Publication

This paper discusses the concept of preventive force in both the US and France and its impact on mutual relations in the face of the Iraq crisis. It reviews France's position before the 11 September 2001 attacks for lifting the Iraq sanctions, charts its post-11 September abandonment of much of its principled stance on Iraq and explains this policy shift. Subsequently, it explains the French refusal to join the US war effort and looks at the diplomatic conflict from mid-January 2003 to the formal beginning of the war on 20 March 2003.