国际关系国际政治Foreign Policy.pptVIP

Case Study: the Gulf War From the RAM model The US perceived itself as having vital national interests in the Persian Gulf The oil factor (and Saudi Arabia) “fashioning a new era” (the post-cold war period) It faced an intransigent Iraq regime, and over time believed that the costs of waiting for sanctions to work increasingly exceeded the benefits. Also taking into consideration Iraq’s behaviour in the crisis, and its continuing threat to Kuwait The US clearly had significant interests at stake and, seemingly, a range of policy options were tried (and failed): in this scenario, war seemed