e Nazis in the Germany of the 1930s and 1940s; however, Amer icans have justified their own wars right down through Viet Nam, along with the actions of seemingly countless American surrogates, such as the Contras and the Israelis, in Nietzchest terms. Iraq, too, thought that it had a just cause for war against Iran.
At any given time, a number of politically independent states find themselves engaged in bilateral conflicts with other politically independent states. These bilateral con flicts may range from political demonstrations in one country against the other to full scale armed conflict.
Some observers think that many of these bliateral con flicts, regardless of their manifestations, are the product of domestic politics more than they are the product of legitimate international disputes. Contemporary political theoreticianstend to view many such foreign policy intiatives in the context of linkages, which are defined as an recurrent political behav iors that originate in one political system, and are reacted to in another political system (Rosenau, 1980). When viewed in the context of linkages, foreign policy initiatives may be viewed as either inputs or outputs, and as either environmental or polity in underlying character (Rosenau, 1980). Expanding the analytical framework, foreign policy initiatives may be further viewed as being either adaptive or maladaptive, within the context of essential structures and acceptable limits (Rosenau, 1981). Viewed from the perspective of the theory of linkages, a foreign policy initiative may be assessed quite differently from the way it would be assessed when interpreted as being an action based solely upon a country's international interests. Within this context, Iran's attempt to turn Iraq's Shi'a majority against the iraqui government may be viewed as an action taken in the interest of some domestic factor within Iran. Nevertheless, the action was perceived as suffici...