Rethinking Iraq's Decision to Join the Baghdad Pact

English (OpenAlex)

ABSTRACT What motivated the Iraqi ruling elite to engage in the Baghdad Pact as a defensive alliance in the Middle East? Students of Iraqi politics often base Iraq's engagement in the pact on the provisions of the system structure, such as regional security needs against the USSR or willingness to use the pact as leverage in relations with Britain. While certainly relevant, these explanations fail to explain how such international systemic pressures were, in fact, filtered through Iraq's domestic balance of power and the role of wider power struggles in the decision‐making process. This study argues that when a state's domestic decision‐making environment affords strong structural autonomy to Foreign Policy Elites (FPE) and the international environment poses a threat to regime survival, its decision‐makers can construct foreign security policies by disregarding domestic opposition. Theoretically and via the Iraqi case, it shows how international and regional subsystem dynamics constrain or diversify the FPE's foreign policy choices.