Do you think it is ever right for one country to become involved in the internal affairs of another?

I do not agree that it is right for one country to become involved in the internal affairs of another, however, there are always certain exceptions in which the expertise and power of foreign nations is needed to help a country in its development.

In the case of the Iraq intervention by the American forces, the excess death toll which accounted for 2.5% of Iraq’s population is sufficient evidence to show that America’s intervention was not a successful one in helping the Iraqis regain peace and freedom. What started out as a liberation movement ended up with the American forces oppressing the Iraqis, creating confusion and chaos throughout the whole country. In this case, it is shown that the powerful nations would sometimes lose sight of their original intentions and cause more harms than benefits. Another example is the case of Rwanda, in which colonization by the European colonists led the classification of the Hutu’s and the Tutsi’s, who were in fact a similar race and only a form of differentiation between those in the lower and higher social classes. The minority Tutsi’s were put in power by the colonists, and when the colonists left, the majority Hutu’s rose up against the Tutsi’s, and eventually began the Rwandan genocide, in which almost 800,000 Tutsi’s and moderate Hutu’s were killed in only a hundred days. This example shows how when the foreign intervening powers leave, they leave behind a power vacuum as well, and due to the country’s ethnic cultures and discrimination during the intervention, lead to severe problems in the country’s governance such as uprising by discontented citizens.

However, there are cases in which countries should be involved in the internal affairs of another. For example, in Sudan, the government actually supports slavery and other inhumane acts towards their own citizens. In these cases, foreign powers such as the developed European nations should step in and help to prevent such human rights abuse where the citizens are helpless to defend themselves against.

In conclusion, I feel that a country should not interfere in the internal affairs of another, unless absolutely necessary as in the case of Sudan, where human rights is non-existent. They should also be responsible for helping such countries back to peace and stability before they retreat from such countries to prevent the countries’ from falling back into anarchy.

I agree with Hui Min that if a country decides to interfere with another’s internal affairs, they should finish up what they started and ensure that the country has its own stable government capable of dealing with the internal affairs before leaving as doing otherwise would probably lead to the country falling into even greater chaos as in the case of Rwanda.

I do not agree with Aarommal’s idea that foreign governments should not step into another country’s internal affairs as their own government would know what is best for the people. Even though different races have their own form of culture and rules, the government may not necessary act in the people’s best interests, especially in the case of corrupted governments such as that of the Sudanese government, which not only did nothing to prevent the abuse of human rights, but also allowed and encouraged such acts to continue within its borders.

-JiaHao