For several hundred years, there has been a struggle for trade and power in the Persian Gulf in which Portuguese, English, Dutch, French, and Turks all participated as well as Arabs and Persians. However, to find the causes and effects of conflict in this area, nothing is more important than the two recent Gulf wars. Although, Iraq was the major participant in both wars, its policies during the second Gulf war were completely different from those in the time of the Iran-Iraq war. On the other hand, the policies of Iran during the second Gulf war which pitted Iraq against a U.S.-led coalition were not the same as they were when Iran was involved in a war with Iraq for eight years. These changes raise the following questions: (1) Were the underlying factors, regarding the conflict in the Persian Gulf, changed after the Iran-Iraq war? (2) If yes, what are the new factors? (3) If no, why have both Iran and Iraq changed their policies? (4) What are the present problems in the Persian Gulf region?
The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the determinants of conflict in the Persian Gulf during the two Gulf wars and to find proper answers for the above questions. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)