Several theories have been advanced by political commentators around
             the world about the real reasons behind the United States' war with Iraq.
             These include the Bush administration's "official" version[1] about
             preventing the "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (WMDs) from falling into the
             terrorists' hands, the supposed connection between Saddam and Al-Qaeda,
             liberation of Iraq from the clutches of a cruel tyrant, and the neo-
             conservative agenda of creating a "model democracy" in Iraq for the Arab
             world to follow. Although some of these reasons may be valid to an extent,
             the more plausible explanation for the US war in Iraq lies in the
             imperatives of globalization. This is because economics have always been
             and remain the driving force behind international relations. This paper
             looks at the current Iraq war from the perspective of the Globalism
             International Relations theory besides reviewing the historical background
             of the conflict and its possible outcomes.
             Historical Background of the Conflict
             Modern Iraq was created by the British colonialists out of three
             Ottoman provinces after the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World
             War I in 1918. A pro-British monarch was installed in the country to
             safeguard Western interests and to ensure that the Iraq Petroleum Company,
             which enjoyed monopoly control over the Iraqi oil industry, would be
             allowed to follow the cartel interests of the international Anglo-American
             oil companies. A nationalist coup in 1958 overthrew the pro-British
             monarch, throwing a spanner in the works by shifting the ideological
             policies of the country towards left leaning nationalism which was a threat
             to Western influence in Iraq. ("History of Oil in Iraq")
             Saddam Hussein, the hated tyrant who was declared the enemy # 1 by the
             US in later years was not always in the anti-American camp. In fact there
             is evidence to suggest th...