Economic Liberalization and “Democratization” with the Barrel of the Gun: The Iraq Question and the So-called Consensus around Liberal Democracy in the Post-Cold War

Abstract

In the wake of the United States’ invasion, the democratization process in Iraq is the main goal of George W. Bush’s “crusade” in Middle East and his so-called war against terrorism and for the defense of the “moral values”. The regime change imposed under the barrel of the gun is part of a strategy to extend United States’s orbit of influence in the world. The consensus of globalization, that joins together democracy and neoliberalism, constitutes a strategy to contain the decline of US power, and is associated with market liberalization, regardless of the internal problems of the occupied country.