The Domestic Politics of War

<p>This study examines the context of the 2002 Iraq war debate through three theoretical perspectives: diversionary theory of war coercive diplomacy and the invitation to struggle. Proponents of diversionary theory would interpret the debate as a means by which the Bush administration diverted attention from the countrys economic problems in order to gain momentum leading up to the November 2002 midterm elections. Proponents of coercive diplomacy theory would commend the Bush administration for pressing Congress to vote on the Iraq war resolution prior to the midterm elections. Doing so limited opposition and guaranteed overwhelming bipartisan support for the resolution. Support from the political opposition signaled Saddam Hussein and the United Nations that the President had the domestic political capital to follow through on his threat of regime change in Iraq. Advocates of invitation to struggle would argue that the debate that ensued and the vocal opposition to the Presidents Iraq policy emboldened Saddam Hussein to attempt to shape the debate in the United States and the United Nations to make it difficult for the President to gain consensus over his policy. The thesis uses the theories to help provide strategists a means by which to understand the domestic political context of military policy debates thus enabling them to influence and shape the debate to achieve favorable political objectives in the domestic and international arenas.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>