Video Player Iraq: What Now? Moderator: Stephen W. Van Evera Juan Cole Ivo Daalder PhD '90 December 5, 2003 Running Time: 1:37:23

About the Lecture

The gloves come off in this biting review of Bush Administration policy in “post-war Iraq.” Juan Cole believes the administration acted on a fundamental misunderstanding, imagining that by toppling the Hussein regime, all Iraqis “would be happy.” After the U.S. destroyed Hussein’s security apparatus, preexisting constituencies -- no friends to America -- came to the fore. Now, in villages throughout Iraq, Shiites devoted to a clerical Islamic state violently demand the immediate departure of U.S. troops. Ultimately, Cole says, “the U.S. is going to have to find ways of dealing with the forces it’s unleashed.”

Ivo Daalder pries open what he describes as a deeply divided administration, led by a president whose primary concern is reelection. On the one hand we find the “democratic imperialists,” who believe the only way America can be made secure is if the rest of the world is remade in our image. On the other hand, the “assertive nationalists,” who believe that “once you get rid of bad people you will have achieved the goal of making America secure.” While these two sides agreed to eliminate Saddam Hussein, they cannot agree on what comes next-- with disturbing consequences for Iraq and the U.S.

NOTE: This event was taped nine days before the capture of Saddam Hussein.

Lecture Details

• Location: Wong Auditorium

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About the Speakers

Moderator: Stephen W. Van Evera

Professor of Political Science at MIT Associate Director, Center for International Studies

Stephen W. Van Evera is an Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT. A specialist in international affairs and security studies, he has written on American foreign and defense policy, nationalism and war, military policy and the causes of war, and social sciences methodology. His books include Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict and Guide to Methods in Political Science.

Juan Cole

Professor of Modern Middle Eastern and East Asian History, University of Michigan

Ivo Daalder PhD '90

Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies, Brookings Institution Professor, University of Maryland

Moderator

• 

  Stephen W. Van Evera

  More on Van Evera

Speakers

• Juan Cole

  Cole's home page at the University of Michigan

• Ivo Daalder PhD '90

  Daalder's home page at The Brookings Institution

About the Host

Center for International Studies

• 
  The Center for International Studies Homepage

Related Materials

Related Videos

• Weapons of Mass Confusion: Assessing the True Risks

  Owen Coté, Jeanne Guillermin, Steven Miller and Philip Morrison

• Just Back from Iraq: Observations of a Weapons Inspector

  Rocco Casagrande

• The End of Saddam and the Future of Iraq

  Kanan Makiya

The information on this page was accurate as of the day the video was added to MIT World. This video was added to MIT World on February 9, 2004.