Early Days in Iraq: Decisions of the CPA

Abstract

Iraq provides an object lesson in the costs and consequences of unprepared reconstruction. The record of the Coalition Provisional Authority during its 14 months in Iraq, in particular several of its most controversial decisions, including the disbandment of the Iraqi army, the exclusion of senior Ba'ath Party members from government office, the timing and organisation of national elections, the development of an Iraqi constitution and the beginnings of economic reconstruction, is examined and critiqued in the light of best practices developed in other post-conflict operations over the last 60 years. While not all of these decisions proved optimal in the light of hindsight, they did represent reasonable choices in view of possibilities then available to the CPA leadership and, in composite, they resulted in durable political and economic reforms that offer the Iraqi people an opportunity to build a stable, prosperous and peaceful Iraq.