Abstract Recently, major powers retreated from their long-term foreign interventions. Their latest withdrawal from both Afghanistan and Mali has been mainly addressed under the scope of...Show moreAbstract Recently, major powers retreated from their long-term foreign interventions. Their latest withdrawal from both Afghanistan and Mali has been mainly addressed under the scope of international failure within the academic literature. Therefore, this thesis aims to go beyond the international failure spectrum by focusing on the timing of these retreats. To do so, the paper investigates when and why major powers retreated by providing an extensive overview of the international and national socio-political environment of major powers in the last twenty years. Thereby, it proposes a theoretical framework composed of the three following answers; the Completion of Initial Goals; the Normative and Legitimacy Concerns; and a National Strategic Interest. This thesis defends that major powers retreated mainly due to Normative and Legitimacy Concerns as well as National Strategic Interest reasons. It uses process tracing components as well as a comparative structural approach between the cases of the United-States and France. In fine, it provides valuable insights into the general patterns of the major power’s foreign interventions’ mechanisms and retreats. It incorporates a discussion of major powers’ history, their use of media, as well as other topics in the field of international relations influencing the timing of their long-term foreign intervention retreat.Show less
