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Assessing the War in Iraq

The war in Iraq raises basic questions about the role of multilateral institutions in the enforcement of international norms, the U.S. use of force in the future, and the relevance of ethics and law to constraining unilateral war. As the situation inside Iraq moves toward reconstruction, it is clear that the war also has unleashed tensions between religious and ethnic groups within Iraq, which threaten to undermine the democratization process. In addition, resentment against the United States throughout the Middle East and elsewhere in the world has exacerbated divisions in the international community.

These realities pose complex questions for the future:

1) What long term impact will the war have on relations between the Muslim world and the West? And what impact will these growing divisions have on multilateral efforts to control weapons of mass destruction and to reduce terrorism?

2) Who will will manage reconstruction and development efforts in Iraq? And who will oversee the politically-sensitive search for weapons of mass destruction, which played such a prominent role in the Bush administration's case for war?

This webpage features recent commentary by Kroc Institute fellows on these and other repercussions of the war, as well as proposals for strengthening international peace in this volatile environment. The site also includes links to background materials and related research projects. Additional information can be found in our archived page, Alternatives to War with Iraq. Among the most extensive links is the Sanctions and Security Project, a joint initiative of the Kroc Institute and Fourth Freedom Forum. In all its research efforts, the Kroc Institute gives special attention to the ethics of war and peace, a continual concern of faculty from various disciplines.

New materials will be added to this site as they become available.

Research and Commentary

"DEFENSA: Los peligros de la doctrina Bush" [in spanish], editorial by George A. Lopez, La Opinion, October 19, 2003.

"US Repeats Past Mistakes," editorial by George Lopez in USA Today, November 7, 2003.

"Perils of Bush's Pre-emptive War Doctrine," editorial by George A. Lopez, Indianapolis Star, Friday, October 3, 2003.

"U.S. Must Accept Outside Help to Secure Iraq," editorial by George Lopez in the Chicago Sun-Times, Wednesday, August 27, 2003.

"Iraq's Future Lies in Secrets of Its Skeletons," by Daniel Philpott in The Chicago Tribune, Sunday, July 27, 2003.

"Unproven: The Controversy Over Justifying War in Iraq," by David Cortright, Alistair Millar, George A. Lopez, and Linda Gerber, Kroc Institute/Fourth Freedom Forum Policy Brief #F12A (June 2003).

"End Game? Removing Sanctions in Iraq," by David Cortright, Linda Gerber, Alistair Millar, and George A. Lopez, Kroc Institute/Fourth Freedom Forum Policy Brief #F11 (May 2003).

"Let the UN Decide," editorial by George A. Lopez, U.S.A.Today, Thursday, May 7, 2003.

"U.S. May Spurn U.N. Sanctions On Iraq to Spur Reconstruction, by Neil King Jr. and Jess Bravin, Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2003 (quoting George A. Lopez).

"The Search for Evidence," The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, April 22, 2003 (interview with George A. Lopez).

"What We Do Now," by David Corright, The Nation (April 21, 2003).

"Who'll Control Iraq's Oil? Tangled Questions Abound," by Felicity Barringer and Neela Banerjee, New York Times, April 9, 2003 (quoting Robert Johansen).

"Civilians and Warfare," interview with George A. Lopez, WBEZ's Odyssey, March 24, 2003.

"Pyrrhic Diplomacy' Increases Risk," South Bend Tribune, March 18, 2003 (Michiana Point of View by Daniel Lindley).



Campus Events

Peace and War in 2003: Debating the Issues
A weekly forum dedicated to exploring the various issues
relevant to the prospect of war.



Background Materials

"A War Against the Turks? Erasmus on War and Peace," by Fred Dallmayr, Kroc Institute Occasional Paper #23:OP:1 (December 2002).

"Catholics should be more conscientious about objecting to war," by Father Michael Baxter, C.S.C., Sounding Board, U.S. Catholic, forthcoming.

"Iraq & Just War Thinking" by George A. Lopez, Commonweal, (September 27, 2002): pp. 14 -15.

"Dispelling the "We" Fallacy from the Body of Christ: The Task of Catholics in a Time of War," by Father Michael Baxter, C.S.C., South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 101, no. 2 (Spring 2002).

Sanctions and the Search for Security: Challenges to UN Action , David Cortright and George A. Lopez, with Linda Gerber.(Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Reinner Publishers, 2002).

Smart Sanctions: Targeting Economic Statecraft, David Cortright and George A. Lopez, eds. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.

"After September 11: How Ethics Can Help" by George A. Lopez, America, (October 8, 2001): pp. 20 - 24.

"Toward Smart Sanctions on Iraq," George A. Lopez, Kroc Institute Policy Brief #5 (April 2001).

The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies for the 1990s ,David Cortright and George A. Lopez with Jaleh Dashti-Gibson, and Julia Wagler, (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000). Winner of the 2000 Choice Award as an Outstanding Academic Title.

"Morbidity and Mortality among Iraqi Children from 1990 through 1998: Assessing the Impact of the Gulf War and Economic Sanctions," by Richard Garfield, Kroc Institute Occasional Paper #16:OP:3   [Abstract - HTML]  [Full-text - PDF]

"Are Sanctions Just? The Problematic Case of Iraq," by David Cortright and George A. Lopez, Journal of International Affairs 52, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 33-53.

"The Gulf War: Not so clean," By George Lopez Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 47, no. 7 (Sept. 1991) .



Related Kroc Institute Research Projects

The Sanctions Project

Ethics and the Use of Force

The Peacemaking Role of International Norms, Policies and Institutions

Links

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs - Ethics and the New War

Fourth Freedom Forum

National Council of Churches - Resources for Advocacy on Iraq

United Nations Office of the Iraq Programme

United Nations Development Program - Iraq

United Nations Association of the United States of America

United States Department of State - Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs

United States Institute of Peace - Iraq web links

 

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