UNDERSTANDING THE CIVIL VIOLENCE IN IRAQ

Abstract

The article is about the civil violence that has predominated in Iraq since 2004. Contrary to the generally accepted belief, it argues that the civil violence is not directly related to the attempts to reconstruct Iraq. The paper maintains that the violence is the consequence of a structural defect that is the creation of the previous regime. Policies, institutions and measures of the previous regimes have given rise to an uprooted state in Iraq, as a result of which, the society has always been in search of supporting mechanisms that could fulfill the functions of an absent state. This has led to the emergence of numerous alternative formations in Iraq, which were violenceprone by nature. This potential for violence was let loose with the collapse of the Saddam administration. The termination of violence will require the existing potential to be successfully but not forcefully managed

Keywords

• Civil violence, political reconstruction, power sharing, uprooted state, state-society relations in Iraq.