Gov 312L 1st EditionExam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 7Lecture 1: Intro to National Security and the Middle EastNational security can be considered almost anything in an argument.2 main concepts of National Security:1)Defensive- safety (SECURITY), the survival of the state and its people. Exemplified by John Quincy Adams.2)Offensive- the power to influence other countries. Exemplified by the Carter Doctrine.US used to have a very collaborative, close relationship with al Qaeda.During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the US armed and funded “Arab Afghans” to bog the Soviet Union down. Afterwards, the Arab Afghans formed al Qaeda and began looking for new targets, identified Us interests as a focus of their militant operations.Terms of clarification:Soviet Union ended in 1991.Al Qaeda= arab. Taliban = AfghanArab countries= Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, etc. NOT Iran or AfghanistanBlowback- refers to backlash against the US from an earlier covert operation. Focuses on problems that can arise from earlier successes.Lecture 2: Afghanistan under Soviet and American Wars: from Freedom Fighters to Operation Enduring1907- British and Russians establish modern Afghanistan borders. 1973 dictatorship1979- establishment of communist government by invading soviets.Afghanistan has several ethno linguistic groups. Largest is the PushtunsMountains run through the middle, separate northeast, southwest populations, reduces contactwith central gov. Thus local loyalties take precedence- local warlords have power.Afghanistan was seen as a battle ground for fending off communism.Zero-sum politics- countries can drastically misunderstand each other. US wanted to protect oil interests, Soviets wanted to prevent US from planting missiles.Under Soviets: Aghans resisted modernization (land reform, women’s education), failed to build army + develop more enlightened gov. Soviets rarely had control of more than 20% of Afghanistan.Turning point- Gorby called it off. New Leader Mohammed Najubullah attempts to liberalize andwas resisted. Taliban try to lead insurgency, take over capital. -Taliban- generic term for religious students from traditional Islamic schools of western Pakistan.Fought the soviet occupation. Received weapons and funding from Pakistan in order to fight in the 1990s to retake Afghanistan. US forces helped out the Taliban.Technical criticism: technique is wrong. presumes that the project overall is appropriate and feasible but there is some glitch.Political criticism: technique potentially wrong, but that is beside the point- project is overall flawed; goals are misguided and no amount of tinkering will deliver success.Lecture 3: The Creation of Modern Iraq*9/11 Hijackers were Arab, and not associated with the Taliban (from Afghanistan)Iraq had a historic dominance of Sunni elite over a Shia demographic majority. This lasted until the US occupation/civil war (~2003).Arabic states: Egypt, lebannon, Jordan, Syrian, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain.Non-Arab:Turkey, Israel, Iran. Only Israel is non-Muslim. Only Iran, Bahrain, Iraq have Shia majority, rest are Sunni majorityIraq has many significant ethnic (Arab/Kurd) and sectarian (Sunni/Shia) divisions.Islam: started with the prophet Muhammad. 5 pillars: testament of faith, prayer, fasting, charity,pilgrimage.->Sunni line- leadership:Muhammad->son-in law. Descendant based->Shia line- leadership went through 4 caliphs. Election/selection basedGlobally, Shias are the Muslim minority History of Iraq:Iraq was created from 3 Ottoman provinces (Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra). Shia has majority in the South, Kurds in the North, and Sunni have majority in the center. The wealth is in the North and South.1.British Mandate 1919-1932brought the 3 provinces together into a single state. Faisal/other Iraqi leaders negotiated treaty;Iraq officially became an independent state in 1932.2.Monarchy Period 1932-1958Sunnis were favored by the British, held a disproportionate number of positions. Also was a period of instability, w/ 3 kings and several unstable governments. Monarchy ended with a bloody military coup.3. Unstable Military Governments 1958-1968Period of coups and counter-coups4. Baath Regime 1968-2003Baath= “rebirth”, called for Arab unity. Led by Sunni Arabs, Hussein played a prominent role.5. Beginning of Saddam Hussein’s 20+ years of official rule as president.Lecture 4: Desert Shield and Desert Storm: Curing the Vietnam Syndrome with the Powell DoctrineUS involvement in VietnamCommunist leader Ho Chi Minh sought Vietnamese freedom from France. US supported s. Vietnam leader Diem, helps him win rigged pres. election.Lecture 5: neoconservatives and the decision to invade IraqWho are the neoconservatives?Leaders: William Kristol and Robert KaganNeoconservatives-want to bring freedom to backwards peoples/ advance American Ideals. Theywent from being old Democrats to new concervatives during the Vietnam war and the aftermath. Theyre the intellectual descendants of left-wing anti-stalinists. They broke with the Democratic Party in the 1970s (“Scoop Jackson Democrats”) Worked in Reagan and Bush Sr admin, were well-represented in upper ranks of Bush Jr admin.Scoop Jackson: favored a strong defense, and offense against the spread of communism and disained attempts at appeasements and compromise with the Soviet Union. Scoop Jackson Democrat= someone who joined the Republican party over defense issues.Rivals to advocates of traditional realist, interest based foreign policy (pragmatists)Three main planks: increased defense spending, increased support by citizenry, moral clarity(actively promoting American principles of governance abroad).Letter to Clinton: PNAC-project for a new American century. Calls for removal of saddam hussein’s regime from power.The internal debate:-assumed action would be taken, focused on what Iraq after Saddam would be like.-Lots of planning (even though this is not visible), followed by lots of political stalemate.Bush labels Iraq as Axis of Evil.Lecture 6: Plans of Change-Neoconservatives were pushing to remove Hussein from power before the Bush jr admin.- Two predominant arguments/theories proposed by the white house after 9/11: 1) Hussein was behind 9/11 attacksSources for the arguments- Curveball (drunkard chem eng who liked making up stories) al-Libi (was tortured till he corroborated the story) 2) Hussein wasn’t behind the attacks, but he