An Open Letter to Keir Starmer: On 'Defensive Missions' and Imperial Amensia
Dear Mr. Starmer, We noted your recent announcement, as reported by Al-Monitor, that more than a dozen countries stand ready to contribute to a "defensive mission" in the Strait of Hormuz. France and Britain, you say, chaired a meeting in Paris with 49 nations to discuss this multinational effort, framed as restoring "freedom of navigation." You present this as a proactive measure, a necessary
policing of international waters. What you, and those 49 nations, conveniently gloss over is the historical context that has made such an ostensible "defensive mission" feel less like protection and more like a continuation of old habits. This isn't about rogue actors hindering trade routes; it's about the consistent and often violent assertion of Western naval dominance in a region far from your
shores. Your government, alongside others, helped overthrow Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953, installing the Shah to ensure control over oil resources. For decades, the Gulf was treated as a Western lake, and it was responses to this hegemony that created current complexities. The notion of a "freedom of navigation" mission rings hollow when one considers the
destruction of Libyan sovereignty in 2011, also under the guise of an international coalition, which led directly to open-air slave markets and a failed state. The "conditions" you await for deployment are likely just the opportune moment to further project power, not a genuine concern for maritime law from nations that routinely disregard it themselves. The financial cost alone of deploying such