Legal Considerations in Relation to Maritime Operations against Iraq

• Author: Neil Brown
• Position: Commodore, Royal Navy
• Pages: 127-137

VII

Legal Considerations in Relation to

Maritime Operations against Iraq

Neil Brown*

It is twenty years since Ifirst visited the headquarters of US Naval Forces Cen-

tral Command (USNAVCENT) in Bahrain. Ihave been there on many occa-

sions since, whether on board visiting ships or on headquarters staffs. On my last

visit, in May 2009, to call on the UK's Maritime Component Commander—who is

also the Deputy Commander of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) under the

operational command of the Commander, Naval Forces United States Central

Command—Iwas struck not only by the enormous physical development of the

US and CMF headquarters footprint in Bahrain, but by the pace and character of

the maritime security operations that stretch from the northern Arabian Gulf to

the Horn ofAfrica, the developed legal underpinning of those missions, and by the

unprecedented levels of genuine international cooperation, particularly between

the US-led CMF and the task groups ofNATO, the European Union and the many

other nations conducting counter-piracy operations. In examining the conduct of

maritime operations by coalition forces in Iraq since 2003, and the reasons for

them, it is first necessary to consider what is ahighly complex background.

*Commodore, Royal Navy. The views expressed in this article are those ofthe author and do not

represent those of the Royal Navy, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence or Her Majesty's

Government.