| Home | Sections | Shop CA House | Join the CA | Contact us |
|
| ||||
|
| ||||
Library > New Acquisitions > Book Review
Sea Power and the Control of Trade; Nicholas Tracy, Ed.; Ashgate, 2005; CA 16648
The question of belligerent rights is one of the thorniest in international relations. It has reared its complex head in every conflict where attempts have been to extend the writ covered by international law. Belligerent rights set out to reconcile the rights of neutral states with those of belligerents but they are often irreconcilable if only because strict neutrality is so rare.
In the Cuban Missile Crisis for example, who could be a strict neutral when the fate of the world might lie in the balance? Nicholas Tracy opens his study with the Crimean war in 1854 and progressively extends it into modem times: Korea, Cuba, and the Beira blockade in 1965. He has written an excellent introduction summarising the issues - the best part of the book for me as a non-specialist. The period covered is then divided into four parts, with specialised accounts of each historical period. They include copies of documents that were originally highly secret, some of them revealing the hidden agenda that neutral states often have. The telegrams exchanged between John F Kennedy and Harold Macmillan during the Cuban crisis are particularly interesting! - DWB
Page prepared 22 February 2006