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1. Toppling Foreign Governments: The Logic of Regime Change, Melissa Willard-Foster

Author:
Alexander B. Downes
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
The rapid-fire overthrow of the theocratic Taliban regime in Afghanistan (2001) and Saddam Hussein’s Baathist dictatorship in Iraq (2003) by the United States—and the disastrous aftermaths of those and other recent interventions (such as the ouster of Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011)— has sparked popular and scholarly interest in the causes and consequences of foreign-imposed regime change (FIRC). One of the enduring puzzles about FIRCs is that, as highlighted in Melissa Willard-Foster’s terrific book Toppling Foreign Governments, three-quarters of them are carried out by great powers against minor powers in situations of extreme power asymmetry. “Though this asymmetry of power makes an imposed change feasible,” writes Willard-Foster, a political scientist at the University of Vermont, “it should also make that change unnecessary” because “militarily weak leaders who are bereft of allies should back down when confronted by stronger states” (pp. 2–3). The 133 regime changes in Willard-Foster’s study, however, testify that the weak regularly defy the strong—and pay the price for it.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Government, Regime Change, and Political Science
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, and United States of America

2. Report X Marks the Spot: The British Government's Deceptive Dossier on Iraq and WMD

Author:
Eric Herring and Piers Robinson
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT PUBLISHED A DOSSIER on 24 September 2002 setting out its claims regarding Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Parliament was recalled for an emergency session on the same day to hear Prime Minister Tony Blair's presentation of it. The dossier stated that Iraq had WMD and was producing more. After the invasion in March 2003, no WMD were found. Ever since, there has been controversy as to whether the dossier reported accurately intelligence which turned out to be wrong, as Blair has claimed consistently, or whether the dossier deliberately deceived by intentionally giving the impression of greater Iraqi WMD capability and threat than the intelligence suggested.
Topic:
Government and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
Pakistan, China, Iraq, Middle East, and Asia

3. Warlords: Strong-Arm Brokers in Weak States

Author:
Jesse Driscoll
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Some countries do not have effective domestic sovereignty. In these "weak states," the central government lacks the will or capacity to enforce contracts, punish criminals, or deter terrorists in all parts of the internationally recognized territory. Kimberly Marten's new book, Warlords: Strong�Arm Brokers in Weak States, chronicles how order is subcontracted. Marten defines warlords as "individuals who control small pieces of territory using a combination of force and patronage" and who "rule in defiance of genuine state sovereignty but through the complicity of state leaders" (p. 3). What exactly is meant by "complicity of state leaders" varies substantially by context, but at base, Marten employs an extended delegation metaphor: "the principal actor (the state) relies on an agent (the warlord) to fulfill assigned tasks" (p. 30). The empirical chapters then take the reader on a sweeping tour of the peripheries of Iraq, Russia, Georgia, and Pakistan. Warlords demonstrates that in all of these places, state officials can be either hoodwinked or coerced into letting charismatic local authorities build their own invisible patronage networks. Though the theoretical insights are neither new nor controversial to students of comparative politics, the particulars of why resources are funneled to local violence entrepreneurs at the periphery of empire make for a compelling read.
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Russia, Iraq, and Georgia

4. The Consequences of Forced State Failure in Iraq

Author:
Andrew Flibbert
Publication Date:
04-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
ANDREW FLIBBERT discusses the Iraq war and its aftermath. He argues that most of the pathologies in Iraqi political life since 2003, from sectarian mobilization to insurgent violence, are best understood as consequences of forced state failure. He contends that the war should not be viewed as badly conducted so much as badly conceived, claiming that the same ideas that led to the war also determined the shape of the peace in subsequent years.
Political Geography:
Iraq

5. Why Intelligence Fails: Lessons from the Iranian Revolution and the Iraq War

Author:
Loch K. Johnson
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Anything on intelligence written by Robert Jervis is worth reading. This volume is certainly no exception. In this instance, he takes on the difficult job of trying to understand why the United States, despite spending $80 billion on intelligence each year, still makes mistakes in predicting the trajectory of world affairs.
Political Geography:
United States and Iraq

6. How Wars End: Why We Always Fight the Last Battle

Author:
Robert Litwak
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
“ Tell me, how does this end? ” General David Petraeus famously asked in 2003 as the rapid toppling of the Saddam Hussein regime by U.S. forces was giving rise to a deadly insurgency in Iraq. In his sweeping study of American wars from World War I to Iraq — an amalgam of history, “ neoclassical ” realist theory, and policy prescription — Gideon Rose elucidates how the country ʼ s leaders have not adequately met “ the Clauswitzian challenge ” of planning for the post-war period even as they are conducting military operations against an adversary.
Political Geography:
United States and Iraq

7. Bush, Blair, and the War in Iraq: Alliance Politics and the Limits of Influence

Author:
Kelly McHugh
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
KELLY McHUGH describes Tony Blair's failed attempts to use his friendship with George W. Bush to influence U.S. foreign policy in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war. She finds that although Blair was often successful in persuading Bush in private meetings, he was outmaneuvered by Vice President Dick Cheney, who opposed Blair's advocacy of multilateralism and diplomacy.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and War
Political Geography:
Iraq

8. Perception, Memory, and Partisan Polarization on the Iraq War

Author:
Gary C. Jacobson
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
GARY C. JACOBSON analyzes four surveys designed to investigate partisan polarization on the Iraq war. He finds that modes of motivated reasoning, including motivated skepticism and selective perception, selective memory, and selective exposure, contributed strongly to the emergence of the unusually wide differences of opinion on the war.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
Iraq

9. Colin Powell: American Power and Intervention From Vietnam to Iraq

Author:
Christopher Paul
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Colin Powell had a remarkable career of public service, serving ten Presidents, beginning with his commission into the Army in 1958 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. His career as a senior official is most noteworthy: “ Of the seven seats on the National Security Council (NSC) he has held three ” (p. 2). This career provided him with an unparalleled level of intimacy with the recent history of U.S. military intervention. “ In one capacity or another, Powell was involved in almost all major American military engagements over the past four decades ” (p. 197).
Political Geography:
Iraq and America

10. Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom

Author:
Mia Bloom
Publication Date:
06-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Mohammed Hafez's new book, Suicide Bombers in Iraq: The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom , is a must-read for every American soldier or journalist on his or her way to Iraq. This book shows beyond a shadow of a doubt just how complex the situation is. Loaded with facts and figures, it will provide students of terrorism studies considerable data from which to conduct research and analysis for years to come. In addition, the book puts names to and gives details about the many un-named suicide bombers in Iraq and settles the debate of the past few years about their real identity and nationality. They are overwhelmingly foreigners (as Hafez and others have argued for years with a certain colleague from Chicago), overwhelmingly Saudis, Kuwaitis, Maghrebis, and Europeans of Moroccan descent; only a small percentage of suicide bombers in Iraq are actually Iraqis.
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, and Europe