This essay examines the reasons behind the 1990 war between Iraq and the United States. It employs world-systems theory and a modified concept of hegemony to present this hostility as an outcome of the historical relationship between dominant core nations and those states in the periphery and semiperiphery of the Middle East. The decline of Egypt and Iran created space for Iraq to further its ambitions as a regional power, but one unconstrained by standard inter-state practices. The U.S. reacted as a global superpower, but in the process, undermined its unique hegemonic status.
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