Running head: MECHANISMS FOR INTERVENTION 1

Mechanisms for Intervention: How an Individual Can Influence International Policies

Quincy M. Standage

Drury University

Word Count: 1493

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The idea of self-determination is important to human behavior and shapes the way we

seek to make changes in a political environment. When a human rights violation occurs such as

the Syrian or Palestinian crises, states react in an attempt to change the situation. To what degree

can individuals in a state create meaningful change in international politics? Billionaires such as

Bill Gates or Elon Musk demonstrate that financial mechanisms are an effective tool for

meaningful international political change. This can be seen respectively through Gates’ working

with the African Union to create a continent-wide electrical grid or Musk’s contracts across

borders through Space X and the International Space Station. Despite the common troupe, that

only elites can control international politics through financial mechanisms, it is important to

assert that individuals, with limited financial means, can influence international politics. It is also

important to note that fostering "meaningful change" in international politics requires a shift in

behavior from governmental or international institutions in reaction to an event. Various

acceptable governmental or institutional changes could be military mobilization, creation of

elections, UN sanctions, or other meaningful changes in the international political arena. Despite

the individual’s role in changing the political destiny between two states, an individual with a

larger platform is more likely to succeed in influencing foreign policy. Various ways in which

individuals can influence foreign policy includes international advocacy, acts of terrorism, voting

in a democratic institution, financial mechanisms, or protesting.

The first way we can see an individual impacting foreign policy is through Malala

Yousafzai who used advocacy from a tragic situation to create meaningful change globally. As a

young Muslim woman from a rural community in Pakistan, Yousafzai stood up for a woman's

right to an education. After being shot by the Taliban and experiencing difficulty accessing an

education in rural Pakistan she relocated to England where she advocated for women's rights
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globally. Her efforts to address cultural issues against women's education with governments in

Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Syria were successful in starting global change

towards women's rights (Malala Fund 2019). These changes are meaningful because they

facilitated the building of infrastructure, such as schools for young women in impoverish states.

Yousafzai has also garnered international support demonstrated by scholar Shenila Khoja-

Moolji, who asserts "educational development and aid organizations, heads of nation-states, and

nongovernmental groups have rallied around Malala to express support not only for her but also

for the education of girls more broadly in Pakistan and beyond" (Khoja-Moolji 1). Among her

personal accomplishments she also created meaningful change through petitions, speaking to the

UN General Assembly, and wrote an autobiography aimed at promoting international awareness

for education. An important speech Yousafzai delivered to the 2015 Oslo Education Summit,

highlighted the policies she advocates for by asserting “I urge and am hopeful that world leaders,

politicians, NGOs, parents and every person would come together to contribute to this 8 Pakistan

Perspectives campaign and ensure that every girl and every boy receives 12 years of quality

education” (Malala Yousafzai 2015). Yousafzai’s ability to help build educational facilities for

women is a meaningful international political change. Therefore, Malala Yousafzai's ability to

build a platform to advocate for education, sparked collective action from international political

entities to change policies regarding women's education.

Another example of how an individual can influence the international political arena is

through acts of terrorism. A stark example of terrorism is the events that transpired on September

11, 2001 when 19 terrorists linked with al-Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Center killing over

2,000 individuals. The individuals in the terrorist organization and their leader, Osama Bin

Laden, made the choice to crash planes into the World Trade Center drastically changing
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international politics which shifted the United States to a more isolationist strategy towards the

Middle East. This propelled international policies against terrorism. The United States instituted

the USA Patriot Act. Abroad, Germany passed anti-terrorism policies along with Canada, the

United Kingdom, and New Zealand (Scott 2009). These international policies demonstrate the

shifting attitudes to isolationism and anti-terrorism. Scholar, Catherine Scott, argues that "as a

result of a changed global context, the newer constructions of the terrorist threat have produced

distinctive manifestations of patriotic nationalism and racial prisms" (Scott 2009). The

destabilization caused by the terrorism committed during 9/11 directly changed international

politics towards flight security and counterinsurgency measures. Therefore, individual terrorists

created a platform to demonstrate their anti-West message to international entities through an act

of terrorism causing mass deaths and casualties.

Another group of individuals that have dramatically influenced international politics is

wealthy corporations and CEO's. Corporations and CEO’s are an important factor in shaping the

formation of NGO's to assist in international crises such as creating and improving electrical

grids in Africa, improving Israeli's defense system, or lobbying for environmental sustainability.

In the instance of improving electrical grids in Africa, Bill Gates is using economic mechanisms

to build energy infrastructure across borders in African nations. The Bill Gates Foundation

spends over two billion dollars a year on improving Africa's infrastructure and attempts to bring

power to over 500,000 Africans without access to the electrical grid (Silverstein 2019). The

money that Bill Gates pledged to Africa has encouraged other programs such as the World Bank

Group to invest 200 billion by the year 2025 in electrifying Africa (Silverstein 2019). Through

economic mechanisms, Bill Gates has successfully influenced energy policies on the African

continent. Elon Musk is another example of a wealthy individual influencing international

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politics through the contracts he negotiates with his company Space X or helping increase Israeli

security by assisting in the building of infrastructure tunnels in Israel. According to reporter Ivan

Levingston, by supporting talks of building infrastructure in Israel, Elon Musk is helping

Netanyahu seek reelection in Israel (Levingston 2019). Netanyahu is seeking reelection in the

state of Israel, despite the international conflict between Palestinian and Israeli held territories,

by garnering Israeli support through building tunnels to assist with transportation dilemmas.

Levingston asserts "Netanyahu faces a tough re-election battle April 9 against the Blue & White

bloc, which has suggested tapping Israel’s nascent sovereign wealth fund to pay for

transportation infrastructure projects" (Levingston 2019). Elon Musk, an individual, can create

change by supporting the reelection campaign of Netanyahu which directly affects and leads to

changes within the international community. Therefore, by using financial mechanisms through

corporations, wealthy individuals can create meaningful international change.

Individuals can also participate in government by voting as a means of creating

meaningful international change. One example of this bureaucratic mechanism is participating in

political elections through voting in a democratic institution or by protesting a current

government. One example is the Sudan protests occurring on April 16, 2019 outside the Sudan

military headquarters. These protests were successful in removing President Omar Hassan al-

Bashir after his regime committed years of massive human rights violations. By risking their

lives and participating in the Sudanese protests these individuals brought about meaningful

international change. These protestors seized their individual agency to collectively protest as a

group. Another example of a protest changing international politics is the attempted overthrow of

Nicolás Maduro's regime in Venezuela. Mass protests have brought a new candidate, Juan

Guaido, to the forefront of Venezuelan politics and garnered western powers support (Walsh
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2019). The conflict in Venezuela has divided the globe along the ideological lines of

Communism. This includes the United States and Western powers supporting Guaido with China

and Russia supporting the Maduro regime. Under crippling hunger and poverty, the Venezuela

population rose up in an attempt to overthrow the Maduro regime. The reaction from the

international community has been one of restraint by imposing sanctions on oil exports from

Venezuela as a means of damaging the Maduro regime (Walsh and Goldstein 2019). These

sanctions are directly correlated to the conflict created by the protests against Maduro’s regime.

This demonstrates that the pressures started by the individual Venezuelans were carried out

through foreign policies from the United States (Sullivan 2014). Protest is an effective

mechanism for international change because it exposes weakness in a government and garners a

response from the international community.

Individuals can directly influence the international community in a meaningful way

through protest, advocacy, financial mechanisms, voting, or acts of terrorism. By comparing the

different ways in which an individual can use their personal agency to garner support for

international policy changes, we can understand how to participate in our own communities. The

mechanisms explored in this paper are effective tools for understanding how individuals impact

the international community and how we can influence greater civic participation in individuals.

Perhaps the answer lies in an increase in education towards civic engagement in democratic

states. Another possibility is education on how protests affect our world through critical case

studies. Education is a useful tool for increasing the awareness of power that an individual has on

the international community. The individual’s engagement with the international community is

critical to the further development of international policies.

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References

Khoja-Moolji, S. (2018). Girls’ Education as a Unifying Discourse. In Forging the Ideal

Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia (pp. 1-22).

Oakland, California: University of California Press. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctv233kth.5

Malala Fund: Working for a world where all girls can learn and lead. (2019). Retrieved April 26,

2019, from https://www.malala.org/

Malala Yousafzai’s 2015 Oslo Education Summit Address. (2015). Pakistan Perspectives, 20(1),

5–8. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=110676043&site=ehost

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Scott, C. (2009). Imagining Terror in an Era of Globalization: U.S. Foreign Policy and the

Construction of Terrorism after 9/11. Perspectives on Politics, 7(3), 579-590. Retrieved

from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40407005

Silverstein, K. (2019, March 11). Bill Gates: If Africa Can Be Electrified, The Whole World Will

Benefit Too. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2019/03/10/bill-

gates-if-africa-can-be-electrified-the-whole-world-will-benefit-too/#7e1c14413311

Sullivan, M. P. (2014). Venezuela: Background and U.S. Relations*. Current

Politics and Economics of South and Central America, 7(2), 297-356. Retrieved from

https://drury.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1622682592?ac

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Walsh, D. (2019, April 11). The Fall of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the 'Spider' at the Heart of
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Sudan's Web. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/world/africa/omar-

bashir-sudan.html

Walsh, D., & Goldstein, J. (2019, April 16). Amid Euphoria in Sudan, a Delicate Dance Over

Who Will Lead: Soldiers or Civilians? Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/world/africa/sudan-protests.html