This invaluable resource offers a comprehensive overview of the Iraq War, with more than 100 in-depth articles by leading scholars on an array of topics and themes and more than a dozen key primary source documents. This book provides everything the reader needs to know about the Iraq War, from the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, through the U.S. troop surge in 2007, to the rise of the Islamic State. It offers insight into the war through the events, organizations, and people who have had a major impact on the conflict. It also explains the inadvertent consequences of the conflict including worsening regional sectarian divisions, the Arab Spring, the increase in Iranian influence in the Middle East, and the expansion of international terrorism. The book begins with a sweeping overview of the Iraq War that provides context for each of the reference entries that follow. The introductory material also includes detailed essays on the causes and consequences of the war. The bulk of the book consists of more than 120 reference entries on such topics as Saddam Hussein, the battles of Fallujah, and private military contractors such as Blackwater and Halliburton. In addition, the book includes more than a dozen curated and contextualized primary source documents along with a comprehensive chronology and extensive bibliography.

This reference work is an ideal resource for anyone interested in better understanding the controversial Iraq War. It treats the war in its entirety, covering politics, religion, and history, as well as military issues. The Iraq War started in 2003 in a quest to rid the nation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that were never found. It lasted over 8 years, during which more than 30,000 U.S. service members were wounded and almost 4,500 American lives lost. Comprised of some 275 entries, this comprehensive encyclopedia examines the war from multiple points of view. Each article is written by an expert with specialized knowledge of the topic. The reference covers every aspect of the Iraq War, from the U.S. invasion (Operation IRAQI FREEDOM) through the rise of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the surge, and the U.S. withdrawal. Other significant aspects of the conflict are addressed as well, including Abu Ghraib, WMDs, the controversial use of private military contractors, and Britain's role in the war. The book also features an overview essay, a "causes and consequences" essay, maps, photos, a chronology, and a bibliography.

Can John D. Negroponte be described as 'The Last American Diplomat'? In a career spanning 50 years of unprecedented American global power, he was the last of a dying breed of patrician diplomats - devoted to public service, a self-effacing and ultimate insider, whose prime duty was to advise, guide and warn - a bulwark of traditional diplomatic realism against ideologue excess. Negroponte served as US ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines and Iraq; he was US Permanent Representative to the UN, Director of National Intelligence and Deputy Secretary of State to George W. Bush. His was a high-flying and seemingly conventional career but one full of surprises. Negroponte opposed Kissinger in Vietnam, supported a 'proxy war' but opposed direct American military action against Marxists in Central America - facing bitter Congress opposition in the process. He swam against the floodtide of George W. Bush's neocon-dominated administration, warning against the Iraq war as a possible new 'Vietnam' and criticising aspects of Bush's 'War on Terror'. He disconcerted the administration by arguing that the re-establishment of Iraq would take as long as five years. And he was influential in international social and economic policy - working for the successful re-settlement of millions of refugees in Southeast Asia following the Vietnam War, issuing early warnings about the scourge of AIDS in Africa and successfully launching the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). George W. Liebmann's incisive account is based on personal and shared experience but it is no hagiography; beyond the author's discussions with Negroponte, this book is deeply researched in US state papers and includes interviews with leading actors. It will provide fascinating reading for anyone interested in the inside-story of American diplomacy, showing personal and policy struggles, and the underlying fissures present even in the world's last remaining superpower.

This in-depth study of U.S. involvement in the modern Middle East carefully weighs the interplay of domestic, cultural, religious, diplomatic, international, and military events in one of the world's most troubled regions. The monumental, five-volume The Encyclopedia of Middle East Wars: The United States in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq Conflicts is a must-have resource for anyone seeking to comprehend U.S. actions in this volatile region. Under the expert editorship of Spencer C. Tucker, the encyclopedia traces 20th- and 21st-century U.S. involvement in the Middle East and south-central Asia, concentrating on the last three decades. Beginning with the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, it covers the 1979–1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, allied punitive actions against Iraq during the 1990s, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, and the Global War on Terror. Many smaller military actions against Iran, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and other regimes that have been involved in international terrorism are also included. Diplomacy, religion as it pertains to Middle East conflict, and social/cultural developments are other key subjects of analysis, as is the interplay of politics with military policy in the United States and other nations involved in the region.