Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq

Combining a history of Iraq and its dominant sects with an acute awareness of the political machinations fomenting worldwide, this keen military analysis offers a practical exit strategy for U.S. armed forces in Iraq—partitioning, a unique strategy that has been successful in other chaotic political situations.

Combining a history of Iraq and its dominant sects with an acute awareness of the political machinations fomenting worldwide, this keen military analysis offers a practical exit strategy for U.S. armed forces in Iraq—partitioning, a unique strategy that has been successful in other chaotic political situations.

Publishers Weekly

Eland (The Empire Has No Clothes) contends that the only workable solution in Iraq is a partition "into a confederation of autonomous regions or into independent successor states" in this slim polemic. The author asserts that Iraq is an artificial state that has been held together only by "iron-fisted rulers" like Saddam; wracked by "ethno-sectarian, tribal, and clan fissures" it faces "a massive civil war" without a negotiated partition. After a historical survey of partitions-from Poland to Yugoslavia-Eland draws 15 lessons that can be applied to Iraq. But many of Eland's suggestions will work in Iraq's case only if some problematic concession is made, e.g., "if the Iraqi Kurds give up any attempt to absorb Kirkuk." A "unified democratic government" in Iraq might be "impossible" and partition the only viable solution as the author claims. Indeed, a partial de facto partition among Kurds, Sunni and Shiites already exists. But Eland undermines his credibility by focusing on conditions before 2005 and either ignoring or misrepresenting more recent progress. A case can be made for Iraq's eventual partition, but Eland's superficial brief isn't it. (May)

Ivan Eland is a senior fellow and director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at The Independent Institute, a former director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute, and a former principal defense analyst with the Congressional Budget Office. He is the author of The Empire Has No Clothes and Recarving Rushmore. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including the Chicago Tribune, Northwestern Journal of International Affairs, and The Washington Post, and on television programs such as ABC's World New Tonight, CNN's Crossfire, and Fox News. He lives in Washington, DC.