TY - JOUR
T1 - Waiting for advice that is beyond doubt
T2 - uncertainty as Australia’s reason to join the invasion of Iraq
AU - Gerblinger, Christiane
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - A dominant theme across examinations of the intelligence used to justify invading Iraq in 2003 is that political decision-makers amplified the clarity of their evidence. What has been missed is that Australia did exactly the opposite: here, the political leadership channelled uncertainty, inconclusiveness and doubt into highly effective rhetorical manoeuvres that embraced the imperfection of evidence and, with it, sufficiently weakened arguments that an invasion could take place only with absolute proof. This article examines the role of Australian intelligence amid a complex mix of factors that facilitated those manoeuvres.
AB - A dominant theme across examinations of the intelligence used to justify invading Iraq in 2003 is that political decision-makers amplified the clarity of their evidence. What has been missed is that Australia did exactly the opposite: here, the political leadership channelled uncertainty, inconclusiveness and doubt into highly effective rhetorical manoeuvres that embraced the imperfection of evidence and, with it, sufficiently weakened arguments that an invasion could take place only with absolute proof. This article examines the role of Australian intelligence amid a complex mix of factors that facilitated those manoeuvres.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117251041&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02684527.2021.1988223
DO - 10.1080/02684527.2021.1988223
M3 - Article
SN - 0268-4527
VL - 37
SP - 109
EP - 125
JO - Intelligence and National Security
JF - Intelligence and National Security
IS - 1
ER -