Introduction

Intended to be a trivial pursuit of scientific explanation regarding international intervention among pundits of international relations (IR), this book acquired timely and thrilling relevance at the point of its completion, which coincided with the holding of the 18th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party on November 8, 2012. In the government’s work report presented by the retiring Party General Secretary, Hu Jintao, an unprecedented and unexpected strong disapproval of interventionism was uttered. Hu declared that “hegemonism, power politics, and neo-interventionism [xin ganshezhuyi] are on their rise.” Accordingly, the world “remains restive.” To cope, China “opposes the hasty [dongzhe] use of force or threat with force” and “opposes overthrowing of other nations’ legal governments [hefazhengquan].” Such emphasis specifically made by the Chinese political leader is based on the creed that “militarism [qiongbingduwu] cannot bring a good world”; nor can “cannibalism [ruorouqiangshi] make a way for human beings to coexist.” The report ushered in the new government led by Xi Jinping, whose cynical remarks on intervention on February 11, 2009 raised the eyebrows of the international media (Wenweipo 2009).