Unraveling Iraq-Iran Relations during Turbulent Period (1958-1988): Regime Security Concern in Foreign Policy

Year 2022, Volume: 17 Issue: 2, 327 - 344, 01.08.2022

Ahmet Üçağaç , Rıdvan Kalaycı , Mustafa Yetim

Abstract

Foreign policy is traditionally an important tool for states to protect their sovereignty and national-regime security. Therefore, the main objective of any state’s foreign policy is to ensure its sovereignty and national-regime security and to realize its regional and international interests. However, foreign policy is a process where both internal factors and external factors interact and shape the preferences and the outcomes of the ruling cadres. Especially, in non-democratic countries where state security is equivalent to the maintenance of regime survival, the internal political calculations of ruling elites dominate the foreign policy. In this context, this article will revisit Iraq-Iran relations between 1958 and 1988 to display the determinant weight of the regime security concerns on the decision-making process. Theoretically, this article will attempt to make a modest contribution to the regional studies which dispute and refuse the outside-inside separation on the formulation of foreign policy with the regime security approach which draws largely on the arguments and the concepts advanced by Neoclassical realist studies. the regime security approach which is.

Keywords

Iran, Iraq, Regime Security, Foreign Policy, National Security

Çalkantılı Bir Dönemde (1958-1988) Irak-İran İlişkilerinin Çözümlenmesi: Dış Politikada Rejim Güvenliği Endişesi

Abstract

Dış politika geleneksel olarak devletlerin egemenliklerini ve ulusal güvenliklerini korumaları için önemli bir araçtır. Bu nedenle, herhangi bir devletin dış politikasının temel amacı, egemenliğini ve ulusal güvenliğini sağlamak, bölgesel ve uluslararası çıkarlarını gerçekleştirmektir. Ancak dış politika hem iç faktörlerin hem de dış faktörlerin etkileşim halinde olduğu ve yönetici kadroların tercihlerini ve sonuçlarını şekillendirdiği bir süreçtir. Özellikle devlet güvenliğinin rejimin bekasının sürdürülmesine eşdeğer olduğu demokratik olmayan ülkelerde, yönetici seçkinlerin iç siyasi hesapları dış politikaya hakimdir. Bu bağlamda, bu makale, 1958 ve 1988 yılları arasındaki Irak-İran ilişkilerini yeniden gözden geçirecek ve rejim güvenliği endişelerinin karar alma süreci üzerindeki belirleyici ağırlığını ortaya koyacaktır. Teorik olarak bu makale, Neoklasik realist çalışmaların sunduğu argümanlardan ve kavramlardan faydalanan rejim güvenliği yaklaşımı ile dış politikanın formülasyonunda dış-iç ayrımına karşı çıkan ve sorunsallaştıran bölgesel çalışmalara mütevazı bir katkı yapmaya çalışacaktır.

Keywords

İran, Irak, Rejim Güvenliği, Dış Politika, Ulusal Çıkar.

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