Why and how did Tony Blair support the US-led invasion of Iraq? Was he justified in doing so? These are the questions that David Coates and Joel Krieger seek to answer in Blair’s War – the most authoritative and complete record of the conflict to date. Writing with an exquisite sense of the unfolding drama and an eye for detail, the authors develop the arguments for and against the war and, with unerring fairness, test each argument against the record of what was known, what was suspected, and what was misrepresented. They demonstrate how Blair’s determination to stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with America after 9/11 trapped in a tragic logic that took the UK to war. Blair’s War blows a hole through each of the justifications for war and offers a detailed, original and compelling set of proposals to return the UK to an ethical foreign policy.

The book provides a unique perspective on this latest unsetting turn in the ‘special relationship’, and is essential reading on both sides of the Atlantic.