The Regime Change Consensus

Joseph Stieb is Assistant Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College. His articles and essays can be found in Diplomatic History, Modern American History, The International History Review, War on the Rocks, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and American Purpose.

• Introduction: 1. A Hope, Not a Policy: Containment and Regime Change During the Gulf Crisis, 1990–1991; 2. The Fallout From Victory: Containment and its Critics, 1991–1992; 3. The Long Watch: The High Years of Containment 1994–1996; 4. Saddam Must Go: Entrenching the Regime Change Consensus, 1997–2000; 5. Not Whether, But How and When: The Iraq Debate from 9/11 to the Invasion; Conclusion: Containment, Liberalism and the Regime; Bibliography; Index.

'Stieb's insightful and deeply researched new book shows how the quest to salve the lingering sore of Iraq after 1991 led to the outright bloody mess of invasion, occupation, and desperation after 2003. That scar will not soon heal. No issue more haunts American policymakers today than the question of how, if ever, to deploy force to expand the roster of democratic states, and Stieb's work is simply the best source we have for understanding how regime change came into vogue, before it fell into disrepute.' Jeffrey A. Engel, Director of the Center for Presidential History, Southern Methodist University