Chilcot How the Iraq war has led to a rise in extremism and fatally undermined the European Union

The Iraq war still scars us today, leading to a rise in extremism and ‘fatally undermining’ the European Union, according to Dr Robert Dover (pictured) from the Department of Politics and International Relations.

In an opinion piece for Think: Leicester, the University’s platform for academic opinion pieces, Dr Dover discusses the Chilcot report, due to be released on Wednesday 6 July.

In the piece he outlines four key lessons from the Iraq war and what he believes the Chilcot report is likely to say.

He said: “The decision of the UK to get involved in the Iraq war was controversial at the time, and over a million marched in London against it. It was controversial because there was very little in it for the UK, controversial because the justifications for the war quickly unravelled and controversial because British military personnel began to die in a war that was not widely supported by the electorate.

"It also provides a relearning of a timeless lesson of war: that conflict is contagious and often uncontainable."

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