Spain In Iraq: National Security Or International Solidarity?

A major terrorist attack shook the world in the 11 th of September in 2001: four airplanes were hijacked and aimed to the Twin Towers in New York,the Pentagon and the White House.This attack made the United States of America saw that their security was being challenged and realized that they were not anymore immune to the terrorist threat.The response the USA administration had to such attack was the formulation of a new policy called Global War on Terror whose main purpose was to put an end to the international terrorism.This foreign policy was based on the intervention in Afghanistan;country considered as the place the terrorists were hiding.In this plan another country was added: Iraq,as a consequence of the suspicion of the possession of weapons of mass destruction.This country,along with Iran and North Korea were considered by the USA as the axis of evil;countries whose governments were prone to foster and fund terrorism.Nevertheless,this policy was controversial;while the UN accepted the invasion of Afghanistan,their refused the one in Iraq and decided,on the contrary,to establish the resolution 1441.This resolution consisted of the investigation in Iraq to certify if the government was in possession of the claimed weapons of mass destructions;furthermore,the government had to complete some documents guaranteeing that the nuclear disarmament of the country was real.Nevertheless,the deadline to submit these documents was not clearly defined and even when they were successfully sent,the results did not like the American administration,who decided to invade Iraq anyway.In the context of Europe,Spain wrote the “carta de los ocho” including members of the European Union(United Kingdom,Denmark,Poland,Italy,Portugal,Hungry and Czech Republic)who believed that what the USA invasion was rightful.On the other side,there were countries like France and Germany,which constituted the “old Europe” and who decided not to join such intervention,being even against it.It was in 2003 when a summit in the Azores which summoned George W.Bush,Tony Blair and María José Aznar took place and some days afterwards the invasion was carried out without the approval of the United Nations.The population of Spain was also against such decision and some demonstrations were happening on the streets of the big cities.In this entire context,the question arising is what moved Spain to support the USA in Iraq? What are the reasons behind such controversial decision?The aim of this dissertation is to move away from the conventional ways of explaining such controversial decision,that movement in the Spanish foreign policy.The question this paper tries to answer is: Why did the government of Spain decided to join the USA in the GWOT in Iraq(2003),even though it was a controversial decision,having the majority of the population against it? And the supporting questions: To what extent non-state actors influence the foreign policy of Spain? And how was the foreign policy before the intervention in Iraq?In order to answer to it,the hypothesis that must be proved is the following one: An important consideration for the Spanish government to join the USA invasion of Iraq and thus modify its foreign policy was the perceived threat of the Basque secessionist group and the importance of USA's assistance in the struggle against them.Furthermore,the arguments that supports this hypothesis and that are developed in the dissertation are:-The struggle against ETA was a priority for the government.-This importance of the fight against ETA made Spain to reconsider its relations with other countries,getting closer to the USA.-The assistance provided by the government of USA to fight back the secessionist group was considered valuable.-There was a concern that the USA would withdraw the assistance if the government of Spain finally decided not to join their ally.Since this dissertation will use a qualitative method to prove the hypothesis,process tracing will be used and the sources have been books,scholar articles and official websites.To this,some interviews as well as newspapers must be added.Furthermore,the theory applied in this paper is a concept of foreign policy: the influence non-state actors have in the decisions of the government,in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy;in this case,just one type of the big spectrum of non-state actors will be analyzed: terrorism.The dissertation consists of five chapters,including introduction as the first one and conclusion as the last one,followed by the annex and bibliography.One of the chapters deals with one of the major foreign policies the USA took during this century and the chapter number two(The War on Terror)will do it.In one of their sections,the foreign policy of the GWOT will be explained: with the main points and developments.Since this dissertation focuses on the decision of Spain,there is one section which explains how the role of Spain in Iraq was and what was so far the foreign policy of the Hispanic government.This was an unusual turning point in the foreign policy of Spain if it is considered the fact that the main areas of the Spanish foreign policy has been others and the USA-Spain relationships were more in a background.While it is true that the USA has not been in the main focus of the foreign policy of Spain during many years,there was a moment during the dictatorship when the government of Franco decided to collaborate with the USA in exchange of some economic deals.However,the difference between these two moments will be explained.The hypothesis that this paper tries to prove includes the activity and influence of non-state actors in the government,that is why,chapter three aims to the explanation of the main non-state actor affecting policy in Spain during the term 1996-2004.In the first section of the third chapter,the history of the secessionist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is explained,the reasons which motivated its creation and the main goals(specially the independence of the Basque Country)it has.Moreover,there is a section where it will be analyzed who makes foreign policy in Spain and who took the decision of joining in the GWOT in Iraq 2003.How the system in Spain works,how it can be possible to have a King and a President and the functions the Congreso de los Diputados and the Senado have.With this,it can be understood,that the decision was taken by the government;established by the Spanish Constitution of 1978 and by the majority in the Congreso.The concept of non-state actors is explained in the last section of chapter three.There are many different of classifying non-state actors and the variety of them is extensive;nevertheless,this paper emphasizes terrorism: its techniques,methods,new challenges and how ETA can be considered as a terrorist organization.In the chapter four one of the aspects of the hypothesis will be studied;the help and support Spain got from the USA to fight ETA back.If the reason to redirect foreign policy is the influence of non-state actors,the compromise of the two countries to fight them is one of the reasons encouraging Spain to follow the USA in Iraq.Firstly,it must be presented why ETA was a main threat and why the government decided to set it as one of the priorities in the agenda;the distant relations with the neighbour countries,the increase in brutality of the terrorist group and the fast regeneration of the group were some of the reasons of it.Specially because this could be considered as a threat to the national security of the state: ETA tried to get one of the Autonomous Communities in Spain,breaking the centrality and integration of the country.The movement of foreign policy towards the USA made Spain perceive some assistance from part of the American administration.This assistance consisted mostly of intelligence,since the intelligence of Spain was not being effective in the fight against terrorism.Finally,some conclusions will be presented.