Abstract:This study aims to provide a comprehensive explanation of the causes of the Iran-Iraq War by bridging grand theories of conflict with the perspectives of political actors, military commanders, and scholars. It addresses a major gap in the existing literature, which is often characterized by single-factor explanations and limited theoretical integration. The research employs an integrated content analysis methodology combining deductive and inductive approaches. In the first stage, 19 universal causes of interstate conflict were extracted from major theories of conflict. In the second stage, 18 principal factors influencing the Iran-Iraq War were identified through the analysis of 87 sources, including political memoirs, interviews, and scholarly studies.



The findings indicate that the war resulted from the interaction of multiple factors operating at different levels of analysis. Individual ambitions and the expansionist orientation of the Ba'ath regime, regional power shifts following the Iranian Revolution, economic and geopolitical motivations, ideological confrontation, and external power rivalry all contributed to the outbreak of the conflict. Comparative analysis of Iranian, Iraqi, and Western perspectives reveals significant differences in emphasis; however, five factors consistently emerge across these perspectives: regional leadership ambitions, ideological confrontation, geopolitical constraints, external power rivalry, and the Ba'ath regime's perception of existential threat.

The study concludes that no single theory or narrative sufficiently explains the Iran-Iraq War. Instead, an integrated multi-level framework provides a more comprehensive understanding of the war beyond single-factor and purely descriptive explanations.