The Post–World War II Allied Occupation of Austria: What Can We Learn about It for Iraq in Successful Nation Building?

Abstract

This article argues that in the run-up to the US occupation of Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled, there was much argument what could be learned from previous American occupations and nation building experiences (especially post–World War II Germany and Japan were seen as models). The successful Austrian occupation after World War II was ignored—“successful” in the sense that the country was politically democratized and economically stabilized. Running through the historiography of scholarship on the Austrian occupation then, the article draws four concrete lessons from the Austrian occupation case study for the US occupation of Iraq. In other words, the U.S. military tends to forget its rich previous occupation experiences for the contemporary world.