Democratic intervention

A democratic intervention is a military intervention by external forces with the aim of assisting democratization of the country where the intervention takes place. Examples include intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. Democratic intervention has occurred throughout the mid-twentieth century, as evidenced in Japan and Germany after World War II, where democracies were imposed by military intervention.

Democratic intervention can be facilitated by the mechanisms of military aggression but can also involve non-aggressive methods. The legal grounds for democratic intervention remain disputed and surround the tension between narrow legislative interpretations and the weak binding nature of international law regimes.

States engage in democratic intervention for a variety of reasons, ranging from national interests to international security. Proponents of democratic intervention acknowledge the superiority of democracies to autocratic regimes in facets of peace, economics and human rights. Criticisms of democratic intervention surround the infringement of state sovereignty of the country where the intervention takes place and the failure of democratic intervention to consider a nation's cultural complexities.