Abstract:
This study examines the relationship between public opinion and American foreign policy towards Iraq since August 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait and the subsequent US and coalition war to force an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait, until December 2011, when the American troops left Iraq. Specifically, this study attempts to provide answers to how much congruence there was between public opinion and American foreign policy in Iraq, and what factors and variables affected this relationship. To answer these questions this study uses secondary analysis as a major method and trend analysis as a minor method. This study analyzed a sample, obtained from the Archive of Roper Public Opinion Research Center at the University of Connecticut, of the most frequent questions about Iraq (14777 questions) and compared public attitudes towards American policies with the resulting policies. Results show that public opinion was not a decisive factor or a significant variable in determining the American Foreign Policy in Iraq. On the contrary, public opinion in most cases followed the position of the administration; partisan loyalty and the process of policy making have little influence on determining the direction of this relationship.
