Haiti: Two Decades of Intervention and Very Little to Show
Abstract:
This research asked the question why had US military intervention in Haiti in the past 20 years not produced long-term stability. Haiti is a nation of internal division and racial tension, suffering from years of upheaval, external intervention, and oppression. Haitian history is rife with political divisiveness and treachery, with only three peaceful transitions of Haitian authority in the years prior to the 1994 US intervention to reinstate Jean Bertrand Aristide. To understand the United States military involvement in Haiti during the past 20 years and explain why this involvement has not produced long-term stability, the research outlined the strategic aims of the United States Government and the policy objectives associated with each commitment to military action. Although the US orchestrated a peaceful transition in 1994, US aims were shortsighted and focused too specifically on security forces to affect long-term stability. The primary US aim was to provide a secure and stable environment. US forces adequately provided security and stability for a short duration until the UN Mission in Haiti UNMIH could assume control. The research evaluated US policy through the lens of contemporary modernization theory. Foreign aid acts as a catalyst for modernization when a society meets certain internal conditions of acceptability political climate, economic security, and cultural openness to modernization. The research measured those internal conditions against the stated objectives of the intervention. This evaluation revealed that United States policy between 1994 and 2010 was disjointed and unclear. Combined with a poor political climate in Haiti, economic collapse, and cultural reluctance to accept modernization, Haitian growth and development stagnated which in turn prevented its long-term stability. The US was doctrinally deficient, with the Army having no doctrine focused specifically on stability until December 1994, three months after the first US interventio