A Case Study of Intervention During the Bush Administration

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What Leads to Intervention?: A Case Study of Intervention During the Bush
Administration

As Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful armed force in a world plagued by small military crises, the question ultimately becomes: when does a crisis call for intervention? From 1988 to 1992, this was President George
Bush's dilemma. The days of the United States fearing embroilment in international affairs due to the towering menace of the USSR and global destruction ended at about the same time as Bush ascended the Presidency.
However, with the threat of the USSR gone, the importance of small scale conflicts had taken priority in maintaining world peace. Further, the fall of communism had left the United States with a leading role in world politics. In that position, with a powerful armed force behind it, the United States carried the heavy responsibility of how and why to use it's new found eminence. That responsibility fell onto the shoulders of Mr. George Bush as the first American
President to sit in that exalted position. His actions would determine the
United States' place in the new world order and set the path that future
Presidents would have to carefully tread.
The world order that President Bush inherited was of a vastly different character then that of all his predecessors. The Cold War environment that the world had just left behind had provided a clear framework for national security policy and the use of the...

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