How Spain’s International Status Was Enhanced After the Withdrawal of Its Troops From Iraq

Abstract

This paper researches how and why the decision to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq between March and April 2004 was taken. The new Spanish president, José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, took this decision in the period between the day after his electoral victory, on 14 March, and the day that his government took office, on 18 April. The decision was made possible by the previous work of informal diplomacy carried out by Zapatero’s future minister of defence, José Bono, and his future minister of foreign affairs, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, who were holding discreet contacts with several international leaders of the military coalition present at the time in Iraq. This fact had a strong impact on the prestige of the new government in the eyes of Spanish public opinion and on the strengthening of alliances with European countries opposed to the invasion. On the contrary, it brought Spain to have one of the worst relations periods of all times with the US administration.