Abstract

This research question seeks to explore when the United States will engage in armed humanitarian intervention. To investigate this question the thesis will seek to examine whether the United States humanitarian intervention in Somalia in 1992 was a costly international moral action. This will be achieved by applying Chaim Kaufmann and Robert Pape's Saintly Logroll Model to President Bush (1989-1993) and President Clinton's (1993-2001) decision making process in the Somalia case study. The purpose of the research question is to conclude if Kaufmann and Pape's Saintly Logroll Model is appropriate for explaining the decision making behind the United States humanitarian intervention policy. The study ends with an analysis of the policy repercussions of the United States experience in Somalia and its influence on the governments' subsequent humanitarian policy towards Rwanda in 1994