to curb using all means. However, the same democracy call have made anti-democracy individuals and groups to have different perspective of Obama’s presidency and American as a whole championing for democracy . this call has resulted into a number of terrorism attacks not only in America but all targeting all Americans across the globe the recent incident being the 9/11 attack this has made the America intelligent community to be assigned the duty of putting in place and ensuring that there are systems of intelligence in place. The intelligence structure put in place by the American intelligence community is based on controlling security agencies, issuing commands, ensuring collaboration, collaboration and dexterity of intelligence servicesHYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3ACheldelin%2C+Sandra.&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" (Cheldelin, HYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3ADruckman%2C+Daniel%2C&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" Druckman &HYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3AFast%2C+Larissa&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" Fast, 2008). Thus with all these information, the likelihood of America promoting democracy in war torn nations is very high.
According to Zartman, (2007).In most countries that are characterised by civil wars and uprisings, the existing form of leadership is dictatorship. This is because civilians have been fed up with the way politics are been run by the power greedy politicians (Chaneel 4, 2011). In addition to that lack of democracy has resulted into communist hunt, anti-imperialism struggle and constant protests against dictatorship. Moreover, citizens of these countries have been denied the freedom to actively participate in political issues in their countries (Zartman, 2007). This has not only resulted into poor living condition but also inequitable distribution of national resources. This further led to more and more civil uprisings in these countries. Political rulers such as Mubarak and Ali-Ben this is due to the fact that their mode of ruling failed to meet the expectations of their citizens and instead they were perceived as stumbling blocks to both reforms and developments (Regan, 1998). In addition to that most of these leaders such the president of Syria and Gaddafi of Libya have stayed in office for decades and yet they have refused to come out of office despite citizens’ calls for the same (Fattah, 2006). Regan, (1998) further added that youths in these countries have protested greatly in streets demanding for the leaders to be accountability for their actions. But the protests yielded positive results as the regime of both Ali and Mubarak came to an end. So why argue that American should not intervene?
Moreover, the political restrictions and dominations based on fundamentals of freedoms have made the people to feel that power has been snatched away from them. Dalton (2011) pointed out that this can be based on the element that the citizens have been denied the right to express their views freely, hold peaceful protests in addition to restricting the media from covering aspects that are likely to highlight issues affecting the society. In addition to that elections have been manipulated with an aim of achieving personal and political interests (Regan, 1998).
Moreover, there has been incidence of violence caused by police using excessive force against the civilians during protests in addition to individuals holding public offices abusing the offices thus making citizens to hold protestsHYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3ACheldelin%2C+Sandra.&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" (Cheldelin, HYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3ADruckman%2C+Daniel%2C&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" Druckman &HYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3AFast%2C+Larissa&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" Fast, 2008).
Another cause of the protests is the mismanagement of public funds and wide spread corruption among all levels of authority. According to Zartman (2007) leaders have used public and national resources for their own public gains and interests without putting into consideration the interests of the people. These embezzled funds could have been used not only in developing infrastructure of these countries but also in building up new industries, social amenities in addition to carrying out the expenditures of the government (Fattah, 2006). These could further result into creation of employment for youths leading to improved living standards.
Theoretical positions
There have been political debates in the field of political science concerning the type of conditions that are necessary to curb the decreased military and humanitarian interventions. According to liberal interventions perspective, interventions are as a result of altruistic humanitarian interventions. However, the realistic theorists view interventions as being motivated by self-interest prism in addition to considering all kinds of interventions even the humanitarian ones (Regan, 1998). However, on a broader perspective, military interventions can be classified into three groups. These include those interventions that are caused by conditions that are severe at the ground level, interventions that are motivated by political and domestic impacts and those interventions that are perceived as being caused by geopolitical considerations and to some extent political and domestic influencesHYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3ACheldelin%2C+Sandra.&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" (Cheldelin, HYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3ADruckman%2C+Daniel%2C&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" Druckman &HYPERLINK "/search?q=au%3AFast%2C+Larissa&qt=hot_author" \o "Search for more by this author" Fast, 2008). Nonetheless, this not does result into disputing the fact that conflict severity is not tired to intervention choices.
Consequently, the UN charter principles pointed out that there is no possibility of multilateral coalitions violating the sovereignty of other nations by meddling in their domestic affairs without causing a humanitarian impetus that is serious in nature. However, if America could apply capitalism theory in their interventions then the situation could be put in control. Moreover, an increased level of vitality and violence in a country can result into violation of the sovereignty of a state (Falk , 2003). However, combination of geopolitical and political influences are the likely the causes for the rise of interventions from the humanitarian and military ones.
Severity of conditions on the ground
Foucault (2002) defines severity as the intensification of multilateral actions which come from exigencies of humanitarian. However, scholars have argued that if there is an increased suffering there is likelihood of moral imperative being there for intergovernmental organizations and major powers to apply force with an aim of alleviating a crisis like that one (Dismore, 2008). In addition to that, it is a fact that increased conflict intensity could prevent a nation from using military force (Falk , 2003). Thus, the concept of capitalism is applicable. Consequently, the use of military force can further make the actor in the intervention process to use not only more manpower but also more resources in achieving the same. Thus, the increased expenses make the intervention method to be undesirable for most nations as no nation is ready to invest heavily in intrastate conflicts.
Domestic Political Influences
According to this theoretical perspective, interventions cut across all nations. It further points out that domestic constraints and state interests within the nation that intervenes in one way or the other impacts on the intervention process (Dismore, 2008). This can be illustrated using multilateral intervention model that has been used for the last two decades. Even though the process is a coalition of a number of participating states in addition to international organization auspices, Falk (2003) argued that one country in most cases plays an active role in directing the military intervention as a result of being in possession of immense resources. However, according to Dalton (2011) a great number of scholars point out United States of America as a key player in these kinds of interventions.
Geopolitical Considerations
This theoretical perspective illustrates the extent of international system influence on foreign states involvement in the conflicts that are intrastate. However both the attitudes and the norms play a crucial role in determining the same (Foucault, 2002).
The use of both norms and international support results into interventions being favoured in addition to using domestic support creates conducive condition for military interventions in interstate conflicts (Regan, 1998). Thus the existing multilateral interventions are perceived as being motivated by similar broader concerns that were applied during the cold war. Therefore, getting involved in any interstate conflict on how their political standings can be improved, how to broaden the standings in addition to examining the possibility of other powers either blocking or subverting the interventions.
Furthermore, the theory pointed out that the interventions focused more on the conflict spill rather than probability. Thus it might only intervene in a conflict if a country feels that the increased intensification of conflict can go beyond state boundaries. In addition to that intervention by this theoretical framework can result when the occurring civil wars are malignant and pervasive in nature. This is because the effects of the wars can spread to other countries (Dismore, 2008). In addition to that the civil conflict can further cause deterioration in regional economic status, violence and influx of refugees among others (Foucault, 2002).
Past interventions (Somalia, Bosnia)
The interventions that were carried out by both US and NATO showed some elements of concern as approximately 100,000 were saved from the wars making the mission...