Internationalization of Internal Conflict in the Context of the Cold War: The First Angolan War (1975-1976)
A dramatic deterioration of international climate in the 2010s brought about a new surge of interest in foreign intervention in domestic affairs of politically unstable countries. The Cold War period draws a lot of attention from scholars since it abounds with numerous examples of internal conflicts internationalized through the interventions of superpowers or their allies. One such example is the First Angolan war. The present paper examines some little-known aspects of this war. Particularly, the author focuses on the motivation and reasons behind the Cuban intervention in conflict in the Southern Africa. The first section examines political stance, objectives and capabilities of the key warring parties in the civil war in Angola. The second section focuses on the hostilities of 1975-1976, marked by the intervention of, first, the United States and their allies, most notably, the Republic of South Africa, and then the Soviet Union and Cuba. The author emphasizes that if the superpowers' interventions could be attributed to the logic of a bipolar confrontation and principles of the realpolitik, the Cuban leaders acted in the name of revolutionary internationalism. Eventually, Cuba played a critical role in the development of national liberation movements in Africa and ignited the struggle of the African people against apartheid and colonialism.