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Après moi le déluge

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Date01 March 2009
Published date01 March 2009
DOI10.1177/002070200906400116
Subject MatterThe 2008 US Election—Challenges for a New President
Stephen M. Saideman
Après moi le déluge
US interventions after Bush
| International Journal | Winter 2008-09 | 183 |
After the 1992 election, President George H.W. Bush gave the new president-
elect, Bill Clinton, a su rprise gift—significant p articipation in the United
Nations intervention in Somalia. This decision haunted the Clinton
administration, producing an early foreign policy catastrophe in October
1993 with the downing of American helicopters and the resulting battle of
Mogadishu. These events constrained Clinton’s foreign policies towards
Rwanda and Bosnia and shaped perceptions of American resolve, including
in the eyes of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.1
Stephen Saideman is an associate professor of political science at McGill University, where
he holds the Canada Research Chair in international security and ethnic conflict. He also
is a member of the McGill-Université de Montréal Research Group in International Security
(REGIS) an d has published extensively on ethnic conflict. The author is grateful to the
Research Group in In ternational Securit y and the Security and Defence Forum, which
funded the research assistance for this paper. Thanks are also due to Stéfanie von Hlatky,
who provided very helpful comments.
1 To be clear, the makeup of the congress constrained Clinton as well, particularly after
the “Republican revolution” in 1994.

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