Coercive Diplomacy: A Study of U.S. Policies towards Iraq (1990-2003)

Coercive diplomacy, as a non-military strategy, tries to deter the target country through persuasion. In this strategy, any attempt to use force in the framework of an all-out war means the failure of coercive diplomacy. This article tries to look at and analyze the results of the U.S. resort to coercive diplomacy to exert pressure on Iraq between 1990 and 2003. It will be argued that the U.S. strategy during the period under review lacked the necessary balance for success. This imbalance in the U.S. strategy, as argued in the paper, specifically refers to the inconsistency between goals and means in the coercer's strategy on the one hand, and, on the other, lack of mutuality of influence between the two sides. The U.S. military attack in March 2003 made the failure of coercive diplomacy towards Iraq abundantly clear.