Social Cleavages and Iraq National Security in Post-occupation Era

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant professor of international relations and faculty member of Shiraz University

2 Assistant professor of political science at Shiraz University

3 - Assistant professor of political science at Shiraz University

Abstract

This research is intended to investigate the dilemma and the cleavage in the national security of modern Iraq (Post-Saddam era) in the context of its sociological ground. The Iraqi society has become just like a mosaic of social cleavages suppressed in the era of the Sunni-Ba'ath regime in the process of unification. After the occupation of Iraq in 2003, an encouraging situation was created which helped the gaps to expand more. As a result of the accumulation of social forces around these gaps. As the main domestic actors, these groups gained power to express themselves. This reflected in great ethnic and religious violence which resulted in the lack of a strong central government for the country. This research is aimed at exploring how the sociological foundations of Iraq have affected the failure of national security in the new era (after occupation). The research reviews the hypothesis that social cleavages, as the central feature of sociological institutes, have become more in-depth by the shift in the balance of existing identities from power centers. It has resulted in more security challenges due to their Incompatibility. Based on the theoretical approach of community security and following a descriptive-explanatory method, this research concludes that the Sunni groups, among the main Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish activists, demonstrate a much higher incentive to get involved in violence due to their feelings of insecurity of their identity and power. On the other hand, due to an identity link between the Iraqi local actors and the ethnic-oriented governments of the Middle East, the internal conflicts has changed into inter-state clashes; therefore, it has made it more difficult to manage Iraq's national security.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 15 July 2017
  • Revise Date: 16 March 2019
  • Accept Date: 16 March 2019

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