Question

Use game theory to examine and explain

- the decisions that led the George W. Bush to invade Iraq in 2003.

Answer 1

Answer:

The American invasion of Iraq in 2003 had begun, according to the view of the American government and their allies, as a legitimate, defensive response to the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which the Saddam
Hussein government allegedly had in its arsenal. Saddam Hussein's government was immediately perceived as a threat and an affront to the international community in the wake the September 11, 2001 bombing of the world trade
centre. America has found a casus belli to go to war under the so-called “war on terrorism” slogan. According to the United States of America, there was a strong linkage between Saddam Hussein and international terrorism and the first priority of the United States government is to protect its citizens and its political and economic interests; its national security is always paramount. Also, the United States significantly supports democratic governments
around the world and the Baathist regime was seen as totalitarian and undemocratic. Consequently, regime change in Iraq became the U.S. priority and the only way to achieve that was through the use of force. The Iraqi regime was
a threat to the national security of America and America and its allies had to launch a pre-emptive strike at the heart of the Baathist outfit and remove the existential threat that it represented to America and the free world.
The United Nations (UN) was mandated to investigate the claims that Iraq was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. The inspectors were sent in but after months of investigation they could not find any Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. US intelligence was faulty since it proved that such Weapons of Mass Destruction did not exist. Kiernan viewed that legally; United Nations Security Council did not authorize the US invasion of Iraq. Just as the US invasion of Iraq was not propelled by an actual threat from weapons of mass destruction (Kiernan
2003). The research paper focuses on the U.S. decision to invade Iraq from three different analytical perspectives: realism, liberalism, and Marxist perspective in order to figure out the causes of the invasion decision. These three
international theories are integrated with four different level of analysis such as individual level, state level, systematic level, and socio-economic level. This research paper discusses the relevance of these three theories to the
causes of the Iraqi war and analyzes the U.S. decision to go to war. Also the paper discusses which perspective and level best explains this case better than other perspectives and levels.
With respect to realism, national security and power are essential. Liberalism, on the other hand, believes differences between democracies and non-democracies to be a fundamental cause of war. The Marxist perspective views the reason that attract U.S. to invade Iraq was consideration of having a new market and most importantly the desire to control oil resources.