When Should America Intervene In A Sovereign Country

Air Assault Mission - As seen through a night-vision device, U.S. Army paratroopers and Afghan soldiers travel aboard a CH-47 Chinook helicopter during an air assault mission in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, May 4, 2012. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod

Mali And The Conundrum Of U.S. Military Interventions -- Robert Nolan, US News & World Report

Perhaps no issue has dominated discussion of U.S. foreign policy over the past decade more than military intervention. When should America intervene in a sovereign country to protect its interests and values, and when should it stand on the sidelines?

The "Intervention Calculation" will be front and center during the upcoming Senate confirmation hearings for President Obama's nominees for top cabinet positions at the Departments of Defense and State and at the CIA. It will continue to play out in the policy debate over preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. And new forms of intervention—primarily through the use of unmanned drones, but also through computer networks—will be thoroughly examined in the coming year through lenses legal, moral, and strategic, as the use of such technology moves forward at breakneck speed and little in the way of international norms.

But today, there is the question of Mali.

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My Comment: A good summary on what are the conditions that must be met for US intervention in a foreign country. A policy that I suspect will become more and more difficult as America's debt/financial crisis eats away at it's ability to project power and influence in foreign lands.