XVI. Commentary-Maritime and Coalition Operations: Paul Cronan

• Author: Paul Cronan
• Pages: 301

While Australia has not yet participated in maritime interception operations in support of the global war on terrorism, Australia has been involved in maritime interception operations in the Gulf of Arabia enforcing UN Security Council resolutions against Iraq for over ten years. Australia strongly supports the Security Council sanctions enforcement regime and its involvement in these operations is ongoing. Given our participation in such maritime interception operations, Australia has been perfectly positioned to closely observe the conduct of maritime interception operations in support of the global war on terrorism. In my view, Australia would have few legal difficulties supporting these operations which have their legal basis in Article 51 of the UN Charter. Ample legal authority exists for conducting such operations provided the essential elements of an Article 51 operation are met. While it is certainly preferable to have a United Nations Security Council Resolution authorizing these interception operations, such authority is not necessary given 1. Wing Commander Paul Cronan is the Chief Legal Officer at Headquarters, Australian Theatre.

the existence of Article 51 and the customary international law right preceding this codification of the inherent right of self-defense.

On the subject of significant coalition legal issues that confronted Australia in the lead-up to deploying troops in support of the US-led military response to international terrorism, host nation basing arrangements was near the top of the list. Notwithstanding Australia's early agreement to support the US-led coalition, it took some time for Australia to put in place the necessary international agreements to support the basing of Australian troops in the Middle East. Most Middle East countries supported the United States in its endeavors to root out international terrorism from the region but negotiating basing agreements takes time. What quickly became apparent was that these potential host countries were fielding requests from a variety of nations to base people, aircraft, ships, etc. in their territory. Unlike Australia, the United...