Iraqi State-Building

Paper Summary:

This paper shall examine why it is that the Sunnis and Shiites of Iraq, who desperately need to work together if they are to find lasting peace and if the new Iraq is to be more stable and democratic than the old Iraq, are thus far unable to do so. In particular, the paper looks at the religious, political and institutional factors that have driven a wedge between the two groups. Ultimately, the paper concludes that knowing what went wrong in the past is the crucial first step to avoid the same mistakes in the future.

From the Paper:

"For those unfamiliar with the ethnic and group hostility that often percolates below the surface of Iraqi society, the often-acrimonious relationship between Iraqi Sunnis and Iraqi Shias (Shiite) occasionally defies easy explanation. As Martin Woollacott (2004) of the UK Guardian notes, "[F]amilies and tribes in Iraq have Sunni and Shia branches, intermarriage has not been uncommon, and both branches of Islam suffered persecution under Saddam," although Shias fared worse at the hands of that particular dictator than did their Sunni counterparts (para.11). Woollacott proceeds to point out that both parties have a vested mutual interest in working together, inasmuch as proof that they can do so is one of the most promising means by which they can expedite the ejection of American military personnel from Iraq (2004, para.11)."

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