Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The recent ‘Chilcot’ Inquiry judged that British participation in the 2003 Iraq War was neither right nor necessary. When reading the final report of over 2.6 million words, I warn against seeking accountability solely in terms of intent and individual culpability, such as questioning whether the government deceived the public. There also needs to be an examination of the rationalities and power relations that allowed figures such as Tony Blair to believe, and still believe, that the war was for the common good. Doing so reveals how the preemptive logics behind the war endure today.

Keywords

Blair Chilcot deception Iraq War preemption

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

38 Degrees (2010) Iraq: Demand tough questions for Tony Blair. Available at: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/blairtoughqs (accessed 10 July 2015).

Anderson

(2010) Preemption, precaution, preparedness: Anticipatory action and future geographies. Progress in Human Geography 34(6): 777–798.

Barnett

(2015) On the milieu of security: Situating the emergence of new spaces of public action. Dialogues in Human Geography 5(3): 257–270.

Bjola

(2005) Legitimating the use of force in international politics: A communicative action perspective. European Journal of International Relations 11(2): 266–303.

Blair

(2002) Note Blair [to Bush], ‘Note on Iraq’. The Iraq Inquiry [online], 28 July. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/243761/2002-07-28-note-blair-to-bush-note-on-iraq.pdf (accessed 2 August 2016)

Blair

(2010) Oral evidence of Rt Hon Tony Blair. The Iraq Inquiry [online], 29 January. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/the-evidence/transcripts-videos-of-hearings/hearings-2010-01-29/ (accessed 2 July 2016).

Blair

(2016a) Tony Blair: ‘People don’t believe my regret’. BBC [online], 7 July. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p040pk72 (accessed 6 August 2016).

Blair

(2016b) Tony Blair statement in response to The Report of the Iraq Inquiry. The Office of Tony Blair [online], 6 July. Available at: http://blair.3cdn.net/7c545e7dd16bfda1c8_aqm6ii5qy.pdf (accessed 9 August 2016).

Blix

(2005) Disarming Iraq: The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction. London: Bloomsbury.

10.

Boyle

(2013) The costs and consequences of drone warfare. International Affairs 89(1): 1–29.

11.

Butler

(2004) Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction. London: The Stationery Office.

12.

Butler

(2016) Tony Blair didn’t lie to us – Lord Butler. BBC [online]. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p040chh8 (accessed 17 July 2016).

13.

Chilcot

(2016a) Sir John Chilcot’s evidence to the Liaison Committee. Houses of Parliament [online], 2 November. Available at: https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/liaison/John-Chilcot-oral-evidence.pdf (accessed 10 November 2016).

14.

Chilcot

(2016b) Sir John Chilcot’s public statement. The Iraq Inquiry [online], 6 July. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/the-inquiry/sir-john-chilcots-public-statement (accessed 9 August 2016).

15.

Coole

(2005) Agency, truth and meaning: Judging the Hutton Report. British Journal of Political Science 35(3): 465–485.

16.

Dean

(1999) Normalising democracy. In: Ashden

Owen

(eds) Foucault Contra Habermas. Los Angeles, CA: Sage, pp.166–194.

17.

Dearlove

(2001) Letter from Richard Dearlove’s Private Secretary to Sir David Manning. The Iraq Inquiry [online]. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/173629/2001-12-03-Letter-Dearloves-Private-Secretary-to-Manning-Iraq-attaching-SIS4-papers.pdf (accessed 15 July 2016).

18.

Debrix

(1999) Space quest: Surveillance, governance, and the panoptic eye of the United Nations. Alternatives 24(3): 269–294.

19.

Dillon

(1996) Politics of Security: Towards a Political Philosophy of Continental Thought. London: Routledge.

20.

Ferber

Nelson

(eds) (1993) Feminist Economics Today: Beyond Economic Man. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

21.

Foucault

(1984) What is enlightenment? In: Rabinow

(ed.) The Foucault Reader. New York: Pantheon Books, pp.32–50.

22.

Galeotti

(2015) Liars or self-deceived? Reflections on political deception. Political Studies 63(4): 887–902.

23.

Habermas

(1996) Between Facts and Norms. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

24.

Hanretty

(2013) Leveson inquiry: Letting the judges take the hard decisions? Political Insight 4(1): 8–11.

25.

Heath-Kelly

(2012) Reinventing prevention or exposing the gap? False positives in UK terrorism governance and the quest for pre-emption. Critical Studies on Terrorism 5(1): 69–87.

26.

Herring

Robinson

(2014) Report X marks the spot: The British Government’s deceptive dossier on Iraq and WMD. Political Science Quarterly 129(4): 551–583.

27.

HM Government (2002a) Iraq: Economic issues raised by military action and regime change. The Iraq Inquiry [online]. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/210903/2002-08-29-minute-gantley-to-gray-iraq-economic-issues-raised-by-military-action-and-regime-change-and-paper.pdf (accessed 25 July 2016).

28.

HM Government (2002b) Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction the Assessment of the British Government. London: The Stationery Office.

29.

HM Government (2002c) UK vision for phase IV. The Iraq Inquiry [online]. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/213835/2003-02-25-report-ipu-uk-vision-for-phase-iv.pdf (accessed 20 July 2016).

30.

HM Government (2003) A vision for Iraq and the Iraqi people. The Iraq Inquiry [online]. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/230550/2003-03-xx-paper-fco-a-vision-for-iraq-and-the-iraqi-people.pdf (accessed 18 July 2016).

31.

Humphreys

(2005) The Iraq dossier and the meaning of spin. Parliamentary Affairs 58(1): 156–170.

32.

Hutton

(2004) Report of the Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Dr David Kelly C.M.G. London: The Stationery Office.

33.

Huysmans

Aradau

(2014) Critical methods in international relations: The politics of techniques, devices and acts. European Journal of International Relations 20(3): 596–619.

34.

Iraq Inquiry (2016a) The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary. London: The Stationery Office.

35.

Iraq Inquiry (2016b) The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, vol. 1. London: The Stationery Office.

36.

Iraq Inquiry (2016c) The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, vol. 2. London: The Stationery Office.

37.

Iraq Inquiry (2016d) The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, vol. 4. London: The Stationery Office.

38.

Iraq Inquiry (2016e) The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, vol. 6. London: The Stationery Office.

39.

Jervis

(2006) Reports, politics, and intelligence failures: The case of Iraq. Journal of Strategic Studies 29(1): 3–52.

40.

Kant

(2006) Idea for a universal history from a cosmopolitan perspective. In: Kleingeld

(ed.) Toward Perpetual Peace and Other Writings on Politics, Peace, and History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp.3–16.

41.

Kauzlarich

Mullins

Matthews

(2003) A complicity continuum of state crime. Contemporary Justice Review 6(3): 241–254.

42.

Kiersey

(2010) Neoliberal political economy and the Iraq War. In: Larrinaga

Doucet

(eds) Security and Global Governmentality. Abingdon: Routledge, pp.61–78.

43.

Law

Urry

(2004) Enacting the social. Economy and Society 33(3): 390–410.

44.

Manning

(2009) Oral evidence of Sir David Manning. The Iraq Inquiry [online]. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/94802/2009-11-30-Transcript-Manning-S1.pdf (accessed 10 July 2016)

45.

Meacher

(2010) Chilcot’s unfinished business. The Guardian, 3 April. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/03/chilcot-inquiry-iraq-power (accessed 1 July 2016).

46.

Norrie

(2014) Crime, Reason and History: A Critical Introduction to Criminal Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

47.

PASC (2005) Government by Inquiry. London: The Stationery Office.

48.

Powell

(2010) Oral evidence of Jonathan Powell. The Iraq Inquiry [online]. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/95166/2010-01-18-Transcript-Powell-S1.pdf (accessed 10 July 2016).

49.

Ralph

(2011) After Chilcot: The ‘doctrine of international community’ and the UK decision to invade Iraq. British Journal of Politics & International Relations 13(3): 304–325.

50.

Ricketts

(2002) Minute Ricketts to secretary of State [FCO], ‘Iraq: Advice for the Prime Minister’. The Iraq Inquiry [online], 22 March. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/211047/2002-03-22-minute-ricketts-to-sofs-fco-iraq-advice-for-the-prime-minister.pdf (accessed 14 July 2016).

51.

Rolston

Scraton

(2005) In the full glare of english politics: Ireland, inquiries and the British state. British Journal of Criminology 45(4): 547–564.

52.

Scarlett

(2002) Minute Scarlett to Manning, ‘WMD programmes of concern’. The Iraq Inquiry [online], 15 March. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/234251/2002-03-15-minute-scarlett-to-manning-wmd-programmes-of-concern-attaching-paper-wmd-programmes-of-concern.pdf (accessed 9 July 2016).

53.

Strong

(2017) Public Opinion, Legitimacy and Tony Blair’s War in Iraq. London: Routledge.

54.

Thomas

(2015) The Iraq inquiries. In: Cromartie

(ed.) Liberal Wars: Anglo-American Strategy, Ideology and Practice. London: Routledge, pp.128–149.

55.

Turnbull

(2010) Oral evidence of Lord Turnbull. The Iraq Inquiry [online]. Available at: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/229403/2010-01-13-transcript-turnbull-s2.pdf (accessed 12 July 2016).

56.

Vaughan-Williams

(2007) The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes: New border politics? Alternatives 32(2): 177–195.

57.

Walters

D’Aoust

(2015) Bringing publics into critical security studies: Notes for a research strategy. Millennium 44(1): 45–68.

58.

Weber

(1978) Economy and Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

59.

Whyte

(2010). The neo-liberal state of exception in occupied Iraq. In: Chambliss

Michalowski

(eds) State Crime in the Global Age. Cullompton: Willan Publishing, pp.134–151.

60.

Wight

(2003) The agent–structure problem and institutional racism. Political Studies 51(4): 706–721.

Good faith and (dis)honest mistakes? Learning from Britain’s Iraq War Inquiry

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References