Review David Malone, The International Struggle Over Iraq, Politics in the UN Security Council 1980-2005, Oxford University Press, 2006

  

The International Struggle Over Iraq is a study by David Malone of the relationship between the United Nations, its permanent members and Iraq from the Iran-Iraq War to the U.S. occupation. The book is up and down in parts but the conclusions are sound. The author argues that from the 1980s-90s the U.N. was increasingly effective in dealing with Iraq because the great powers agreed on using it as a tool in their foreign policy but afterwards the U.S. and U.K. acted increasingly on their own sidelining the organization until it was largely irrelevant although Malone wouldn’t agree with that last point.

Review Samuel Helfont, The Iraq Wars, A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2025

  

Samuel Helfont released his third book on Iraq entitled The Iraq Wars, A Very Short Introduction. It is a brief review of U.S.-Iraq relations from the 1990s to the 2014 war versus the Islamic State. He provides some new and interesting insights on how Iraq became a focus of American foreign policy.

Review Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie, Saddam Hussein And The Crisis In The Gulf, Times Books, 1990

  

Today Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie are infamous. Miller cozied up to the Bush administration and Ahmed Chalabi before the 2003 invasion of Iraq and helped spread their propaganda about weapons of mass destruction to justify the war. Mylroie supported Iraq and then felt betrayed by the invasion of Kuwait and turned into a conspiracy theorist blaming the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11 on Baghdad. Saddam Hussein And The Crisis in The Gulf was written before all that and is surprisingly good. It stands as a decent background to Saddam and the Gulf War. Not only that but it was very cynical about the cause of the conflict.

Review Richard Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice, A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars, Simon & Schuster, 2009

Haass, Richard, War of Necessity, War of Choice, A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars, Simon & Schuster, 2009

 

Richard Haass worked in both the George H.W. Bush and the George W. Bush administrations. Originally he was in the National Security Council under National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft and then went to work for Secretary of State Colin Powell in the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department. These positions led him to be involved in making policy over Iraq. Haass argues that the Gulf War was a necessary war to preserve America’s national interests while the 2003 invasion of Iraq was not needed.

Review Saddam Hussein The Politics Of Revenge

Aburish, Said, Saddam Hussein The Politics Of Revenge, Bloomsbury, 2000

 

Said Aburish’s Saddam Hussein The Politics Of Revenge is full of ups and downs. He makes some astute observations about Saddam’s assumption of power and the U.S. and U.K. policy of regime change in the 1990s. On the other hand, he was a Baathist sympathizer up to the 1980s having worked for the Iraqi government. Second, Aburish’s writing is full of Saddam gossip about his excesses. Most importantly almost all major issues are explained via Western conspiracies which robs Iraqis of any agency and responsibility throughout history. The problems with his writing end up undermining any good points the author might have made.

Review Saddam’s War

Bulloch, John and Morris, Harvey, Saddam’s War, Faber and Faber, 1991

 

Saddam’s War is a very short and thorough overview of the causes of the Gulf War. It was written by John Bulloch and Harvey Morris who worked for the Independent newspaper in London as a journalist and an editor. It provides a good introduction for anyone interested in the conflict.

Review The Achilles Trap, Saddam Hussein, The C.I.A., And The Origins Of America’s Invasion Of Iraq

Coll, Steve, The Achilles Trap, Saddam Hussein, The C.I.A., And The Origins Of America’s Invasion Of Iraq, Penguin Press, 2024

 

Twenty years after the Iraq invasion a comprehensive book including both the US and Iraqi perspectives on what led to the conflict has finally been published. That’s thanks to Steve Coll and his The Achilles Trap, Saddam Hussein, The C.I.A., And The Origins Of America’s Invasion Of Iraq. The author traces U.S.-Iraq relations from the Iran-Iraq War to the 2000s to show how the two countries constantly misread each other leading to false assumptions and the eventual overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Review Iraq Against The World, Saddam, America, And The Post-Cold War Order

Helfont, Samuel, Iraq Against The World, Saddam, America, And The Post-Cold War Order, New York: Oxford University Press, 2023

 

Professor Samuel Helfont of the Naval War College has written his second book, Iraq Against The World, Saddam, America, And The Post-Cold War Order, again largely based upon Baathist documents that were captured after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This time he focuses upon how Iraq tried to break down the new world order that President Bush proclaimed after the Gulf War. The U.S. hoped that there would be an international system based upon rule of law and enforced by the United Nations. Iraq was the focus of this strategy as it had U.N. sanctions and weapons inspectors for over a dozen years. Saddam’s response was to have Baathist offices and embassies around the world organize information campaigns and protests against Iraq’s treatment. Helfont breaks new ground with this work as few have delved into this topic before.

Review Spider’s Web, The secret history of how the White House illegally armed Iraq

Friedman, Alan, Spider’s Web, The secret history of how the White House illegally armed Iraq, New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland: Bantam Books, 1993

 

Spider’s Web, The secret history of how the White House illegally armed Iraq by Financial Times journalist Alan Friedman is about a story that is largely forgotten today. During the Iran-Iraq War the U.S. decided to support Baghdad to stop the Iranian Revolutionary from spreading. That included helping foreign companies ship weapons to Iraq and offering credit to Baghdad some of which was diverted to buying technology for Saddam’s WMD, nuclear and missile programs. When Iraq invaded Kuwait the Bush administration attempted to cover up the entire affair which is the topic of Friedman’s book why and how did the two presidents back Iraq and then try to deny the whole affair.

Review The Regime Change Consensus, Iraq In American Politics 1990-2003

Stieb, Joseph, The Regime Change Consensus, Iraq In American Politics 1990-2003, Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, New Deli, Singapore: Cambridge University Press, 2021

 

The majority of books on the Iraq invasion focus upon the early days of the Bush administration and then how 9/11 changed its perceptions and led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Few have analysis and most just recite the history. Joseph Stieb in The Regime Change Consensus, Iraq In American Politics 1990-2003 is one of those rare releases which focuses upon the ideas that led the conflict with Iraq. It discusses how the first Bush administration created a containment policy around Iraq after the Gulf War and how that broke down in the 1990s so that by the time 9/11 happened the only real debate within the American political establishment was not whether to invade Iraq but how.

Review The Continuing Storm, Iraq, Poisonous Weapons, and Deterrence

Haselkorn, Avigdor, The Continuing Storm, Iraq, Poisonous Weapons, and Deterrence, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999

 

The Continuing Storm, Iraq, Poisonous Weapons, and Deterrence by Avigdor Haselkorn should be a lesson on how not to write a book. The author takes bits of evidence and endlessly speculates about their meaning and possible impact. His thesis is that the entire Gulf War and its aftermath centered around Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He goes as far as to argue that President Bush ordered the end of the war because he was afraid of an Iraqi WMD attack upon Israel which could have responded with a nuclear bomb. Haselkorn’s argument goes from interesting to off the rails rather quickly.

Review Invisible War, The United States And The Iraq Sanctions

Gordon, Joy, Invisible War, The United States And The Iraq Sanctions, Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press, 2010

 

If you want to learn about the United Nations sanctions on Iraq which lasted from 1990-2003 then Professor Joy Gordon’s Invisible War, The United States And The Iraq Sanctions should be on the top of your list. The U.S. wanted to use the sanctions to make sure Iraq could never rebuild its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and contain Saddam Hussein. Washington argued that it was Saddam’s fault that the sanctions lasted, that he abused the system, and that Iraq received all the basic necessities it needed all of which were false. In fact, U.S. policy devastated the people of Iraq and destroyed the economy.

Review Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein

Cockburn, Andrew and Cockburn, Patrick, Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein, New York: Harper Perennial, 2000

Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein was written by the Cockburn brothers Andrew and Patrick. It covered Iraq in the 1990s starting with Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to the Bush administration’s plots against Saddam to the United Nations sanctions and inspectors. The book goes back and forth between the hopes of the Bush and Clinton White Houses to overthrow and contain Saddam to his attempts to hold onto power, which proved quite successful. The Cockburns relied upon both press reports along with extensive interviews with Iraqis both inside and outside of the country to tell this story. As the title suggests, the authors believed that Saddam went from the depths of defeat to be comfortably in power during this decade, but at a heavy cost to his country.

Review The United States And Iraq Since 1990, A Brief History With Documents

Brigham, Robert, The United States And Iraq Since 1990, A Brief History With Documents, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014

The United States And Iraq Since 1990 by Robert Brigham was written as a short college textbook covering America’s long experience with Iraq. It covers four broad periods starting with the Bush administration and the Gulf War, then the Clinton administration, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and finally the American occupation. After each chapter there are a few primary source documents with questions about them. The book provides a good introduction to America’s Iraq policy, however there are some issues in the second half.

Review The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein, Deciding on Conflict

Hybel, Alex Roberto and Kaufman, Justin Matthew, The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein, Deciding on Conflict, New York, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006

In The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein Alex Hybel and Justin Kaufman attempted to explain the decision making process behind the senior and junior Bush presidents when they dealt with Iraq in the Gulf War and 2003 Invasion and find an appropriate theory to help understand them. They found the two presidents were strikingly similar. The authors argued that both administrations reacted instinctively to Saddam, seeing the world in stark black and white terms. Instead of being rational actors they both fell victim to group think by refusing to consider alternatives after they quickly made decisions about what to do about Iraq.

Why Did Saddam Threaten Israel Before The 1990 Invasion of Kuwait?

In the lead-up to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 Saddam Hussein gave a series of speeches threatening to attack Israel. The conventional wisdom was that Saddam made these statements to rally the street and assert his leadership in the Arab world. Alex Roberto Hybel and Justin Matthew Kaufman in their book The Bush Administration and Saddam Hussein, Deciding on Conflict took another view that Saddam was actually trying to decipher Israel’s intentions to make sure his western flank was secure before he went to war with Kuwait.