Confronting Iraq: U.S. Policy and the Use of Force Since the Gulf War [Paperback]

Daniel Byman (Author), Matther Waxman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2000

Although Iraq remains hostile to the United States, Baghdad has repeatedly compromised, and at times caved, in response to U.S. pressure and threats. An analysis of attempts to coerce Iraq since Desert Storm reveals that military strikes and other forms of pressure that threatened Saddam Husayn's relationship with his power base proved effective at forcing concessions from the Iraqi regime. When coercing Saddam or other foes, U.S. policymakers should design a strategy around the adversary's center of gravity while seeking to neutralize adversary efforts to counter-coerce the United States and appreciating the policy constraints imposed by domestic politics and international alliances.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Although Saddam Husayn's Iraq has regularly defied U.S. pressure, aclose look at recent history reveals that Baghdad has also oftenretreated in the face of U.S. threats or limited military strikes. Thismixed record illustrates many of the challenges that commonly arisewhen confronting major regional adversaries. This report seeks toderive lessons for future confrontations with Baghdad and for coer-civediplomacy in general. It examines the nature of Iraq as anadversary, U.S. objectives in the Persian Gulf region, and the histori-calrecord of recent attempts to coerce Iraq. It then assesses Iraq'svulnerabilities and concludes by drawing broader implications forsuccessful coercion.This assessment is intended to inform both policymakers and indi-vidualsconcerned with the use of force in general and with PersianGulf security in particular. Policymakers can draw on this assess-mentin judging how to better coerce Iraq and how to coerce otheradversaries elsewhere in the world.This research was conducted for the Office of the Assistant Secretaryof Defense for Strategy and Threat Reduction within the Inter-nationalSecurity and Defense Policy Center of RAND's NationalDefense Research Institute, a federally funded research and devel-opmentcenter sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense,the Joint Staff, the unified commands, and the defense agencies.

About the Author

Daniel L. Byman (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. in political science) is a policy analyst at Rand.

Product Details

• Paperback: 101 pages
• Publisher: Rand Publishing; 1 edition (June 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0833028138
• ISBN-13: 978-0833028136
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,079,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel Byman is Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He has served on the 9/11 Commission staff and as an analyst with the U.S. government.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Background For Today's Events, April 15, 2003

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Confronting Iraq: U.S. Policy and the Use of Force Since the Gulf War (Paperback)

I thought this book had a great history of the events from the end of the first Gulf War to start of 2001. The author's detail out each major event and UN resolution and what the Iraq and US did or did not do as a result. It was interesting that many times, basically every time, there was a new resolution Iraq ended up first playing games and then backing down. It almost seamed to be the behavior of a spoiled brat. It was also very interesting where the authors can show that Iraq got close to having the UN stop the sanctions, but each time Saddam would do something dumb and the world would demand that the sanctions be put back in place. What also comes through is the very difficult if almost impossible position the UN is in trying to enforce resolutions when the only power they have is rented / given to them by other countries. What this has created is a situation that only resolutions heavily supported by the US get the US military backing thus have the teeth to be effective.

The one downside of the book was the chapter long discussion on what coercion meant the definition and how the word should correctly be used. Nice info for a high school reader but it just slowed the book down for the rest of us. Overall I liked the book, it was a bit dry and could have been a bit more detailed, but it was a nice review of the past ten years. The real value is putting some facts behind what has been so talked about over the past year and what was the Iraqi position as it related to the UN resolutions. If you have been interested in this situation over the past year then you will probably enjoy this book.