Research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world
A seminar with Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo.
In March 2003 the United States led a coalition to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime believing Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). We now know that the regime secretly destroyed their WMD in the summer of 1991 and disbanded these programs shortly thereafter. Surprisingly, Iraqi officials acted as if they had something to hide, even after Saddam’s August 1995 orders to fully cooperate with the inspectors. This led the United States and other countries to believe Iraq was hiding weapons or programs. Why did the Iraqi regime behave in such an incriminating manner at the risk of their own survival? This seminar examines new primary sources to explain Iraqi signals and behavior between 1991 and 2003.