Samuel Helfont
Biographic Data
| ID | 2135257 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Samuel Helfont |
| GIVEN NAMES | Samuel |
| FAMILY NAME | Helfont |
| SIGNATURE | HELFONT S |
| AFFILIATIONS | US Naval War College , US |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Iraq
The Gulf War
The Gulf War of 1990–91 was a major international conflict. It included the largest military coalition since World War II and saw a clash between some of the world’s largest armies. It also had a profound impact on global politics and helped to shape the contours of the post–Cold War international order. Yet the historiography of this conflict is relatively underdeveloped. Thirty years on, the literature on it pales in comparison to the histories…
Iraqi Archives and post-Cold War Continuity
The transition from Cold War to post-Cold War is one of the more significant events in international history over the past fifty years. At least, that is how it is often understood in the West and especially in the United States. It was not just a major geopolitical shift. For Francis Fukuyama, it was the “End of History.”1 Even the administration of US President George H.W. Bush, which is often portrayed as “realist,” declared that the period ma…
A New Look at the Iraq War
Journal Article A New Look at the Iraq War Get access Melvyn P. Leffler. Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. 368. Cloth $27.95. Samuel Helfont Samuel Helfont US Naval War College, US Email: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 129, Issue 1, March 2024, Pages 250–252, https://…
Islam in Saudi Foreign Policy
This article provides new and unique insights into the surprisingly understudied role Islam in Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy. The closed nature of the Saudi state makes this topic difficult to examine. To bypass such obstacles, the article focuses on the career of Maʿruf al-Dawalibi (1909–2004), whose work on behalf of Saudi Arabia is well documented in publicly available sources. Al-Dawalibi played a critical role in transforming Islam into a st…
Emergence of Religious Insurgencies in Iraq
This chapter discusses how the breakdown of the Iraqi regime in 2003 led to religious insurgencies in Iraq. Sunni Islamists and jihadists were given the space and opportunity to organize in a way that would have been unthinkable prior to 2003. Within the Shi’i community, Islamists from the Sadrist trend in Iraq, and Iranian backed religious actors, emerged in southern Iraq and in Baghdad. Over the previous decade, religious institutions had begun…
Compulsion in Religion
Compulsion in Religion relies on extensive research with Ba’thist archives to investigate the roots of the religious insurgencies that erupted in Iraq following the American-led invasion in 2003. The Iraqi archival records demonstrate that by the 1990s, Saddam’s regime had developed institutions to control and monitor Iraq’s religious landscape. The regime’s ability to do so provided it with confidence to launch a national “Faith Campaign” and to…
An Arab Option for Iraq
Authoritarianism beyond Borders
A great deal has been written about authoritarianism in Ba‘thist Iraq as a domestic phenomenon. However, the Iraqi Ba‘th archives reveal that migration out of Iraq during Saddam Husayn’s presidency (1979–2003) pushed the regime to extend its authoritarianism to cover the growing Iraqi diaspora. This article describes the development of the resulting transnational authoritarian system and investigates its implications for Iraqi history as well as …
Saddam and the Islamists
Based on extensive archival research with newly available Iraqi state and Ba‘th Party documents, this article attempts to shed light on the Saddam Husayn regime’s relationship with Islamists and Islamism, arguing that it instrumentalized Islam in its foreign policy to an unprecedented extent, but not out of ideological conviction. This article, therefore, clarifies an important issue in the historiography of Saddam’s Iraq and suggests that religi…
Jordan
The Muslim Brotherhood and the Emerging ‘Shia Crescent’
Saddam and the Islamists
Based on extensive archival research with newly available Iraqi state and Ba‘th Party documents, this article attempts to shed light on the Saddam Husayn regime’s relationship with Islamists and Islamism, arguing that it instrumentalized Islam in its foreign policy to an unprecedented extent, but not out of ideological conviction. This article, therefore, clarifies an important issue in the historiography of Saddam’s Iraq and suggests that religi…
The Muslim Brotherhood and the Emerging ‘Shia Crescent’
Jordan
Islam in Saudi Foreign Policy
This article provides new and unique insights into the surprisingly understudied role Islam in Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy. The closed nature of the Saudi state makes this topic difficult to examine. To bypass such obstacles, the article focuses on the career of Maʿruf al-Dawalibi (1909–2004), whose work on behalf of Saudi Arabia is well documented in publicly available sources. Al-Dawalibi played a critical role in transforming Islam into a st…
The Muslim Brotherhood and the Emerging ‘Shia Crescent’
Jordan
Saddam and the Islamists
Based on extensive archival research with newly available Iraqi state and Ba‘th Party documents, this article attempts to shed light on the Saddam Husayn regime’s relationship with Islamists and Islamism, arguing that it instrumentalized Islam in its foreign policy to an unprecedented extent, but not out of ideological conviction. This article, therefore, clarifies an important issue in the historiography of Saddam’s Iraq and suggests that religi…
Emergence of Religious Insurgencies in Iraq
This chapter discusses how the breakdown of the Iraqi regime in 2003 led to religious insurgencies in Iraq. Sunni Islamists and jihadists were given the space and opportunity to organize in a way that would have been unthinkable prior to 2003. Within the Shi’i community, Islamists from the Sadrist trend in Iraq, and Iranian backed religious actors, emerged in southern Iraq and in Baghdad. Over the previous decade, religious institutions had begun…
Compulsion in Religion
Compulsion in Religion relies on extensive research with Ba’thist archives to investigate the roots of the religious insurgencies that erupted in Iraq following the American-led invasion in 2003. The Iraqi archival records demonstrate that by the 1990s, Saddam’s regime had developed institutions to control and monitor Iraq’s religious landscape. The regime’s ability to do so provided it with confidence to launch a national “Faith Campaign” and to…
An Arab Option for Iraq
Authoritarianism beyond Borders
A great deal has been written about authoritarianism in Ba‘thist Iraq as a domestic phenomenon. However, the Iraqi Ba‘th archives reveal that migration out of Iraq during Saddam Husayn’s presidency (1979–2003) pushed the regime to extend its authoritarianism to cover the growing Iraqi diaspora. This article describes the development of the resulting transnational authoritarian system and investigates its implications for Iraqi history as well as …
Islam in Saudi Foreign Policy
This article provides new and unique insights into the surprisingly understudied role Islam in Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy. The closed nature of the Saudi state makes this topic difficult to examine. To bypass such obstacles, the article focuses on the career of Maʿruf al-Dawalibi (1909–2004), whose work on behalf of Saudi Arabia is well documented in publicly available sources. Al-Dawalibi played a critical role in transforming Islam into a st…
A New Look at the Iraq War
Journal Article A New Look at the Iraq War Get access Melvyn P. Leffler. Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. 368. Cloth $27.95. Samuel Helfont Samuel Helfont US Naval War College, US Email: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 129, Issue 1, March 2024, Pages 250–252, https://…
The Gulf War
The Gulf War of 1990–91 was a major international conflict. It included the largest military coalition since World War II and saw a clash between some of the world’s largest armies. It also had a profound impact on global politics and helped to shape the contours of the post–Cold War international order. Yet the historiography of this conflict is relatively underdeveloped. Thirty years on, the literature on it pales in comparison to the histories…
Iraqi Archives and post-Cold War Continuity
The transition from Cold War to post-Cold War is one of the more significant events in international history over the past fifty years. At least, that is how it is often understood in the West and especially in the United States. It was not just a major geopolitical shift. For Francis Fukuyama, it was the “End of History.”1 Even the administration of US President George H.W. Bush, which is often portrayed as “realist,” declared that the period ma…
Iraq
Law (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Political economy (8 works) · Islamic Studies and History (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · History (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Islam (5 works) · Democracy (4 works)