France put her tanks and men at the service of the recognized victor of Cote d'Ivoire's election, forcing out lapsed democracy advocate Laurent Gbagbo, who morphed into a kleptocrat once he lost the election. This is a surprisingly muscular response from France, and may be regretted, depending on how the new majority treats the defeated Gbagbo supporters.
More broadly, do the interventions in Libya and Cote d'Ivoire make Western military protection of democrats a general principal? The payoffs from this approach to the developing world could be very good or very bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment