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" The Regime Change Consensus: Iraq in American Politics, 1990-2003 "
Stieb, Joseph
Lee, Wayne E.
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1051420
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| Doc. No
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TL50537
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| Main Entry
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Stieb, Joseph
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| Title & Author
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The Regime Change Consensus: Iraq in American Politics, 1990-2003\ Stieb, JosephLee, Wayne E.
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| College
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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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| Date
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2019
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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2019
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| Note
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409 p.
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| Abstract
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This study examines the containment policy that the United States and its allies imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and argues for a new understanding of why the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. At the core of this story is a political puzzle: Why did a largely successful policy that mostly stripped Iraq of its unconventional weapons lose support in American politics to the point that the policy itself became less effective? I argue that, within intellectual and policymaking circles, a claim steadily emerged that the only solution to the Iraqi threat was regime change and democratization. While this “regime change consensus” was not part of the original containment policy, a cohort of intellectuals and policymakers assembled political support for the idea that Saddam’s personality and the totalitarian nature of the Baathist regime made Iraq uniquely immune to “management” strategies like containment. The entrenchment of this consensus before 9/11 helps explain why so many politicians, policymakers, and intellectuals rejected containment after 9/11 and embraced regime change and invasion. This project makes several important historiographical contributions. First, I challenge arguments that the Bush Administration’s concerns about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were a disingenuous pretext for war. In fact, regime change advocates from the Gulf War forward articulated a unified strategy in which the threat of WMD and terrorism and the need for political transformation in the Middle East were inseparable planks. Second, I demonstrate that while neoconservatives led the political coalition against containment, this coalition also drew significant support from Democrats, liberals, and humanitarian activists, creating a wider than expected base of support for the 2003 invasion. Finally, while historians have focused on the role of cultural perspectives like Orientalism in shaping U.S. policy in the Middle East, my study stresses the importance of ideas about political regime type in debates about Iraq.
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| Descriptor
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American history
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| Added Entry
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Lee, Wayne E.
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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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