Sectarianism in Iraq

Sectarianism in Iraq PDF Author: Khalil Osman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317674871
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
This book links sectarianism in Iraq to the failure of the modern nation-state to resolve tensions between sectarian identities and concepts of unified statehood and uniform citizenry. After a theoretical excursus that recasts the notion of primordial identity as a socially constructed reality, the author sets out to explain the persistence of sectarian affiliations in Iraq since its creation following the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. Despite the adoption of homogenizing state policies, the uneven sectarian composition of the ruling elites nurtured feelings of political exclusion among marginalized sectarian groups, the Shicites before 2003 and the Sunnis in the post-2003 period. The book then examines how communal discourses in the educational curriculum provoked masked forms of resistance that sharpened sectarian consciousness. Tracing how the anti-Persian streak in the nation-state’s Pan-Arab ideology, which camouflaged anti-Shicism, undermined Iraq’s national integration project, Sectarianism in Iraq delves into the country’s slide from a totalizing Pan-Arab ideology in the pre-2003 period toward the atomistic impulse of the federalist debate in the post-2003 period. Employing extensive fieldwork, this book sheds light on the dynamics of political life in post-Saddam Iraq and is essential reading for Iraqi and Middle East specialists, as well as those interested in understanding the current heightening of sectarian Sunni-Shicite tensions in the Middle East.

Sectarianism in Iraq

Sectarianism in Iraq PDF Author: Khalil Osman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317674871
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 359

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book links sectarianism in Iraq to the failure of the modern nation-state to resolve tensions between sectarian identities and concepts of unified statehood and uniform citizenry. After a theoretical excursus that recasts the notion of primordial identity as a socially constructed reality, the author sets out to explain the persistence of sectarian affiliations in Iraq since its creation following the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. Despite the adoption of homogenizing state policies, the uneven sectarian composition of the ruling elites nurtured feelings of political exclusion among marginalized sectarian groups, the Shicites before 2003 and the Sunnis in the post-2003 period. The book then examines how communal discourses in the educational curriculum provoked masked forms of resistance that sharpened sectarian consciousness. Tracing how the anti-Persian streak in the nation-state’s Pan-Arab ideology, which camouflaged anti-Shicism, undermined Iraq’s national integration project, Sectarianism in Iraq delves into the country’s slide from a totalizing Pan-Arab ideology in the pre-2003 period toward the atomistic impulse of the federalist debate in the post-2003 period. Employing extensive fieldwork, this book sheds light on the dynamics of political life in post-Saddam Iraq and is essential reading for Iraqi and Middle East specialists, as well as those interested in understanding the current heightening of sectarian Sunni-Shicite tensions in the Middle East.

Sectarianism in Iraq

Sectarianism in Iraq PDF Author: Fanar Haddad
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199327386
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This is a critical look at how we compartmentalise Iraqis into Shi'as and Sunnis. It is the first comprehensive analysis of sectarian relations and identities in Iraq. The focus is on the uprisings in March 1911 and fall of the Ba'ath in 2003.

Sectarian Politics in the Gulf

Sectarian Politics in the Gulf PDF Author: Frederic M. Wehrey
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231536100
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
One of Foreign Policy's Best Five Books of 2013, chosen by Marc Lynch of The Middle East Channel Beginning with the 2003 invasion of Iraq and concluding with the aftermath of the 2011 Arab uprisings, Frederic M. Wehrey investigates the roots of the Shi'a-Sunni divide now dominating the Persian Gulf's political landscape. Focusing on three Gulf states affected most by sectarian tensions—Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait—Wehrey identifies the factors that have exacerbated or tempered sectarianism, including domestic political institutions, the media, clerical establishments, and the contagion effect of external regional events, such as the Iraq war, the 2006 Lebanon conflict, the Arab uprisings, and Syria's civil war. In addition to his analysis, Wehrey builds a historical narrative of Shi'a activism in the Arab Gulf since 2003, linking regional events to the development of local Shi'a strategies and attitudes toward citizenship, political reform, and transnational identity. He finds that, while the Gulf Shi'a were inspired by their coreligionists in Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon, they ultimately pursued greater rights through a nonsectarian, nationalist approach. He also discovers that sectarianism in the region has largely been the product of the institutional weaknesses of Gulf states, leading to excessive alarm by entrenched Sunni elites and calculated attempts by regimes to discredit Shi'a political actors as proxies for Iran, Iraq, or Lebanese Hizballah. Wehrey conducts interviews with nearly every major Shi'a leader, opinion shaper, and activist in the Gulf Arab states, as well as prominent Sunni voices, and consults diverse Arabic-language sources.

The Struggle for Iraq's Future

The Struggle for Iraq's Future PDF Author: Zaid Al-Ali
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300187262
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
An unbarred account of life in post-occupation Iraq and an assessment of the nation's prospects for the future

The Failure of Democracy in Iraq

The Failure of Democracy in Iraq PDF Author: Hamid Alkifaey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429808194
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
The Failure of Democracy in Iraq studies democratization in post-2003 Iraq, which has so far failed, due mainly to cultural and religious reasons. There are other factors, such as the legacy of the dictatorial regime, exclusionary policies, the problem of stateness, interference by regional powers, the rentier economy and sectarianism, that have impeded democracy and contributed to its failure, but the employment of religion in politics was the most to blame. The establishment of stable democratic institutions continues to elude Iraq, 15 years after toppling the dictatorship. The post-2003 Iraq could not completely eradicate the long historical tradition of despotic governance due to deep-seated religious beliefs and tribal values, along with widening societal ethno-sectarian rifts which precluded the negotiation of firm and stable elite settlements and pacts across communal lines. The book examines how the fear in neighbouring countries of a region-wide domino effect of the Iraq democratization process caused them to adopt interventionist policies towards Iraq that helped to stunt the development of democracy. The lack of commitment by the initiator of the democratic process, the United States, undermined the prospects of democratic consolidation. This is compounded by serious mistakes such as de-Ba’athification and the disbanding of the Iraqi army and security apparatuses which caused a security vacuum the US forces were not able to fill. The Failure of Democracy in Iraq is a key resource for all students and academics interested in democracy, Islam and Middle East Studies.

Iraq after America

Iraq after America PDF Author: Joel Rayburn
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
ISBN: 0817916946
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
More than a decade after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, most studies of the Iraq conflict focus on the twin questions of whether the United States should have entered Iraq in 2003 and whether it should have exited in 2011, but few have examined the new Iraqi state and society on its own merits. Iraq after America examines the government and the sectarian and secular factions that have emerged in Iraq since the U.S. invasion of 2003, presenting the interrelations among the various elements in the Iraqi political scene. The book traces the origins of key trends in recent Iraqi history to explain the political and social forces that produced them, particularly during the intense period of civil war between 2003 and 2009. Along the way, the author looks at some of the most significant players in the new Iraq, explaining how they have risen to prominence and what their aims are. The author identifies the three trends that dominate Iraq's post-U.S. political order: authoritarianism, sectarianism, and Islamist resistance, tracing their origins and showing how they have created a toxic political and social brew, preventing Iraq's political elite from resolving the fundamental roots of conflict that have wracked that country since 2003 and before. He concludes by examining some aspects of the U.S. legacy in Iraq, analyzing what it means for the United States and others that, after more than a decade of conflict, Iraq's communities—and its political class in particular—have not yet found a way to live together in peace.

Iraq's Future

Iraq's Future PDF Author: Toby Dodge
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780415363891
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
Iraq's Future investigates the difficult and costly regime change in Baghdad, taking into account US troops, the new Iraqi government and the future of state-building. The book describes what is involved in building a new government from scratch.

Sectarianism in the Middle East

Sectarianism in the Middle East PDF Author: Heather M. Robinson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780833096999
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Present unrest in the Middle East has many causes and takes on many forms. A collective sense of disenfranchisement, inadequate governance, geopolitical discord, and religious extremism all contribute to the conflicts in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Libya. Many Western observers and policymakers view unrest in the Middle East through the lens of binary religious sectarianism, focusing on the divisions between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. This split is most clearly articulated in the geopolitical competition between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and it plays out through violence in Iraq and Syria. But the complexities of human identity and of regional culture and history do not lend themselves to this arguably too-simplistic interpretation of the situation. The authors analyze sectarianism in the region, evaluate other factors that fan the flames of violent conflict, and suggest a different interpretation of both identity and the nature of regional unrest"--Back cover.

Sectarian Politics in the Persian Gulf

Sectarian Politics in the Persian Gulf PDF Author: Lawrence G. Potter
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019937726X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
Sunni-Shia relations in the GCC countries are analysed by the contributors in the wake of recent protests in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

State of Repression

State of Repression PDF Author: Lisa Blaydes
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691211752
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
A new account of modern Iraqi politics that overturns the conventional wisdom about its sectarian divisions How did Iraq become one of the most repressive dictatorships of the late twentieth century? The conventional wisdom about Iraq's modern political history is that the country was doomed by its diverse social fabric. But in State of Repression, Lisa Blaydes challenges this belief by showing that the country's breakdown was far from inevitable. At the same time, she offers a new way of understanding the behavior of other authoritarian regimes and their populations. Drawing on archival material captured from the headquarters of Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'th Party in the wake of the 2003 US invasion, Blaydes illuminates the complexities of political life in Iraq, including why certain Iraqis chose to collaborate with the regime while others worked to undermine it. She demonstrates that, despite the Ba'thist regime's pretensions to political hegemony, its frequent reliance on collective punishment of various groups reinforced and cemented identity divisions. At the same time, a series of costly external shocks to the economy—resulting from fluctuations in oil prices and Iraq's war with Iran—weakened the capacity of the regime to monitor, co-opt, coerce, and control factions of Iraqi society. In addition to calling into question the common story of modern Iraqi politics, State of Repression offers a new explanation of why and how dictators repress their people in ways that can inadvertently strengthen regime opponents.