Iraq Reading List – Update

Iraq Legacy blog posts

Not surprisingly, having previously cited a series of academic papers and articles on the relationship between casualties and public support for the Iraq war, I heard from other readers recommending more papers coving similar ground.  I’ve been so swamped lately that I neglected to pass along some of the links suggested by readers. 

One email came from Richard Eichenberg, a professor of Political Science at Tufts University, who – I just noticed – will be guest blogging at TPMCafe for the next two weeks on public opinion and American foreign policy.

Regarding casualties and support for the Iraq War, Eichenberg recommends:

  • His own paper published earlier this year in the journal International Security entitled, "Victory Has Many Friends," that reviews more than 20 years of public opinion on the use of military force.
  • A similar chapter entitled "The Political Fortunes of War," co-authored by Eichberg and Richard Stoll, along with supplementary material on the impact of casualties on approval ratings.

Michael D. Cobb of North Carolina State University also passes along his paper on "Framing Casualties in the Iraq War," which is currently under review at an academic journal. 

Finally, please note than in my last discussion of this subject, Professors Christopher Gelpi and  Adam Berinsky posted some extra thoughts in the comments section.  Thanks again to both Chris and Adam.

Mark Blumenthal

Mark Blumenthal is the principal at MysteryPollster, LLC. With decades of experience in polling using traditional and innovative online methods, he is uniquely positioned to advise survey researchers, progressive organizations and candidates and the public at-large on how to adapt to polling’s ongoing reinvention. He was previously head of election polling at SurveyMonkey, senior polling editor for The Huffington Post, co-founder of Pollster.com and a long-time campaign consultant who conducted and analyzed political polls and focus groups for Democratic party candidates.