The Regime Change Consensus

Iraq in American Politics, 1990-2003

Joseph Stieb

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781108838245
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108976008
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Why did the United States invade Iraq, setting off a chain of events that profoundly changed the Middle East and the US global position? The Regime Change Consensus offers a compelling look at how the United States pivoted from a policy of containment to regime change in Iraq after September 11, 2001. Starting with the Persian Gulf War, the book traces how a coalition of political actors argued with increasing success that the totalitarian nature of Saddam Hussein's regime and the untrustworthy behavior of the international coalition behind sanctions meant that containment was a doomed policy. By the end of the 1990s, a consensus belief emerged that only regime change and democratization could fully address the Iraqi threat. Through careful examination, Joseph Stieb expands our understanding of the origins of the Iraq War while also explaining why so many politicians and policymakers rejected containment after 9/11 and embraced regime change.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 A Hope, Not a Policy: Containment and Regime Change during the Gulf Crisis, 1990–1991
• 2 The Fallout from Victory: Containment and Its Critics, 1991–1992
• 3 The Long Watch: The High Years of Containment, 1993–1996
• 4 Saddam Must Go: Entrenching the Regime Change Consensus, 1997–2000
• 5 Not Whether, but How and When: The Iraq Debate from 9/11 to the Invasion
• Conclusion: Containment, Liberalism, and the Regime
• Bibliography
• Index