After the Elections in Iraq: A Discussion

Inevitably, much of the discussion in the United States has focused on the immediate impact of the January 30 elections and the next steps for U.S. policy in Iraq. Yet the most crucial questions facing the country in the coming months and years remain open. To explore Iraq’s longer-term development and the challenges that Washington and Baghdad will confront farther down the road, the Saban Center invited Noah Feldman, a law professor at New York University and an expert on Islamic and constitutional law, advised the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) on the design of Iraq’s interim constitution and Peter Khalil, Saban Center Visiting Fellow, who served as director of national security policy for the CPA and played a key role in the reconstruction of Iraq’s armed forces and security sector to a luncheon and policy discussion. The luncheon and discussion took place on Thursday, February 10, 2005 in the Stein Room at the Brookings Institution. Kenneth M. Pollack, the Saban Center’s director of research, moderated the discussion.