The US may be powerful enough to ignore international law with little short-term consequences, but the UK is not.
Articles on Chagos Islands
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The UK government’s efforts to decolonise the Chagos Islands remain mired in legal controversy.
Britain’s attempt to ‘do the right thing’ over Chagos reflects a rules-based worldview that is under increasing pressure.
The real challenge facing the Mauritian government is how to turn a diplomatic triumph into sustainable economic development.
The UK’s handover of the Chagos archipelago and retention of Diego Garcia is a strategic move that raises questions about the intentions of major powers’ relations with small island nations.
The environmental impacts of a change in management and human activity depends on what, if any, development takes place and how it is managed.
Today, several thousand members of the extended Chagossian community live in the UK.
The deal that’s been announced is a rare win-win moment in international relations, with all the relevant actors able to claim a meaningful victory.
The agreement marks the transfer of sovereignty, but does not fully return the islands to Mauritius.
Rats are disrupting the flow of nutrients towards the sea on many tropical islands – this has consequences for fish behaviour and the wider ecosystem.
As they negotiate with Mauritius, British leaders are mostly interested in securing guarantees that America’s military interests will not be harmed by a transfer of authority to Port Louis.
It has been a hugely controversial bill - but some of the proposals will actually help certain communities fighting for British citizenship.
When the British government expelled Chagos Islanders from their homeland, it put a unique culture at risk of erasure.
Attention is on the UK to relinquish its hold on the islands. What’s missing is an acknowledgment of the enduring role of the US in this international crime.
By raising the Mauritian flag on the Chagos Islands, the east African nation has reasserted – if only symbolically – its claim to sovereignty.
In the early 1960s, British and American diplomats conspired to establish a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest atoll of the Chagos Archipelago.
What steps can Mauritius take now to get the UK to respect the UN resolution on the Chagos Islands?
The UK must accept that colonialism belongs in the history books, and that it must comply with its obligations under international law.
The UK has been humiliated by a judgment that offers hope to other nations looking to unburden themselves from the legacy of imperialism.
Data from hydrophones in the Indian ocean has raised new questions about what happened to MH370.
Top contributors
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Postdoctoral Fellow in International Law, Lund University
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Associate Professor of Political Science, Colorado State University
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Lecturer in History, Sheffield Hallam University
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Professor of Comparative and Plural law, Newcastle University
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Professor of Anthropology of Migration, University of Edinburgh
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Professor, University of Warwick
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Senior Lecturer, Lancaster University
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Professor in Public Sociology, Lancaster University
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Postdoctoral researcher in the Animal Evolutionary Ecology, University of Tübingen
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Senior Lecturer in Law, Newcastle University
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Reader of Applied Mathematics, Cardiff University
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Senior Lecturer
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Lecturer in Environment and Sustainability, Keele University
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Researcher, Oceans Regions Programme, University of Pretoria
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Emeritus Professor of International Relations, University of Pretoria