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

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.

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.