Elite Theory and the 2003 Iraq Occupation by the United States

How US Corporate Elites Created Iraq's Political System
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-0-367-70692-0
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 270 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 418 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in US Foreign Policy

This book locates US elites as members of corporate elite networks and drivers of corporate elite interests, arguing that studying the social sources of US power plays an important part in understanding the nature of their decisions in US foreign policy.

Exploring the decisions taken by American elites on the Iraq War, the author argues that the decisions and agendas US elites pursued in Iraq were driven by corporate elite interests – embedded in them as individuals and in groups through the corporate elite networks they were rooted in – which they prioritised, using democracy promotion as a cover up. Using elite theory, membership network analysis and content analysis, this book explains who these elites were, how their backgrounds and social influences impacted their world-views, and what this looked like in a detailed exploration of their decision-making on the ground in Iraq. Nouri examines the nature of US power, what drives it, what it looks like and its legacies.

This volume provides valuable understandings and lessons to scholars and students of International Relations studying democracy, US foreign policy, post-colonialism, elite theory, US imperialism, neoliberalism, orientalism, Iraqi politics, and the making of the Iraq constitution.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nouri, Bamo

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction Chapter One: Theories and methods Chapter Two: Backgrounds, world-views, and networks in the George W. Bush elite Chapter Three: US elite decision-making in the creation of Iraq’s 2005 constitution Chapter Four: US elite decision-making in the privatisation of Iraq Chapter Five: The legacy of US democracy promotion in Iraq – Iraq’s elitist political system Conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Bamo Nouri is a lecturer in International Relations at the University of West London, an Honorary Research Fellow at City, University of London, an independent investigative journalist and writer with interests in American foreign policy and the international and domestic politics of the Middle East.