Description
Formal alliance and defence cooperation agreements are costly signals of support, but a government cannot always count on its partners: Many alliances are not honoured. Whether a state intervenes militarily in support of a partner during international crises and civil wars depends on the nature of the relationship between the two states. Military interventions by former colonial powers need to be reassessed in light of alliance reliability and post-colonial ties.
This paper systematically investigates the patterns of French military interventions in Africa and asks why it intervened in some former colonies but not in others. In the past, France often responded to requests for military support when asked by a protégé, while at other times, it remained inactive despite an existing defence cooperation agreement. There is variation in French interventions across countries but also for individual countries over time. For example, France intervened frequently in Chad, but not in every critical situations. Relying on data from the Thorette report on French military operations abroad and the International Military Intervention data, we assess the relative importance of distinct defence cooperation agreements. Accounting for various opportunities in the potential target state, such as military coups, rebellions, and international militarized disputes, we investigate under what conditions the French government decided to send military support.
A better understanding of whether France has been a reliable alliance partner or intervened selectively depending on its own geostrategic and economic interests will help explaining why it lost ground in Africa.
