ABSTRACT
Intervention by invitation of a legitimate government is frequently among the arguments invoked to justify the use of armed force, although it is almost never the main or exclusive argument. The UN General Assembly by an overwhelming majority characterized the US armed intervention in Grenada as a gross violation of international law and of the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of that state. The interference of France in the armed conflict in Chad in the 1980s took place upon the invitation of the government of Chad. Although a war between different internal factions was in progress in this country, France justified its interference by reference to the intervention of Libya on the side of one of the contending forces. The principal danger of "intervention by invitation" is that it is fraught with the possibility of violating the principle of self-determination of peoples and infringing the right of peoples to choose their own paths of development.
