Rescue with ulterior motives Since the end of the Cold War the world live in a unipolar order - which one that the United States holds the largest portion of influence and decision making power. In the last five years, some countries like Germany and Russia have stood out to position themselves in a participatory manner. The first one as an economic spokesman and the other one because is questioning the current order. Some theorists, for example, Mearshemeier (pp.142-3) claim that Europe could return to have an unwanted instability and crisis. American foreign policy imposing influence over 60 years through imperialist attitudes and interfering in the domestic politics of many countries, where it have economic or strategic interests. Interfere directly or indirectly is usual practice. Usually, the country uses an humanitarian excuse to start acting in certain region. Drops a regime of power and ensures that the military get economic influence and advantages of contracts. Besides its important to emphasize that the United States also dominates the field of ideas - injecting their culture, thoughts and the American way of life to local folks. We can say that humanitarian intervention is the way how a state uses its forces in territories beyond its borders for the prevention or to end violations of fundamental human rights (HOLZGREFE, 2003, p.18). But would be good to the people even with the existence of economic or strategic objectives hidden behind the humanitarian interventions? In October 2011, President Barack Obama sent 100 soldiers to the mission to kill or arrest the leader of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony. LRA is a militant movement that attempts since 1987 to establish a theocratic government in Uganda. Kony is on the list of 10 most wanted in the world by the International Criminal Court and is accused of crimes such as abduction of children to assemble his army and as well countless murders. This one was just another American intervention. US adds at least 20 military interventions only in the twentieth century and this one would not be the first time on the African continent. Between 1976 and 1992, for example, CIA helped rebels in South Africa fighting against Marxist Angola. To manage what is happening there, US also have The United States Africa Command (Africom), one of six regional military headquarters of the Department of Defense. On the other hand, there are advertisements NGOs that supported this specific intervention. It happened with the Kony 2012 campaign by the organization Invisible Children. The NGO, made a 30-minute film with the aim of making Kony famous worldwide. The idea was basically press public opinion for American soldiers sent to Uganda stay there. In practice, increase the requests to the American government let the troops still working there. For this, members of Invisible Children manipulated facts and increased the number of kidnappings and murders committed by the LRA. The video with Hollywoods elegance was viewed by over 26 million times in its first week. Today, after two years of release, the production already has almost 100 million hits. https://youtube/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc However, a major campaign also attracts those who really know the subject. The result was harsh criticism of important correspondents journalists from Uganda and intellectuals Ugandans. Thats because what was being sold did not correspond to the reality that the country was living at the time, but the things that had happened six years before. Kony himself was no longer in the country, said the critics. According to Teddy Ruge, from Uganda and a member of Africans in the Diaspora, interventions like this only make that Africa still to be treated as a wastebasket. Ruge also said that people have a voice and the ability to fight their own problems. Other factors, however, appear to compose the scenery of this intervention in Uganda. China is the second largest foreign investor in the country (the first one is England) and is also the largest investor in South Sudan gas reserves. Chinese have also invested heavily in the extraction of wealth from the Great Rift, the largest geological belt of mineral reserves in the world. This region is where theoretically Konys group would be acting. Recently, geologists discovered oil at Lake Albert, Uganda on the border with Congo. Another reason for cooperation and stabilization of the area with special forces. The region of Central and Eastern Africa is considered one of the most pristine in the world in relation to oil and gas. A world still unexplored by US. The deployment of troops in peace missions and interventions of any kind is how US has secured its influence in this region where China is becoming stronger. Returning to Kony, is possible to realize that the sovereignty of Uganda is completely disregarded and the ability to resolve its own domestic crisis is discredited. US consider itself the world police and an example of democracy. Barack Obama claims that intervention is an aid to friendly nations and that is a matter of national security. But, such police also should not respect international rights and sovereignty in domestic matters since Kony is not the president of Uganda, but just a criminal citizen? Keohane, an international affairs specialist, says that we must defend human rights even with humanitarian intervention, whether authorized or not. For him, sovereignty is an instrumental, useful in some conditions, but not a strict requirement, especially when there is risk to life. Therefore, the failure to save is worse, as the case of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 where no intervention was made. However, the defense of populations at risk only happen in countries where natural riches geopolitical or strategic value. The cost of being the worlds policeman and support armies is high and unrelated to the financial crisis, the trend is that the American government becomes increasingly selective in choosing who should save. Human rights should not be defended by the world police in all regions which need them? The UN Security Council would be bankrupt? What about the Iraq War, which was not authorized, but was made to free the people from the threat of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein? This fact as dangerous precedents open on illegitimate interventions, in which the only beneficiaries are not citizens. Questions of a unipolar order. #kony #Uganda #Africa #relaçõesinternacionais #internationalaffairs #US #estadosunidos #world #mundo #sociedade #society #UN #ONU #children #child #crianças #violence #violência
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 14:42:35 +0000
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