Legitimizing Operation Palliser After the Collapse of the Lomé Accord

Abstract

This thesis seeks to answer how the British government has legitimized its involvement in the civil war of Sierra Leone. It does so by carrying out a framing-analysis on the period March 1999 to July 2000. This period knows varying levels of involvement, starting with merely pushing for a peace agreement and ending with a full military intervention. International involvement needs to be justified towards the domestic public as well as the international community, in order to gain the needed support. The adopted method consists of analysing the created narrative by British officials, using the three core-types of framing as a methodological lens. The analysis is divided into two parts, the period leading up to the peace agreement and the period after its implementation and subsequent collapse. The analytical results show that the British government has engaged in actively reshaping the narrative in order to legitimize their interference in the Sierra Leonean conflict.