Decoding Iraqi geopolitical codes in attack to Iran (With emphasis on code of redisplay and geopolitical depiction)

پژوهش ‎های جغرافیای سیاسی

Article 2, Volume 1, Issue 4, January 2017, Pages 67-92   

Document Type: مقالات علمی -پژوهشی

DOI: 10.22067/pg.v1i4.56925

Authors

Seyed Hadi Zarghani^* ; Ebrahim Ahmadi

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Abstract

1- INTRODUCTION
Geopolitical code is considered as a set of political – geographical presumptions related to infrastructure of foreign policy of a country, so that any country has its various and exclusive codes and usually operationalizes these codes based on geopolitical weight and nature of its goals and exploits them. Supposed Iraqi codes in this paper are investigated based on mentality of Ba'ath government of Saddam rather than main goal of Iraqi state to attack Iran. Most considered Iran-Iraq war as the result of Saddam greed in Algerian treaty, but it seems border disputes on Arvand is not the only factor of conflict. Occurring revolution in Iran made condition that Saddam convinced others to accept his desired picture of Iranian revolution with the help of some western power and Arabian countries. So, using this excuse he can accompany Arabs with himself through stimulating nationalism sense of them. In fact, main goal of Saddam in attack Iran was to meet goals like being first regional power, seizing energy sources of khouzestan, entering to Persian Gulf through hegemony on Arvand (overcoming Iraqi geopolitical dilemmas). Mentioned cases are assessable in the frame of intended geopolitical codes of Saddam.
2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Geopolitical codes are operational agenda of foreign policy of a country - beyond its borders- that assesses geographical places. In geopolitical codes, a country determines its behavior towards the world – thereby, it considers five following issues:
1. Who are our potential and present allies?
2. Who are our potential and present enemies?
3. How we can keep our allies and make potential allies?
4. How we can confront with present and newfound enemies?
5. How we justify 4 above issues to our society and global society.
Geopolitical codes of any country are specifically for that country and they try to affect geopolitical codes of others to meet their interests and goals. In this regard, today redisplay (geopolitical depiction) under title of a geopolitical code is one of the powerful tools to reasonably manifest actions of foreign policy of governments. Thereby, geopolitics of display as an entity of a geopolitical code indicates enemy needs justifications (redisplays) to begin a war. In this case, enemies are displayed as wild or evil and their policies are manifested unreasonably. It means that they do not appreciate value of their political situation and the war is the only way to control “their unbridled” forms. It seems, it is necessary to identify geopolitical codes, since they act as a logical and justified base for actions of foreign policy.
3- METHODOLOGY
This research is based on descriptive – analytical in terms of nature and method. Information has been gathered in attributive method, referring to valid sources. Main question of this research is how we can assess the role of geopolitical codes of Iraq in attack Iran? Assumption of research is that questioned geopolitical codes by Saddam (as he intended) were one of the main reasons for Iraq and Ba'ath party to attack Iran. In this paper, first, codes of Iraq attack that have been operationalized by frightening from Iranian revolution (prerequisite of codes) indicate 3 main goals of Saddam, namely, being the first regional power, achieving energy sources of khouzestan, and entering to Persian Gulf through hegemony on Arvand (overcome on geopolitical dilemmas of Iraq).
4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION
Although disputes on Arvand is considered as the only factor of Iran-Iraq war, real geopolitical codes of Saddam to justify war were beyond them (1975 Algerian Agreement). Indeed, cases like geopolitical dilemmas of Iraq in access to sea (Persian Gulf) through absolute hegemony on Arvand, access to oil regions of south ( khouzestan ), being Umm al-Qura of Arabian world and the first regional power can be considered as the main goals of Saddam (his geopolitical codes) rather than excuse of 1975 Algerian Agreement. Many of observers believes that decision of Saddam Hussein was his personal calculative mistake based on ambition and feeling of vulnerability. Perhaps, it can be said, one of the reasons of misunderstandings of Saddam was his idealistic, myopic and deviated attitude in regard to policy of the region and the world. He did not know political realities and so, acted based on his ideals and ambitions (his mental presumptions) and finally, he was led toward false calculations and significant mistakes due to nature of his decision making. So, Saddam presumption on Iranian condition (domestic anarchy, collapse of army and weakness of military forces, international sanctions) was never occurred because it was dreams of Ba'ath party, Saddam and Arabian kings, rather than product of collective wisdom and correct interpretation of geography and geopolitical condition of Iran.

Keywords

Iran; Iraq; geopolitical codes; geopolitical depiction

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