Samuel Helfont is Assistant Professor of Strategy and Policy in the Naval War College program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. His research focuses on international history and politics in the Middle East, especially Iraq and the Iraq Wars. He maintains affiliations with the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University and the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. He is the author of Compulsion in Religion: Saddam Hussein, Islam, and the Roots of Insurgencies in Iraq (Oxford University Press, 2018). His work has also been published by Foreign Affairs, The International History Review, The Middle East Journal, Texas National Security Review, Orbis, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The American Interest, and War on the Rocks, among other outlets. Helfont served as an intelligence officer in the US Navy and Navy Reserve. An Iraq War veteran, he completed deployments both afloat and ashore in the Middle East. He also served onMiddle Eastern and counterterrorism missions at various American intelligence agencies.

• Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Precursors Chapter Two: The Gulf Crisis and the New World Order Chapter Three: Triumph and Despair After the Gulf War Chapter Four: Building Networks in the West, 1991-1992 Chapter Five: Toward Influencing Policy in the non-Western World, 1991-1992 Chapter Six: Courting Clinton Chapter Seven: A Turning Point for the New World Order Chapter Eight: Breaking Isolation Chapter Nine: Normalization, 9/11, and the Road to War Conclusion and Afterword: Saddam's Iraq and 21st Century Disorder Bibliography

Using the Iraqi archives for the first time, Helfont provides deep insights into how Saddam Hussein's Ba'thist regime sought to undermine America's post-Cold War order. Far from being a marginal actor on the global stage, Iraq's efforts inevitably placed it in the crosshairs of the George W. Bush administration and help explain why the disastrous invasion of Iraq became a White House obsession. The book successfully shifts our focus from great power politics to illustrate how relatively small countries can play important roles in world affairs. The focus on Iraq also helps explain wider transformations in international politics, and further emphasizes the central role of the Middle East over the last three decades.

Samuel Helfont is Assistant Professor of Strategy and Policy in the Naval War College program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. His research focuses on international history and politics in the Middle East, especially Iraq and the Iraq Wars. He maintains affiliations with the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University and the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. He is the author of Compulsion in Religion: Saddam Hussein, Islam, and the Roots of Insurgencies in Iraq (Oxford University Press, 2018). His work has also been published by Foreign Affairs, The International History Review, The Middle East Journal, Texas National Security Review, Orbis, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The American Interest, and War on the Rocks, among other outlets. Helfont served as an intelligence officer in the US Navy and Navy Reserve. An Iraq War veteran, he completed deployments both afloat and ashore in the Middle East. He also served onMiddle Eastern and counterterrorism missions at various American intelligence agencies.

• Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Precursors Chapter Two: The Gulf Crisis and the New World Order Chapter Three: Triumph and Despair After the Gulf War Chapter Four: Building Networks in the West, 1991-1992 Chapter Five: Toward Influencing Policy in the non-Western World, 1991-1992 Chapter Six: Courting Clinton Chapter Seven: A Turning Point for the New World Order Chapter Eight: Breaking Isolation Chapter Nine: Normalization, 9/11, and the Road to War Conclusion and Afterword: Saddam's Iraq and 21st Century Disorder Bibliography

Using the Iraqi archives for the first time, Helfont provides deep insights into how Saddam Hussein's Ba'thist regime sought to undermine America's post-Cold War order. Far from being a marginal actor on the global stage, Iraq's efforts inevitably placed it in the crosshairs of the George W. Bush administration and help explain why the disastrous invasion of Iraq became a White House obsession. The book successfully shifts our focus from great power politics to illustrate how relatively small countries can play important roles in world affairs. The focus on Iraq also helps explain wider transformations in international politics, and further emphasizes the central role of the Middle East over the last three decades.

Samuel Helfont is Assistant Professor of Strategy and Policy in the Naval War College program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. His research focuses on international history and politics in the Middle East, especially Iraq and the Iraq Wars. He maintains affiliations with the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University and the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. He is the author of Compulsion in Religion: Saddam Hussein, Islam, and the Roots of Insurgencies in Iraq (Oxford University Press, 2018). His work has also been published by Foreign Affairs, The International History Review, The Middle East Journal, Texas National Security Review, Orbis, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The American Interest, and War on the Rocks, among other outlets. Helfont served as an intelligence officer in the US Navy and Navy Reserve. An Iraq War veteran, he completed deployments both afloat and ashore in the Middle East. He also served onMiddle Eastern and counterterrorism missions at various American intelligence agencies.

• Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Precursors Chapter Two: The Gulf Crisis and the New World Order Chapter Three: Triumph and Despair After the Gulf War Chapter Four: Building Networks in the West, 1991-1992 Chapter Five: Toward Influencing Policy in the non-Western World, 1991-1992 Chapter Six: Courting Clinton Chapter Seven: A Turning Point for the New World Order Chapter Eight: Breaking Isolation Chapter Nine: Normalization, 9/11, and the Road to War Conclusion and Afterword: Saddam's Iraq and 21st Century Disorder Bibliography

Using the Iraqi archives for the first time, Helfont provides deep insights into how Saddam Hussein's Ba'thist regime sought to undermine America's post-Cold War order. Far from being a marginal actor on the global stage, Iraq's efforts inevitably placed it in the crosshairs of the George W. Bush administration and help explain why the disastrous invasion of Iraq became a White House obsession. The book successfully shifts our focus from great power politics to illustrate how relatively small countries can play important roles in world affairs. The focus on Iraq also helps explain wider transformations in international politics, and further emphasizes the central role of the Middle East over the last three decades.