Tony Blair’s gamble: The Middle East Peace Process and British participation in the Iraq 2003 campaign

Marina E. Henke

doi:10.1177/1369148118784708

Tony Blair’s gamble: The Middle East Peace Process and British participation in the Iraq 2003 campaign

Marina E. Henke^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Political Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tony Blair tried throughout the preparatory phase of the US-led Iraq intervention in 2003 to influence US policy on the Middle East Peace Process. This article tries to understand how Blair fared in this endeavour. Using newly declassified documents, it examines the circumstances under which the US administration listened and engaged with British ideas and when and why it ignored British requests. The study shows that Blair was able to extract the greatest US concessions on the Middle East Peace Process in moments when Great Britain’s participation in the Iraq campaign was the most uncertain. The findings promote fresh thinking on how, when and why the United Kingdom can influence US decision-making.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	773-789
Number of pages	17
Journal	British Journal of Politics and International Relations
Volume	20
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148118784708
State	Published - Nov 1 2018

Keywords

British foreign policy
Iraq intervention
US–UK relations
diplomacy
international negotiations
special relationship

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Political Science and International Relations
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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10.1177/1369148118784708

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abstract = "Tony Blair tried throughout the preparatory phase of the US-led Iraq intervention in 2003 to influence US policy on the Middle East Peace Process. This article tries to understand how Blair fared in this endeavour. Using newly declassified documents, it examines the circumstances under which the US administration listened and engaged with British ideas and when and why it ignored British requests. The study shows that Blair was able to extract the greatest US concessions on the Middle East Peace Process in moments when Great Britain{\textquoteright}s participation in the Iraq campaign was the most uncertain. The findings promote fresh thinking on how, when and why the United Kingdom can influence US decision-making.",

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note = "Funding Information: The author thanks Simone Cruikshank Rivera for terrific research assistance and the European University Institute (EUI) for hosting her while much of this article was written. The author also thanks Robert Keohane, Karen Alter, Hendrik Spruyt, Ian Hurd, Steve Nelson, Alex Thompson, Ulrich Krotz, Stefanie von Hlatky, Stefano Recchia and the anonymous reviewers and editors at BJPIR for valuable help and guidance. This research benefitted from the generous support of the Farrell Fund at Northwestern University. Funding Information: This research benefitted from the generous support of the Farrell Fund at Northwestern University. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2018.",

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Tony Blair’s gamble: The Middle East Peace Process and British participation in the Iraq 2003 campaign

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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