IRAQ
February 6, 2012
Conversations in Diplomacy: Former Ambassador Thomas Pickering
Media Feature
Pickering, in a February 2012 interview with the Future of Diplomacy Project, argued that diplomacy can succeed in Iran, but will need time to be able to do so.
December 2011
"Attacking Iran: Lessons from the Iran-Iraq War"
Policy Brief
By Annie Tracy Samuel, Research Fellow, International Security Program
This policy brief seeks to contribute to and inform the debate concerning a possible attack by the United States and/or Israel on Iranian nuclear and military facilities. The presumed aim of such an attack would be to weaken the Islamic Republic, particularly by hindering its ability to build a nuclear weapon. However, the history of the Iraqi invasion of Iran in September 1980 calls into question the contention that an attack will weaken the regime in Tehran. This policy brief examines Iran's reactions to the Iraqi invasion in order to shed light on Iran's possible reactions to a U.S. or Israeli attack.
Hadi Mizban
December 20, 2011
"Troops Are Gone but Iraq War Is Not ‘Over’"
Op-Ed, Bloomberg View
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
While Americans have been welcoming the “end” of the war in Iraq over the past few days, a political crisis of serious proportions has been unfolding in Baghdad.
Winter 2011/12
"Correspondence: Civilians, Soldiers, and the Iraq Surge Decision"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 36
By Richard Betts, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1974-1975; Editorial Board, Quarterly Journal: International Security, Michael C. Desch, Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security and Peter D. Feaver, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1985-1987; Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security
Richard K. Betts and Michael C. Desch respond separately to Peter D. Feaver's spring 2011 International Security article, "The Right to Be Right: Civil-Military Relations and the Iraq Surge Decision."
Winter 2011/12
"Correspondence: Bargaining Theory and Rationalist Explanations for the Iraq War"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 36
By Michael K. McKoy and David A. Lake
Michael K. McKoy responds to David A. Lake's winter 2010/11 International Security article, "Two Cheers for Bargaining Theory: Assessing Rationalist Explanations for the Iraq War."
December 29, 2011
"The GOP's War Identity Crisis"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"The Republicans' search for an identity on foreign policy is all the harder in a world no longer defined by terrorism. There is, after all, nothing new about the isolationism heralded by the Tea Party. It has always been a strong ideological strain for Republicans, from opposition to the League of Nations to involvement in World War II (silenced after Pearl Harbor), to early, and prescient, concerns about the Vietnam War. It is also easier for the GOP to be anti-engagement when a Democrat is in office. But President Bush's wars submerged the rift between this camp and the neocons."
December 26, 2011
"War Ends, A Soldier at a Time"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"How a war is fought is a dramatic narrative brought home by fearless reporters. The seemingly less heroic process of a drawdown is not as interesting. It's mundane and technical. Over a short period, the troops, planes, trucks, post offices, canteens — all the little cities we built — needed to come home. There was no final battle, not even the clarity of a frenzied escape on a helicopter. This war ended one soldier at a time."
AP Photo
December 21, 2011
"A War to End All Misbegotten Wars"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Hopefully, the Iraq experience will put an end to the succession of misbegotten wars of the U.S., the most recent one before that being the manifestly more tragic Vietnam War (1963–1975), with 58,000 American soldiers killed, a war that was claimed to be an anti-Communist struggle rather than what it was: the extension of an anti-colonial war."
AP Photo
December 21, 2011
"Lost Bodies and Erroneous Tombstones"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Across the military establishment, there was a lack of planning for those returning home — dead or alive. Egregious medical conditions for soldiers at Walter Reed hospital in Washington were explained as being the result of an overloaded system that didn't anticipate the burdens of a decade of war. Arlington National Cemetery could not manage the numbers of deaths, resulting in lost bodies and erroneous tombstones."
December 21, 2011
Iraq War Damaged US Credibility
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
Professor Burns reminds us of the human cost of war and the strategic miscalculation of the 2003 American invasion of Iraq.
