Assembling high-profile policymakers, diplomats, and renowned foreign policy specialists, The World after Iraq investigates the state of global security in the wake of the U.S.-led war on Iraq and the ongoing "war on terrorism." The collection examines the historical roots of global security as it relates to the Middle East and studies its implications for international relations and policy in a posts "war on terrorism" and its associated concept of "preemptive war" as viable political strategies. Other essays weigh the ramifications of recent U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East for the institutions that have governed international relations since World War II and consider the political, social, and economic costs of this policy both for the U.S. itself and for the countries it targets.