Les interventions militaires apres la guerre froide: humanitarisme ou neocolonialisme?

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the similarities and differences between the use of force after 1990 and colonial police operations of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Our goal is to analyze and compare three aspects of these armed operations: the underlying ideologies, the aims and goals, and the means and methods. The article tends to demonstrate that today we assist to "the return of history", the pre-Cold War history, rather than to the "end of history". Despite some obvious differences between the two types of interventions, the article states that there are more similarities than divergences between these operations and that we are witnessing the emergence of a form of neocolonialism based on the liberal ideology.