No more Iraqs: analysing use of force decisions during the Obama administration

• Published in: Global change, peace & security Vol. 33; no. 1; pp. 1 - 21
• Main Author: McHugh, Kelly A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 02-01-2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: analogies; Case studies; Critical junctures; Decision analysis; Domestic politics; Foreign policy; Intervention; Iraq war; Libya; Management; Military policy; National security; Obama; Obama, Barack; Presidency; Syria; Threats; Worldview; United States > US; Iraq
• ISSN: 1478-1158; 1478-1166
• DOI: 10.1080/14781158.2021.1867526

In this article, I focus on a subset of Obama's foreign policy views, namely his beliefs about the appropriate circumstances under which the United States should engage in armed conflict. I argue that the Iraq war served as a formative event in the development of Obama's worldview. He derived distinct lessons from this policy failure, leading him to articulate a restrictive set of conditions that should be met before the United States considered intervening in the internal politics of another nation, absent a direct threat to national security. I undertake a detailed examination of two case studies - the administration's debates leading to the 2011 intervention in Libya and the decision not to intervene in Syria in 2013 - and demonstrate how the lessons of Iraq shaped Obama's policy choices at critical junctures in the deliberations.