CIAO DATE: 9/07
Culture and Conflict: Volume 56 (Winter 2005)
This contribution recounts the history of the British military intervention in Ireland and later in Northern Ireland, and aims at emphasizing the evolutions of the general approach adopted by the armed forces in this-these territory(ies). By obeying to London’s political power, the army followed the official discourse of an aid to the civil power, but simultaneously developped a doctrine closer to the counter subversive fight and the decolonisation experiences. By underlining how the British armed forces have participated to the evolution of emergency laws to « fight against terrorism », this article sheds light on the interactions between these emergency and exceptional laws, their interpretation and the practices of the British armed forces in Northern Ireland.