Post‐war Iraq: an assessment

Sir Terence Clark is a Council Member of the Society. He retired from the Diplomatic Service after a distinguished career spent mainly in the Middle East, where he was Ambassador to Iraq and Oman. He is the author of many articles in specialist journals and co‐author of Oman in Time (2001). On 18 June 2003, Sir Terence, together with Sir Harold Walker, Chairman of the Society, spoke to the Society about the situation in Iraq as it then appeared. The following is an edited and updated version of Sir Terence's talk.     

Neither treason nor conspiracy: Reflections on media coverage of the Gulf war 1990–1991

Conflicts such as the Gulf war of 1990–1991 raise a range of issues pertaining to the role of force in the foreign policies of democratic states, and to the role of the media during such conflicts. The controversies that raged over the Gulf war tended to fuse these questions: those opposed to the War saw the media as collusive with illegitimate western policies, whilst those backing war tended to regard the media as either supportive, or not supportive enough, of the western campaign. This article focuses upon three aspects of this media coverage: first, the character of that coverage itself; second, the issues upon which, with hindsight, distortion can be said to have occurred; and third, the political and ethical issues raised in discussion of the media coverage. This analysis, of the functioning of the media during war, serves both to probe underlying assumptions about the functions of the media in democratic society and to re‐examine debate on one of the most controversial international events of recent times.     

Triggering Parent Company Liability Under United States Sanctions Regimes: The Troubling Implications of Prohibiting Approval and Facilitation

[General Electric] conducts business in more than 100 countries around the world… . An important challenge for all of us is to understand how [laws of different countries] apply to our operations. GE, the parent company, is a corporation organized in the United States. The laws of the United States frequently extend to the operations of GE and its affiliates throughout the world as well as to the business activities of GE employees wherever they live and work. Other countries may also apply their own laws outside of their borders to their own citizens and to corporations that are organized under their laws, such as GE subsidiaries or other controlled affiliates… . In some instances, there may be a conflict between the applicable laws of two or more countries. When you encounter such a conflict, it is especially important to consult company legal counsel to understand how to resolve that conflict properly. ¹