Intervention, non-intervention and the construction of the state

Cornelia Navari

pp. 43-60

in: Ian Forbes, Mark Hoffman (eds), Political theory, international relations, and the ethics of intervention, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1993

Abstract

Why are we bothered by intervention? What kind of.a problem is intervention? Intervention involves altering the balance of power in a state. In order to differentiate intervention from a constant process of influence we need to develop a theory of intervention which distinguishes alteration from mere influence. Such a theory would demonstrate the various ways in which such alterations may be achieved and the conditions under which they are likely to occur. This is a process of building middle-range theories of international relations. But intervention also raises questions of a first-order kind which entail something more than middle-range theories.