Force and Peace: Balancing Security and Community after War

Abstract

As I write, American troops are embroiled in a vicious counter-insurgency war,
precipitated by the American invasion of Iraq. The motives for the invasion were mixed,
and America’s strategy for containing the violence has been inept. But the international
community is dealing with the consequences of a protracted internal conflict in Iraq,
rather than with the American invasion. Saddam Hussein waged several types of war
against his own people and neighbouring states, and the current violence is a consequence
of these prior conflicts as much as it is a consequence of the invasion.