- Title
- Collective security and a new world order: justifying Australia's participation in the Persian Gulf Crisis, 1990-91
- Creator
- Barritt-Eyles, Lisa
- Relation
- Australian Journal of Politics & History Vol. 66, Issue 3, p. 522-541
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajph.12699
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- In response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, Australia's Labor government committed a naval task force to participate in the enforcement of sanctions, and subsequently, the Gulf War to expel Iraq from Kuwait. The Australian government justified its response to the Persian Gulf crisis in various ways, including the threat it posed to national and international security, and by employing representations of Australian identity and the radical Otherness of Saddam Hussein. The paper considers these aspects, then focuses on two ostensibly complementary justifications. Firstly, the rapid commitment was represented as a necessary act of collective security connected to revitalisation of the United Nations. Secondly, it was justified as contributing to the development of a post-Cold War new world order (NWO), framed within Australian regional security interests and shaped by the US alliance. The paper argues that the Australian discourse melds the justifications, despite collective security, based on UN leadership, sitting uneasily with a NWO premised on US leadership, without having to attend to the tensions between the two justifications.
- Subject
- enforcement of sanctions; Gulf War; national and international security; Australia
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1430402
- Identifier
- uon:38836
- Identifier
- ISSN:0004-9522
- Language
- eng
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