ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the US sought to introduce elite-based democracy in Iraq, in pursuit of hegemony and a transformation of the broader region. It first addresses the US-Iraqi relationship since 1979, under the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. The chapter then analyses the G. W. Bush administration's policy to Iraq, and specifically the array of economic, political and civil society reforms introduced as part of the effort to transform the Iraqi state. It assesses the extent to which the strategy of democracy promotion in Iraq was successful or not. The range of economic, political and civil society reforms implemented by the G. W. Bush administration should be seen as integral, complementary components of the overall US strategy of democracy promotion in Iraq. Bush's resort to violence against Iraq can be explained by the global limits of a hegemony developed at the core to shape the periphery of the international system.
