Strategic culture and the Iraq war
Abstract
This research examines how different strategic cultural approaches explain the causes of the Iraq War,what the Iraq War states about strategic culture, and what the implications of both are for foreign policy and international relations. Different approaches to strategic culture were differentiated by how much explanatory power each approach gave to strategic culture. The five approaches include Cultural Determinists, Cultural Instrumentalists, Constructivists, the Johnston School, and the Conditionalists. The conditionalist approach, drawing on neoclassical realism, provides the best explanation for the war because it explains the precise relationship between norms and interests, and their respective roles as drivers among nationalistic conservatives, neoconservative norm entrepreneurs, and a presidential executive driven by both realist security calculations and the distorting effects of America's conditional normative ideals.^
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Keith L. Shimko, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Political Science, International Relations|Sociology, Public and Social Welfare|Military Studies
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