Iraq's Decisions to Go to War: 1980 and 1990

The incidence of two widespread wars in the early 1980s and 1990s continue to affect the developments in the Middle East and international relations for many years to come. The main question of the article is why Iraq decided to go to war with its neighbors in the early 1980s and 1990s. According to the author, security considerations have played a crucial part in the decisions made by the Iraqi leaders and other interpretations such as aggressive realism or economic crises are incapable of exploring and explaining the causes of the aforementioned wars. In other words, the driving force behind Saddam Hussein’s decision to go to war with Iran and Kuwait involved his belief in the alien forces’ efforts to destabilize the Iraqi Ba’ath regime. Saddam maintained that despite such efforts, Iraq enjoyed a good chance and capability to win the wars.