Interdiction of Iraqi maritime commerce in the 1990–1991 Persian gulf conflict

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the coercive measures adopted by coalition forces in the Persian Gulf war to interdict maritime commerce to Iraq and Kuwait following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. It examines the practices adopted initially unilaterally by the United States and subsequently ratified by the United Nations Security Council against the background of the traditional law of blockade and contraband and in the light of a number of post‐World War II situations, including the Korean conflict, the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Iran‐Iraq war. The article concludes that the measures adopted by the coalition fit within the evolving pattern of accommodation between states using such coercive measures and those states that are affected by them, either as subjects of coercion or bystanders.