A book talk by Samuel Helfont (Naval Postgraduate School)

Thursday, April 20, 2023
2:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Zoom

Iraq against the World is the first book to use internal files from the ruling Iraqi Ba‘th Party to examine Saddam Hussein’s confrontation with the American-led, post-Cold War order in the 1990s and early 2000s. The book traces Iraqi influence operations and manipulative statesmanship around the globe – from the streets of New York and Stockholm, to the mosques of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and the halls of power in Paris and Moscow. It offers new insights into the evolution of the post-Cold War order and reveals why wars in Iraq became a central feature of global politics for the past thirty years.

Samuel Helfont is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Policy in the Naval War College program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. His research focuses on international history and politics in the Middle East, especially Iraq and the Iraq Wars. He is the author of Iraq against the World: Saddam, America, and the Post-Cold War Order (Oxford University Press, 2023), and Compulsion in Religion: Saddam Hussein, Islam, and the Roots of Insurgencies in Iraq (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies