Decision making in the Iraq war 2003 an analytical study of tony Blair's foreign policy

Dissertant

Dar Tawil, Nur T.

Thesis advisor

Baumgarten, Helga

Comitee Members

Awad, Samir
Asi, Juni

University

Birzeit University

Faculty

Faculty of Arts

Department

Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences

University Country

Palestine (West Bank)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2006

English Abstract

On 15 February 2003, more than one million people had taken to the streets of London to protest against the prospect of war.

Later that month, British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced the largest parliamentary rebellion in over a hundred years where 121 of his Lab our Party colleagues voted against the government’s policy of support for US military action against Iraq.

Blair has faced a fierce opposition from Britain’s major partners in Europe-France and Germany-who believed that the unilateral decision of Blair’s government to go to war has undermined Britain’s pivotal role of providing a bridge of understanding between Europe and the United States and damaged the multilateral approach to world problems.

Prime Minister Blair even faced personal attacks in the media which threatened his political survival.

Facing such constraints, it would have been conceivable if the Blair-led government had taken a less determined position on Iraq.

But that was not the case.

Ignoring the UN, the public, the party, the parliament, and the EU partners, Blair decided enthusiastically to join the war, not only verbally but militarily.

In an attempt to explain Blair’s foreign policy decision making in the Iraq War 2003, I recall the underpinnings of Tony Blair’s Third Way Lab our (New labor) which I expect to assist me in understanding Blair’s decision.

Principles of humanitarian intervention, international community, multilaterals and interconnectedness between domestic and foreign policies resonated in his New Labour discourse.

Putting these principles into the Iraq war test, I discovered an exacerbating gulf between this policy and Blair’s actual political action on the ground.

Faced with a challenging dilemma and trying to understand that dilemma, I formulated the thesis hypothesis which stated that Blair used the New Labour teachings in his discourse to knit a list of pretexts and justifications in an attempt to manipulate his public, party members, and parliament into believing in the legality of the war.

This in turn would conceal the real reasons of intervention behind a screen of pluralist and moral rhetoric devising evidence to support decisions that had already been agreed upon especially at the level of Blair-Bush.

Methodologically and through the use of both primary and secondary data, I exploited three international relations perspectives suggested by a first analysis of Blair’s New Labour Policy and discourse.

These are normative, pluralist and realist perspectives.

Both the first and second perspectives failed to unravel the dilemma and explain Blair’s decision in the Iraq war due to the fact that the actual performance on the ground violated the moral values of peace, human rights, and democracy.

It also undermined the credibility of the UN as an international organization, damaged the multilateral approach to world issues and neglected (through Blair’s prime ministerial style of leadership) both the public and parliament ; the very basis of a democratic nation.

The thesis then, through relating the resultant hypothesis with the assumptions of the realist school of thought mainly band wagering, public opinion and power of interests, contends that Blair’s real motivation behind the Iraq war was advancement of British interests through tightening the relationship with the US hegemon .

These interests are composed but not limited to the nuclear build-up (and what relates to Britain’ security and survival), unrestricted flow of oil (and what relates to Britain’s economic and industrial prosperity), and Britain’s influential role in the international arena as a pivotal power.

Main Subjects

Political Sciences

Topics

• International relations
• Iraq
• United Kingdom

No. of Pages

118

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-302443