The Leftist Case for Western Military Intervention
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Johannes Haekkerup
The West’s record of military interventions is tarnished and filled with failures, yet also with moments of genuine success in the struggle to create and sustain a democratic and free world. Interventions are successful when they rest upon two robust pillars: a genuine moral case paired with a realistic, feasible long-term solution and vision for post-intervention conditions. The great threat to the success of interventionism is the lack of clarity that stems from the absence of a coherent vision. Where, concretely, are the West’s red lines, and is the West willing to pay the price of its values? The incoherence causes both interventions that should not have happened and also prevents intervention in cases where it would be warranted. Discussions of the key role of the West’s morality in international politics are often dismissed because they are deemed either hypocritical to the point of worthlessness or irrelevant in a purely security-oriented world system. Both views miss the bigger picture. The West’s values matter because they are worth fighting for and worth asserting when they are genuine. Human rights, democratic liberties, freedom of expression, and popular sovereignty are not just abstract notions. These are values with real weight which bring real,
substantive improvements to people’s lives. Fighting against authoritarianism and subjugation is a legitimate and noble cause that should not be abandoned. The very second article of the UN charter is the commitment to eradicating aggressive expansionism as a means to settle disputes or change territorial boundaries, a commitment which, when genuinely followed, unquestionably promotes peace. The West’s interventions must start and end with the protection of liberal and democratic values and opposing expansionary violations of sovereignty. Nevertheless, it is improper to leave a discussion at just cherishing this ideal vision. Discourses around these liberal values in interventionism should, unfortunately with good reason, ring partly hollow contemporarily because of their systemic misuse in the past. Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, the Latin American death squads, the civilian murders in the drone wars are just a few of sickeningly many examples of crimes that cannot just be dismissed as one-off unfortunate incidents. They are often rooted in perverse manipulation. Whether it be warmongering hawks or the military-industrial complex’s nefarious influence, when the West commits these atrocities, it cannot reasonably claim morality. The moral
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