Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T15:43:21.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The Gulf War and the 1990s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

F. Gregory Gause, III
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
Get access

Summary

The Gulf War of 1990–91 was the world's first post-Cold War crisis. It appeared to open up the possibility for profound changes in the Persian Gulf region, as the United States, unconstrained by the fear of superpower confrontation, deployed massive force to the area and defeated a major regional power, Iraq, in a brief but intense war. However, after the Gulf War dust settled, not much had changed. Saddam Hussein was weakened and constrained by draconian international sanctions, but he still ruled Iraq (though Iraqi Kurdish areas secured de facto autonomy under American protection). His ambitious effort to redraw the regional map had failed. Kuwait remained an independent state; the regimes in the Gulf monarchies remained in power. The Islamic Republic of Iran gained relatively from the defeat of its Iraqi rival in terms of the regional power game, but could do little to turn that gain into a new position of regional leadership. Rather, and in contrast to its foreign policy in the 1980s, Tehran took a more moderate, diplomatic tack in its relations with its monarchical neighbors and refrained from adventures against a weakened Iraq.

The biggest strategic change, aside from the destruction of Iraq's offensive military capabilities, to come out of the war was the development of a permanent American military infrastructure in the Gulf monarchies. That military presence hardly translated into regional hegemony. Saddam Hussein remained an irritant to the United States throughout the 1990s. American influence in Iran was nil.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ryan, Curtis R., “Jordan and the Rise and Fall of the Arab Cooperation Council,” Middle East Journal, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Summer 1998), pp. 386–401.
Jentleson, Bruce W., With Friends Like These: Reagan, Bush and Saddam, 1982–1990 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1994), Chapters 2–4; quotes from NSD 26 taken from p. 94.Google Scholar
al-Bazzaz, Sa'd, Harb tulid ‘ukhra [One War Gives Birth to Another] (Amman, Jordan: Al-‘Ahliya lil-Nashr wa al-Tawzi’, 1993), pp. 27–36;Google Scholar
Al-Bazzaz, Sa'd, Al-janaralat ‘akhr man ya'lam [The Generals Are the Last to Know] (Amman, Jordan: Al-‘Ahliya lil-Nashr wa al-Tawzi’, 1996), pp. 47–55.Google Scholar
Viorst, Milton, Sandcastles: The Arabs in Search of the Modern World (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), pp. 340–41, 344Google Scholar
al-Jabbar, Falih Abd, “Roots of an Adventure: The Invasion of Kuwait – Iraqi Political Dynamics,” in Brittain, Victoria (ed.), The Gulf Between Us: The Gulf War and Beyond (London: Virago Press, 1991), p. 37.Google Scholar
al-Samara'i, Wafiq, Hatam al-bawaba al-sharqiya [The Destruction of the Eastern Gate] (Kuwait: Dar al-Qabas, 1997), p. 214.Google Scholar
Freedman, Lawrence and Karsh, Efraim, The Gulf Conflict 1990–1991: Diplomacy and War in the New World Order (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), Chapters 2–3;Google Scholar
Heikal, Mohamed, Illusions of Triumph: An Arab View of the Gulf War (London: Harper Collins, 1993), pp. 158–231;Google Scholar
Baram, Amatzia, “The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait: Decision-Making in Baghdad,” in Baram, Amatzia and Rubin, Barry (eds.), Iraq's Road to War (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993)Google Scholar
Jentleson, , With Friends Like These; and Zachary Karabell, “Backfire: US Policy Toward Iraq, 1988–2 August 1990,” Middle East Journal, Vol. 49, No. 1 (1995), pp. 28–47.
Baram, , “The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait,” p. 8
Tripp, Charles, A History of Iraq (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 249–50.
Tripp, , A History of Iraq, p. 250
Aburish, Said K., Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2000), p. 263.Google Scholar
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, pp. 29–30
Baram, Amatzia, “Neo-tribalism in Iraq: Saddam Hussein's Tribal Policies, 1991–1996,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1 (1997), pp. 5–6;
Baram, Amatzia, Building Toward Crisis: Saddam Hussein's Strategy for Survival, Policy Paper No. 47
Sifry, Micah L. and Cerf, Christopher (eds.), The Gulf War Reader (New York: Random House, 1991), pp. 123–24.
Baker, III James A., The Politics of Diplomacy (New York: G. P. Putnam's, 1995), p. 265Google Scholar
Heikal, , Illusions of Triumph, p. 159
Woodward, Bob, The Commanders (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), pp. 203–04Google Scholar
Sifry, and Cerf, , The Gulf War Reader, p. 123
Bengio, Ofra (ed.), Saddam Speaks on the Gulf Crisis: A Collection of Documents (Tel Aviv: Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, 1992), pp. 37–49
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, p. 45
Bengio, (ed.), Saddam Speaks on the Gulf Crisis, pp. 50–61
Al-Bazzaz, , Al-janaralat, pp. 227–28
Al-Bazzaz, , Al-janaralat, pp. 198–99
Heikal, , Illusions of Triumph, p. 209
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, p. 46
al-Ibrahim, Hassan Ali, Al-kuwayt: al-ghazu wa tajdid al-dhat al-wataniya [Kuwait: The Invasion and the Renewal of National Identity] (Kuwait: n.p., 1995), Chapter 2Google Scholar
Bengio, (ed.), Saddam Speaks on the Gulf Crisis, pp. 99–110
Al-Bazzaz, , Al-janaralat, pp. 73–74
Hamadi, Sa'dun, part of the Iraqi delegation, reported this to al-Bazzaz: Harb, pp. 83–84
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, pp. 60–61
Woodward, , The Commanders, pp. 207–08
Bush, George and Scowcroft, Brent, A World Transformed [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998], p. 317Google Scholar
Hiro, Dilip, Desert Shield to Desert Storm: The Second Gulf War (New York: Routledge, 1993), p. 118Google Scholar
Heikal, , Illusions of Triumph, pp. 308–11. Memoirs on the American side do not mention the Iraqi offer
Bush, and Scowcroft, , A World Transformed, p. 321
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, pp. 69–71
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, pp. 92–93
Freedman, Robert O (ed.), The Middle East After Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1993), pp. 219–20.
Freedman, (ed.), The Middle East after Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait, pp. 335–57
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, pp. 82–83, 352–54
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, Chapters 11, 19
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, Chapter 14 and pp. 211–12
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, p. 211
Bush, and Scowcroft, , A World Transformed, pp. 419, 446
Baker, , The Politics of Diplomacy, p. 364
Rosenthal, Andrew, “Confrontation in the Gulf: Public Opinion: Americans Don't Expect Short War,” New York Times, January 15, 1991
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, Chapter 19
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, Chapter 21
Sciolino, Elaine, “After the War: For US and Iran, a Chance for Ties,” New York Times, March 12, 1991
Freedman, and Karsh, , The Gulf Conflict, pp. 364–66
Cockburn, Andrew and Cockburn, Patrick, Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein (New York: Harper Collins, 1999), p. 15Google Scholar
Makiya, Kanan, Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising and the Arab World (New York: W. W. Norton, 1993), p. 59Google Scholar
Alfonsi, Christian, Circle in the Sand: Why We Went Back to Iraq (New York: Doubleday, 2006)Google Scholar
Graham-Brown, Sarah, Sanctioning Saddam: The Politics of Intervention in Iraq (London: I. B. Tauris, 1999), p. 29Google Scholar
McDowall, David, A Modern History of the Kurds (London: I. B. Tauris, 2000)Google Scholar
Ramad al-hurub: asrar ma ba'd harb al-khalij [The Ashes of Wars: Post-Gulf War Secrets] (Amman, Jordan: Dar al-Ahliya, 1995), pp. 273–81
Hiro, Dilip, Neighbors, Not Friends: Iraq and Iran After the Gulf Wars (London: Routledge, 2001), Chapter 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, Richard, The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Growing Crisis of Global Security (New York: Public Affairs, 2000)Google Scholar
The 9/11 Commission Report (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), p. 60
Clarke, Richard A, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror (New York: Free Press, 2004), pp. 112–21Google Scholar
Benjamin, Daniel and Simon, Steven, The Age of Sacred Terror (New York: Random House, 2002), pp. 224–25, 300–02Google Scholar
Marschall, Christin, Iran's Persian Gulf Policy: From Khomeini to Khatami (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003), pp. 100–42Google Scholar
Lesch, David (ed.), The United States and the Middle East: A Historical and Political Reassessment, 4th edn. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2007), pp. 325–26
Freedman, Robert O (ed.), The Middle East and the Peace Process: The Impact of the Oslo Accords (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998), pp. 242–50
Madam Secretary [New York: Miramax Books, 2003], p. 319)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×