Rwanda, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan

I watched the film Hotel Rwanda last night. A film I’ve been intending to watch ever since it came out, but have only just got around to it.

It got me thinking again about one of the big questions in international politics- whether military intervention in another country is the right thing to do. The portrayal of the genocide in Rwanda makes a powerful case for intervention, especially as the film portrays the personal stories of people hoping for the international community coming to help.

In Rwanda, the international community seemed to have gone with the worst of all options- intervening late, with a force that was limited to the peacekeeping role in a situation where there was no peace to keep. This limited the UN troops to only using violence in self defence but not to defend civilians, and limited the amount they could achieve.

However, I struggle to conclude that more intervention with a wider remit to use violence is the way forward. The escalation of increasing levels of violence seems to be too convenient an answer. But that doesn’t mean I have the answers. Possibly getting involved at an early stage is the important factor. It’s too easy to leave it too late so that violence is the only answer left.

If this is the case, then the international community should now be thinking very carefully about Kyrgyzstan. Perhaps some early action can prevent the need for later intervention with military force. There is already talk of military intervention from Russia, but this surely risks making the situation even more complicated and fragile.

I still think that the international community, and the media, are too quick to call for the military option- it’s the lazy option that says we don’t know what else to do, so we’ll have to send in the army. What we need to do is invest more in finding non-violent solutions that work. If we spent as much money on research into peace as we do into war, perhaps non-violent options would become the easier option instead.

The news today about the 300th UK soldier to die in Afghanistan, in the now almost decade-long intervention is depressing news. UK troops have sacrificed a lot, and perhaps it’s now time for us to reassess whether using violence is really the best course of action, or whether we’re only using it because we don’t know what else to do.