Dimensions of employment and limits of influence on US foreign policy towards Iraq

Abstract

The political history of US-Iraq relations in the period under study, from 1888 (the early beginnings) to late 1989, is characterized by a complex interplay of strategic interests, ideological motivations, and evolving geopolitical dynamics. This study reveals contemporary critical insights into how these factors shaped bilateral relations between the two countries over decades of modern history, reinforced by American and Iraqi documents that reveal the importance of Iraq in US foreign policy, the limits of this importance, and its use for US interests in the Middle East over the past century.As will be shown later, US foreign policymaking is a process based on defining the rules for dealing with the international variables and phenomena prevailing at the time, starting with limited paths in the late nineteenth century, through the escalation of US interest in Iraq as a result of oil interests, the circumstances of the First and Second World Wars, and the dynamics of the Cold War, and finally evolving into shifting alliances and outright hostilities. These US-Iraq relations were marked by dramatic shifts, moving from periods of cooperation to periods of hostility, then to short-term strategic alliances, reflecting the volatile nature of international politics and conflicting national interests.