Military interference in the sovereign affairs of other nations short of full-scale war is nothing new in world politics. Defined as “a dictatorial or coercive interference, by an outside party or parties, in the sphere of jurisdiction of a sovereign state, or more broadly of an independent political community,” military intervention has traditionally been considered morally and legally wrong except under rare circumstances.¹ With the end of the cold war, there seems to be an increased willingness to accept military intervention as a means to control internal conflict or the repression of human rights by state governments. A 1993 study...

With this idea in mind, this chapter analyzes peace operations and peace enforcement, two subjects that US joint doctrine does not fully cover.¹ Peace enforcement is conducted at the transition point between peace and war, containing elements of both war fighting and peacekeeping. However, peace enforcement is not war. The political and military objectives of war and peace operations are completely different.² Peace enforcement is also not peacekeeping, as the conflict environments of the two are fundamentally different. Confusing peace enforcement with either war fighting or peacekeeping is dangerous and is likely to lead to mission failure.

Finally, peace enforcement...

Saddam Hussein’s repression of the Kurdish insurrection that followed Desert Storm resulted in a humanitarian tragedy that made front page news around the world. The western world’s response to this tragedy was Operation Provide Comfort. One of the most successful peace enforcement operations ever, Provide Comfort provided for the humanitarian relief and resettlement of approximately 450,000 Kurdish Refugees.¹ During this operation, airpower played a leading role in enforcing Iraqi compliance with an air and ground security zone for the Kurdish population in northern Iraq.

The roots of the Kurdish insurrection of 1991 can be traced back to 1880 when a...

The roots of the Somali civil war go back to the late 1980s when rival clan groups united to fight against the regime of President Siad Barre. However, the civil war did not end with Barre’s defeat in January 1991. Without a common enemy to focus their attention, the many rival clans began fighting each other for control of the country which only accelerated the destruction of Somalia. To make matters worse, Barre’s large inventory of weapons which he had acquired by playing East against West during the cold war were now available to the clans.¹

By the early 1990s,...

The US national security strategy clearly states that the primary mission of its armed forces is not peace operations.¹ However, the United States will also continue to rely on military force as a means of limited intervention in multilateral peace enforcement. Thus, both military and political leaders must understand how airpower can be used as an effective coercive force to best contribute to these missions.

The military interventions in Iraq and Somalia both indicate that airpower is a useful tool of coercive diplomacy when used correctly. Provide Comfort demonstrates that under the right conditions airpower can be a powerful coercive...