According to a data base on US military interventions in other countries created by the Center for Strategic Studies ( Military Intervention Project or MIP), Tuft University, USA, there were 393 military interventions by the USA in other countries between 1776 and very recent times. Between 1776 and 1945 there were about 193 such interventions. Between 1945 and 1989 (Cold War years) there were 86 such interventions in 44 years, or about two per year. From 1989 to 2022 there were 114 such interventions in 33 years, or about 3.4 per year.
In other words, after the cold war ended and the external dangers for the USA decreased very significantly, instead of military interventions also deceasing these increased very significantly by about 70 per cent.
A note on the website of this Center has expressed serious concern regarding this trend. It says, “As traditional diplomacy withers away, growing in its place are shadowy special operations missions, drone strikes, and/or readily utilized conventional military deployments.”
Further it is stated here, “The US seems to operate without clear guidelines when it employs force abroad, and the consequences of such operations remain blurred and contradictory.”
Prof Monica Duffy Toft who played an important role in creating this index and is co-author of a book ‘Dying by the Sword’ on this subject has stated, “The rate of interventions has increased over time and since the end of the cold war, we have been pursuing fewer and lower national interests.”
Prof Toft added, “We are increasing our levels of hostility, while other states are de-escalating. To me as an America citizen and as a scholar who cares about peace and reducing human distress, that is really distressing.”
The data presented by the USA Congressional Research Service on ‘Instances of Use of Armed Forces Abroad 1798-2022’ is even more worrying. This mentions 469 military interventions during 1798 to 2022, even though it excludes covert operations and some routine operations including those taken up as part of occupation. Up to 1991 there were 218 such interventions in 193 years, or a little more than one per year. From 1991 to 2022 about 251 interventions are mentioned. Thus in the post-Cold War period of 31 years there were about 8 interventions per year, much higher than in the Tuft University data, which may be partly due to definitional issues.
Whatever the exact statistics, clearly there is an increasing trend of military interventions abroad even at a time when the USA had almost a unipolar situation and outside risks had deceased to very low levels.
Why this increasing resort to interventions has taken place even at a time of deceasing risks is a question that must be faced by USA policy makers as this trend has been very dangerous for world peace and has caused immense human suffering. As several US scholars have commented, this is likely to be very harmful for the USA also and has caused it huge loss of trust and goodwill.
In fact policy change is long overdue for the USA to use more and better diplomacy for finding peaceful solutions instead of relying overwhelmingly on use of force and coercion.
Unfortunately the capacity of the USA to take corrective actions has also reduced. The reputed scholars who make a strong case for peace are getting less and less attention in policy making.
Is the increasing power and influence of the military-industry-politician complex at least partially responsible for the highly disturbing trend of increasing military interventions?
All this is even more important at a time when important decisions regarding US involvement in the middle-east war are being made. As the Center for Strategic Studies data has shown, since the 1940s there have been about 77 military interventions by the USA in the Middle-East and North Africa region.
Clearly there is a very strong case for the USA to reconsider its policy of excessive military interventions and instead start moving towards diplomacy aimed at peaceful solutions.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, A Day in 2071 and Man over Machine.
