Inventions of the Iran—Iraq War

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam

Published:

2019

Publisher:

Routledge

For many years historians of west Asian affairs have preferred to refer to a descriptive reading of international events in the region as if they were trying to define law-like causalities, unchangeable continua or inevitable facts to the multifarious transformations and diversity intrinsic to the 'Middle East.' A long-standing hypothesis put forward by cognitive and social psychologists claims that cultural constructs, such as norms, institutions, values, etc., are accessible to the extent that they have been activated and reified by previous knowledge. The effort to historicize Iraq's war campaign was not sudden or merely in response to the revolution in Iran, for it was not only power politics that propelled Saddam Hussein to demonize Persia. Research by 'social constructivists' in the discipline of international relations suggests that perceptions, representations of reality and identities are not constructed in isolation. The Gulf monarchies had reacted positively to the tactical moderation of Iraqi behavior.

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