Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Abstract
The Bush Doctrine, which was installed after the 9-11 attacks on the United States under the guise of the war on terrorism, postulated a vision of the United States as the world’s unchallenged superpower and the invasion of Iraq became one of the central fronts of this war. After failing to get approval by the United Nations for the invasion, the Bush Administration’s attempt to assemble a coalition of the willing became critical to the battle for public opinion to back the war. While the administration was able to garner some support, the coalition eventually unravelled and all troops are expected to depart by 2011 in what is perceived by many as a failure of U.S. foreign policy. This article discusses how different strands of social movement theory, including resource mobilization and the political process model, can be combined to examine how the coalition of the unwilling emerged and what effect it had on the failure of the United States to sustain support for the Iraq war. It contributes to the literature on social movements by assessing the ways in which structural- and micro-level mobilization efforts are often interconnected in order to explain both the how and the why of social movements, usually treated separately in much of the extant research.
Recommended Citation
Carty, Victoria. 2011. "The Coalition of the Unwilling: Contentious Politics, Political Opportunity Structures, and Challenges for the Contemporary Peace Movement." Peace and Conflict Studies 18(1): 79-115.
Peer Reviewed
1
Copyright
Nova Southeastern University
Included in
American Politics Commons, International Relations Commons, Military and Veterans Studies Commons, Models and Methods Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons
Comments
This article was originally published in Peace and Conflict Studies, volume 18, issue 1, in 2011.