Would the world be better off today if foreign countries had successfully meddled in the politics of 1930s Germany to prevent Hitler's rise to power?
To some extent it was the meddling of countries in Germany's internal affairs that led to the rise of Hitler.
Versailles, USSR, etc.
When, if ever, should one country meddle in the internal politics of another country? When should a country not meddle in another country's internal politics?
Usually only when there is a direct threat to the country itself (or its allies on request).
The main problem with interventionism is that it often doesn't work very well. Iraq, Libya, etc.
Israel/Palestine would probably have been solved decades ago if it wasn't for the meddling of outsiders for their own ends.
As a species we are hubristic, believe we can
control things more than we can, and have a bias towards intervention "we must do
something". The problem is that this
something often does more harm than good, like taking antibiotics for a common cold because you want to do
something.
Modern rationalistic ideologies have only added to this conceit, a big part of what is termed the Enlightenment, was about the perfectibility of man/society through our own rational actions. Modern interventionism is simply a continuation of this hubristic belief.
Much as we might think we must do
something, we should only act when it is necessary through threat, not when it is ideologically convenient to interfere in the affairs of others in places we don't really understand and can't control nearly as well as we think we can.
