ABSTRACT. This paper attempts to analyze geopolitical codes using qualitative content analysis. Analyzing such codes helps to reveal the political elite’s geo- political assumptions, which form a state’s foreign policy. This paper explains how the relationship between events and geopolitical codes could be interpreted by using qualitative content analysis method. It shows that this technique is researcher centric and how effective it is depends on the ability and skill of the researcher. A qual- itative content analysis is also important because, for analyzing geopolitical codes, the researcher needs to analyze and interpret presidential speeches and governmental documents as critical data. In this paper a case study is used to explain the process of analysis, including different stages of this technique. pp. 208–222

Keywords: the US geopolitical code, the Iraq War, the Persian Gulf’s oil, the qualitative content analysis method