THE IRAN-IRAQ CONFLICT, OR THE FIRST PERSIAN GULF WAR: CAUSES, COURSE OF EVENTS AND GEOPOLITICAL CONSEQUENCES AT THE REGIONAL AND GLOBAL LEVELS
Abstract
The article analyses key factors of conflict in Iran-Iraq long-term relations through the prism of the historical deepening of contradictions between the two nations and states, which found their expression, first of all, in the framework of the territorial conflict regarding the ownership of the water area of the Shatt-el-Arab river, which is strategically important regarding to its geographical location.
Some attention is paid to the role of the «Kurdish question» in the development of interstate relations; the religious dimension of the Iran-Iraq conflict is also analyzed in detail, the role of which increased rapidly after the events of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. The ideological and political strategies of both opponents in the struggle for regional leadership are considered in detail. The main groups of factors causing the Iran-Iraq conflict are separated and briefly characterized.
Also, the article carefully describes the military-political grounds and the course of the key stages of the direct armed confrontation and its role in the contemporary Middle Eastern geopolitical picture, including objective reasons that forced various Arab and other actors of different levels to take their own position in the context of the struggle between the two regional "power centers". A change in the nature of the participation of the main international players involved in the conflict is observed, depending on the trends in the arena of military operations.
Downloads
References
Spencer, W. 2000. Iraq: Old Land, New Nation in Conflict. Brookfield: Millbrook Press.
Smolansky, O., Smolansky, B. 1991. The USSR and Iraq. The Soviet Quest for Influence. London: Duke University Press.
Freedman, R. 1991. Moscow and the Middle East: Soviet Policy since the Invasion of Afghanistan. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Teicher, H., Teicher, G. R. 1993. Twin Pillars to Desert Storm: America’s Flawed Vision in the Middle East from Nixon to Bush. New York: William Morrow.
Chubin, S., Tripp C. 1988. Iran and Iraq at War. London: I.B. Tauris.
Smolansky, O., Smolansky, B. 1991. The USSR and Iraq. The Soviet Quest for Influence. London: Duke University Press.
Phythian, M. 1997. Arming Iraq. How the U.S. and Britain Secretly Built Saddam’s War Machine. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Mattar, F. 1981. Saddam Hussein: the Man, the Cause and the Future. Lebanon: Express International Printing Company.
Karabell, Z. 1995. Backfire: US Policy Toward Iraq 1988 – 2 august 1990. Middle East Journal.
Hiro, D. 1992. Desert Shield to Desert Storm. The Second Gulf War. New York: Routledge.
Iraq In Transition: A Political, Economic, and Strategic Perspective / ed. by Axelgard F. Boulder. 1986. CO: Westview Press,
The Gulf War: Regional and International Dimensions / ed. by Maull H.W., Pick O. 1989. New York:St. Martin’s Press.
Mofid, K. 1990. The Economic Consequences of the Gulf Wars. London: Routledge.
Author’s copyright and licensing.
License Terms: Authors retain copyright and also grant the Journal the right to publish original scientific articles that contain research results and are not under consideration for publication in other issues. All material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License International CC-BY, which allows others to distribute their work with the copyright of this work and recognition of the first publication in this Journal.
If the article is taken for publishing in The Journal of V.N. Karazin Kharkov National University. “Political Science Issues”, the author must sign a copyright transfer agreement. The agreement is sent by post (original document) or by e-mail (scanned copy of the document) to the Editorial Board of the Journal.
By this agreement the author certifies that the submitted material:
- does not violate the copyrights of other people or organizations;
- has not been previously published in other issues and has not been given for publishing to other issues.
The author gives the editorial board the rights to:
- publish the article in Ukrainian (English and Russian) and distribute its printed version;
- translate the article into English (for articles in Ukrainian and Russian) and distribute the printed version of the translation;
- distribute the electronic version of the article, as well as the electronic version of the English-language translation of the article (for articles in Ukrainian and Russian), through any electronic means (placing on the official journal web site, in electronic databases, repositories, etc.).
The author reserves the right without the consent of the editorial board and the founders to:
- Completely or partly use the materials of the article for educational purposes.
- Completely or partly use the materials of the article for writing own theses.
- Use the materials of the article to prepare abstracts, conference reports, and oral presentations.
- Post electronic copies of the article (including the final electronic version downloaded from the journal's official website) to:
- personal web-resources of all authors (web sites, web pages, blogs, etc.);
- web-resources of institutions where authors work (including electronic institutional repositories);
- non-profit, open-source web resources (such as arXiv.org).
