Feature

Unintended Consequences in Iraq Leave U.S. Foreign Policy in Need of New Direction

By Elizabeth Vivirito, MPP'10

Ambassador Peter Galbraith, former U.S. diplomat and foreign policymaker, visited the Harris School on Tuesday, November 9 to discuss the Iraq War and other key foreign policy issues. Critical of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, Galbraith outlined what he saw as the central failures in the Middle East, and he offered his perspective on how the next administration should move forward.

Much like Vice President-Elect Joe Biden, Galbraith is a leading advocate for the partition of Iraq. He pointed to a divergence between the reality of a deeply divided Iraq and the Bush administration's attempts to create one democratic nation. "Iraq has already broken apart. I am opposed to using U.S. resources and manpower to hold together a country whose existence is not desired by its constituents," he said, explaining that Iraqi Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis do not share a common, national vision.

"While the Sunnis and the Shiites think of themselves as 'Iraqi,' neither group thinks of the other as 'Iraqi,'" Galbraith said. He believes that a peaceful future for the region will rely on the 2005 Iraqi constitution. It was written to give each designated region-including Kurdistan-high levels of autonomy, including the power to legislate and pass regional constitutions, establish security forces, and engage in diplomatic affairs. In effect, although one country, Iraq would behave like three self-governing states.

Galbraith draws his opinions from his diplomatic experience in ethnic minority politics and nation-building. He was the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia after the dissolution of Yugoslavia and worked to facilitate the peace process there. From 1979 to 1993, he compiled many reports on Iraq as a staff member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and since 2003 has been to Iraq more than twenty-five times. Although he has retired from public service, he remains an expert on the topic and in 2008 wrote Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America's Enemies.

Both this book and his lecture focused on the lasting effects of recent U.S. policy in the Middle East, which he attributes to the "incompetence of the Bush administration." As the most significant consequences, Galbraith lists the enormous-and numerous-costs of the continued U.S. troop presence in Iraq, a stronger Iranian regional influence, increased challenges for democracy in the Middle East, the growth of terrorist groups, and Iran and North Korea closer to having deployable nuclear weapons.

Galbraith's foreign policy prescriptions for the incoming government include withdrawing from Iraq and focusing attention on the places that are the greatest threat to peace around the world, including Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, and areas of Pakistan. He also encouraged the Obama administration to reallocate resources to diplomacy and to reestablish a strong partnership with the United Nations, an organization vital for regional peacekeeping projects.

"Global leadership is about more than just the size of your military or the size of your economy," he advised. "Leadership depends on people being willing to follow your lead; it is essential that you listen to them. You can only lead people in a direction in which they want to go." He noted that this strategy of incorporating local perspectives was used successfully in the Balkans in 1993.

For students of foreign policy, the ambassador's advice was to seek careers where there is work on diplomatic projects. "Look for a place where you'll have the most impact, and work there," he said. "Foreign service is an exciting career-just do it. Don't get sidetracked."