Raison d'Etat Unleashed: Understanding Rwanda's Foreign Policy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

摘要

This article seeks to examine the underlying causes of Rwanda's successive interventions in the DRC, with particular attention given to the country's decision to invade in 1998. It will argue that while the security threat posed by the former Hutu-dominated Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR) and Interahamwe militia based in the DRC factored prominently in Rwanda's decision to intervene in both 1996 and 1998, the 1998 campaign was unique in that Rwanda's emergence as a regional power combined with a heightened threat from Hutu insurgents to render the use of force a particularly attractive option. The article will also compare Rwanda's relative success in its 1996-1997 campaign with the shortcomings of its much longer, more recent foray, offering insight in to why the country was unable to achieve a similar degree of success during its second intervention. Finally, it will assess prospects for future conflict between Rwanda and the DRC in light of the ongoing Congolese postwar transition and the April 2005 declaration by the ex- FAR/Interahamwe successor group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), that it was abandoning its armed struggle against the Rwandan government and would henceforth seek repatriation.