Publication

This publication compares the success of the Allied military government in Germany in 1945-1946 to the relative failure of the US-led coalition in Iraq in 2003-2004. In particular, the paper contrasts the swift and successful establishment of law and order in Germany with the widespread violence and insecurity in Iraq. The author points out that in Germany the occupiers and the occupied shared a common cultural background. In Iraq the invasion signified the forcible intrusion of Western power and culture into an Arab Islamic country. This handicap was, according to the author, worsened by the pre-war US neglect of thorough planning and preparation for the post-war governance of Iraq.