CIAO DATE: 02/03

Guiding Principles for U.S. Post-Conflict Policy in Iraq

Executive Summary

The United States and other nations are approaching a fateful decision on whether or not to go to war with Iraq. This report takes no position on that overarching question. However, it is difficult to imagine firing the first shots without the U.S. government having put two essential matters in order: preparing the nation for the increased likelihood of a terrorist response on American soil; and pulling together realistic plans for what America and others—above all, the Iraqis themselves—will do the day after the fighting ends. The Council has dealt with the issue of homeland security in its recently published Task Force report, “America — Still Unprepared, Still in Danger,” chaired by Senators Gary Hart and Warren B. Rudman. It is to meet the second concern, the day after the battle subsides, that the Council on Foreign Relations and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University joined intellectual forces.

Ambassadors Frank G. Wisner and Edward P. Djerejian co-chaired this effort with their usual good sense, consummate skill, and high intelligence. They were complemented in their leadership and writing roles by Rachel Bronson, senior fellow and director of Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Andrew S. Weiss, a currency strategist at AIG Trading Group Inc. What these working group leaders, working group participants, and experts who addressed them have done is to create the first intellectual road map for thinking our way through a post-war Iraq. The document is comprehensive, most thoughtful, and, above all, practical and useful. It should be used to engage the administration, Congress, the media, and the wider public on this critical and pressing foreign policy issue, namely thinking about the dangers and opportunities that lie ahead in the gulf, and the Arab and Islamic worlds.

Both the Council and the Baker Institute intend to do more on this subject. More must be done urgently in Washington and around the country. With this study, we now have the basis to do just that.

Leslie H. Gelb
President
Council on Foreign Relations

Full Text (PDF Format, 36 pgs, 232 kbs)