The Iraqi protest movement: from identity politics to issue politics

Beginning in mid-July 2015, one of the largest social protest movements in modern Iraqi history erupted spontaneously in the city of Basra and spread to cities of central and southern Iraq, including the capital Baghdad. This paper examines the principal aspects of this social movement, particularly its political, social and economic underpinnings, its social composition and its growth, and its message and slogans that are mainly directed against political Islam, critiqued as a conduit for corruption. It analyses the impact of the shift from identity to issue-based politics in Iraq – most evident in the 2018 May elections

IRAQ AND THE ARAB SPRING

I begin with two controversial assumptions:One: Unlike what most Iraqi scholars believe, post 2003 change of regime in Iraq did not inspire the democratic upheaval known as “the Arab Spring”; in fact it delayed it. Iraq’s turmoil was used by despots across the Arab world as a showcase of how Western-imposed democracy is dripped in sectarian blood.Two: Contrary to the widely accepted notion, the Arab Spring did not begin in Tunisia (December 2010) rather in Iran right after the June 2009, widely believed to have been doctored to ensure a second term of the Iranian president Ahmadinajad. Iran is rich with grass-root civil dissidence, one that toppled the Shah regime by civil action rather than military coup. Arab countries, by contrast, have been bereft of such civil potency, until the series of mass, urban action that erupted in Tunisia,Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria

IIST technical report

This research project examined the state of social sciences in Iraqi universities in four regions, involving four major universities (Baghdad, Erbil Sulaymaniya, and Basra), and a number of new, smaller provincial ones in Anbar, Salahudin, Najaf, Karbala and other provinces. The research team examined three clusters of variables, socio-political, institutional and cultural factors that promote or inhibit the development of social sciences and research capacity. A basic fact in the realm of higher education in Iraq is the central role of the state. Changes in the structure of academia, in curricula, or in the scope of academic freedom all require central sanction

Iraq four years after the U.S.-led invasion: assessing the crisis and searching for a way forward

Faleh A. Jaba

The constitution of Iraq : religious and ethnic relations

Faleh A. Jaba

Post-conflict Iraq : a race for stability, reconstruction, and legitimacy

Faleh A. Jaba

State of social sciences in Iraq universities : survey and assessment [Arabic language]

Text in Arabi