ABSTRACT
The American Model of helping to develop the Third World was forged about fifty years ago, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The model for the Third World formulated over the course of the 1950s was called ‘developmentalism’. It was largely based on the historical experience of Western Europe and the United States itself. The Iraq issue has to do with the Saddam Hussein regime; and with US efforts more recently to build a democracy in Iraq. The alternative explanation is that Saddam was the way he was because Iraq is the way Iraq is. And that means an underdeveloped country, with no underlying unity, torn apart by religions and ethnic conflicts, and, therefore, requiring an iron fist to keep it under control. Culture is so important in international affairs, and so self-evidently so, that it is something of a mystery why many analysts choose to ignore it.
