WHY THE UNITED STATES TOOK THE LEAD IN FORMING THE ALLIED COALITION TO OUST IRAQ FROM KUWAIT IN THE 1991 GULF WAR
This paper explores the issue of why the United States took the lead in (a) forming the coalition and (b) leading the coalition in the military campaign to oust Iraq led by Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in the Gulf War of 1991. Within the context of this issue are such subsidiary issues that concerned why some other country did not take the lead and what the primary motivation of the United States was in taking the lead.
At the outset, it must be stated that few countries were capable of taking the lead. Two possibilities were economic powerhouses of the day ù Germany and Japan. There were sound reasons why neither took the lead, although both were willing to follow the lead of the United States. In the case of Germany, the countryÆs military redevelopment in 1991 was not at a level that would allow Germany to play a lead role in such an endeavor. Further, German reunification was the dominant concern to Germany at the time. In the case of Japan, the countryÆs post Second World War constitution prohibited hostile military actions in foreign countries. For the same reason, JapanÆs military capacity had not developed to a level that would allow Germany to play a lead role in such an endeavor (Miller and Yetiv 63).
Two further potential leadership candidates were Russia and the United Kingdom. First, Russia was still in the early stages of transforming itself from the Former Soviet Union (Miller and Yetiv 60). Second, the holdover policies of the Former Soviet Union and Russian commercial intercourse with Iraq muted any motivation for Russian to lead a coalition in military action against Iraq. Second, the United Kingdom had the motivation to lead a coalition to oust Iraq from Kuwait, but it lacked the military capacity to lead such a coalition (Bacevich 87).
Thus, the essential question devolves to the ...