From Liberal Statebuilding to Counterinsurgency and Stabilization: The International Intervention in Iraq

ABSTRACT

Stabilization approaches have limited transformational ambitions, in particular when compared with previous large-scale peacebuilding interventions. The case of Iraq is illustrative of such an approach. It demonstrates how achieving stability in the country is no longer supposed to be the result of an overall political, economic and social transformation—as postulated in the initial phase of the intervention—but, rather, a precondition to it. This paper first identifies the circumstances under which stabilization emerged in Iraq and then it traces its main characteristics. Second, it discusses the stabilization approach of the two main international military and civilian actors: the Global Coalition against Daesh and the United Nations Development Programme. In conclusion, the paper argues that while stabilization is likely to freeze the conflict, it remains to be seen whether it will be effective in solving it.

ORCID

Roberto Belloni http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9384-9182

Notes

1. We use ‘Western’ to indicate the plurality of actors from the Global North, including states, international organizations, and NGOs. This term is preferable to expressions such as ‘international community’ (which includes the word ‘community’ with its positive connotations that are not always warranted) and ‘liberal actors’ (which implies adherence to principles increasingly challenged even by self-identified liberal actors).

2. While these are all important contributors to a condition of stability/instability, this contribution focuses the discussion on international actors, including their interpretation and implementation of the notion of stabilization.

3. The Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces grouped existing and newly formed predominantly Shia armed militias that joined the fight against the Islamic State since 2014 (Mansour & Jabar 2017).

4. Author’s interview with KRG’s official Erbil, Kurdistan region of Iraq, 19 April 2017.

5. In November 2005 in Haditha a team of US marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including unarmed women, children and elderly people. In the prison of Abu Ghraib, American soldiers and officials resorted to torture and abuses against Iraqi detainees, which were revealed in April 2004.

6. Skype interview with UNDP representative, 30 November 2016.

7. Interview with IDPs residing in the three governorates of Erbil, Dohuk and Suleymaniyyah, June–July 2017. See also Costantini and Kamaran (2018).