The mixed performance of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003–04 has been documented in great detail. Do United Nations administrations work better? What is the best possible outcome that can be hoped for in any such stabilization and reconstruction effort? What might the international community do differently in future post-conflict administrations? What lessons can we learn from Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, and the more distant past?

At this AEI event, panelists Kimberly Marten, author of Enforcing the Peace: Learning from the Imperial Past; Michael Rubin, author of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos; and Rory Stewart, author of The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq will explore these and other questions.