This paper mainly focuses on the Iraq crisis that occurred as a result of the American in-tervention in 2003. Based on the theoretical reflexion of realism as the prevailing ap-proach to the analysis of international affairs, it tries to demonstrate how US interests turned the course of international political relations to their own advantage, disregarding other participants in the international context.
The first part of the paper presents the realistic theory of international relations and de-fines intervention. It goes on to explain the US interests that played an important role in conducting foreign affairs towards Iraq and propaganda as their means of presentation. Through an analysis of the legal framework, the dilemma of legality and legitimacy sur-rounding the Iraq crisis is presented. The first part concludes with an in-depth analysis of media coverage before, during and after the crisis. This analysis shows how influential figures of American politics, who controlled the media, manipulated the public to support the war. With the compilation method, we demonstrated how US actions in the war with Iraq can be understood from a realistic perspective.
The paper determines that, fighting for the control over Iraqi sources (oil, market and geostrategic position) and trying to maximise their power, the USA violated universal moral and legal rules without consequences. They chose propaganda as a means to pro-mote their own interests in the public. The propaganda was broadcast in the media, skil-fully controlled by the American political elite.
The realistic theory is still relevant in examining contemporary international affairs; using the balance of power mechanism, it explains the most efficiently the actions and motiva-tion of countries to violate international peace. As data on military operations usually remain hidden decades after their termination, the Iraq crisis needs to be discussed from a newer, more comprehensive perspective.
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