01/10/14
ORIENT IV 2014: Iraq
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ORIENT IV 2014: Iraq
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Shiite Politics in Iraqi Government Formation, 2006-2014
Dr. Reidar Visser
This article examines the role of pan-Shiite solidarities in the formation of Iraqi governments in
2006, 2010 and 2014. It argues that the role of Shiite sectarian loyalties varied greatly during this
period, but that the net effect of these political processes was the persistence of Shiite sectarian
identity as a fundamental category of post-2003 Iraqi politics. After a temporary move away from
sectarian politics in the 2007-2009 period, sectarianism has once more come to the forefront of
Iraqi post-2003 politics as the result of international, regional and internal Iraqi factors. It has now
become so preponderant that its reversal seems increasingly unlikely in the short term.
Dr. Reidar Visser
Obey the emerging caliphate: The ideological framework of the “Islamic State” in Iraq and the Levant
Dr. Christoph Günther
This article deals with the ideological framework ('aqīda) of the ‘Islamic State’ (IS). It examines
both the group’s way of legitimizing its establishment by using certain Islamic conceptions of authority and the dichotomies within which the group positions itself, its adherents as well as opponents.
Dr. Christoph Günther
The effects of the Islamist advance in Iraq on the Kurds
PD Dr. habil Gülistan Gürbey
The Kurdish army (Peshmerga) is currently engaged in a battle against the radical Sunni Islamist
terror group ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq. Not only is the advance of IS in Iraq driving both the existing
process of Iraq’s disintegration and the split between Sunnis and Shiites, but it has also redistributed the cards in the game of Iraqi power poker, threatening a possible tripartite division of the
country. What is its impact on the Kurdish autonomous region? What role do the Kurds play and
what interests do they pursue?
PD Dr. habil Gülistan Gürbey is Adjunct Professor at the Otto-Suhr-Institute for Political Science, Free University Berlin. Her work focuses on peace and conflict studies, de facto states, protection of minorities, Middle East politics, and especially Turkey, the Kurds and Kurdistan as well as Cyprus.
Iran’s Policy towards Post-Saddam Iraq
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
This article deals with Iran’s policy towards post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. It starts by outlining the post-
‘9/11’ geopolitical background marked by the US ‘global war on terror’ with its focus on the ‘Middle
East’ in general, and Iran in particular. It then lays out Iran’s two-pronged strategy towards post-invasion Iraq. That strategy was meant to ensure a Shia-dominated government (in tandem with US
interests) while complicating the US occupation there in order to avoid the possibility of a US attack on Iran as desired by US neoconservatives. Last but not least, it critically reflects upon the
prominent theme of sectarianism.
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Ruining a Country: The Politics of Ethno-Sectarian Divisions in Iraq
Dr. Achim Rohde
This article discusses current events in the context of modern Iraqi history, specifically the changing political significance of communal identities over the decades and their implications for the vitality of the modern Iraqi state. Although the course of events in Iraq since 2003 certainly explains
why external observers have been preoccupied with sectarian, ethnic and tribal players in the
country’s politics, emphasizing structural factors as vertical fault lines runs the risk of overestimating their power in Iraqi society over the years. At times this perspective tends to paste over the
historical mutability and heterogeneity of such identities and to ignore their active manipulation by
political elites, whose long term impact on society in general remains unclear. Such identities are
no fixed formulae but are being “constantly redefined and reconstituted, politically and socially”.
Dr. Achim Rohde
The IS War in Kurdistan
Professor Dr. Ferhad Ibrahim Seyder
This article analyses the current developments in the Kurdish areas of Iraq focusing on the advance and military successes of the ‘Islamic State’. Professor Seyder sheds light on the tactical
behavior of the different Kurdish actors and their conflicts with each other, the geopolitical interests of international players such as the United States and the future perspectives of IS.
Professor Dr. Ferhad Ibrahim Seyder
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