Iraq's Road To War [Hardcover]

Amatzia Baram (Editor), Barry Rubin (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312101716 | ISBN-13: 978-0312101718 | Publication Date: February 15, 1994

Iraq's Road to War shows how President Saddam Husayn's decision-making and Iraq's domestic politics, economics, and foreign relations combined in a volatile mix to bring about both the 1980 invasion on Iran and the 1990 seizing of Kuwait.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Collected from papers presented at a 1991 conference sponsored by the University of Haifa's Jewish-Arab Center, these 18 articles by Middle East specialists deal with Iraqi domestic and foreign policy during a period encompassing the Iraq-Iran War (1980-88) and the Persian Gulf War (1990-91). The first half of the collection explores the dynamics that led to the invasion of Kuwait, the history of Iraq's military establishment and its role in internal politics, and the implications of the Gulf War for the world oil market. The second half includes papers on Iraq's relations with other countries and political entities: one chapter each for Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, the Palestine Liberation Organization, Iran, the U.S. and Western Europe. Scholarly and of interest primarily to specialists, the book offers a comprehensive analysis of Iraq and its foreign relations in recent history. Baram is senior lecturer in the Department of Middle East History at the University of Haifa; Rubin is a fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Foreign Policy Institute.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The social, economic, and political dynamics of Iraq's power play in the Middle East from the late 1970s to date is here described and analyzed in a succinct fashion that permits understanding by the specialist as well as the general reader. A set of essays details with differing perspectives the reasons for the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent war against an array of regional and world powers. Contributors are mostly Israeli specialists on the Arab World in general or Iraq in particular. An excellent selection for the reader who wants to understand contemporary Iraqi politics in just one sitting, this is well suited for a wide audience.
- Sanford R. Silverburg, Catawba Coll., Salisbury, N.C.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 324 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave (February 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312101716
• ISBN-13: 978-0312101718
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,592,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Iraq's Road to War, April 13, 2001

By 

Daniel Pipes, Middle East Forum (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Iraq's Road To War (Hardcover)

The American and European scholarly contribution to understanding the Kuwait War tended to be limited to military analysis, polemical arguments, and abstract interpretations; and these have mostly petered out as interest in the war has declined. Accordingly, the important task of interpreting that conflict has been left largely to Israelis, who done an outstanding job fulfilling it. In the present study, a mostly Israeli cast of authors looks at the Iraqi decision to go to war, and the consequences of that decision. Baram draws on his unique knowledge of Iraqi politics to take on that most difficult of tasks, probing Saddam Husayn's mind. Mark A. Heller explains why the Iraqi army regularly performs poorly. Ofra Bengio looks at the balance of power within Iraq's ethnic communities. Patrick Clawson points out the subtle economic impact of the sanctions against Iraq while Robert J. Lieber argues that Saddam Husayn's adventurism could easily have deeply harmed the world economy. A host of authors-including Rubin, Shaul Bakhash, Joseph Nevo, David Kushner, and the late Avner Yaniv-then look at Iraq's foreign relations through the 1990-91 crisis and war. But perhaps most interesting is the chapter by Joseph Kostiner on the much-neglected Kuwaiti angle. He establishes the basic precepts of that country's foreign policy-essentially neutralism and good Arab citizenship-and then shows how these guidelines were maintained throughout the crisis leading up to 2 August 1990. He finds the thesis that Kuwaitis provoked Iraq to war not convincing.

Middle East Quarterly, June 1994