Pascal Boniface: “Advocating democracy by force is an illusion”

French geopolitical scientist Pascal Boniface strongly denounced, Thursday in Dakar, the military interventions carried out in the name of promoting democracy, believing that “advocating democracy by force is an illusion”.

Speaking at a conference organized at the Museum of Black Civilizations, in the presence of Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, he argued that democracy cannot be imposed from the outside. “Democracy is neither an export nor an import product. It is a strictly national process, specific to each people,” he said.
According to Pascal Boniface, external interventions often conceal logics of domination. “Advocating democracy by force is a trap that masks desires for subjugation,” he insisted, assimilating these practices to a resurgence of the “civilizing mission.”
Failures with serious consequences
The founder of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) based his analysis on recent conflicts, evoking the “blatant failures” of interventions in Afghanistan (2001-2021), marked by expenditure estimated at 2,000 billion dollars without preventing the return of the Taliban to power.
He also returned to the war in Iraq in 2003, which he described as “perfectly illegal”, believing that it contributed to fueling terrorism and accentuating tensions between the West and the Muslim world.
Addressing American foreign policy, he cited the case of Donald Trump, whose slogan “Make America Great Again” would reflect, according to him, “the admission of a loss of power”. “Relying on economic or military constraint without a coherent political agenda leads to an impasse,” he analyzed.
Plea for respect for sovereignty
For Pascal Boniface, respect for sovereignty constitutes the main shield against conflicts. He pleaded for international relations based on equality between nations, far from any logic of imposition.
Referring to Senegal, he welcomed the desire of the authorities to claim more assertive sovereignty, believing that such a posture could promote “more balanced and more harmonious” relations with traditional partners.
The conference was part of the presentation of the work “The Masters of the World: Federating, Governing, Submitting”, published in October 2025 under the direction of Pascal Boniface, which paints the portrait of several influential personalities, including Ousmane Sonko.