Peevers Charlotte - The Politics of Justifying Force: The Suez Crisis, the Iraq War, and International Law

THE POLITICS OF JUSTIFYING FORCE

The Suez Crisis, the Iraq War, and International Law

CHARLOTTE PEEVERS

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Charlotte Peevers 2013

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First Edition published in 2013

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Afterwards, of course, there were endless discussions about the shooting of the elephant. The owner was furious, but he was only an Indian and could do nothing. Besides, legally I had done the right thing, for a mad elephant has to be killed, like a mad dog, if its owner fails to control it. Among the Europeans opinion was divided. The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie. And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.

George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant in Orwell Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays. (Secker and Warburg, 1950)

This book began life first as an intuition and then as a doctoral thesis. For guiding me through those early stages of discovery, frustration, and experimentation I thank my supervisors at the London School of Economics: Christopher Greenwood, Nico Krisch and Andrew Lang. As a doctoral candidate and Fellow at the LSE I benefited immensely from a vibrant research culture and stimulating peers. I gratefully acknowledge the generous funding from the following: the Judge Higgins Scholarship, the Morris Finer Memorial Scholarship, the Wedderburn Grant, and the Law Research Studentship.

I thank the following research archives for their invaluable assistance and patience: the Churchill Archives, Cambridge (papers of Selwyn Lloyd and Lord Kilmuir); the Conservative Party Archive, Oxford University; the Labour Party Archives, Manchester; the Gaitskell Papers at University College, London; the British Library Newspaper Archive (Colindale); and a special thanks to the Public Records Office, Kew.

I thank my doctoral examiners Susan Marks and Ralph Wilde for giving me the confidence to publish, and guidance in making the journey from doctoral thesis to book manuscript. I also thank the commissioning, production, and marketing teams at Oxford University Press, and the generous reviewers who showed such enthusiasm for the project. I have had the good fortune of friends who have challenged, supported, and inspired in equal measure the various manifestations of my ideas. To my ever-available and ever-patient readers I am especially grateful, to Akbar Rasulov, Jacqui Mowbray, Luis Eslava, Nikolas Rajkovic, Rose Parfitt, Shaunnagh Dorsett, Usha Natarajan, and in particular to Olivia Barr. I am also grateful to Flordeliz Bonifacio for careful and timely research assistance on the final manuscript. I pay particular tribute to my mother who listened to draft after draft with such grace and care. Needless to say, all errors, omissions, and opinions remain my own.

Having travelled 10,000 miles during the journey to publication I thank my colleagues at the University of Technology, Sydney for helping me find my feet in a foreign land, and to my friends and family who have stayed so close despite our distance. My greatest thanks go to Neil for sharing these journeys with me. To our newborn son Julian, who laboured with me during the final stages of writing, thank you for giving us the prospect of yet more journeys to share.

This book is for Neil.

Charlotte Peevers

Sydney,

September 2013

The Suez Crisis