This paper will focus on the US economic reconstruction policies in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, particularly under the guise of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). The economic philosophies of neoliberalism and creative destruction will be used as a theoretical framework, with Joseph Schumpeter's work as a cornerstone for the latter. In order to place the Iraqi case into a historical framework, CPA policies will be compared to previous examples of economic reconstruction, particularly the post-war Marshall Plan as it was applied to West Germany, and look at the economic and political philosophies that drove those reconstruction efforts. Finally, the paper will follow the economic reforms set forth during the CPA era to the present day, in order to analyze the effects of neoliberalist policies on Iraq’s economic development over the past last seven years. To be sure, the two examples of US-led, post-war reconstruction projects in 1945 Germany and 2003 Iraq represent two drastically different sets of contexts, both in the respective international system and economic status of the country. While Germany had developed into a top industrial nation by the outbreak of war in 1939, Iraq had suffered under decades of violent conflict, economic ineptitude and crippling sanctions. Nonetheless, the cases are still comparable through an analysis of the divergent economic philosophies that motivated the respective reconstruction efforts. For planners looking to rebuild post-war Europe, a heavy emphasis was put on the power of the state as the sole legitimate force capable of ensuring robust economic growth. In post-Saddam Iraq, Washington and its allies saw the neoliberalist principles of privatization and the absence of government interference, combined with the economic opportunities elucidated through Schumpeterian creative destruction, as the guiding force towards stability and eventual prosperity for Iraq and the region as a whole. As for the relationship between economic and political reforms, statist planners of the post-war era viewed economic development as the desirable result of durable political advancements. However, economic development through the free market was seen as both the ends and the means to political stability in Iraq, as demonstrated by the speeches and policies of CPA head L. Paul Bremer and Bush administration officials. In total, this analysis will be done using a wide range of primary and secondary sources, including governmental policy briefs, economic development reports, memoirs, speeches and newspaper op-ed pieces.