Intervention by Invitation in Domestic Unrest from Viewpoint of International Law with Emphasis on Bahrain Case

Intervention by invitation has been always associated with the political objectives which seek to meet the interests of the interventionist state. International community has frequently witnessed such intervention not only during the Cold War era, but even after its termination. Although there is no specific rule on this kind of intervention in international law, certain criteria for the assessment of the legitimacy of this intervention can be found in international law. Intervention of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Bahrain was accompanied with passive reaction and silence of the Security Council. This paper first studies the criterion that can be used to assess legitimacy of intervention by invitation and then studies the legitimacy of intervention in Bahrain both on the basis of the aforesaid criteria and in accordance with the principle of responsibility to protect.