Intelligence in decision-making and implementation process in foreign policy: The case of the USA and the 2003 Iraq War

In this study, the use of intelligence as a foreign policy tool and how it affects decision-making and policy-making processes in foreign policy will be explained. In order to explain the effects of intelligence on the foreign policy making process, the example of the 2003 Iraq War was chosen as a case. In the 2003 Iraq War, the post-Cold War period -especially in 1995 and after- although there were intelligence reports on terrorism directed at political decision makers in the USA, the intelligence analyzes produced could not reach the necessary results and the necessary results on terrorism could not be predicted according to the reports, in the first year of the George W. Bush government. It caused the September 11 attacks, which will go down in world history, to take place. This action, undertaken by the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, constitutes an important turning point for US foreign policy and intelligence. Considering the time period in which the thesis was concentrated, after the September 11 attacks, intelligence turned into a more effective tool in foreign policy, but in the process leading up to the 2003 Iraq War, discussions about using this tool in line with political motives started. The disagreement on weapons of mass destruction was tried to be based on the intelligence analyzes produced and a military operation was launched against Iraq in 2003. In line with this war, the use of intelligence as an effective tool in foreign policy decision-making and policy-making processes and its effects on a country's foreign policy emerge.