Brian Drohan - Brutality in an Age of Human Rights: Activism and Counterinsurgency at the End of the British Empire

The inspiration for this book came from my personal experiences as a U.S. Army officer and my academic studies in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but the project would never have come to fruition without help from a long list of mentors and colleagues. While I was an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, Walter McDougall, Ronald Granieri, and Jeffrey Engel steered me toward international and military history. During my operational assignments in the army, I have been fortunate to work with talented military and foreign service officers such as Jeff Anderson, John Craven, Valerie Fowler, Chris Gunning, Patrick Hu, Kelly Jones, John Nagl, Amos Oh, Tom Ryno, Chris Teal, and Diem Vo. Glen Davis encouraged me to choose history as my graduate school discipline. At UNC-Chapel Hill, Susan Pennybacker and Wayne Lee helped me develop this project from its early stages to completion. I also benefited from a wide-ranging faculty in the global and military history subfields, particularly Mike Morgan, Cemil Aydin, Klaus Larres, and Joe Glatthaar. For my friends and colleagues Jessica Auer, Ansev Demirhan, Joel Hebert, Erika Huckestein, Mark Reeves, Jordan Smith, Larissa Stiglich, and Mary Elizabeth Walters: thank you for helping me navigate life as a graduate student. Joel helped me articulate what exactly I wanted to study and how to approach the topic and helped sharpen my arguments by commenting on several chapters. Mark read every word of the entire manuscript and posed several probing questions in addition to catching numerous typographical errors.

I finished this book while teaching in the history department at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, which was a phenomenal intellectual environment in which to work. I owe many thanks to Colonels Ty Seidule and Gail Yoshitani, as well as senior faculty members Greta Bucher, David Frey, Randy Roberts, Cliff Rogers, John Stapleton, Sam Watson, and Steve Waddell. I am also thankful for the fellowship and support of my colleagues Amanda Boczar, Casey Baker, Matt Cohen, Logan Collins, Andy Forney, Jason Halub, Rich Hutton, Nate Jennings, Rory McGovern, Peggy ODonnell, John Rocky Rhodes, and Nick Sambaluk. The greatest part of teaching at West Point, however, is the student body. I have been amazed by the dedication, excitement, and intelligence of the cadets whom I have taught, especially Simone Askew, Gabriel Beck, Erin Colburn, Lindsay Gabow, Mitchell Magill, and Curtis Valencia.

Research for this book benefited from financial support provided by the Omar N. Bradley Foundation, the UK Society for Army Historical Research, and the Raymond Faherty Research Grant awarded by UNC-Chapel Hill. The professional staff members at numerous archives were a tremendous resource, helping to sift through the available evidence. In Chapel Hill, Evdokia Glekas kindly translated several Greek-language sources for me and Gabe Moss did a great job creating maps for the book. In 2015, I was privileged to participate in the Global Humanitarianism Research Academy in Mainz, Germany, and Geneva, Switzerland, where Johannes Paulmann, Fabian Klose, Jean-Luc Blondel, and Michael Geyer fostered a stimulating environment for the study of humanitarianism and human rights in history. Friends from the program helped encourage this project, particularly Tehila Sasson, Boyd van Dijk, and Mie Vestergaard.

Several scholars also contributed to the development of this project. David Anderson took an interest from the moment I met him and provided insightful guidance and support throughout the writing process. His help has been indispensable. On two separate occasions, Huw Bennett asked penetrating questions that honed my thinking about the Cyprus and Aden campaigns. Kim Wagner has been an excellent sounding board for ideas. In 2014, Martin Thomas and Gareth Curless organized a conference at the University of Exeter that allowed me to air some of my early ideas. At the University of Exeter, Stacey Hynd, Marc-William Palen, Gajendra Singh, and Andrew Thompson encouraged this project and brought me into the fold of their wonderful community of scholars in imperial and global history. At Cornell University Press, my editor, Roger Haydon, has been a joy to work with. He offered incisive comments and expertly guided me through the process of turning this manuscript into a book. Two anonymous reviewers also provided useful feedback for which I am very grateful.

Beyond academia, David Copley, Mike Kirkman, and Matt Klapper have always provided friendship and perspective. Matt Gallagher, who pursued his own path as a writer, was always an inspiration for me to keep writing. My greatest thanks, however, go to my familymy father, Tom; mother, Madeline; sister, Laura; and especially Kirsten Cooper, who despite having to read every draft of this book in its multitude of forms and listen to countless hours of my thinking out loud, has remained my travel buddy, intellectual colleague, editor in chief, and partner in all that life has to offer.

Finally, a note to put this book in perspective: The topics discussed in the following pages remain relevant to contemporary debates concerning human rights and warfare, particularly in my country. Americans like to see themselves as a people who aspire to grand ideals such as liberty and justice. These ideals have meant many things to many people throughout our history, and we have often failed to live up to them, but they are nonetheless enshrined in our founding documents and in our sense of national identity. I am of the opinion that if we lose our moral compass in war, we lose ourselves. This opinion brings me to my next pointalthough I work for the United States government, this is my book. Consequently, I should make it clear that the views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Army, or the Department of Defense .

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the United States military expected a quick, surgical victory. Instead, it soon encountered what General John Abizaid described as a classical guerrilla-type campaign, much to the chagrin of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. A similar situation emerged in Afghanistan as the Taliban and Al Qaeda regrouped within Pakistani sanctuaries after 2001. Military practitioners and policymakers in the United States began to grope for answers to these unexpected wartime challenges. In their search for solutions, analysts turned to successful European counterinsurgency campaignsespecially Britains wars of decolonization.