From its construction by the British from the remnants of the Ottoman Empire in 1921, the Iraqi state has had a turbulent history: disparate sectarian loyalties, ethnic divides, procrustean dictatorships, persistent tension between revolutionary and status-quo forces, and extra-regional intrusion in the affairs of the country. Yet, in the midst of this seeming chronic instability, the Iraqi ‘state’ has proved to be remarkably resilient.  

The first part of the course will test your research acumen. In three consecutive weeks the class will present research papers on the three concepts so intimately associated with Iraq’s political history, present and future: the concepts of the state, nation and democracy. Presentations and discussion will focus on the general and theoretical definitions and conceptual elements of the three concepts. At the end of the three weeks, each student will have submitted a paper of 10 pages minimum on one of the three topics. 

In the second part of the course we shall try to utilize the conceptual elements of the three central concepts in an analysis of the development of the Iraqi state and its political institutions. The Iraqi state has gone through four historical periods, each of which was defined by a set of political institutions: the relative liberalism of the monarchical period, 1921-58, the authoritarianism of the republic, 1958-1968 (which was inconsequential, hence we shall ignore), the totalitarianism of the Ba’thist/Saddamist era, 1968-2003, and the efforts to create a stable and sustainable democracy in the post-Saddam period. A thorough understanding of the country’s political development sets the stage for the more individualized third part of the course.

The third and last part of the course focuses on institutional developments in the contemporary period, particularly on the efforts to establish a viable state, mold a national identity by overcoming the many fissiparous forces existing in Iraqi society, and frame a workable and sustainable democratic structure (focusing particularly on electoral systems and constitutional design). In each of these three sessions, two or three students will use their earlier research on the state, nation or democracy as the basis for a new presentation/paper on the relevance of each of the three concepts to Iraq. The object of the exercise is to monitor political developments, follow the ideational discourse, and assess the progress of state and nation building and the direction of the democratic process in the country. What should make this an exciting endeavor is that it would parallel similar activities occurring in Iraq itself as the country forms a workable government, debates its national identity through designing a modified/new constitution and adjusts to the results of its first free general elections.