Synopses & Reviews
What were the causes of the Iraq War? Who were the main players? How was the war sold to the decision makers? Despite all that has been written on the Iraq war the myriad scholarly, journalistic and polemical works the answers to these questions remain shrouded in an ideological mist.
The Road to Iraq is an empirical investigation that dispels this fog.
Discover how a small but ideologically coherent and socially cohesive group of determined political agents used the contingency of 9/11 to overwhelm a skeptical foreign policy establishment, military brass and intelligence apparatus.
Synopsis
Ahmad presents a social history of the war's leading agents - the neoconservatives - and shows how this ideologically coherent group of determined political agents used the contingency of 9/11 to overwhelm a sceptical foreign policy establishment, military brass and intelligence apparatus, propelling the US into war.
Synopsis
A rigorous investigation into the socio-political milieu that produced the Iraq war
Despite all that has been written on it, the Iraq war - its causes, agency and execution - has been shrouded in an ideological mist. Now, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad dispels the myths surrounding the war, taking a sociological approach to establish the war's causes, identify its agents and describe how it was sold.
Ahmad presents a social history of the war's leading agents - the neoconservatives - and shows how this ideologically coherent group of determined political agents used the contingency of 9/11 to overwhelm a sceptical foreign policy establishment, military brass and intelligence apparatus, propelling the US into a war that a significant portion of the public opposed. The book includes an historical exploration of American militarism and of the increased post-WWII US role in the Middle East, as well as a reconsideration of the debates that John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt sparked after the publication of The Israel lobby and US Foreign Policy.
Synopsis
The Iraq war - its causes, agency and execution - has been shrouded in an ideological mist. Now, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad dispels the myths surrounding the war, taking a sociological approach to establish the war's causes, identify its agents and describe how it was sold. Ahmad presents a social history of the war's leading agents - the neoconservatives - and shows how this ideologically coherent group of determined political agents used the contingency of 9/11 to overwhelm a sceptical foreign policy establishment, military brass and intelligence apparatus, propelling the US into a war that a significant portion of the public opposed. The book includes an historical exploration of American militarism and of the increased post-WWII US role in the Middle East, as well as a reconsideration of the debates that John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt sparked after the publication of 'The Israel lobby and US Foreign Policy'.
About the Author
Muhammad Idrees Ahmad is a political sociologist and a Lecturer in Journalism at the University for the Creative Arts. His articles and essays have appeared in
The Atlantic,
The New Republic,
Al Jazeera,
The National, Le Monde Diplomatique, Guernica, Adbusters, IPS News, Political Insight and the
London Review of Books blog. He has also appeared as a political analyst on the BBC, Al Jazeera, RAI TV, and various international radio channels. He edits Pulsemedia.org.
Table of Contents
AcknowledgementsIntroduction
1. Black Gold and Red Herrings
2. Origins and Interests
3. Ideology and Institutions
4. Setting the Agenda
5. Selling the War
Conclusions
Appendix: Mearsheimer and Walt, Redux
Notes