Academic Module: War of Necessity, War of Choice
Author: Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations
May 1, 2010
This module features teaching notes by CFR President Richard N. Haass, author of War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars, along with other resources to supplement the text. In this CFR Book, Dr. Haass contrasts the decisions that shaped the conduct of two wars between the United States and Iraq, and writes an authoritative, personal account of how U.S. foreign policy is made. The preface to the paperback edition assesses not only Iraq but also the war in Afghanistan and a potential conflict with Iran.
Publication and Teaching Notes
CFR.org Interactives
CFR.org Backgrounders
Books & Reports
Foreign Affairs Articles
Additional Articles & Reports
Interviews
- Iraq: A Compromise PM?
- A Need to Shift U.S. Ambitions in Kabul
- After the Elections: Iraq's Uncertain Future
- Beyond Iraq's Election Day Success
- 'This Is No Longer a War of Necessity'
- Obama Broadening Afghanistan War Into 'War of Choice' and Not 'Necessity'
- Haass: On Balance, Iraq War’s Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy ‘Clearly Negative’
- Gaddis: Bush Pre-emption Doctrine The Most Dramatic Policy Shift Since Cold War
- Haass: Arrest of Saddam Is Welcome News But 'Not Really a Turning Point'
- Haass: U.S. Should Press for 'Interim' Political Solution in Iraq Without Waiting for Elections or Constitution
- Arms Expert Says Bush Administration Exaggerated Claims of Iraq's WMD
- Former CIA Official on Iraq Intelligence and Monday Morning Quarterbacks
- International Law Expert Says U.S. Should Delay an Iraq Attack Until It Gains Security Council Backing
- Administration Faces “Tough Negotiating” Over Second Iraq Vote, Feinstein Says
- Bronson Finds Many Arab States Wary of U.S. Postwar Policy
- General Bernard E. Trainor Sees War with Iraq Starting by Mid-March and Ending with Quick U.S.-led Victory
- Bush Administration Obliged to Seek U.N. Security Council Backing for Iraq War, Says Former Chief Weapons Inspector Richard Butler
- Bush Has Choice: Early War with Iraq or Wait for Saddam to Slip and Reveal “Smoking Gun,” Says Council’s Lee Feinstein
- U.S. Public Is Unconvinced on Need to Wage War Against Iraq, Says Council on Foreign Relations President Les Gelb
- U.S. Still Looking for 'Smoking Gun' to Justify Overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Says Council’s National Security Studies Director Lawrence Korb
- U.S. Has ‘Strategically Sound and Morally Just’ Reasons to Invade Iraq, Says Council's Middle East Director Rachel Bronson
- Toward a Greater Democracy in the Muslim World
- Iraq Inspections Have a 50-50 Chance of Averting War, Says Council's Middle East Fellow Richard Murphy
- Saddam to Play for Time, Expects Council's Director of Strategic Policy Lee Feinstein
- Iraqi Resolution Is 'Enormously Important,' Says U.N. Expert Richard Gardner
Podcasts
Testimony
Websites
CFR Meetings (Video, Audio, Transcripts)
Panelists:
Deborah Susan Amos, Foreign Correspondent, National Public Radio; Author, Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East, Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School, Harvard University, Michael Corbin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Near East Affairs, U.S. Department of StatePresider:
Trudy S. Rubin, Foreign Affairs Columnist, Philadelphia Inquirer
6:00-7:00 p.m. - Meeting
This meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Corporate Meeting
Iraq: The Way Forward - U.S. Ambassador's Assessment
Speaker:
Christopher R. Hill, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq
6:30-7:30 p.m. - Meeting
This meeting is on the record.
Guest Event ⁄ Washington
War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars
Speaker:
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign RelationsPresider:
Ted Koppel, Senior News Analyst, National Public Radio
6:30-7:30 p.m. - Meeting
7:30-8:30 p.m. - Cocktail Reception and Book Signing
This meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Academic Conference Call
War of Necessity, War of Choice
This meeting is on the record.
Listen
Speaker:
Richard N. Haass, President,Council on Foreign Relations; Author, War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq WarsPresider:
David J. Remnick, Editor, The New Yorker
6:00-7:00 p.m. - Meeting
7:00-8:00 p.m. - Cocktail Reception and Book Signing
This meeting is on the record.
Listen
Speaker:
Baqir Jabr Al-Zubeidi, Minister of Finance, Republic of IraqPresider:
Jeffrey R. Shafer, Vice Chairman, Global Banking and Head of Economic and Political Strategies, Citi
1:00-2:00 p.m. - Meeting
This meeting is not for attribution.
ListenWatch
Speaker:
Jay M. Garner, Lieutenant-General (U.S. Army, Retired); Former Director, Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for IraqPresider:
Michael R. Gordon, Chief Military Correspondent, New York Times
6:00-7:00 p.m. - Meeting
This meeting is not for attribution.
ListenWatch
Speaker:
Hoshyar Zebari, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of IraqPresider:
Carla Anne Robbins, Deputy Editorial Page Editor, The New York Times
This meeting is on the record.
Listen
Speakers:
Ali Allawi, Senior Adviser to the Prime Minister of Iraq; Former Minister of Finance, Defense, and Trade, Republic of Iraq; Author, The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace, Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Author, After the Surge: The Case for U.S. Military Disengagement from Iraq, A Council on Foreign Relations Special ReportPresider:
Jane Arraf, Correspondent, NBC News; Former Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
This meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Speaker:
Tariq al-Hashimi, Vice President, Republic of Iraq Secretary-General, Iraqi Islamic PartyPresider:
Anne L. Garrels, Senior Correspondent, National Public Radio
This meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Symposium ⁄ New York
Iraq's Impact on the Future of U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy: Coping with Rogue States, Failing States, and Proliferators (Session 4)
Speakers:
Lawrence D. Freedman, Professor of War Studies, King's College, London, Steven E. Miller, Director, International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard UniversityPresider:
Richard K. Betts, Adjunct Senior Fellow for National Security Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsThis meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Symposium ⁄ New York
Iraq's Impact on the Future of U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy: The U.S. and the Middle East (Session 1)
Speakers:
Toby Dodge, Senior Consulting Fellow for the Middle East, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, University of MarylandPresider:
F. Gregory Gause III, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of VermontThis meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Symposium ⁄ New York
Iraq's Impact on the Future of U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy: The U.S., Europe, and Asia (Session 2)
Speakers:
Dana H. Allin, Carol Deane Senior Fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Phillip C. Saunders, Senior Research Fellow, National Defense UniversityPresider:
Philip Gordon, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, The Brookings InstitutionThis meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Symposium ⁄ New York
Iraq's Impact on the Future of U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy: The Direction of U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy After the Intervention in Iraq (Session 3)
Speakers:
Michael R. Gordon, Chief Military Correspondent, New York Times, Ronald Steel, Professor of International Relations and History, University of Southern CaliforniaPresider:
Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign RelationsThis meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Speaker:
Hoshyar Zebari, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of IraqPresider:
Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek InternationalThis meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Speakers:
Kevin Woods, Analyst, Institute for Defense Analyses, James Lacey, Analyst, U.S. Joint Forces CommandPresider:
James F. Hoge Jr., Peter G. Peterson Chair, Editor, Foreign AffairsThis meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Speakers:
Michael R. Gordon, Chief Military Correspondent, New York Times; and coauthor, "Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq", Marine Lieut. Gen. (ret.) Bernard E. Trainor, Marine Corps Lieutenant General (retired); Military Analyst, NBC; and coauthor, "Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq"Presider:
John McWethy, Special Correspondent, ABC NewsThis meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
Speaker:
Paul R. Pillar, Visiting Professor, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University and author, “Intelligence, Policy, and the War in Iraq” (Foreign Affairs, March/April 2006)Presider:
Gideon Rose, Managing Editor, Foreign AffairsThis meeting is on the record.
ListenWatch
This meeting is not for attribution.
Listen
Speaker:
Ahmad Chalabi, Deputy Prime Minister of IraqPresider:
Fouad Ajami, M. Khadduri Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins UniversityThis meeting is not for attribution.
Listen
General Meeting
Weapons of Mass Destruction and Iraq
Presider:
Craig R. Whitney, Assistant Managing Editor, The New York Times ; Editor, The WMD Mirage: Iraq’s Decade of Deception and America’s False Premise for WarSpeakers:
Patricia Wald, Chair, Open Society Institute Criminal Justice Initiative, Commissioner, Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, Charles Duelfer, Former Deputy Executive Chairman, UN Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM); Former Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction; Former Head, Iraq Survey GroupThis meeting is not for attribution.
Listen
General Meeting
Iyad Allawi
Presider:
Madeleine K. Albright, Principal, The Albright Group LLC; Former Secretary of State (1997-2001)Speaker:
Iyad Allawi, Interim Prime Minister, Republic of IraqThis meeting is not for attribution.
General Meeting
Conversation with Hoshyar Zebari
Presider:
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeaker:
Hoshyar Zebari, Minister of Foreign Affairs, IraqThis meeting is not for attribution.
General Meeting
A Conversation with Ahmad Chalabi
Presider:
Tom Brokaw, Anchor and Managing Editor, NBC Nightly NewsSpeaker:
Ahmad Chalabi, Co-Founder, Iraqi National CongressThis meeting is not for attribution.
General Meeting
A Meeting with Donald H. Rumsfeld
Presider:
Peter G. Peterson, Chairman, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeaker:
Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of DefenseThis meeting is not for attribution.
General Meeting
Conversation with Stephen Hadley
This meeting is not for attribution.
General Meeting
Iraq: The War Debate
Presider:
Leslie H. Gelb, President, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeakers:
William Kristol, Editor, The Weekly Standard, Stephen M. Walt, Academic Dean and the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Max Boot, Olin Senior Fellow, National Security Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsThis meeting is not for attribution.
General Meeting
The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq
Presider:
Lisa Anderson, Dean, School for International and Public Affairs, Columbia UniversitySpeaker:
Kenneth M. Pollack, Senior Fellow and Director of Research for the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, the Brookings Institution and Author, The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading IraqThis meeting is not for attribution.
General Meeting
The Iraq Debate in Congress
Presider:
Douglas E. Schoen, Partner, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Inc.Speaker:
Tom Lantos, Member, U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA); Ranking Minority Member, Committee on International RelationsThis meeting is not for attribution.
General Meeting
Sending Inspectors to Iraq: If They Get In, What Can They Find?
Presider:
Kenneth M. Pollack, Ph. D., Director, National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, author, "Next Stop Baghdad," Foreign Affairs, (March/April 2002)Speakers:
Khidir Hamza, Ph. D., Lead scientist on Iraq nuclear weapons program appointed by Saddam Hussein until he left in 1994; author, Saddam's Bombmaker (2000), Richard Spertzel, Ph. D., Chief, Biological Weapons Team, UNSCOM, former Deputy Director, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Charles Duelfer, Former Deputy Executive Chairman, UNSCOM (1993-2000)This meeting is not for attribution.
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