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Review: Iraq

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Date01 September 2008
AuthorDaniel Korski
DOI10.1177/002070200806300322
Published date01 September 2008
Subject MatterReview
IJ Print | Reviews |
IRAQ
Preventing a New Generation of Conflict
Markus E. Bouillon, David M. Malone, and Ben Rowswell
Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2007. 349pp, US$24.50 paper (ISBN 978-
1588265043)
It is often said that journalists write the first draft of history. But in Iraq’s
case, journalism—and its off-shoot, blogging—have provided the first, sec-
ond, and third drafts of history. If Vietnam was the first TV war and Kosovo
the first virtual war, then Iraq is the first blogger’s war. Hundreds of blogs
provide minute-by-minute coverage while a new generation of soldiers—the
band of bloggers, perhaps—are both fighting and writing about their expe-
riences.
Plenty of books have, of course, been written about post-2003 Iraq. They
are as abundant today as they were scarce before the war. In the summer of
2000, I was rummaging through London’s normally well-stocked bookstores
for books on Iraq. But I kept coming across the same three tomes. Today it
is hard to get past books on Iraq and the Middle East.
However, while there are many books on Iraq, most of what is filling
the bookshelves is of questionable quality and falls into three broad cate-
gories: the tell-all, I-was-there memoir complete with a photo of the author
looking contemplatively out of a helicopter’s door; the partisan diatribe,
which is rarely if ever based on any first-hand research; and finally, the
earnest attempts to understand Iraq’s complex post-2003 trajectory and pro-
vide solutions. Iraq: Preventing a New Generation of Conflict wants to be in
the last category.
The collection of articles grew out of a conference organized by the Cana-
dian Department of Foreign Affairs and the International Peace Academy in
early 2006. The editors—all diplomats-turned-analysts—have gathered an
impressive group of contributors, including Toby Dodge, one of Britain’s
three pre-2003 Iraq experts, and his US counterpart, Phoebe Marr. The vol-
ume also features Joost Hilterman, the International Crisis Group’s Middle
East guru; Jon Alterman, one of...

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