Iraq at the crossroads
Subtitle: state and society in the shadow of regime change
By: edited by Toby Dodge and Steven Simon.
Contributors: Dodge, Toby.; Simon, Steven.; International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Series: Adelphi paper,; 354; Adelphi papers ;; no. 354.
Publisher: Oxford University Press for the International Institute for Strategic Studies
Published: 2003
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 178
Subjects: Iraq -- History -- 1991-; Iraq -- Politics and government -- 1991-
Description: A US-led assault on Iraq will have unpredictable and possibly profound effects on Iraqi society. Moreover, those effects will vary with the objectives and strategy adopted by the US and its allies as well as by the pace and scope of the collapse of Iraqi resistance. Further, the reach of Washington's post-war objectives has not yet been settled. Given these multiple sources of uncertainty, understanding the relationship between Iraqi society and the Iraqi state after three decades of Ba'ath rule is all the more crucial to the success of post-war efforts to reconstruct the country and reconstitute its political system. Yet that relationship is poorly understood in the West. The Iraq of today cannot easily be mapped on to a neat diagram of sect, tribe, or party. The rentier structure of the state economy, the regime's manipulation of group identity to control the population, the emergence of a shadow state that distributes public goods to advance regime interests, and pervasive violence have transformed Iraq's socio-political landscape into dangerous and unfamiliar ground for intervention. These essays delineate the options now being debated in Washington and provide up-to-date assessments of how Iraqi state and society will respond to the impact of war and the removal of a deeply-rooted authoritarian regime.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: America's war on Iraq / Judith S. Yaphe; title: Possible US-led campaign against Iraq / David Ochamanek; title: Cake walk , coup or urban warfare / Toby Dodge; title: Few days after / Isam al Khafaji; title: Saddam's power structure / Amatzia Baram; title: Iraqi army and anti-army / Faleh A. Jabar; title: Kurdish dilemma / Gareth R. V. Stansfield; title: Economy and society in Iraqi Kurdistan / Michiel Leezenberg; title: Clerics, tribes, ideologues and urban dwellers in the south of Iraq / Faleh A. Jabar.