The tyranny of strangers: transformative occupations old and new

In the aftermath of the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, considerable attention was given to the apparent emergence of a new type of belligerent occupation—the ‘transformative occupation’ which apparently challenged the traditional assumptions of the law of occupation. The suggestion here is that, as an examination of the British occupation of Mesopotamia between 1914-1924 reveals, the ‘transformative occupation’ is by no means a new institution, but is one that may be associated with a tradition of thought and practice in which the institution of belligerent occupationwas made congruent with the operational rationalities of colonial rule by re-imagining it as a form of sacred trust. The legacy of that history, it is contended, is critical for understanding the role of occupation law today.