Hannah Arendt and the War in Iraq

Philosophical Topics 39 (2):41-51 (2011)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Using Hannah Arendt's theory as a template, this essay analyzes American foreign policy decisions that led to the Iraq war. Obviously, Arendt would find the misinformation concerning "links" between Iraq and al-Qaeda to be problematic, as well as the unjustified allegation of weapons of mass destruction. In addition, the Bush administration sought to justify the war in roughly two other ways: the liberation of the people of Iraq from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and the need to stabilize the region by providing a model for democracy in the Middle East. One may wonder whether Arendt would support the administration's actions for these other reasons, as Arendt was worried about the emergence of nuclear weapons and certainly was against dictatorships in favor of governments that support the public freedom of the people. However, I argue that Arendt's overall political theory would not support the war and may, in fact, give us reasons to believe that it will not produce a fully functioning democracy in Iraq. In conclusion, I will contrast the Bush administration's method to the Arab Spring, which Arendt would more fully support, if the outcome focuses on writing and adopting Constitutions that secure freedom for the people involved.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Hannah Arendt: politics, history and citizenship.Phillip Birger Hansen - 1993 - Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Thinking in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt on Ethics and Politics.Roger Berkowitz (ed.) - 2010 - New York: Fordham University Press.
Verantwortung [Hannah Arendt on Responsibility].Garrath Williams - 2011 - In Bernd Heiter, Wolfgang Heuer & Stefanie Rosenmüller (eds.), Arendt Handbuch: Leben - Werk - Wirkung. Metzler Verlag. pp. 325-327.
Hannah Arendt on Power.Garrath Williams - 2011 - In Keith Dowding (ed.), Encyclopedia of Power. Thousand Oaks: Sage. pp. 26-28.
Hannah Arendt and Global Justice.Serena Parekh - 2013 - Philosophy Compass 8 (9):771-780.
Gewissen/Moral [Hannah Arendt on Conscience & Morality].Garrath Williams - 2011 - In Wolfgang Heuer, Bernd Heiter & Stefanie Rosenmüller (eds.), Arendt Handbuch: Leben - Werk - Wirkung. Metzler Verlag. pp. 284–286.
Politics in dark times: encounters with Hannah Arendt.Seyla Benhabib (ed.) - 2010 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
The portable Hannah Arendt.Hannah Arendt - 2000 - New York: Penguin Books. Edited by Peter Baehr.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-09-30

Downloads
68 (#217,390)

6 months
2 (#668,348)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Karin A. Fry
Georgia Southern University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references