The International Struggle Over Iraq

Sir Brian Urquhart, New York Review of Books Review from previous edition A uniquely clear and lucid account of the workings and background of the UN Security Council's fateful refusal to legitimize US military action against Iraq in 2003 and of the international fall-out of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs This book provides an illuminating account of the 25 years of tangled Security Council involvement with Iraq...It is a fascinating portrait of the changing and often conflicting uses of the Security Council by the major powers, played out against a backdrop of shifting security threats, geopolitical realities, and U.S foreign policy ambitions...This book is essential reading for those who want to use the lessons of the Security Council's tumultuous encounter with Iraq to guide UN reform.


The Toronto Globe and Mail Iraq has long been a recurring item on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. Drawing on unparalleled access to UN insiders, David Malone, a former Canadian ambassador to the UN and former president of the International Peace Academy, offers an illuminating and fascinating account of the impact of the Security Council on Iraq -- and Iraq's impact on the UN -- from 1980 to 2005. Though the entire work is an important addition to the understanding of modern Iraq, Malone's analysis of the recent history of UN involvement in Iraq, and the "crisis of confidence" within the UN when it was largely sidelined following the march to war by a "coalition of the willing" without a Council mandate, will stand as a vital, must-read study.

Australian Book Review David Malone's excellent and comprehensive new history of the interaction between the UN and its most troublesome member-state, Iraq, should be very welcome to Australian readers...This is a work of history written for the specialist, but the layperson will benefit from it too.

Rami G Khouri, Agence Global Avoiding the politics- and media-driven ideological assaults that characterize much of the public discussion of the UN these days, this scholarly book analyzes the flow of events to build towards conclusions on how the Security Council can do better in the future.

<br>David M. Malone is Canada's High Commissioner for India and Ambassador to Bhutan and Nepal, and former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations. From 1998 to 2004 he served as President of the International Peace Academy in New York. A scholar of the political economy of violent conflict and of US foreign policy, he is the author of numerous books and articles. He is the co-author of Law & Practice of the United Nations (OUP, 2007).<br>

1. Introduction; 2. Cold War Peacemaker: Brokering Peace in the Iran-Iraq War; 3. New World Order Policeman: Responding to Iraqi Aggression against Kuwait; 4. Creeping Unilateralism: Humanitarian Interventions and No-Fly Zones; 5. Sanctions Enforcer: Economic Sanctions and the Oil-for-Food Programme; 6. Weapons Inspector: UNSCOM, UNMOVIC, and the Disarming of Iraq; 7. Sidelined: From 9/11 to 19 August 2003; 8. Crisis of Confidence: Annus Horribilis and a "Vital" Role; 9. Conclusions: Serious Consequences: How Twenty-Five Years of Involvement with Iraq has Changed the Security Council; Annex A List of Security Council Resolutions on Iraq, 1980-2005; Annex B Chronology of Major Events in Iraqi and Security Council History; Bibliography