Invading a country is the opposite of self-determination, and justifying invasion based on an abstracted universalism was also used by the British empire.
Maybe I should have used the term "popular self-determinism". If the result is the government better represents the will of the populace at large, then popular self-determinism is improved, even if externally imposed.
This pattern goes back to Napoleon: the idea being that the democratic states created by the invading armies were more legitimate/self-determined than the existing monarchal states. However the idea didn't work: monarchal rule returned, and returned in a stronger and more powerful form. There's at least 200 years of experience to suggest that liberal/democratic imperialism is not viable as a strategy, and in fact, provokes more reaction.
