Resumen de Parliamentary Control of the Deployment of Spanish Armed Forces Abroad in the Post-Iraq Era

Yolanda Gamarra Chopo

• From 1989 to 1999, the participation of the Spanish Armed Forces in international military operations took place within a context of domestic normality and international legality. However, the Kosovo crisis (1999) prompted controversy, and the intervention in Iraq (2003) saw the breakdown of parliamentary consensus. Spain is not alone in this respect. Abuses committed by United Nations (UN) bodies and the executive branches of western states in the humanitarian interventions in the 1990s (Somalia and Kosovo) and non-interventions (Rwanda), and the post-9/11 handling of Afghanistan and Iraq, prompted national and international debates concerning the legality and legitimacy of the use of force in operations outside of national territory and/or Europe. The post-Iraq controversy in Spain...