The war against Iraq and international order: From Bull to Bush

This essay has two goals: (1) to examine US foreign policy leading to the war in Iraq through the lens of Bull's (1977) classic book, The Anarchical Society, and (2) to explore in a unipolar, hegemonic system the relevance and power of the institutional mechanisms that are supposed to preserve international society according to Bull. It also addresses the implications of the events from September 11, 2001, through the war in Iraq for the ongoing debate within the Grotian school regarding the limits of international society and the international society-world society divide.