| Summary: | This thesis examines the impact of state weakness on Iraqi foreign policy since the US invasion. Drawing on the concept of the social contract in political theory, this project seeks to untangle the relationship between state legitimacy, violence and foreign policy. In the aftermath of the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi state has undergone many forms of weakness. Each chapter of this dissertation deals with a qualitatively different moment in the trajectory of Iraqi state weakness and analyses the impact on the key foreign policies or relationships of that period. The limited research that has been conducted on post-invasion Iraq’s foreign relations has tended to portray Iraq as a passive victim of external interference. There have not been any comprehensive examinations of the way in which Iraq’s internal politics influence the activity of foreign powers in Iraq; nor of Iraq’s own foreign policy activity. The result is that little is understood about how post-invasion Iraq is positioning itself in a volatile regional environment. The literature on foreign policy analysis has a propensity to focus overwhelmingly on the role of great powers in the international system. Where small or weak states have been addressed, they are seen as merely responding to their vulnerable position in the hierarchy of powers. Drawing on recent work on the international relations of African states, this study introduces a new research agenda that seeks to understand the relationship between state weakness and foreign policy production.
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