Scope

This Research Guide focuses on the Iraq War and its cultural, political, and social consequences.

Overview

Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa
College Library Reference Collection: DS 43 E53 2004
Refer to "Iraq" in index of Volume 4.

Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
College Library Reference Collection: BP 40 E525 2004
Refer to "Iraq," "Ba'th Party," and "Shi'a" in index of Volume 2.

Encyclopedia of Terrorism
College Library Reference Collection: HV 6431 K883 2007
Refer to "Iraq" in index.

Hammond Atlas of the Middle East and Northern Africa
College Library Reference Collection: G 2205 H3 2006

Country Studies/Area Handbooks Dates Vary (updates vary)
This source includes in depth analyses of countries prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the Department of the Army. Studies for 100 countries are currently available.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Online 1992 (updated daily)
Britannica Online is a searchable collection of authoritative references, including Britannica's latest encyclopedia articles. Basic instructions for Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center 1990 - to date (updated daily)
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center (OVRC) includes the acclaimed social issues series published by Greenhaven Press, as well as core reference content from other Gale and Macmillan Reference USA sources and provides viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles.

Finding Journal and News Articles

Below are links to databases that cover this subject area. The truncation symbol for all of them is an asterisk (*) unless otherwise noted.

Sample searches for databases:

Iraq* and War
Iraq* and cultur* and heritage
Bush Administration and Iraq
al-Qaida and Iraq
Sunnis and Iraq
Shiites and Iraq
Islam and Iraq
Iraq and military policy
Iraq and reconstruct* and security
Baghdad and insurgency and violence
Saddam Hussein and Execution
Weapons of mass destruction and United Nations and Iraq

Recommended Databases:

Academic Search 1984 - to date (updated daily)
This library database indexes approximately 3,100 popular magazines and academic journals and provides the full-text articles from approximately 1,000 journals. Basic instructions for Academic Search

CQ Researcher November 1991 - to date (updated weekly)
Contains weekly reports from Congressional Quarterly that cover the most current and controversial issues. Basic instructions for CQ Researcher

Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe Dates Vary (updated daily)
Contains the full-text articles from U.S. and international newspapers (including the New York Times, June 1980 - to date), as well as some news and business magazines and trade journals. The truncation symbol is an exclamation point (!). Basic instructions for Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe

ProQuest Research Library 1988 - to date (updated daily)
Indexes over 2,000 general-interest and academic journals. Nearly 1,000 periodicals are full-text. Dates vary, but many full-text journals go back to 1988. Basic instructions for ProQuest Research Library

Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) 1972 - to date (updated quarterly)
Indexes journal articles, books, government documents, statistical compilations, committee reports, directories, serials, reports of public, intergovernmental and private organizations, and most other forms of printed literature from all over the world. The full-text of the articles is not available in the database. Basic instructions for PAIS

More Databases:

Business Full Text 1982 - to date (updated monthly)
Indexes 400 key business periodicals, including trade magazines and scholarly journals, covering all aspects of business. Basic instructions for Business Full Text

Ethnic NewsWatch 1960 - to date (updated monthly)
A full-text collection of more than 200 newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Basic instructions for Ethnic Newswatch

GenderWatch 1980 - to date (updated quarterly)
A women's and gender issues database with full-text coverage of most journals. Basic instructions for GenderWatch

Humanities Full Text 1984 - to date (updated monthly)
Indexes 400 scholarly journals on archaeology, classical studies, art, film, folklore, history, journalism, linguistics, literature, music, performing arts, philosophy and religion. Basic instructions for Humanities Full Text

Social Sciences Full Text 1983 - to date (updated monthly)
Indexes more than 415 scholarly journals in economics, politics, public administration, public health, sociology, criminology, environmental and urban studies, psychology and anthropology. Basic instructions for Social Sciences Full Text

Finding Books

MadCat
Books on the Iraq War can be found in MadCat, the UW-Madison library catalog.

Sample keyword searches:

"Iraq War" and "national security"
Iraq and muslim?
"Iraq War" and politic?
"Iraq War" and reconstruct?
"Iraq War" and terroris?

Internet Sites

BBC News: The Struggle for Iraq
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2002/conflict_with_iraq/default.stm
An in-depth British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report providing ongoing coverage of the conflict in Iraq.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Iraq
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/programs/global/index.cfm?fa=proj&id=107&proj=zme

unded through the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this site features articles and research on U.S. policy in Iraq.

Electronic Iraq
http://electroniciraq.net/
"Electronic Iraq is a supplementary news portal committed to providing a uniquely comprehensive look at Iraq and the violence that has engulfed it." The site includes sections on News & Analysis, Opinion/Editorial, Iraq Diaries, International Law, Aid & Development, Fact Sheets, and Action & Activism.

Government Views of Iraq
http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/library/Divisions/Government/Iraqbib.html
From the City College of New York, this site concentrates on government documents and information from the U.S. Executive Branch regarding Iraq. Resources include U.S. Congressional Hearings and Resolutions, Federal Agency reports, transcripts of press conferences and briefings, USAID Fact Sheets, legislation, news releases, and Presidential Communications.

The Iraq Action Coalition (IAC)
http://www.iraqaction.org/
"The Iraq Action Coalition is an online media and activists' resource center for groups and activists who are working to end the war against the people of Iraq." The site contains action ideas, media coverage, publications & videos, and related Iraq links.

Iraq Index
http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/iz__indx.html
From the International Constitutional Law project, this site contains the text of the Iraqi Interim Constitution enacted on March 8, 2004 as well as constitutional background, history and news, and the text of the 1990 constitution.

Iraq Study Group Report
http://www.usip.org/isg/iraq_study_group_report/report/1206/
Full text of the report of the Iraq Study Group that was published in December 2006 by the United States Institute of Peace.

Iraq Update
http://usinfo.state.gov/mena/middle_east_north_africa/iraq.html
News, key documents, related issues, fact sheets, maps and more from the U.S. Department of State.

Iraq War Debate - 2002/2006
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/iraqwar.html
From the University of Michigan Documents Center, this comprehensive meta site contains links to many other sites relevant to the Iraq War.

Muslims, Islam, and Iraq
http://www.uga.edu/islam/iraq.html
"The focus of this webpage...is to inform the public in a scholarly manner both about Islam and Muslims in Iraq, as well as the relationship of the war in Iraq to Islam and Muslims, including Shi'ites, Kurdish Sunnis, and Arab Sunnis."

NPR: Iraq
http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1010
A special report from National Public Radio (NPR) providing ongoing coverage of the situation in Iraq.

Rebuilding Iraq
http://www.export.gov/iraq/
Maintained by the Iraq Investment and Reconstruction Task Force (IIRTF), this site assists companies pursuing reconstruction and other business opportunities in Iraq. The site covers business opportunities throughout the country, the general commercial environment, and information on how to support humanitarian assistance.

Portals to the World: Iraq
http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/amed/iraq/iraq.html
This site consists of Internet resources on Iraq organized by topic and selected by the subject specialists at the Library of Congress.

The Threat to World Heritage in Iraq
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~wolf0126/
Information about endangered cultural heritage sites in Iraq, including mosques, churches, khans, palaces, major excavated sites, and museums.

UNESCO and Iraq
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=11178&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
A portal to press releases, media advisories, data, and publications about UNESCO's activities in Iraq. Includes information concerning the war's impact on Iraqi cultural heritage, education, and water resources.

Windfalls of War: U.S. Contractors in Afghanistan & Iraq
http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/
From the Center of Public Integrity, this site reports on U.S. companies that have received U.S. government contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Who's Who in Post-Saddam Iraq
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2950371.stm
BBC News Online reports on the key figures in the new Iraqi leadership. The site includes profiles of the Iraqi Governing Council and Islamic, secular, Kurdish, and other groups.

World Health Organization: Health Situation in Iraq
http://www.who.int/features/2003/iraq/en/
From the World Health Organization (WHO), this site provides authoritative information about health issues in Iraq. The site includes daily press briefings and press releases from the WHO as well as reports on the following topics: the potential impact of the Iraq conflict on health, emergency and humanitarian action, a communicable disease toolkit for Iraq crisis, mental health in emergencies, promoting the optimal feeding of infants and young children during emergencies, and an Iraq country page.

Statistics

Iraq Coalition Casualty Count
http://icasualties.org/oif/
"The goal of this web site is to document coalition casualties for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom." Includes statistics on military fatalities, U.S. non-mortal causalities, Iraqi security forces fatalities, and civilian deaths.

Iraq Index
http://www.brookings.edu/iraqindex
"The Iraq Index is a statistical compilation of economic, public opinion, and security data. This resource will provide updated information on various criteria, including crime, telephone and water service, troop fatalities, unemployment, Iraqi security forces, oil production, and coalition troop strength."

FedStats Dates Vary (updated continually)
FedStats provides access to the statistics found in the publications of more than 70 United States federal government agencies. Searches on FedStats provide direct links to federal agency statistical publications in both full-text and tabular format.

Statistical Universe 1973 - to date (updated monthly)
Contains the full text of more than 800 U.S. government statistical publications. Lexis-Nexis Statistical Universe is available to UW-Madison registered users.

Videos

Al Qaeda's New Front
College Library Main Collection: HV 6431 A42 2005
As Al Qaeda terrorist cells are uncovered in the U. K., Germany, Italy and Spain, Frontline investigates the new front in the war on terror: Europe. It discusses the challenges of intelligence services on both sides of the Atlantic, which has been exacerbated by political division over the Iraq war.

Beyond Baghdad
College Library Main Collection: DS 79.76 B495 2004
Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria take a 5-week trek across Iraq from the Kurdish north through the Sunni triangle and into the Shiite south and take a hard look at the prospect for democracy there.

Beyond the Frame: Alternative Perspectives on the War on Terrorism
College Library Main Collection: P 96 T47 B496 2004
In twenty-three interviews, using a question and answer format, experts from academia, the media, government, and non-governmental organizations, place the causes leading to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in historical context. Issues surrounding the War on Terrorism are also discussed.

Control Room
College Library Main Collection: HE 8700.9 Q22 C66 2004
A chronicle which provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news outlet. Criticized by Cabinet members and Pentagon officials for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, and strongly condemned for frequently airing civilian casualties as well as footage of American POW's, the station has revealed (and continues to show the world) everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration does not want the public to see.

The Dark Side
College Library Main Collection: HV 6432 D37 2006
Amid revelations about faulty prewar intelligence and a scandal surrounding the indictment of the vice president's chief of staff and presidential adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Frontline goes behind the headlines to investigate the internal war that was waged between the intelligence community and Richard Bruce Cheney, the most powerful vice president in the nation's history. In "The Dark Side," Frontline tells the story of the vice president's role as the chief architect of the war on terror, and his battle with Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet for control of the "dark side." Drawing on more than 40 interviews and thousands of documents, the film provides a step-by-step examination of what happened inside the councils of war.

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire
College Library Main Collection: HV 6432.7 H522 2004
Examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party has used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing military agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home.

Indymedia War and Peace Trilogy
College Library Main Collection: DS 79.76 I54 2003
In "Independent Media in a Time of War," journalist and host of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman, criticizes the pro-military bias of the mainstream news media, whose reportage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq downplays or ignores the impact on civilians while overstating the success of U.S. military operations. The speech was recorded at Christ Church , Troy , New York on Apr. 21, 2003. Footage of the speech is interwoven with footage of news reports and graphic scenes from the war. "Voices against War" chronicles the experiences of people on the streets of Manhattan who participate in a Feb. 2003 protest against the war in Iraq . "Womens' Fast for Peace" examines the case of 125 women in upstate New York who, on the eve of the Iraq War, fasted to create a culture of peace rather than of war.

The Insurgency
College Library Main Collection: DS 79.76 I57 2006
The Iraqi insurgency continues to challenge the most highly trained and best-equipped military in the world. This investigation includes access to insurgent leaders, commanders of Iraqi and U.S. military units, and journalists who have risked their lives to meet insurgent leaders. Frontline explores the battle for one Iraqi town and presents testimony from civilians whose families were targets.

The Invasion of Iraq
College Library Main Collection: DS 79.76 I69 2004
A year after the fact, a follow-up report on the U.S.-led coalition's March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Noam Chomsky: Rebel without a Pause
College Library Main Collection: JA 71 N63 2005
Linguist, intellect, and activist Noam Chomsky discusses and reflects on the state of the world including the War in Iraq, September 11th, the War on Terror, media manipulation and control, social activism, fear, American foreign policy, and more.

Rumsfeld's War
College Library Main Collection: E840.8 R84 R84 2004
With the United States Army deployed in a dozen hotspots around the world, on constant alert in Afghanistan, and taking casualties every day in Iraq, some current and former officers now say the army is on the verge of being "broken." The program digs into the aggressive attempts to assert civilian control and remake the military by the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his allies.

The Torture Question
College Library Main Collection: DS 79.76 T677 2005
Originally broadcast on October 18, 2005 as a segment of Frontline.

Truth, War, and Consequences
College Library Main Collection: DS 79.76 T78 2003
Traces the roots of the Iraqi war back to the days immediately following September 11, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the creation of a special intelligence operation to quietly begin looking for evidence that would justify the war. Discusses why the U.S. went to war in Iraq, what went wrong in the planning for the postwar occupation, and what is at stake for both the U.S. and for Iraqis. Examines what some government officials say is the underlying cause of America's current problems in Iraq: the prewar political infighting among the Pentagon, State Department, and White House that hampered U.S. efforts to plan for an orderly postwar transition.

Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War
College Library Main Collection: DS 79.76 U53 2004
Takes the viewer behind the walls of government, as CIA, Pentagon and foreign service experts speak out detailing the lies, misstatements and exaggerations that served as the reasons for fighting a "preemptive" war against Iraq that wasn't necessary. Includes interviews with more than 20 experts in opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq.

XXI Century, Part 5: Civilization
College Library Main Collection: DS 79.66 H87 A1255 2003
Art historian Zainab Baharani, who was born in Baghdad, describes the damages to the Iraqi architectural and artistic heritage due to the first Gulf War. The documentary then looks at the regime of Saddam Hussein, his use of gas against the Iranians and the Kurds and the close ties between the Reagan and Bush administrations with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War. Finally the invasion of Kuwait, the first Gulf War, the UN sanctions against Iraq and their effects on the civilian population are analyzed by historians, human rights workers and international law scholars.

XXI Century, Part 6: Blood and Oil
College Library Main Collection: E902 A1256 2003
While the war against Iraq was approaching, international organizations were working to foresee the effects of a new conflict on the civilian population. What was the price and who would pay it? Looks at the search for weapons of mass destruction and the inspections, and the role of oil in the conflict. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, historians, and the former weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, tell "the other version," deconstructing the lies which have been too often told. Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, historian Arno Mayer and others share their critiques and point of views.

Organizations

The Iraq Foundation
http://www.iraqfoundation.org/
"The Iraq Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization working for democracy and human rights in Iraq, and for a better international understanding of Iraq's potential as a contributor to political stability and economic progress in the Middle East."

The Iraq Memory Foundation
http://www.iraqmemory.org/en/about.asp
"The Iraq Memory Foundation staff both in Baghdad and Washington are engaged in a long-term effort to provide Iraqi society and the world a view of the inner workings of the Ba'thist institutions of repression and social control that dominated all aspects of Iraqi life between 1968 and 2003. The Foundation is preserving, digitizing, classifying and beginning to analyze more than 11 million pages of records in its holdings."