Social Conflict

Paper Summary:

The paper states that Iraq has experienced powerful historic religious differences that have divided the country and that these patterns of social conflict will likely continue well into the foreseeable future. In order to gain a better understanding of the problem, the paper provides a review of the relevant scholarly literature concerning modern Iraq's history of social conflict, of power struggles between rival clans, of hostility and wars with neighboring states and also Iraq's deteriorating relations with the West. The paper analyzes the course of modern Iraq's development and how this led to its distinctive politics. The paper follows with a summary of the research and salient findings.

Outline:
Introduction
Review and Discussion
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Modern social organization and therefore social conflict therefore find their collective historic basis in Iraq. According to Roux (1993), people first manifested the high degree of cooperative human effort necessary to make urban life possible in the early Sumerian cities of Eridu and Urak. Likewise, Gabriel and Metz report that these two cities "reflected the evidence of this cooperation in the dikes, walls, irrigation canals, and temples, especially the giant ziggurates, which date from the fourth millennium" (p. 4). Likewise, an efficient agricultural system made it possible to free large numbers of people from the land, and the cities of ancient Sumer produced social structures comprised largely of freemen who met in concert to govern themselves. Early Sumerian cities were characterized by a high degree of social and economic diversity, which gave rise to artisans, merchants, priests, bureaucrats, road and temple architects, and professional soldiers (Gabriel & Metz, 1991). Much like the increasingly multicultural society in the United States today, ancient Sumerian civilization was also comprised of a polyglot of ethnic people; however, all fourteen of the major city-states of the region shared essentially the same culture. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Auty, R. M. (1993). Sustaining development in mineral economies: The resource curse thesis. New York: Routledge.
• Enemark, C., & Michaelsen, C. (2005). Just war doctrine and the invasion of Iraq. The Australian Journal of Politics and History, 51(4), 545.
• Gabriel, R. A., & Metz, K. S. (1991). From Sumer to Rome: The military capabilities of ancient armies. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Iraq. (2004). The Columbia encyclopedia (6th ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
• Roux, G. (1993). Ancient Iraq. New York: Penguin.

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