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Abstract

Abstract
The 2003 invasion of Iraq by a coalition led by the United States and United Kingdom brought about a regime change that saw the imposition of a sectarianized political order in Iraq. Never before experienced by Iraqis, this politicized the social phenomenon of sectarian identity and prejudice. In spite of the countless references to the role of sectarianism by witnesses appearing before them, the 2016 Iraq Inquiry Report largely accepted the phenomenon as Sui generis – originating from within the Iraqi social setting and therefore accepted it as a rational and pragmatic modality around which to structure the new political order. This assumption saw the Inquiry adopt the assumption held by those they were meant to interrogate – the British officials and government decision makers who led Britain to war in 2003. The article argues that the new regime imposed through the US–UK occupation was not reflective of a bottom up desire for communal representation but rather a top down imposition by the occupation. This resulted in the expression of conflict in predominantly sectarian terms since 2003, the institutionalization of sectarianism in the constitution and government apparatus, as well as a denial of Iraqi self-determination and the opening of the country to excessive foreign influence, extending the bloodletting and impairing economic growth and social comity.

Abstract

Abstract
The Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq from 2003 destroyed the Iraqi state in an effort to implant a neoliberal order consonant with wider global design. Despite the humanitarian devastation, however, the destruction of the Iraqi state was insufficient to fracture the national sense of commonweal developed over the modern period. The occupation and implanted new political regime, therefore, focused on the elimination of the widespread and popular Iraqi commitment to beneficial social goods arising out of the exploitation of national resources. Akin to the modern Iraqi state's effort to develop national citizenry as informed by the ancient archeological record of civilized habitation, a project that met with the defilement of Iraqi culture following 2003, the modern state project had also bound Iraqis to a citizenship based on social programs supported by the natural wealth found under Iraqi soil. With the CPA and its successor governments, the tether between Iraq's various communities was ruptured through sectarianism and immense political violence. Through a novel exploration of the concept of social contract, this article explores what held Iraqis together as a community and the concerted effort to fracture those ties. The revolutionary government under Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim is highlighted for its role in crafting the progressive and aspirational social compact that successor regimes – regardless of orientation – heeded in order the legitimize themselves. The Ba'thist alterations and modifications are explored in an effort to better understand the landscape prior to the devastation of war, sanctions and occupation that came to confront the Iraqi people with such ruthlessness. Such an analysis presents potential for the formulation of future research to identify successive indigenous solutions to the cleavages found within Iraqi society. Such native solutions would seemingly better inform potential pathways out of the conflagration escalated through external imposition.

Abstract
In an effort to situate Ali al-Wardi's larger body of scholarship, this article places him within his Iraqi and international intellectual milieu, highlighting the role of his book Preachers of the Sultan for its grounding of his later works, while at the same time asserting the seriousness with which he took the scholar's role as an activist to bring knowledge to the public by which to better inform the grounding for, and exercise of, democratic politics. In particular, it highlights the empirical grounding al-Wardi captured through his explication of the Iraqi 'split personality' (izdiwajiyyah) as well as the unique role preachers play in dividing the social community through the justification of political power and promotion of sectarianism.

Abstract

This article serves as a critical examination of sectarianism in Iraqi society and politics, considering both its historical origins and its contemporary manifestations. The article thus evaluates the sectarian question in two parts: (1) its historical context in the Iraqi milieu and
(2) the uses of social sectarianism for political purposes in modern Iraq. This provides the framework for a critical evaluation of the assorted actors, both Iraqi and foreign, who have used sectarianism to advance their parochial interests in occupied Iraq. The historical survey of sectarianism
examines the social and folkloric bases of social sectarianism in modern Iraq. We argue that the manifestation of sectarianism in contemporary Iraq was transformed from a social phenomenon into a political programme under the Anglo-American military occupation. Even before the occupation,
a primary theme of global discourse on Iraq (1990–2002) was the attempt by external actors to embed political sectarianism into the political dynamics of Iraq. This essay argues that the violent and highly politicized form of sectarianism that currently characterizes Iraq is the result
of a deliberate manipulation of social differences that had been largely transcended in Iraq's major urban centres through decades of national state-building. The processes of this 'new sectarianism' are evaluated in terms of the political and legal mechanisms that have been institutionalized
in occupied Iraq. The primary instigators of this new sectarianism are identified as Anglo-American occupation authorities; regional actors; and critically, a class of 'carpetbaggers' – Iraqi expatriates who were parachuted into power by occupation forces and have since developed narrow
sectarian constituencies in the pursuit of their parochial interests. The development of this expatriate political class is examined in terms of the patronage it receives from foreign forces, particularly American and British, and in its ongoing dependence on external actors.