SAFEGUARDING NATIONAL INTERESTS: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNITED STATES' STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT IN IRAQ (2014-2018)

Abstract

In 2014, during President Obama’s administration, there were serious attacks carried out by terrorist group ISIS in Iraq. These attacks brought destruction to the country stability as well as threatened the safety of Iraqi’s citizens. The United States as Iraq allies supported Iraq with military assistance and services. The effort shown was the U.S. commitment to Iraq as written in the content of Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA) signed by both countries’ leaders in 2008. This research aims to analyze the implementation of Strategic Framework Agreement as the United States strategy towards counterterrorism as well as how defending Iraq’s stability is also a tool to achieve U.S. national interests and foreign policy in Iraq within the time frame 2014 – 2018. This research explores the relations between U.S. – Iraq through the explanation of U.S. national interests, foreign policy, and the Middle East strategic environment also the implementation and the content of SFA as the symbol of both countries relations. This research has several main findings. First, the SFA was made in the end of President Bush administration, the comparison between President Obama and President Bush foreign policy is important because both of them have their own critical thinking, decisions making, and way to achieve U.S. national interests. Second, the involvement of major powers in countering terrorism is important, even though there will always be rivalry among these major powers, their country interests become the first thing they try to achieve. Furthermore, U.S. would not hesitate to use their military power as a tool to achieve their national interests. Even though President Obama is more likely to use soft power, for several issues the use of U.S. military power is inevitable. Lastly, SFA has shaped U.S. – Iraq goals, and played an important role in defending