John Stuart Mill’s Theory Of International Intervention

John Stuart Mill, a famous 19th century British liberal philosopher, was one of the first scholars who explored the challenges of democracy and nationality as connected with the principle of non-intervention. Before Mill, the classic principle of non-intervention had long been built on sovereignty, and it failed to deal with the issue of democracy-promotion. Mill was against promoting democracy by foreign intervention, because Mill believed that it was the nature of democracy that a successful free institution required suitable social conditions, which definitely should be an internal affair, in the first place. Meanwhile, in Mill’s view, achieving national Independence would assure political freedom for oppressed nationalities. Therefore Mill took exception to back the foreign invention assisting European national movements.