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United States Risk Management in the Post-war Iraq: Encountering Societal Risks

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Guns & Roses: Comparative Civil-Military Relations in the Changing Security Environment

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Abstract

Building on the insights from the sociological approaches of Ulrich Beck on risk society, and of Copenhagen school on societal security, this chapter elaborates about human-made risks and changing nature of security, incorporating culture and identity issues. The chapter draws on the case study of the Iraq War and post-war recovery efforts, paying attention to their emphasis on risk management exposed in recent military strategies. The three mechanisms that the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority relied upon in risk management were early elections, stable government, and development of civil society. The chapter examines the societal risks associated with the three mechanisms of risk control. It argues that the new turn in security studies toward identity could be detected in Iraq, and that we live in a society which is increasingly suffering from human-manufactured risks.

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Acknowledgement

This research was partially funded by JSPS research grant no. 26780087.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Global Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan

    Radomir Compel

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  1. Radomir Compel
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Macmillan Brown Center for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Steven Ratuva

  2. School of Global Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan

    Radomir Compel

  3. Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências, Sao Paulo State University, Marília, São Paulo, Brazil

    Sergio Aguilar

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Compel, R. (2019). United States Risk Management in the Post-war Iraq: Encountering Societal Risks. In: Ratuva, S., Compel, R., Aguilar, S. (eds) Guns & Roses: Comparative Civil-Military Relations in the Changing Security Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2008-8_20

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