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2015 Svet Oleg 1146245 Ethe This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ RECIPIENT BEHAVIOUR IN SECURITY COOPERATION RELATIONSHIPS THE USE OF MILITARY ASSISTANCE IN THE EXPANSION OF THE IRAQI ARMED FORCES, 1968- 1990 Svet, Oleg Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 RECIPIENT BEHAVIOUR IN SECURITY COOPERATION RELATIONSHIPS THE USE OF MILITARY ASSISTANCE IN THE EXPANSION OF THE IRAQI ARMED FORCES, 1968-1990 Oleg Svet May 22, 2015 Total Word Count: 99,696 Page 1 of 355 Abstract This thesis examines how Baathist decision-makers expanded the Iraqi armed forces through security cooperation between 1968 and 1990. Current literature on military assistance looks primarily at supplier perspectives. When recipients are discussed, they are often portrayed as "satellites" of their military suppliers, who manipulate them into following policies which are detrimental to their national security and economic interests. This thesis questions this theoretical approach by looking at the growth of Iraqi military power between 1968 and 1990. Despite having a diminutive military force at the start of this period, during the 1980s Iraq emerged as the second largest military importer in the world and was able to defeat an adversary three times its size, Iran. By 1990 Iraq possessed the fourth largest military in the world. Earlier studies of Iraq's unprecedented military expansion were conducted before access to Baathist decision-making was available. Consequently, previous accounts focused on supplier policies (Smolansky, 1991; Timmerman, 1992; Jentleson, 1994). Contrary to such accounts, this thesis argues that the expansion of the Iraqi armed forces was the direct result of Baathist policies. Analysing newly available primary sources, including hundreds of high-level Iraqi government files obtained after the 2003 Gulf War, this thesis reveals the Baathist strategy for acquiring military power through security cooperation. It shows why Iraqi leaders were motivated to expand the armed forces in the first place; how they minimised supplier influence, mitigated defence dependence through diversification and indigenous production, and sustained high-levels of economic growth; and how they used foreign assistance to improve Iraqi military effectiveness. By bringing new details to light on Baathist-era Iraqi military imports policies, this thesis challenges conventional thinking regarding supplier-recipient dynamics and calls for further research into the study of recipient-supplier relationships. Page 2 of 355 CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 9 Literature Review: Contending Perspectives on Iraqi Military Imports, 1968-1990 ................... 13 Importance of Research ................................................................................................................ 22 Terms and Definitions................................................................................................................... 25 Scope and Methodology ............................................................................................................... 29 Structure ........................................................................................................................................ 35 CHAPTER TWO: CONTENDING PERSPECTIVES ON SECURITY COOPERATION .................................. 38 I. The Strategic Context ................................................................................................................ 42 II. Supplier Influence .................................................................................................................... 50 III. Recipient Counter-Dependence .............................................................................................. 58 IV. Economic Dimensions of Arms Transfers .............................................................................. 64 V. Military Impact of Arms Transfers .......................................................................................... 74 Limitations to Current Literature: Recipient Perspectives............................................................ 78 Page 3 of 355 CHAPTER THREE: THE STRATEGIC CONTEXT ................................................................................... 80 PART I: 1968-1980....................................................................................................................... 81 1. Threat Perceptions ............................................................................................................ 81 2. Foreign Military Presence ................................................................................................. 91 3. Military Balance of Power ................................................................................................ 96 PART II: 1980-1990 ................................................................................................................... 100 1. Threat Perceptions During the Iran-Iraq War ................................................................. 100 2. Foreign Military Presence ............................................................................................... 117 3. Military Balance of Power .............................................................................................. 120 Interpretation of Evidence, 1968-1990 ....................................................................................... 129 Threat Perceptions .............................................................................................................. 129 Foreign Military Basing and External Protection ............................................................... 131 Regional Military Balance of Power and Arms Races ....................................................... 135 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 137 CHAPTER FOUR: SUPPLIER INFLUENCE ........................................................................................ 139 PART I: 1968 - 1980................................................................................................................... 140 1. Foreign Policy ................................................................................................................. 140 2. Security Policy ................................................................................................................ 146 3. Internal Affairs ................................................................................................................ 151 Page 4 of 355 PART II: 1980-1990 ................................................................................................................... 154 1. Foreign Policy ................................................................................................................. 154 2. Security Policy ................................................................................................................ 156 3. Iraqi Internal Affairs ....................................................................................................... 158 Interpretation of Evidence, 1968-1990 ....................................................................................... 166 Iraqi Foreign Policy ............................................................................................................ 166 Iraqi Security Policy ........................................................................................................... 168 Iraqi Internal Affairs ........................................................................................................... 171 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................. 173 CHAPTER FIVE: RECIPIENT COUNTER-DEPENDENCE ..................................................................... 175 PART I: 1968 – 1980 .................................................................................................................. 176 1. Military Diversification .................................................................................................
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