Edited by Isakhan,
Benjamin, Mako, Shamiran and Dawood, Fadi, Stateand Society in Iraq, Citizenship under Occupation, Dictatorship andDemocratisation, London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2017
State and Society in
Iraq is an academic anthology that attempts to take a new perspective on
Iraq. Most histories focus upon elites, political parties, structures and
institutions. This book takes a bottom up view to find historical currents that
help explain the current situation in the country. The chapters cover a variety
of topics from Assyrian refugees who settled in Iraq after World War I to the
development of urban society in Baghdad and Kirkuk to the education system under
the monarchy to how the Baath Party dealt with Islam up to the post-2003
elections and the Maliki government and the return of the insurgency. Like any
anthology not all of the readings hold the same amount of interest, but there’s
enough there to keep the reader going and the conclusions are interesting.
A few of the chapters highlight the approach and lessons
learned from the book better than others. Fadi Dawood wrote about the Assyrian
refugees that settled in Iraq after World War I. This group came from two
distinct areas of Turkey and Iran, were broken down by tribes, and followed
different leaders based upon religion and military prowess. The British
segregated the Assyrians into a camp outside of Baquba in Diyala. The Assyrians
became divided more and more inside the camp. The English also saw the
Assyrians as fighters from their experience in World War I, and recruited them
into a new Levies force to help secure Iraq. That along with the fact that the
Assyrians were kept completely separate from the rest of the country in the
camp led Iraqis to view them as foreigners and tools of British imperialism. In
1933, the Iraqi army massacred the Assyrians, which was celebrated by the
government and populace. Rather than a monolithic group, the Assyrians could be
divided by tribe, religion, and militarily. Many break Iraq down into Shiite
and Sunni Arabs and Kurds, but just like the Assyrians that is not the totality
of their identity. They are actually all diverse groups. The British policy
towards the Assyrians was also rejected by the majority of Iraqis showing that
plans imposed upon the country from the outside or top often don’t work out,
and can lead to violent resistance.
Hilary Falb Kalisman discussed the dilemma education posed
for Iraq under the monarchy and Qasim government. The British initially wanted
to limit schooling during the 1920s fearing that an educated class would oppose
its colonial plans and cause economic problems as they would not find much
employment given the limited economy of the country at the time. From the
1950s-60s the government greatly expanded the number of schools from the
primary to college level. The problem was that school had traditionally been a
gateway to employment in the government. The demand for those positions
multiplied exponentially with more studying, but there was a limited supply.
That led to a wave of student unrest in the 1950s and 60s with demonstrations
and protests and political activism by young people. This problem continues
into the present day as the oil dependent economy has greatly limited the
private sector, while there are thousands graduating from college each year still
looking towards the government, but with no real hope of finding a job. That
has led to protests every year during the summers as the public expresses their
anger at unemployment and the general lack of good governance just as they did
in the past. Iraq has a long history of resistance, whether it be via
demonstrations to coups to insurgencies.
Finally, Amatzia Baram and Samuel Helfont deal with the
Baath and religion. The party called itself secular but found that it had to
deal with religion to rule. It had intellectuals engage in revising medieval
Islamic history to at first justify its seizure of power in 1968 by pointing
back to the numbers revolts that occurred in the past, to then switching to
glorifying the Abbasid dynasty because it was Sunni, its greatness could be
compared to the accomplishments of the government, and represented stability
and the status quo, which is what party wanted to emphasize as it settled into
power. Later Shiite opposition movements, the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and the
Iran-Iraq War led Saddam to begin a policy to co-opt and control the Shiite
clergy. The government took over the finances in Najaf and Karbala, limited the
students going to religious schools, offered incentives to them and scholars to
cooperate with the regime, and in turn put Baath members into those schools so
they could become clerics and spread the government’s version of Islam. That
was that Islam was part of the glory of Arab nationalism, which fit in with the
party’s ideology. Baghdad proved widely successful with this policy using
carrot and sticks to eliminate those that stood in the way, buying off others,
and putting its own people into the institutions. This showed that the
government often exploits the divisions found within society to apply its
power. There are also always those that are willing to cooperate for a piece of
the pie, which further separates society.
Overall, State and
Society in Iraq is a bit inconsistent. Not all of the chapters provide new
insights with some reading like pretty conventional political analysis. The
fact that so many topics are covered however, allows people to pick and choose
what to read if they like. The lessons learned are also important, because they
give historical context to current events. Those are that foreign and top down
state building, institutions and policies have often failed. That there is a
long history of both peaceful and violent resistance due to the shortcomings of
the government and elite. That the state faced with constant opposition has given
concessions at one time, only to renege on them later to control and pacify
groups. Finally, that Iraq should not be seen as just Sunni, Shiite and Kurd,
but rather a diverse population with many different identities that overlap and
often compete with each other. Basically, the whole overcomes the shortcomings
of certain parts of this book.
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