Reconstructing post-Saddam Iraq: An introduction

Following the shock of the 9/11 attacks in New York, a deep sense of anxiety pervaded the whole nation of the USA, as one commentator graphically put it, 'causing us to feel like we have suddenly been told the floor of the room is actually built over a bottomless well'.! 'Paradoxically' it is this 'new sense of vulnerability' combined with the reality of US global dominance that 'have reinforced tendencies toward a muscular unilateralism in US foreign policy.