Third-Party Intervention in Civil Conflicts: A Review of the Existing Literature.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize our existing understanding of third-party intervention in civil conflicts. For all intents and purposes, it is a literature review. This review serves two aims. On the one hand, it serves a cumulative purpose by demonstrating the work of others and how it has contributed to our understanding of third-party intervention in civil conflicts. On the other hand, it also identifies gaps in our existing understanding concerning patterns of intervention behavior. That is, this literature review serves as a starting point for developing a theoretical explanation of continuity and change in intervention patterns. Most studies treat opportunities for intervention as isolated incidents with little consideration for patterns of behavior. Patterns are typically more obvious over longer timeframes and are often guided by more abstract notions of state interests. In this paper, I assess the explanatory power of existing theories of intervention in explaining the similarities and differences in the pattern of U.S. intervention during the Cold War and that after the end of the Cold War. Although I focus on U.S. intervention patterns in particular, this is only to provide a focal point for further theoretical exploration. Overall, I determine whether or not existing explanations of intervention help us understand change in the U.S. pattern of intervention following the end of the Cold War. I find that although the existing literature is helpful in understanding when states intervene in general, it is wanting as it pertains to explaining change in intervention patterns. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]