Realism: The Cause Of The War In Iraq

In 2003 the United States was ran under the administration of George W. Bush. During his term there was an invasion of Iraq initiated due to a security threat posed by Iraq, with the intent to eliminate these so call weapons of mass destruction that Iraq threatened to use against us, as well as ensuring that there will be a stable oil supply in the west (Mingst 2014,100). Realist see the international system as anarchic, where there is no authority that can stop them, since realism focuses a lot on how power in distributed its safe to say that the theory of realism best explains the cause of war. Realism is defined as a theory of international relations that emphasizes states interest in accumulating power to ensure security in an anarchic

Realism theory best explains the cause of the war in Iraq in 2003 because realists believe choosing war may be the best choice in order to be safe or avoid a security dilemma and prevent a security threat. For realist, the security of their state is highly important. It is obvious that not all realist agreed with the United States and their policy to go to war over these threats, both John Mearshimer and Stephen Walt; who are both realist feel as if Bush shouldn’t have went forward with the war (Mingst 2014,100). George W. Bush felt threatened by Saddam Hussein because he knew that just two years prior to this was the unforgettable September 11th terrorist attack. Since its obvious that these international countries such as Iraq have no distinct offices of authority then what could’ve stopped the use of weapons of mass destruction were to actually be more then just a threat. Bush and his administration would be smart to assume that Iraq would attack full force, so in order to prevent the absolute worst which could’ve resulted in more then thousands of deaths from both countries, Bush took the initiative to attack first to eliminate proliferation and the WMD threat (Mingst 2014, 101). It is very clear that Bush wanted everyone to think that he had the United States in his best interest when he decided to invade Iraq. John Mearshimer, who is a realist, stated that the United States deterrence had worked in the past and says it could’ve continued to work. Besides September 11th; the realist George W. Bush paid attention to how Saddam has had successful past with threats to others with weapons. This left Bush with a gut feeling that there is nothing that would hold Saddam back from doing it again and this is