A Study On The Exit Strategy In International Intervention

International intervention, which is sponsored by the international intervention actors such as international organizations, countries or gr oups of countries, with the use of military, political, economic and other means, is an external intervention action for the target countries. Since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the bipolar structure, international intervention has become one of the most im portant ways for international organizations and m ajor powers to achieve p eace and stability in th e conflict regions and countries. The m ain purpose of international intervention is launched to restore normal social order of tar get country, or by restoring the norm al social order of tar get countries to seek gr eater benefits for inte rnational intervention actors.International intervention can be divided into tw o categories, one is the UN-led peacekeeping operations, and the other one is the “humanitarian intervention” action strongly advocated by the western powers. Although som e cases of international intervention have become the tools of the Western countries to in terfere the internal affairs of the tar get countries, but object ively speaking, the prac tice of international intervention in gene ral plays an importan t role to safeguard the global peace and promote the common development and prosperity of the world.Academics have concerned the internat ional intervention missions for a long time, but an im portant deficiency in the ex isting research is that mainly focuses on whether or not to conduct an international intervention m ission or to discuss the details of the mission when it is implemented, but lack of the research for how to end the mission and some related principles. Therefore, this paper will discuss how to set an exit strategy and achieve su ccessful completion of international intervention missions, in order to avoid the dilemma th at international intervention missions only have an “entrance” but no “exit.”This paper adopted 1) a m ulti-disciplinary approach, 2) b oth qualitative and quantitative research methods, 3) both theory and empirical research methods, and 4) a comparative studies to investigate the topic of this research. In the preface, the paper introduces the theoretical basis of international intervention, such as normative theory of international relations, the debate of pluralism and solidarism of English School, the human security theory, the Responsib ility to Protect” doctrine and creative involvement, etc.In the first chapter, the author reviews the history of W estern just war theory. Due to the over-emphasis of the us e of force, and it is m ainly a tool for the West to launch the so-called “humanitarian intervention,” so this paper has am ended just war theory, and proposes the proposition of “justice intervention.” Then, the idea of “justice intervention” can be divided into three dimensions, including “justice before intervention,” “justice during the intervention” and “justi ce after the intervention.” Just war the ory emphasizes military actions as the key to protec t the success of a mission; on the contrary, justice intervention mainly emphasizes the integrated use of a variety of interventions methods, in order to avoid the abuse use of force means.In the seco nd chapter, the paper focu ses on the “ex it mechanism” issue in international intervention missions. The exit strategy of an international intervention mission is the international intervention actors must leave the target countries and so take all possible means to ach ieve this purpose; at the same time, during th e implementation of these m easures, the inte rnational intervention actors have been restricted by a range of conditions. Exit str ategies in interna tional intervention missions are divided into six m odes and mechanisms, including 1) cut and run, 2) phased withdrawal, 3) deadlin e, 4) benc hmarking, 5) elections, and 6) successo r operations.“Justice after the intervention” is very closely related with the exit strategy. On the one hand, exit strategy reflects the basic principles of a better state of peace and a just peace arrangement after the intervention that “the justice after the intervention” doctrine emphasized; on the other hand, exit strategy is the most dependable m ean of most international intervention missions to achieve success. Jus tice after the intervention, which is the m ost important purpose of an inte rnational intervention mission, mainly concerns the issue of pos t-conflict state-building. T o achieve a smooth transition from “in prog ress” to “f inished” of an interna tional intervention mission, in fact, it is a kind of exit strategy. There is a very close link between exit strategy and justice after the intervention, reflecting the unity between means and ends.Exit strategy can be further subdivided into three aspects, namely, “when the end of the intervention,” “how to end the intervention,” and “ how to do after the intervention,” and all the three together, for an international intervention mission, is a complete exit strategy framework. Specifically, the analysis for “when the end of the intervention,” mainly discusses under which conditions an intervention mission could be formally completed. Secondly, the discussion of the relevant principles to end this intervention mission is the “how to end th e intervention” question. And thirdly, the question “how to do a fter the intervention,” in fact, reflects the purpose of the intervention should be achieved at the e nd of the action. In other words, both the international intervention actors and the tar get country could achieve a win-win payoff.Then from the pe rspective of the steps, the exit strategy in in ternational intervention should include 1) the peacekeep ing period(is to achieve a short-term state of security), 2) the critical point of transition from the peacekeeping phase to the peacebuilding phase, and 3) the peacebuildi ng period(also is to achieve long-term state of peace). In th e course of executing an exit strategy must satisfy some basic principles such as im partiality and neutrality, transparency and non-intervention, etc. The success of an exit strategy d epends on both the sup port of the international community and the dom estic cohesion of tar get country. whether an exit strategy is successful or not can be judged by four objects including 1) whether the tar get country achieves long-term stability and peace or not, 2) whether the tar get country’s military transformation task has been completed or not, 3) whether the human security in the tar get country is fully protected or not, and 4) whet her the international intervention actors have completely withdrawal and their international reputation have been well maintenance or not, to evaluate th e effect of an intern ational intervention mission.Both the Chapters III and IV are empirical analysis sections. In the two chapters, the international intervention m issions in East T imor and Somalia are chose as case studies. Both East T imor and Somalia had been suffered seriously internal conflicts after the end of the Cold W ar, and th e UN-led peacekeeping operations and humanitarian relief operations perform ed in these two countries. Through long-term efforts of the United Nations and relevant countries, East T imor embarked on the normal track of developm ent, but in the oppos ite, Somalia is still long in a state of extreme confusion after the m id-1990 s international intervention mission led by the United Nations. This paper proposes the explan ation for this situation is that because the UN-led peacekeeping operations m ake very long peacekeeping and peace-building efforts in East T imor, and construct a long-term, sustained, and very sophisticated exit strategy, thus contribu ting to the successful com pletion of the international intervention m ission. In contrast, the goals of UN-led peacekeeping operations in Somalia were not achieved, and chose hastily to evacuate from Somalia. This pre-mature exit strategy led to the f ailure of this interna tional intervention mission, thus making Somalia remains in a st ate of extremely unrest for a very long time.In conclusion, this paper reviews the re search framework of the thesis, i.e. mainly from the “post-in tervention justice” and “exit s trategy” perspectives to investigate international intervention in depth. This theor etical framework plays a certain role in the theoretical suggestions for the im provement of international intervention theoretical system, the achieve ment of legitimacy and justic e of international intervention, and the prom otion of successfully com pletion of international interventions. At the same time, as a developing global power, China is also necessary to play a more important role in international intervention, so and the end of this paper also have som e discussion on the basis and signi ficance of China to actively participate in international interventions and the design of exit strategy.