Iraq's Transformation and International Law

• Author: Ruth Wedgwood
• Pages: 3-14

I

Iraq's Transformation and International Law

Ruth Wedgwood1

There is agreat delight in returning to the US Naval War College. My time in

Newport as aStockton Professor of International Law was wonderful in-

deed. But few of us at the War College in the academic term of 1998-99 could fore-

see the momentous events of the next five years. No one foretold al Qaeda's attacks

of September 11, 2001. And we could not know that the United States and the

United Kingdom, alongside their allies, would commit their fortune and fate to in-

tervene again in Iraq, this time to defeat Saddam's Baathist regime. But trouble was

brewing, even in 1998. At the time, Saddam limited and then excluded United Na-

tions weapons inspectors, and the allies conducted alimited military campaign in

Operation Desert Fox. Abroad debate on the use offorce began to reenter the pub-

lic square—-when and on what authority military force could be used to compel

Iraq's compliance with post-Gulf War disarmament obligations.

In the immediate moment, we are in the midst of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Faced with Saddam Hussein's continued intransigence in accounting for his weap-

ons programs, in March 2003 the United States and its coalition forces mounted a

fast-moving ground campaign against the Baathist regime, and quickly reached

Baghdad. Public conversation has again focused on important issues of interna-

tional law, including standards for the use offorce, the role of the Security Council,

the methods of enforcing disarmament obligations, and the claims of humanitar-

ian intervention.2But Iwill concentrate here on the practical problems and the law

governing occupation and reconstruction.