| This dissertation seeks to determine why the patterns of American military intervention have changed in moving from the Cold War to the post-Cold War period. The venues of American military interventions have changed, and this observation is best explained by the removal of both conceptual and tangible restraints that were imposed by the U.S.-Soviet rivalry. In the aftermath of the Cold War, the U.S. has been able to project its military power into Southern Europe to a degree that would not have been possible during the Cold War. During the Cold War, the largest and most comprehensive American military interventions were limited to peripheral regions. In the post Cold-War period, Washington has repeatedly and assertively used military force in both the Persian Gulf and Balkan regions. The Persian Gulf and the Balkans are both regions of great intrinsic value to American national interests.; This project examines possible explanations for the observed changes, and reaches definitive conclusions. Neither offensive nor defensive realism provide an adequate explanation for the motivations that have guided American military interventions during the Cold War and post-Cold War periods. Non-structural, or rather, non-systemic variables must be included in the evaluation of U.S. military intervention policy in order to provide accurate and analytically satisfying theory and conclusions regarding why and how the U.S. applies military force.; This project concludes that American military interventions are initiated based on objective, structural factors such as the need to counter threats to important interests and reputation maintenance concerns. Factors such as the personal belief systems of individual elites, concerns regarding the public reaction to military casualties, and the influence of the Vietnam Syndrome were found to influence how military operations are conducted but not whether or not they are initiated.; This project also concludes that the role of the American experience in Vietnam has a strong influence over how Washington uses its military in combat, but that experience is not as powerful an explanation for the methodology of U.S. military interventions as many prominent scholars assert. |
