Building states, failing nations: the failure of post-conflict reconstruction in Iraq

Research Doctorate - Doctorate of Philosophy (Politics)The fundamental objective of this thesis centres on identifying the most prominent contemporary lacuna in reconstruction of conflict ridden, weak and failing societies, particularly with an interest in deeply religious societies. The case study utilised focuses on the U.S. led reconstruction, as well as the policies and failures within the post-Saddam Iraq. It is argued that the U.S. led coalition forces imposed a linear liberal democratic peace model on Iraq, which immediately faced significant resistance from the long suffering recipient society. The thesis posits that the model of reconstruction imposed on recipient societies, such as Iraq, is inadequate and quixotic and requires a fundamental shift in approach, norms and the attitude of the international donor community. An analysis of Iraq demonstrates that polyethnoreligious societies face substantial identity insecurities, often perpetuated and reinforced by previous colonial practices and repressive regimes. Thus, the international community is faced with significant socio-political engineering, which in deeply religious societies requires a fundamental shift in inter-societal attitudes. Iraq demonstrated that the liberation of long oppressed societies from the clutches of dictators does not necessarily produce inherently liberal, though perhaps tentatively democratic, societies because of the unique nature of the social structures of such societies. This was evident through the rise of top-level religious actors such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the lesser educated Muqtada al-Sadr. The resultant dialogues produced from the political activism of such actors not only shaped the state-society and inter-societal discourse on the ideal Iraqi identity; but also provided a powerful example of the return of the role of religion into the political sphere. It is this gap, the role of religion and its influential representatives, and their relationship towards, and impact on reconstructions and social engineering, which is at the centre of this thesis. The significance of this study relates to the crucial and evolving state-society relations within the Middle East and the violent internal dialogue currently in evidence through the Arab Spring. More importantly it aims to direct attention towards establishing a link between the field of nation-state building and deeply religious Islamic societies; and thereby contribute to a attentively emerging area of international relations and political theory that is bound to be the determining and all-consuming dilemma facing the international system as a result of seismic events of the recent revolutions in the Middle East