Hammurabi journal for studies

The Horn of Africa is considered one of the hotspots of conflict and international competition between the major powers due to its geostrategic location, and its transformation into a vital artery that represents the shortest and fastest path linking the East and the West. By its characteristics has made it, over time, a major axis over which the major powers compete and struggle to achieve their strategic interests and prevail. It is influenced by the rich waterways, straits, and coastlines it contains, in addition to being a route for the passage of energy of various kinds, in addition to the nature of the complex relationships of the countries overlooking it historically.

Iraq\'s foreign policy can be determined according to the elements of strength, resources, opportunities, and flexibility of movement of the political system, so that Iraq becomes able to employ the strengths it possesses and the need it represents for its neighbors to achieve the greatest amount of gains through correct perception and response based on the elements of action. So, this research will deal with the nature of Iraqi policy directions towards geographical countries, by researching Iraq’s foreign policy with each country separately and determining the nature of policy with each neighboring country according to the determinants of power.

The African continent has witnessed the emergence of many terrorist organizations that have worked to destabilize security and stability in most countries of the continent, taking advantage of the deteriorating security, political, economic and social conditions of most countries of the continent. This has led to the spread of these organizations in most countries of the continent, perhaps the most prominent of which are those that have appeared in West and East Africa, including: Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Mujahideen Youth Movement in Somalia. They were among the most widespread terrorist organizations that spread widely due to their military and logistical capabilities. These organizations were able to fuel conflicts in Africa, increase refugee rates, and recruit a large number of African youth to include them in their ranks, taking advantage of the situation, which both countries (Nigeria and Somalia) witnessed, leading to the weakness of their national governments and their inability to confront these organizations. Accordingly, their scope expanded to extend the neighboring African countries, making the phenomenon of terrorism in Africa a renewed phenomenon spreading in most of its countries in a way that may lead to the outbreak of a new war in Africa: the war on terrorism.

The process of achieving development emerges from the stages that sometimes represent many areas of challenges as it is linked to policies and government projects, and a number of internal and external obstacles associated with it, which rise to the level of challenge. The study of some development models represents an example for countries that have been able to overcome their internal challenges and obstacles placed on the path to development at the political, economic, environmental, health and scientific levels. Perhaps Vietnam is at the forefront of these countries that faced a large number of internal obstacles. These obstacles constituted the greatest indicator that when overcame to achieve the comprehensive development process in this country, as these challenges varied to (economic, social, cultural) challenges which together formed Prominent signs of progress in this country's development process.

Game theory is one of the modern methods of operations researches that can be used in making strategic decisions in cases and situations characterized by competition between international players, such that each party seeks to achieve its interest at the expense of the other party, and the decision maker here cannot control the variables affecting him/her under the situations and circumstances. Immediately, game theory aims to reach a specific strategy that achieves the interest of the decision maker. Here, each country tries to perform the best possible to obtain the best returns. The difficulty lies in that both competitors want to make their returns as best as possible, taking into account the reactions of the other competing parties. This theory is considered a means to consider the most exciting issues of security and conflict in the present and the future. Here the theory works to provide intellectual contributions in terms of analyzing and revealing the causes of conflict and the threat to security in many geographical regions of the world.

Political alliances in Iraq are the main driver of the political process, as they are the ones that result in governments, as they include most of the partisan and political forces. However, these alliances suffer from a state of political instability, as they are volatile and different in some of their details. However, the general framework of alliances is based on componential foundations according to Sectarian and national quotas are affected by internal and external factors, and political alliances affect the structure of the Iraqi political system. The role of legislative and executive institutions has been disrupted as a result of competition and political conflict, and this is reflected in the nature of providing services and achieving the public interest because alliances are concerned with their own interests, and it can be felt Through the five legislative sessions extending from the period 2006 to 2023, Iraq did not witness stability at various levels, whether political or social, including economic, services, and security, in addition to the absence of national sovereignty as a result of external, regional and international interference.

The Strait of Malacca is one of the waterways of strategic, political, and economic importance. This strait has an increasing importance to its neighboring countries. The Strait of Malacca is very important for China, especially in the field of energy supply security, as the vast majority of energy supplies come to China through this strait. China seeks to ensure its security, especially in light of the cooperation of countries that look forward to this strait as well as the United States, and what the United States may cause to China, as many of them are at war with China over the China Sea, not to mention the countries that overlook it. The importance of the research emerges from the basic idea that the strategic importance of the Strait of Malacca has become a source of controversy in relations between the United States and China. Therefore, the study examines the danger that could emerge from the complexity of the dispute between the two parties due to interference in the Strait of Malacca from both sides, and the extent of its impact on political and economic relations due to the connection of most countries in the world to the American and Chinese economies.

Taiwan is of great importance to China. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China indicates that Taiwan is "sacred land" for China. From Beijing's point of view, failure to reintegrate Taiwan into the motherland could affect the ability of the Chinese Communist Party to maintain legitimacy in China. With increasing nationalism, and the Chinese Communist Party’s view of its legitimacy based on promoting “a unified vision for China and the world: one China, one truth, one world, one dream,” the party cannot leave Taiwan with a future separate from it. Therefore, Taiwan is certainly a fundamental national interest of the People's Republic of China as long as the Chinese Communist Party monopolizes power.
Taiwan has occupied a lot of Chinese strategic thinking over the past decades, which has affected China in its foreign relations, especially regional ones. This effect has caused major problems for China at the level of its foreign policy, as it has become a place of competition.

The decision-making process in various fields and at different times is not an easy process at all. It is surrounded by many problems, even if they differed in terms of quality and time, or their differences are from one country to another and within the country itself. The field in which the decision is taken in order to address the problem is a subject of research to find the best solutions for it. So, it requires a set of assets and skills, and a lot of rationality and requirements, especially when the decision is related to one of the areas directly related to the security of the state, the individual, and the nature of the relationship between them on the basis of what is taken. So, the developed countries seek to surround it with a set of conditions, tools, and strategies in order to reach the specified goal of the existence of the decision in the first place.
The security decision is one of the most dangerous decisions and the most prejudicial to the survival of the state and determining the nature of the relationship between it and its members in terms of balance or not, which necessitated the availability of a set of skills for the decision-maker taking into account the circumstances surrounding the security problem because it does not tolerate risk, and personal judgments, especially in periods of crisis and emergencies that the state faces from time to time. So, the methods of taking it have varied according to the circumstances of each state and within the state itself among the institutions concerned with security, which in turn moved it from the traditional to the informational and its multidimensionality and inclusiveness in it. Accordingly, security decision-making is a science and an art at the same time, which forced states to giving it great importance in order to achieve the intended goal of taking it.

The economic crises that occur in any country directly affect the legitimacy of the political system. If the crisis continues, it also affects the legitimacy of the political system and its popular acceptance as is the case in Iraq, the crisis of approving the budget continues and is delayed as a result of political conflicts and the lack of agreement between the political blocs and the region’s share (Kurdistan region), the Sunni and Shiite blocs, have a major impact in delaying the approval of the budget, especially approving the budget for a period of three years, causing problems about reaching a decision about its approval. Accordingly, it causes the disruption of: services, industrial and electrical projects, employee salaries, the implementation of industrial projects, and large investments. If successive crises continue, it affects the legitimacy of the political system and thus may lead to the collapse of its legitimacy.

The United States of America did not arise like the rest of the nation-states. Rather, the roots of its formation go back to the flow of English and European immigration towards it, either because of political persecution, economic crises, or in search of wealth. This led to the formation of thirteen colonies belonging to the British crown.
The relationship between these thirteen colonies and their homeland, Britain, began to become tense, due to the English domination of the colonies and the imposition of taxes. This was accompanied by the emergence of democratic and liberal ideas, the basis of which were democratic practices in some settlements, initiated by the Virginia settlement, which was autonomous in managing its affairs without deviating politically from English subordination to serve as a model for the rest of the settlements. Revolutionary movements were launched demanding independence from Britain until they were able to obtain it and form a confederation. Yet that union faced many economic and political problems, which made the founding fathers try to find a system of government that would establish the unity of the states and prevent their separation from the union.
The Founding Fathers are influenced by their motherland, Britain, so, they tried to find a political system that was more like the English monarchy. They modernized it by combining the absolute monarchy with democracy to be an innovative system put by the framers of the United States Constitution that many countries adopted it.

Administrative centralization is considered successful in small countries that are characterized by unity of their geography and the nature of their population, which is of one ethnicity, as this system is able to address the needs of all types of the country. This system is also successful in a country whose population is characterized by political immaturity and cannot establish an autonomous region for governance. Local citizens in this system implement the general state policy and avoid waste.
It is noted that the centrally unified government is strong at the level of foreign relations, and in times of war, political interests are concentrated in the center, and the influence of the national spirit is the same, not weakened by sub-identities or local units. Centralism is characterized by flexibility, as the committee that draws up the constitution does not interfere with the regional divisions of the country or in the distribution of powers of government between the center and the administrative units because these matters are related to the internal organization and are decided by the government itself. The strength of the government lies in the absence of a state of conflict over authority, confusion in responsibility, duplication of work, or the occurrence of a state of overlap between competencies and powers.
One of the most prominent disadvantages of this system is its loss of local self-rule. The problem here lies in the fact that the central government is far from the needs of the people, and this leads to a clear deficiency in local interests, as all decisions are placed on government employees in the center who are burdened with work. This also leads to a fact that all decisions taken are without evaluation of local conditions, and those in charge of implementing the center’s decisions have no understanding of the desires of the region. Thus, it is noted that the central system does not pay attention to the people and their public interests, strengthening the central bureaucracy. This indicates that this system cannot be applied on mature people, who politically believe in freedom and democracy. As for the decentralized system, it is noticed that Iraq after the change followed decentralization in administration because it suffered from the bad consequences before the change to the system of administrative subordination. There are successful experiences that Iraq emulated, such as the American experience and other countries that achieved a qualitative leap in the level of management of their public facilities. Here, it must be noted that the disengagement and similarity between them is not to be confused, as many countries in the southern world operate according to a system of administrative centralization, such as the Syrian and Egyptian regimes, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iraq previously, as the capital holds and controls all joints of the state, and this is what puts the people in a state of disapproval of these political systems. As for the decentralized administrative system, it is noted that most of the countries in the global North operate with it and it has proven successful in delivering the services and needs of the local population to the center. Most countries in the global south are now changing their old systems. An example of this is Iraq, where the system of administrative decentralization was implemented after 2003 to get rid of the intense concentration in administration, curb public freedoms, neglect local facilities, and prevent people from participating in administration and governance

Security is the basic pillar of states, as it is not possible to imagine any progress in any field far from achieving security, whether it is at the internal level, or at the external level. With the emergence of the information revolution, information security, cybersecurity as a new variable on the national state and its security, cybersecurity has become a pillar of sustainable development, and thus an added value to the digital governance of each country. There is no doubt that there is a great disparity in the capabilities of countries to keep pace with this change. It is certain that developed countries have made great strides in this field with the amount of experience, accumulation, and institutional building, on the other hand, the other, less advanced, countries still suffer from many breakthroughs.

Community leaders across Syria are working to put in place the necessary measures and mechanisms to address the effects of the conflict and prevent violence. They negotiate cease-fires and truces، work to secure the release of prisoners, exchange and hand over corpses to their families, intermediate local disputes, and work to preserve intercommunal relations by promoting coexistence among different ethnic and religious groups. Community leaders have the ability to mobilize local communities to rally around the solutions of local peace processes, on the basis of the legitimacy they enjoy in their local communities. This research tries to study the most important possible mechanisms for establishing and building peace in Syria.

The current Tunisian experience is related to the various stages of transition that the country has witnessed since the change of the Tunisian political system on the fourteenth of January 2011, whether in the preliminary stage of change, the subsequent transitional stage, or the post-transitional stage. It is characterized by the lack of clarity of development policies and the failure to give regional development its due importance or priority in order to advance the social and economic reality of the members of Tunisian society, achieve distributive justice, create a system of democratic checks and balances, as well as establish the principle of distinguishing between the inland and coastal actors and excluding them from participation and the decision-making process in the country’s public policies. This is what created the nature of economic imbalances which most of the country's population has suffered from. The state is a legal entity that works to achieve its interests through decision makers who are in control by determining the priority of political interests and goals according to their perceptions.

China is one of the developed countries that has achieved great growth rates, which has made it a country with a distinct place in the international system because of its power capabilities that have contributed to its development and to be the country that it is today. It has employed military power to create an international environment that leads to its continued ascent and transformation into a superpower in the international system to secure its interests, whether regional or international. Also, it seeks to develop its economic capacity clearly, as well as its pursuit of its strategic goals through its foreign policy towards the countries of the geographical neighborhood ,and regional and international surroundings .