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Contribution to Book
Narratives, negotiation, and the Iraq Wars
International Negotiation and Political Narratives; A Comparative Study (2021)
  • Rodger A Payne, University of Louisville
Abstract
This chapter examines and compares strikingly similar narratives employed strategically by United States foreign policymakers and diplomats in the international negotiations building up to the 1991 Persian Gulf War and 2003 Iraq War. It begins with a brief discussion of the key politico-military background details justifying the US attempts to attract coalition partners in these anti-Iraq endeavors. The chapter evaluates the effectiveness of the coalition-building efforts and discusses how the suitability of the narratives factored into the outcomes. It offers some brief conclusions about the narrative employed in these cases. On August 2, 1990, Iraq attacked neighboring Kuwait. Iraqi forces quickly occupied the country and briefly set up a puppet government before simply annexing Kuwait. The Bush administration’s primary original goals for the Iraq War could not be met because US weapons inspectors quickly concluded that Iraq did not have WMD after all.
Keywords
  • Narratives,
  • negotiations,
  • Iraq War,
  • Persian Gulf War
Publication Date
2021
Editor
Fen Osler Hampson and Amrita Narlikar
Publisher
Routledge
ISBN
9781003203209
Citation Information
Rodger A Payne. "Narratives, negotiation, and the Iraq Wars" LondonInternational Negotiation and Political Narratives; A Comparative Study (2021)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/rodger-payne/48/