State Co-offending: The Case of the Recolonization of the Chagos Archipelago and the Forced Eviction of the Chagossians

Abstract

State crime research has included studying the cooperation between states and corporate entities and their interaction with supranational actors. This article extends research on state crime through an exploration of co-offending by multiple powerful state actors—what I refer to here as “state co-offending.” The study analyzes the recolonization of the Chagos Archipelago (in the Indian Ocean) and the forced eviction of its Indigenous population as a type of state crime that involved the collusion of two powerful countries. The case study explores the conspiracy between the United Kingdom and the United States to recolonize the archipelago and depopulate the Chagos Islands, identifying behavior that violated international law and illuminating the scale of collaboration between the two governments. The article explores how such behavior was normalized, causing extensive social harm to an entire Indigenous population and disrupting—and discouraging—adherence to international norms.