This review essay unveils substantial particularities of the approach to external intervention in internal affairs articulated in a recent book ‘Foreign intervention in Africa: From the Cold War to the War on Terror’ by a renowned American specialist in African Affairs Elisabeth Schmidt and of a discussion, which started in the Western academic community after its publication. The reviewer shows the diversity of the Western scholars’ opinions on the issues of foreign involvement in political and social processes within African states during the Cold War and the subsequent decades. The essay also examines new aspects of studying external intervention problematique and the prospects for a further development of discourse on these issues, extremely significant for understanding driving forces of international relations and political developments across the globe in different historical periods.