Cooperation and coercion: U.S. Strategies for coalition building in the First and Second Gulf Wars

This dissertation seeks to contribute to understanding the theories of military coalition formation. This U.S. foreign policy study will examine, compare, and contrast the formation of the First Gulf War (1991) and Second Gulf War (2003) coalitions to understand U.S. strategies in coalition building. This study will explain how and why U.S.-led coalition formation for the First Gulf War is different from the recent Iraq conflict. Specifically, the research question is how did U.S. military coalition strategies in the post-Cold War era change? By examining traditional military partnerships and alliances, economic incentives, and rhetoric by U.S. senior leaders (i.e., president and national security establishment), it will be shown how the strategy with which the U.S. forms coalitions changed.;The last eight years have seen the U.S. conduct its war on terror with mixed results. It has attempted to work with its allies and friends on an ad hoc basis using coalitions of the willing. However, unlike the strategy used in building the First Gulf War coalition, the legitimacy of recent coalitions has suffered from a lack of support from America's traditional allies and from the U.S. relying too much on its military dominance. The strategy used to build an international coalition for the Second Gulf War relied less on traditional allies and more on foreign assistance and fear-mongering rhetoric. The manner in which the U.S. builds coalitions now and in the future is an important research question to international relations. First, the current IR literature is woefully lacking in addressing military coalition formation. Second, this examination of coalition formation is important because the global war on terror will continue into the future. Finally, the examination of military coalition formation is important to the U.S. government, specifically to agencies such as the departments of state and defense. Acknowledging how coalitions have been formed could affect how traditional allies are approached, how future foreign assistance is used, and how rhetorical practices affect coalition building.