Foreign policy decision making by the elites of Iraq and Syria in the post Ba’athist period: a comparative analysis.

The Arab world is at the centre of global politics, serving as a region where the interests of major world powers intersect and new geopolitical realities take shape. The aim of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the mechanisms of foreign policy decision making in Iraq and Syria in the post Ba’athist period. Special attention is paid to the system of interrelationships among domestic political actors in Iraq and Syria and their links with regional and external powers. The article also contributes to the discussion on the evolution of political systems in the Arab world. The research methodology is based on an integrated approach that includes comparative analysis, foreign policy analysis, the foreign policy decision making approach, and elite theory. In Iraq, a decentralised system of governance emerged following the occupation period and internal wars. In Syria, meanwhile, the de facto partitioned state situation allows President, on the one hand, to attempt to establish a centralised system, but, on the other hand, prevents the unification of the state and the restoration of its territorial integrity in the medium term due to the lack of ethno confessional balance. The foreign policy of both the Iraqi elite and the new Syrian leadership was aimed at comprehensively restoring the country's position on the international stage while maintaining a balance between various priorities, and the government's primary goal in both cases was gaining legitimacy. In this paper, the author outlines the foreign policy priorities of Iraq and Syria in the new geopolitical context and identifies the factors influencing key foreign policy decisions.