Essay: Analysis of Mearsheimer & Walt on International Terrorism

This essay reviews the article "An Unnecessary War" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, which examines the US decision to invade Iraq in 2003. The essay summarizes the authors' central argument that the war was unnecessary, focusing on the context of the post-9/11 world and the strategic implications of deterring Saddam Hussein. The article's analysis encompasses the historical backdrop of the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War, and the theoretical framework of strategic nuclear deterrence. The review highlights the authors' critique of the Bush administration's foreign policy and the potential for miscommunication between the US and Iraq. The essay also discusses the limitations of the article, particularly its failure to fully account for Saddam Hussein's behavior. The essay uses conflict theory to analyze the situation and emphasizes the article's contribution to understanding the geopolitics surrounding the Iraq War and its impact on US foreign policy.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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John Mearsheimer and Stephen M Walt, “An Unnecessary War,” Foreign Policy, 134
(2003), 50-59
The article “An Unnecessary War” was published in the year 2003, and took over
widespread debate among various nations as well as worldwide (Walt & Mearsheimer, 2003).
The thesis point of the article is the dilemma faced by United States, when Saddam Hussain
failed to acknowledge and support Bush Administration. The objective of the article is to
exemplify the time when Saddam Hussain was leading two wars, the 1980 “Iran Iraq War”,
and “Gulf war in 1990”. As this time show the strategies applied in the disastrous wars, as
well as the insight of the political state at the time of Iraq invasion in the year
2003(O'Callaghan, 2015).
The main theoretical framework of this article was “Strategic Nuclear
Deterrence”suggests the conflict between Saddam Hussain and Iraq, as Saddam Hussain was
considered to one of the most powerful person possessing “Weapon of Mass Destruction
(WMD)”, his continuous involvement in wars with nuclear weapons threatened the United
States, and stating him to be careless and cruel. There was also a belief lingering among the
U.S people, that Saddam should be deterred as he was in possession of WMD, which led to
the sudden invasion of U.S army to deter Saddam. The main focal point was the strategies of
United States to deter Saddam Hussain as to prevent him from attacking United States
(Ibrahim, 2015). Many authors have stated numerous arguments, but the central argument, is
that United Nations invasion to Iraq was unnecessary and costly, which can hamper the
relationship with other nations. On the other hand, much authors have debated that foreseeing
the history of Saddam Hussein in two historic wars, deterrence will be a vague option, as it
will not make him surrender. Therefore, a threat of war cannot compel him to appear for
weapon inspection.
Another factor that the authors were focusing on is Saddan Hussain ruled for over 30
years, but instigated two wars “Iran Iraq War” in the year 1980-88 and “Gulf War” 1990-91.
The use of nuclear missiles and deadly weapons, there were no harmful chemical, but his
actions were heinous and reckless which endangered the safety of many countries especially
United States. Another question was continuously surrounding the tension between U.S and
Iran, is that whether Saddam was a serial aggressor? According to Kenneth Pollack, former
director of “National Security Council”, he was the worse ruler of Iran, than the neighbouring
states Egypt and Israel, who became reasons for starting great wars. Therefore, Saddam
Hussein was considered a serial aggressor due to his reckless behaviour and involvement in

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two wars, “Iran Iraq War” in the year 1980-88 and “Gulf War” 1990-91. The hypothesis is
that, Saddam Husain and Iraq were quite weaker than United States, and has similar thinking
while declaring a war as like it will be costly and it could possess more threat to Iraq.
Therefore, the central concept is the Conflict theory, which previously was a study done in
social research and studies about conflicts (Cimbala 2019). In the recent times, the conflict
theory surrounds the concept of studying the conflicting nature of people, just like Saddam
Hussein.
The main argument, which gives validation to the article, is the authors debating by
on the issues related to post 9/11 incidents (Harunoglu, 2016). Therefore, it was eventually
extracted that the United States did not have any strategic way for making Saddam Hussain
deter and make him surrender to the inspection of Weapon to bush administration. The
authors have well presented this article, by giving an insight of the Global war situation and
political state.
While concluding the article, it can be mentioned that the authors have retaliated
great insights about the Iraq war. However, a particular thing that the authors failed to
understand, is the humanly behaviour of Saddam Husain in the wars where he deliberately
did not use arsenic weapons even after staying in a possession of WMD. The article portrays
the hatred and miscommunication Iraq and United States has for each other, and the dilemma
United States faced while planning to invade Iraq. The title of the article “An Unnecessary
War”, has thus well aligned as the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and declared war,
without much strategic thinking and planning. It can be stated that the article “An
unnecessary war”, made an important place in history as well as literature by portraying vivid
critiques about the geopolitics including 9/11 attack, Iran Iraq war, Gulf war and the
fluctuating U.S foreign policy(Kostagiannis 2018).

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References
Cimbala, S.J. ed., 2019. Conflict Termination and Military Strategy: Coercion, Persuasion,
and War. Routledge.
Harunoglu, N. C. (2016). ‘Order’and ‘Justice’in World Politics: A Retrospective Analysis of
the Gulf Crisis (1990-1) and the War in Iraq (2003) from Hedley Bull’s Perspective.
Ibrahim, R. A. (2015). The Environmental Crisis of the 2003 Iraq War: A Moral Obligation
or a Mandatory Measure Under International Treaties. In CUNY L. Rev. Footnote
Forum (Vol. 19, p. 14).
Kostagiannis, K., 2018. Nationalism and the Nation-State in Structural Realism: John
Mearsheimer’s Offensive Realism. In Realist Thought and the Nation-State (pp. 139-
175). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
O'Callaghan, R. (2015). Walzer, Just War and Iraq: Ethics as Response. Routledge.
Walt, S. M., & Mearsheimer, J. J. (2003). An unnecessary war. Foreign Policy, 134, 50-59.