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This book locates US elites as members of corporate elite networks and drivers of corporate elite interests, arguing that studying the social sources of US power plays an important part in understanding the nature of their decisions in US foreign policy.
Exploring the decisions taken by American elites on the Iraq War, the author argues that the decisions and agendas US elites pursued in Iraq were driven by corporate elite interests - embedded in them as individuals and in groups through the corporate elite networks they were rooted in - which they prioritised, using democracy promotion as a cover up. Using elite theory, membership network analysis and content analysis, this book explains who these elites were, how their backgrounds and social influences impacted their world-views, and what this looked like in a detailed exploration of their decision-making on the ground in Iraq. Nouri examines the nature of US power, what drives it, what it looks like and its legacies.
This volume provides valuable understandings and lessons to scholars and students of International Relations studying democracy, US foreign policy, post-colonialism, elite theory, US imperialism, neoliberalism, orientalism, Iraqi politics, and the making of the Iraq constitution.
List of contents
Introduction Chapter One: Theories and methods Chapter Two: Backgrounds, world-views, and networks in the George W. Bush elite Chapter Three: US elite decision-making in the creation of Iraq's 2005 constitution Chapter Four: US elite decision-making in the privatisation of Iraq Chapter Five: The legacy of US democracy promotion in Iraq - Iraq's elitist political system Conclusion
Summary
This book locates US elites as members of corporate elite networks and drivers of corporate elite interests and argues that studying the social sources of US power plays an important part in understanding the nature of their decisions in US foreign policy.
