Policy And Opinion In The Gulf War

The Persian Gulf crisis may well have been the most extensively polled episode in U.S. history as President Bush, his opponents, and even Saddam Hussein appealed to, and tried to influence, public opinion. As well documented as this phenomenon was, it remains largely unexplained. John Mueller provides an account of the complex relationship between American policy and public opinion during the Gulf crisis. Mueller analyzes key issues: the actual shallowness of public support for war; the effect of public opinion on the media (rather than the other way around); the use and misuse of polls by policy makers; the American popular focus on Hussein's ouster as a central purpose of the War; and the War's short-lived impact on voting. Of particular interest is Mueller's conclusion that Bush succeeded in leading the country to war by increasingly convincing the public that it was inevitable, rather than right or wise. Throughout, Mueller, author of War, Presidents, and Public Opinion, an analysis of public opinion during the Korean and Vietnam wars, places this analysis of the Gulf crisis in a broad political and military context, making comparisons to wars in Panama, Vietnam, Korea, and the Falklands, as well as to World War II and even the War of 1812. The book also collects nearly 300 tables charting public opinion through the Gulf crisis, making Policy and Opinion in the Gulf War an essential reference for anyone interested in recent American politics, foreign policy, public opinion, and survey research.

American politics and political economy series.

An extensive examination of post-war U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf and around the world by the U.S. House of Rep's. in a series of hearings. Covers: political issues; Iran, Israel, and Turkey; and Soviet policy in the Middle East. Witnesses from: the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Harvard Univ., Cornell Univ., Bookings Institution, Georgetown Univ., Rand Corp., Hebrew Univ. in Israel and more. Extensive appendices.

A young family enjoys all the traditions of Chinese New Year.

Master's Thesis from the year 2004 in the subject Sociology - Politics, Majorities, Minorities, grade: Distinction, The University of Western Ontario (Department of Sociology), language: English, abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to discover the extent to which governments possess the capacity to influence public opinion. It argues that the United States government initiated and directed a social control campaign during both the 1991 and 2003 wars with Iraq in order to mobilize public opinion in support of their foreign policy objectives. To this end, the United States government, in conjunction with powerful interest groups, is seen to possess the capacity to influence the content of the mass media in order to disseminate and promote justifications for war that contain emotion-provoking elements. During both wars, the justifications presented to the American public produced a negative emotional response to Saddam Hussein and in the process created a foreign threat that appeared to be immediate. It is concluded that these social control campaigns restricted the American public's access to reliable information, thereby obstructing their ability to participate in their nation's political process.

In these original essays, widely respected experts analyze the personal psychologies and public belief systems of the individuals and nations involved in the Gulf War - from George Bush and Saddam Hussein to the peoples of the United States, Israel, and Arab countries. Approaching the events of 1990-1991 from the perspectives of psychology, history, mass communications, and political science, these scholars examine the dynamic relationship of events, behavior, and perceptions. Part I deals with the psychological and political origins of the war; part II focuses on George Bush, Saddam Hussein, and the nature of their leadership and judgement; part III discusses the battle for public perceptions and beliefs waged by both sides; part IV analyzes the results of that battle as revealed by the understanding of the U.S., Israeli, and Arab publics; and part V deals with the war's consequences. A postscript by Stanley Renshon covers military actions in the Gulf in late 1992 and early 1993.

This study examines the foreign policy-making process of the Iraqi leadership during the 1990-1991 Second Gulf War. It analyzes and explains the sequence of decisions that the Baathist regime in Iraq enacted during the crisis and the conflict that followed its invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. A state-centric framework for the analysis of foreign policy behavior is devised and an investigation is made of the events leading up to the war. Iraq and the Second Gulf War provides the scholar, the policy-maker, and the student with a summary of research on the Gulf conflict and on the states of foreign policy analysis at the same time that it pinpoints alternative perspectives. A detailed day-to-day chronology of the Gulf war enhances the book's research value as does an extensive bibliography and index.