Unilateral vs. multilateral approaches in US foreign policy: A case study of Iraq and Afghanistan war

Abstract

During US war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration vindicated its pre-emptive military strikes against Iraq and Afghanistan on the grounds of national security. The strike was carried out under the Bush administration’s National Security Strategy which asserts the right of the U.S to take unilateral military action against rogue states and terrorist organizations in order to prevent or to reduce an assumed attack by such groups or organizations against the United States. However, the action by the administration has been widely criticized as not being in conformity with international law, and United Nations’ Security Council resolutions. It has been investigated in this research paper that the hidden motive behind the attacks on these two countries was not merely the elimination of the terrorist groups and to stop their activities and to destroy the weapons of mass destruction but to capture the oil, gas, and other natural resources in order to sustain the fastest growing economy of the US and western countries. The present study will present a comparative analysis of the two approaches; unilateral and multilateral which were incorporated in U.S foreign policy with the special reference of Iraq and Afghanistan war.