"This book contributes significantly ot the conversation seeking to understand the international forces
at play in the threatening war on Iraq."
--Nelson Mandela
New York University Press Web Site, December, 2003
Summary
Since September 11, 2001, there have been many accounts of the ways in which the alignment of global power is
changing or will be changed by the U.S.'s "war on terrorism." Most of them take as their starting point
the options facing the wealthy and powerful nations of the world seeking to control an ever larger share of the
world's resources. Behind the Invasion of Iraq is written from a different perspective, and one that makes possible
a far more comprehensive point of view.
Its authors, Research Unit for Political Economy, are rooted in the politics of a Third World country--India--which
has long been on the receiving end of imperialist power. As a consequence, they have a more sober view of the workings
of global power. In clear and accessible prose, weighing the evidence carefully and tracing events to their root
causes, they move beyond moral outrage to a clear view of the process being set in motion by the U.S.-led invasion
of Iraq. They show that the invasion of Iraq is a desperate gamble by a section of the U.S. ruling elite to preserve
their power, driven by the wish to stave off economic crisis through military means. Their efforts will not end
with Iraq, but will require the recolonization of the middle East.
Behind the Invasion of Iraq exposes the idea that war will bring democracy to the Middle East as so much propaganda.
In a context where so many rulers are themselves clients of the United States, the war is aimed not at the rulers
but at the masses of ordinary people whose hostility to imperialism has not been broken even by corrupt and autocratic
rulers. This book describes the remaking of global power with a truly global awareness of what is at stake.