This thesis explores how the United States identified Iraq as a threat to its national interest from 1990 to 1998. The international relations literature is heavily skewed toward exploring the question of why states engage in conflict and neglecting how a country identifies a threat. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the threat identification policy process. This thesis examines two security moves – the Gulf War and the Iraq Liberation Act – and uses primary documents to reveal how the foreign policy apparatus concluded that Iraq was a threat. Through the two cases, I found that foreign policy decisions were made on an ad-hoc basis and government officials were much more likely to inflate the Iraqi threat. Future international relation scholars can use my thesis as a guideline when constructing studies on the threat identification process.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CLAREMONT/oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cmc_theses-2984 |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| Creators | McFall, Shawn |
| Publisher | Scholarship @ Claremont |
| Source Sets | Claremont Colleges |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | CMC Senior Theses |
| Rights | (c)2018 Shawn M McFall, default |
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