• A
  • A
  • A
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
Regular version of the site

Online Seminar “Iraq War: 20 years after”

On March 16, 2023, the School of Regional Studies of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE University within the framework of the permanent online seminars «Contemporary Area Studies», with the support of the Russian Middle East Association, organized the 63th online seminar with a researcher at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a senior lecturer at the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of the National Research University Higher School of Economics Grigory Lukyanov.

At the beginning of his speech, Grigory Lukyanov drew attention to the fact that there have been several “Iraqi wars” since the beginning of the 20th century, and all of them, in one way or another, influenced the events of 2003 in Iraq. According to the speaker, it is important to pay attention to the complex nature of this historical event - in addition to the intervention itself, it is worth considering such aspects as the confrontation between Turkey and Iran in Iraq, the struggle of the Ba’ath Party against other Iraqi political movements, the clash of interests of Arabs and Kurds. At the same time, G.V. Lukyanov noted the importance of the recent publication of sources of personal origin and new critical monographs which provide the possibility to look into the events of the 2003 Iraq war from a brand new angle.

In the core part of his speech, Mr. Lukyanov highlighted d the importance of the multidimensional nature of the conflict for understanding both the Middle East and some trends in international relations in general. Firstly, the Iraqi war demonstrated new trends in wars in the 21st century – the need for total mobilization of society's resources to maintain a large group of troops abroad, the active involvement of PMCs, the need to take into account the experience of urban combat and other aspects. Secondly, according to the speaker, the execution of Saddam Hussein can be considered the beginning of the decline of authoritarian leaders in the Middle East as well as Arab nationalism, while the weakening of Iraq led to the strengthening of the “new” players in the region such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Türkiye. Thirdly, the response to the intervention showed the ineffectiveness of large international and regional organizations such as the UN or the Arab League, and demonstrated US hegemony in the region. In general, according to G.V. Lukyanov, Iraq after 2003 became a kind of "testing ground" for politicians and researchers.

In the final part of the online seminar, G.V. Lukyanov answered the questions of the participants dedicated to the issues the activity of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the impact of the war on the understanding of humanitarian interventions in general and factors which influenced Washington's stake on Shiite groups in the conflict.