The War in the Hegemonic Theories of International Relations: Reflection of the War of Occupation of Iraq in a Hegemonic Behavior View

The discovery of the causes of the war for a better understanding of it and, if possible, avoiding it, is one of the factors driving knowledge of international relations. Hegemonic behavior and hegemonic governments are the main source of hegemonic international relations theories for a better understanding of hegemonic wars, especially wars between the dominant hegemon and the challenging government calling for hegemony. In this regard, the main purpose of the present paper is to examine and criticize the hegemonic theories of international relations about the Iraq war in 2003 based on the hegemonic behavior or hegemonic governments, with an emphasis on the impact of US behavior as hegemony. The research method is library research and descriptive research. The research findings show that global hegemony, and in particular the United States hegemony, have two options because of the lack of a reference group of hegemons, where hegemony is fully, mutually and peacefully happens: first, hegemony can be exercised for the highest degree of dominance, authority, and leadership, through peaceful practices such as promoting new norms and exercising legitimate leadership based on standards accepted by others, or on a very different path in the traditional way of winning a major war or resorting to force in limited dimensions. Whenever the weight of the option of using force in hegemonic policies increases, the probable conditions of leading to war occur with a higher probability.