Stirk argues that military occupation should be regarded as a political phenomenon - a distinct form of government at the heart of which is the nature of obligation on the part of both the occupier and the occupied. He aims to promote a change in the understanding of occupation, thereby avoiding the perpetuation of recent failures in this area.
The Politics of Military Occupation
Peter M. R. Stirk
Military occupation is a recurrent feature of modern international politics and yet has received little attention from political scientists. This book, newly available in paperback, sets out to remedy this neglect, offering:
*an account of military occupation as a form of government
*an assessment of key trends in the development of military occupations over the last two centuries
*an explanation the conceptual and practical difficulties encountered by occupiers
*examples drawn from, amongst others, the First and Second World Wars, US occupations in Latin America and Japan, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and the current occupation of Iraq.
After a survey of the evolving practice and meaning of military occupation the book deals with its contested definitions, challenging restrictive approaches that disguise the true extent of the incidence of military occupation. Subsequent chapters explain the diverse forms that military government within occupation regimes take on and the role of civilian governors and agencies within occupation regimes; the significance of military occupation for our understanding of political obligation; the concept of sovereignty; the nature and meaning of justice; and our evaluation of regime transformation under conditions of military occupation.
Peter M. R. Stirk is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Durham. He is author of Twentieth-Century German Political Thought (2006), Carl Schmitt, Crown Jurist of the Third Reich: On Preemptive War, Military Occupation and World Empire (2005), Critical Theory: Politics and Society (2000), A History of European Integration (1996) and Max Horkheimer: A New Interpretation (1992).
