Discussion: When does a nation have the right to invade another?
Do you think that the United States has the right to intervene in another country to protect our economic or political interests? Under what conditions is intervention justified.
This discussion about the right to intervene in another country is a tricky one. One problem is to define the term "right." In other words, who or what has granted the United States this right? Is it right as a result of...international law...moral authority...consensus of the people...a particular ideology? Many times it comes down to the fact that the nation chooses to declare that they have the right to do so. In one sense it comes down to the bully in the playground scenario. He has the right to pick on other kids because he says so.
One thing that is interesting is that our justification of our intervention into other countries reflects our values as a society. When we intervene in another nation for oil or other strategic reasons we are publicly stating that money is our prime motivation. When we invaded Vietnam we were stating that a political ideology, the containment of communism, was our prime motivation. Isn't it interesting that the last war that we have really been proud about is Word War II. Whether we had the right to join the allies can be questioned. However, we joined World War II to protect the freedom of the European people. It was a moral motivation rather than a political or ideological one.