Tanzania as an interventionist state: from a ‘willing’ to a ‘reluctant’ intervener

Despite its ongoing participation in various peace support operations across the globe, Tanzania can generally be considered a reluctant intervener. In its first 30 years after independence (1961-1991), Tanzania viewed intervention to advance the self-determination of other African polities as central to its own security and reputation. However, from the middle of the 1990s to date, Tanzania has viewed interventions as something potentially inimical to its own development. While scholars have shown notable interest in Tanzania’s early support for self-determination, the question of how the country’s international posture has evolved from a willing to a reluctant intervener has not received as much attention. Going beyond the official narrative that the completion of liberation in Southern Africa made policy change necessary, this paper demonstrates that the shift began almost a decade before the said completion. It also points to the impact of a costly intervention in Uganda as a key but often unacknowledged imperative behind the change in the country’s posture. This paper is based on key informant interviews, archival sources, and secondary materials.