Iraqi fault lines:

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Iraqi fault lines

• In pursuit of national identity

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Iraq basics

• New state
• 19211932
• Diverse population
• British colonization
• Imported monarchy
• Politics of violence
• 1936-41 7 army coups
• 1958 overthrow of the monarchy creation of the
  republic
• 1963, 1968 coups

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Early efforts to build Iraqism

• Creation of the Iraqi Army
• Mass education
• Moments of inclusion and attentiveness
• Abdul Karim Qassim (1958-1963)
• visions the Iraqi Communist Party and the Bath
• BUT
• The British factor (until 58)
• Iraqism vs Pan-Arabism
• Tribal vs central authority
• Patronage and corruption

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Seizing the reinsthe Bath Party and Saddam
Hussein

• Bath (Resurrection) (1952)
• Unity, Freedom, Socialism
• Arab nationalist, secular, Arab socialist,
  anti-imperialist, populist, revolutionary (not
  reformist)
• Iraq as Bath-party authoritarian regime,
  1968-2003
• The Tikriti Bath

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What steps did Baath leaders take to maintain
Iraqi unity?
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Eradicate diversity through force

• Anfal campaign, 1986-1988
• 80 villages destroyed in Kurdish areas
• 60,000-180,000 people killed
• Marsh Arabs
• Only 30,000 out of 500,000 remain
• Political persecution
• Internal and external
• Baathification of state and society

Photo Tor Eigeland 2003
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Bathify society (and state)

• Baath penetration of society
• Single-party state

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War (create external enemy)

• Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988
• longest conventional war of the 20th century
• Human and financial costs
• 200,000-400,000 Iraqis dead, 400,000 wounded,
  70,000 prisoners.
• 25 billion debt to Saudis, 14 billion to
  Kuwait 40 billion to the US, Europe and rest of
  the world.
• Results
• solidified sentiments of Iraqi national identity
  among the bulk of the population.
• More Shiites enter regime
• Islamicization of the regime

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More war and enemies

• Invasion of Kuwait and the 1st Gulf War 1990-91
• The UN and US Sanctions regime 1990-2003

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Use of ideology

• What sorts of historical memory did the Bath
  regime promote?

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Personality cult
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Why did the Iraqi nation-building effort prove so
tenuous?
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• Pan-Arabism vs Iraqi nationalism
• Lack of durable, inclusionary institutions
• Patronage clientalism
• External involvement regional dynamic
• Shaky foundations?