Title: The forty thieves: Churchill, the Cairo Conference, and the policy debate over strategies of colonial control in British mandatory Iraq, 1918-1924
Author: Terry, James D
Place of publication: US
Publisher: University of North Carolina
Release date: 2008

After World War I, Great Britain found itself unexpectedly occupying vast swaths of the Middle East, including the modern-day nation of Iraq. The final disposition of its Middle Eastern possessions was initially unclear, and the British government explored several policy options before finally selecting air policing, a novel colonial control scheme wherein aircraft would be used in lieu of ground forces to provide a British military presence in Iraq. This thesis examines the process by which Britain chose air policing as its best strategy for Iraq. Air policing was intensely controversial from the very beginning. The internal debate it sparked within the government was intense and bitter. That air policing ultimately won out over rival policy options was due to a combination of factors, including Churchill's advocacy, financial cuts, manpower reductions, and policymakers' determining that air policing represented the best possibility for Great Britain to maintain influence in Iraq.[1]