Iraq’s Complex Foreign Policy Conduct: Major Iraqi Communities, their divergent Interests and the Intervening Neighboring Countries (2004-2009)

Abstract: This study is analyzing the foreign relations of three major Iraqi communities, namely the Shia Arabs, the Kurds and Sunni Arabs. In order to properly characterize these communities’ external relations with neighboring countries, some of their foreign policy choices are examined at national and regional contexts. The issue of unresolved territorial disputes among the groups and ongoing security problems that are deeply affecting inter-group relations and their ties with the U.S.-led coalition forces are also discussed. Under the light of neoclassical realist assumptions, the role of external (regional and international levels) and domestic (national level) constraints on foreign threat assessments made by Iraqi state’s foreign policy makers are investigated in order to explain Iraq’s certain foreign policy making processes within the context of those major groups’ external connections and strategic orientations at national, regional and international politics.