The politics of Iraq War within the context of the debates on hegemony and empire

The main argument of the thesis is that some important changes in the world order which were occured during globalization are the principal causes of the Iraq War. Europe?s search for independence from the U.S., rise of the new powers from the periphery like China and new governance architecture shaped by transnationalization processes are among these important changes. The historical bloc which came to power in the U.S., after the elections of 2000, tried to centralize world order around the American state by controlling the Middle Eastern oil sources. In this thesis I use theoretical frameworks of Robert W. Cox and other members of the neo-Gramscian school. A Braudelian perspective on history and the concept of "social time" constitute other important parts of the theoretical framework of the thesis. In the second part of the thesis, firstly, I historisize the concepts of imperialism, hegemony and empire as main ontological images of certain historical conjunctures and then analyze the longue duree of Iraq war through those successive world orders. In the third part of the thesis, I discuss dynamics of change in the world order which were behind the invasion decision of ruling historical bloc. And then, two main constituents of historical bloc, Christian Right and Neoconservatives are analyzed from a perspective which emphasizes the interaction between ideas and material conditions. Lastly, I discuss the formation processes of historical bloc and Iraq War.