To bomb or not to bomb? That is the question that has been exercising self-proclaimed liberal interventionists over the past two decades, from Bosnia to Syria. The argument that divides public opinion across the Western world is how far military means can be used to punish dictators.
STORY OF A DEATH FORETOLD, by Oscar Guardiola-Rivera. Bloomsbury, 2013, 496 pp., £20 (hardcover)
It is worth remembering that a different dilemma racked policymakers during the 1960s and '70s. Then, the question was which dictators to embrace — to fend off the threat of communism. Coups were staged wherever the U.S. had traction, from Congo to Indonesia.
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