42 CLAIRE BRESCHARD
Conclusion
The war in Iraq is symptomatic of the evolution of world politics since the end of the
Cold War and the subsequent changes in peacekeeping operations. Under the pretence
of securing America, Iraq and the rest of the world from the terrorist threat by
bringing Western values to the Middle-East, the American-led coalition dangerously
mixed peacekeeping, state-building and outright military intervention. The failure of
the state-building operation in Iraq provides some useful lessons. First of all, an
analysis of the psycho-cultural dimension of the conflict illustrates how opposing
perceptions can block the peace process. Such operations need to be designed and
implemented by third-party professionals who do not have direct interest in the war
aims. As we have seen, the focus on military victory over state-building has had
disastrous consequences for the Iraqi state and its people. The coalition was
responsible for the politicisation of humanitarian aid, which became associated with
the war aims. The CPA, concerned with the place of the United States in the Middle
East, hampered the democratic process by giving power to factions without wider
public support, facilitating sectarianism and political violence. This case study also
shows that state-building operations are incompatible during a state of war and should
therefore be implemented once the conflict is over. Peacekeeping and state-building
operations require both time and culturally attuned practitioners, critical elements the
coalition lacked. The coalition should have envisioned these difficulties prior to
invading Iraq: “[s]ometimes people plan for the wrong war… One can say in some
ways that the Administration planned for the wrong peace” (Richard Haass, president
of the Council on Foreign Relations, in Sharma 2009: 168).
Bibliography
Ansari, A. M. (2006) ‘Peacekeeping in the Middle East’ in Utley, R. E. (ed.) Major
Powers and Peacekeeping: Perspectives, Priorities and the Challenges of Military
Intervention. Aldershot: Ashgate, 135-146.
Avruch, K, Black, P. and Scimecca, J. (eds) (1991) Conflict Resolution: Crosscultural Perspectives. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.