THE ROLE OF INTEREST GROUPS IN THE MAKING OF THE US FOREIGN POLICY : THE CASE OF US INTERVENTION IN IRAQ
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Date
2012
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Abstract
This work examines the extent to which interest groups in the United States are able to
influence decision making in the realm of foreign policy. Interest groups are largely
considered as the key connection between the citizens and the government which in turn
affects their activity as well as being affected with their pressure. The latter was
extensively noticed on the domestic area while ignored at the foreign one. The extent of
this incidence is subjected to various conditions, primarily, the nature and locus of the
decision making as well as political and international events. The present dissertation
provides a test to the power gained by interest groups and their ability to share foreign
policy outcomes in the contemporary period and highlights the decision to invade Iraq in
2003 as a case study in order to answer the question: To what extent did interest groups
influence the US decision to invade Iraq? The example of the American invasion of Iraq
reinforces and evidences the comprehensive view about the new relationship between
interest group activity and foreign policy and assesses the extent of the access provided
toward organized groups. To assess such an assumption the work investigates the different
circumstances that were behind the absence of these groups from sharing policy making at
different stages in relation to the American domestic and foreign policy changes. Within
the Iraq context, the work provides a contemporary assessment of the role played by the
Jewish lobby in the United States foreign policy toward Iraq. It further tests the extent to
which the Bush administration was subjected to external influence of interest groups on
the decision of such an invasion and it eventually concludes that the Iraq invasion of 2003
was the outcome of both interest group activation and other incidents.