The US-Iranian Cold War: From the Threat of Military Intervention to Peaceful Rapprochement

The US-Iranian Cold War: From the Threat of Military Intervention to Peaceful Rapprochement

The world has witnessed an increase in US military intervention in the post-Cold War era. This study asks what drives intervention in one case rather than another. The factors contributing to a decision to strike Iran during the George W. Bush administration were identical to those of the Iraq War I...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Peace research Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 87 - 112
Main Author: Ricci, Dennis N.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Winnipeg Menno Simons College 01-07-2014
Subjects:
Cold War
Cold wars
Military defense
Military diplomacy
Military intervention
Military operations
National security
Nuclear terrorism
Nuclear weapons
Peace studies
Peacetime
Terrorism
War
Weapons of mass destruction
Iran
United States > US
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The world has witnessed an increase in US military intervention in the post-Cold War era. This study asks what drives intervention in one case rather than another. The factors contributing to a decision to strike Iran during the George W. Bush administration were identical to those of the Iraq War II, 2003. The two primary causes of war with Iraq, development of weapons of mass destruction and state sponsorship of terrorism, applied to Iran, especially during the period of 2006 to 2008. Also, a longstanding hostility toward the Islamic Republic led to the addition of regime change as a stated objective for the United States. The Bush administration was precluded from utilizing military force or a credible threat of doing so because of its overextension in Iraq and Afghanistan. We follow this historical review with an analysis of the current thaw in the US-Iranian Cold War, signified by the G5+1 nuclear agreement.
ISSN:0008-4697