Iraq After War: The Challenge of Securing the Peace (Spring 2004)

One year after the war in Iraq, critical questions about Iraq's future remain. Iraq After War: The Challenge of Securing the Peace is designed as an interactive lesson that places students in the role of decision-makers as they explore divergent policy alternatives concerning how the post-war period in Iraq should be handled, who should be in charge, and what the goals should be. It is designed to help teachers to engage their students in consideration of this important international issue.

NOTE: Iraq After War: The Challenge of Securing the Peace was developed in spring 2003. It was revised several times prior to being replaced by new online resources on Iraq. Materials are updated frequently to remain current.
Two resources are recommended as background to help students understand historical and current developments on the issue. Finally, students should be given an opportunity to express their own considered judgments on what policy the United States should follow on this critical issue.

Iraq After War: The Challenge of Securing the Peace is an excellent entrée into the larger question of America's role in the world. The U.S. Role in a Changing World is a one-week curriculum unit that provides a substantive look at this larger question. The online student ballot on this topic provides an avenue for students to express their views after they have considered a range of perspectives.

This lesson includes:

Policy Options: Four Policy Options have been framed to help students think about divergent policy alternatives, each driven by different underlying values, each with merits and trade-offs. The Options provided have been developed with input from the research staff at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. The Policy Options can be printed for classroom use from the Choices web site.

Lesson Plan: A two-period lesson plan is provided. It is focused on role-play and deliberation exploring the four Policy Options. Teachers are encouraged to integrate the suggested background resources into their courses as appropriate. A map of Iraq is available as a pdf.

Ballot Activity on America's Role in the World: After consideration of this issue, we invite you to give students an opportunity to wrestle with the larger question of America's role in the world using an online ballot activity. What do they think about America's role? What issues are of most concern to them? What kind of world do they want in the 21st century? A 5-day published unit, The U.S. Role in a Changing World, is also available.

Note: This curriculum resource was reprinted with permission in the September issue of Social Education (National Council for the Social Studies).

Supplemental Materials

See Supplemental Materials on Iraq for links to additional web resources.

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Review a list of Choices publications: In addition to its online resources, the Choices Program publishes a wide range of curriculum units on historical turning points and current issues. All published units include extensive background readings and accompanying lesson plans. Ordering is available online.