CIST 4

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I apologise for how basic you may find these notes. we do citizenship as an extra with v.little contact time

Cist 4 case studies (section A)

Conflict

Conflict is a state of open, often prolonged fighting. It is a state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideas or interests.

In 1990 the first gulf war erupted. Saddam Husain, the Iraqi leader, and his government accused Kuwait of stealing Iraqi oil through the process of slant drilling. Iraq estimated that $2.4Billion worth of oil had been stolen from them , and further to this in not having total control over the exportation of oil from the region Iraq had little power to set high oil prices which would have increased their revenue. This gave cause for conflict in the Iraqi leaders mind.  As such Iraq, already $80Billion in debt to Kuwait following them borrowing money to fund the Iraq-Iran war, began to amass troops on the Iraqi Kuwait border which was seen by the international community, via satellites, as preparation for an invasion.

Conflict resolution

An Iraqi invasion, and victory in conquering Kuwait, would allow them to expunge their debt, and more so to seize control of the oil fields and thus control price. This had the potential to negatively affect the western economy, to which the price of oil was and still is influential.

On 2 August 1990 Iraq invaded its rival oil-exporting neighbour Kuwait. The invasion was widely condemned, and four days later the United Nations (UN) Security Council unanimously approved a trade embargo against Iraq. A blockade of Iraq’s access to the sea followed within weeks, as the United States assembled a large multinational task force in the Persian Gulf, while another was formed in Saudi Arabia. Up to 8000 Iraqi ships had been affected by an embargo placed on the nation by the international community and this economic sanction was used as to turn people against the regime and create discontent in that it severely affected the Iraqi economy which was based mainly upon the export of oil. Australia was one of the first nations to join the coalition force. Australian forces were deployed under the auspices of the UN. Three Australian warships conducted blockade operations in the Persian Gulf. Australia also provided a supply vessel, four medical teams and a mine clearance diving team that joined a protective screen, under US operational control, around aircraft-carrier battle groups in the Gulf.

In November 1990 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 678 thus setting 15th January 1991 as the deadline for an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. Iraq failed to comply, and on 17 January full-scale war erupted when coalition forces began an air bombardment of Iraqi targets. Mediation had succeeded only in persuading Saddam Husain that the west was unwilling to go to war and in this instance served little purpose. He believed that they only sought to act due to their vested interests in keeping oil prices low and as…

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