The Insurgent State: Politics and Communal Dissent in Iraq, 1919-1936
Abstract
This study examines selected instances of communal dissent among Iraq's 5 Kurds, Assyrians, and Shi'is to uncover the impact of provincial insurgency on the formation of the Iraqi state from 1919 to 1936. Undertaken for economic, political and personal motives, armed dissent in the rural periphery presented a dire threat to the state-building efforts of the Hashimite monarchy and the Sunni elite. By demonstrating that the Iraqi government was incapable of policing its own territory, internal rebellions threatened to erode the state's autonomy from Britain. Moreover, successive revolts by the Kurds, Assyrians, and Shi is challenged the state's monopolization of violence, the propagation of Iraqi Arabism as an official ideology, and the implementation of conscription as a vehicle for breaking down old loyalties to sect and tribe. Although the revolts themselves were ultimately unsuccessful in winning any substantial gains for the groups that undertook them, they affected a decisive shift in the political trajectory of the Iraqi state.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA405080
Entities
People
- Frederick M. Whrey
Organizations
- Princeton University