I thought at the time that what he had done in Kosovo had set a precedent for justified intervention, and that Blair's judgment was sound.
With no vital American interest at stake, argues Michele Bachmann, another of the Republicans' presidential candidates, the "Obama doctrine" has set a precedent for American intervention in "one country after another".Going into one country after another is in fact the last thing on the mind of this hyper-cautious president.
Essentially, this plan establishes a precedent for government intervention in private mortgages by coercing mortgage-service companies to violate the terms of the agreement at the investors' expense.
Importantly, it also set a precedent for outside intervention in German religious and dynastic conflicts.
In the Balkans the U.S. replaced ethnic cleansing with ethnic cleansing and set a precedent for Russian intervention in Georgia and Ukraine.
The temptation now will be for success in Libya to be cited as justification in itself and a precedent for military interventions elsewhere.
Not only was Libya's dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, ousted with relatively few Western casualties, but the NATO campaign also set a precedent for successful humanitarian intervention.
I do think, however, that your leader missed a salutary opportunity for at least the democratic West to assert a principle most oft observed in the breach: that of national self-determination ("Russia resurgent", August 16th).Russia has invoked Kosovo as a precedent for its extrajudicial intervention in Georgian affairs.
It also sets a precedent for limited foreign intervention, which Nepal desperately needs but which India has always opposed.The aim of foreign governments is to persuade the king to restore power to the parties and assume a largely ceremonial role so that the "constitutional forces" are united against the Maoist foe.
Thus, the more closely one inquires the less tenable Kosovo seems as a precedent for future humanitarian interventions.
