ABSTRACT
Introduction “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” begins Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, set in Paris and London. Given the spat between French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the U.S. decision to invade Iraq, the decision-making elite in both countries could be excused for calling to mind the second half of Dickens’s introduction as they reflected on their neighborly ties that were stretched over the issue of Iraq. On the eve before military action of allied forces in Iraq and after a meeting between Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair, the former remarked: “We talked about Iraq, and our approach is not the same,” while the latter confirmed, “There are differences,” regarding the forthcoming U.S.-led operation, dubbed Iraqi Freedom.1
