An Explanation of Geopolitical Origins of Tension and Conflict between Iran and Iraq on the Basis of Hypothetica Model
Pages 1-29
Ribaz Ghorbaninezhad, mohammadreza hafeznia, zahra ahmadipour, abdolali ghavam
Abstract Historically, relations that are based on tension and conflict between spatial-political units in local, national, and regional perspectives can be cited as one of the oldest and most sustained aspects from the time man came to reign on the earth. Geopolitical and geographical values and factors have played a major role in helping tension and conflict to emerge between political units. As a country that appeared out of a combination of three Ottoman imperial states, Iraq has experienced a non-peaceful relationship with its neighbors due to its special natural and human geography attributes. A living example is its invasion of Iran and Kuwait in the second half of the twentieth Century. However, many of the tension- and conflict raising behaviors on the part of the Iraqi government can be said to have been originated from its geography and geopolitics. An inhomogeneous human structure from an ethnic and religious point of view, depending hydropolitically on the neighboring countries, having limited access to free waters in the Persian Gulf, different problems in exporting oil and gas, territorial claims to its neighbors...are only part of the geographical and geopolitical facts in the case of Iraq, which definitely affect the way the governing body acts in regulating relations with others. This research with an analytical-descriptive approach tries to explore and explain the geographical and geopolitical origins of tension and conflict in Iran-Iraq relations on the basis of the method that Peter Haggett called Hypothetico model using library sources.

