Student Research Projects

Iraq: Does External Intervention Promote or Obstruct Democracy?

Student Name(s)	Aaron R. Novy
Faculty Mentor(s)	Dr. Laura Landolt
Department	Political Science
Course	POLS 499: Senior Seminar

Abstract

This paper will go examine the effects of the Iraq War on that country’s democracy. This question is significant to political science in that it offers an extreme example of the effects of external intervention on political institutions, or externally-driven nation building. My research asks whether such external intervention can facilitate democratization. I hypothesize that the US occupation obstructs democracy.