State and Society in Iraq: Citizenship Under Occupation, Dictatorship and Democratisation

by Benjamin Isakhan (Editor), Shamiran Mako (Editor), Fadi Dawood (Editor)

Overview

The activities of ISIS since 2014 have brought back to centre stage a series of very old and very troubling questions about the integrity and viability of the Iraqi state. However, most analysts have framed recent events in terms of their immediate past and without the contextual background to explain their evolution. State and Society in Iraq moves beyond a short-sighted analysis to place the complex and contested nature of Iraqi politics within a broader and deeper historical examination. In doing so, the chapters demonstrate that beyond the overwhelming emphasis on failed occupations, cruel tyrants, ethnic separatists and violent religious fanatics, is an Iraqi people who have routinely agitated against the state, advocated for legitimate and accountable government, and called for inter-communal harmony.When, the authors maintain, the Iraqi people are given agency in the complex process of consent, negotiation and resistance that underpin successful state-society relations, the nation can move beyond patterns of oppression and cruelty, of dangerous rhetoric and divisive politics, and towards a cohesive, peaceful and prosperous future - despite the many difficulties and the steep challenges that lie ahead.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784533199
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/30/2017
Series:	Library of Modern Middle East Studies
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.63(h) x 1.23(d)

About the Author

Benjamin Isakhan is Associate Professor of Politics and Policy Studies and Founding Director of POLIS, a research network for Political Science and International Relations at Deakin University, Australia. He is also Adjunct Senior Research Associate in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the author of Democracy in Iraq: History, Politics, Discourse (2012) and the editor of six books including, most recently, The Legacy of Iraq: From the 2003 War to the 'Islamic State' (2016). Ben's current research includes a three-year funded project entitled 'Measuring Heritage Destruction in Iraq and Syria'.Shamiran Mako is a lecturer at the International Affairs Program at Northeastern University. She received her PhD from the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Herpublications include 'Iraq: who's to blame?' in the World Affairs Journal, 'International response to Bahrain's Arab Spring' in e-International Relations and 'Cultural genocide and key international instruments: framing the indigenous experience' in the International Journal of Minority and Group Rights.Fadi Dawood is a senior research fellow at the NATO Association of Canada and Sessional Lecturer at Lakehead University, Orillia Campus. He is a historian of the Modern Middle East with special focus on minoritypopulations in Iraq. His PhD dissertation at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, examines the Assyrian population in modern Iraq. He has taught Middle East, History and Political Science courses at SOAS, University of London and Lakehead University in Canada.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Notes on Contributors ix

Preface: Whither Iraq? Peter Sluglett 1

Introduction: State-Society Relations in Iraq: Negotiating a Contested Historiography Benjamin Isakhan Fadi Dawood 7

Part I Colonial Rule and the Making of Modern Iraq

1 The Ba'qubah Refugee Camp, 1919-22: State-Society Relations in Occupied Iraq Fadi Dawood 31

2 State-Society Relations in the Urban Spheres of Baghdad and Kirkuk, 1920-58 Arbella Bet-Shlimon 50

3 "The Government is the Servant of the People": State and Society in the Short Stories of Shakir Khusbak and Gha'ib Tu'ma Farman Hilla Peled-Shapira 69

4 Education Policy in Iraq, 1921-58: Competing Visions of the State Hilary Falb Kalisman 90

5 Military-Society Relations in Iraq, 1921-58: Competing Roles of the Army Ibrahim Al-Marashi 109

Part II Republican Iraq: State-Society Relations Under Authoritarian Rule

6 'Dangerous Liaisons': Abd al-Karim Qasim and the Student Movements of the First Iraqi Republic, 1958-63 Jordi Tejel 135

7 Assyrians and the Early Ba'thist Period in Iraq; Between State and Non-State Actors Alda Benjamen Sargon George Donabed 156

8 Ba'thi Iraq in the 1970s: Historiography of Medieval Islam and Contemporary Politics Amatzia Baram 177

9 Ba'thist Penetration of Shi'a Religious Institutions Samuel Helfont 197

Part III Communal Strife and Re Emergent Authoritarianism in Post-2003 Iraq

10 The Consolidation of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the Integrity of the Iraqi State Gareth Stansfield 217

11 Political Parties, Elections and the Transformation of Iraqi Politics Since 2003 Marc Lemieux Shamiran Mako 238

12 The Road to the 'Islamic State': State-Society Relations after the US Withdrawal from Iraq Benjamin Isakhan 260

Conclusion: Lessons from the Past for a Future Iraq Benjamin Isakhan Shamiran Mako 280

Bibliography 289

Index 317