Police action in military/security studies and international relations is a euphemism for a military action undertaken without a formal declaration of war.
Since World War II, formal declarations of war have been rare. Rather, nations involved in military conflict (especially the major-power nations) sometimes describe the conflict by fighting the war under the auspices of a "police action".
The earliest appearance of the phrase was in July 1947, referring to attempts by Netherlands forces to recolonize Indonesia. The Dutch term politionele acties (police actions) was used for this.
In the early days of the Korean War, President Harry S. Truman referred to the United States response to the North Korean invasion as a "police action" under the aegis of the United Nations.
Also it was used to imply a formal claim of sovereignty by colonial powers, such as in the military actions of the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and other allies during the Indonesian National Revolution (1945–1949) and the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960).
Read more about Police Action: Examples of "police Actions", Appropriate Use of The Term
Famous quotes containing the words police and/or action:
“He took control of me for forty-five minutes. This time I’ll have control over him for the rest of his life. If he gets out fifteen years from now, I’ll know. I’ll check on him every three months through police computers. If he makes one mistake he’s going down again. I’ll make sure. I’m his worst enemy now.”
—Elizabeth Wilson, U.S. crime victim. As quoted in People magazine, p. 88 (May 31, 1993)
“U.S. international and security policy ... has as its primary goal the preservation of what we might call “the Fifth Freedom,” understood crudely but with a fair degree of accuracy as the freedom to rob, to exploit and to dominate, to undertake any course of action to ensure that existing privilege is protected and advanced.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)