ABSTRACT
The Security Council, under strong pressure from the United States, gave the coalition permission to wage war if Saddam Hussein did not withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991. The centerpiece of US security policy was the Cold War. Just as security planners had fixated on the Soviet military threat while downplaying other dangers in the world, they fixated on the military threat posed by Saddam Hussein. One habit of US security policy since World War II, also evidenced during the Persian Gulf War, has been to emphasize winning violent conflicts over preventing them in the first place. Another habit of US security policy during the Cold War was unilateralism. A final habit of US security policy exhibited during both the Cold War and the Persian Gulf War was to exclude the American people and their elected representatives from the decision-making process. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
