‘The Failure of Peacebuilding in Iraq: The Role of Consociationalism and Political Settlements’

ABSTRACT

This article argues that an informal consociational elite bargain was placed at the centre of post-invasion attempts at transition and peacebuilding in Iraq. It is this informal consociationalism that undermined the coherence of the state and delegitimized the political system. The article critically examines the consociational and political settlement literature. It concludes that Pierre Bourdieu's approach to competition in the political field can be used to create an analytical framework that identifies the weaknesses in both tranches of literature and explain how the application of a consociational political settlement destabilized Iraq.

KEYWORDS:

• Iraq
• consociationalism
• political settlement
• elite pact
• symbolic violence

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Shamiran Mako for inviting me to take part in the workshop at Boston University that this special edition originated from and guiding my paper to publication with sage advice. I would also like to thank the two anonymous referees and the editors of the journal, Florian Kühn and especially Pol Bargués for his close reading of the text and very useful comments. Finally, I would like to thank Clare Day for her astute comments on the various drafts of this paper that she has read.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Muhasasa Tai’fiya, frequently shortened simply to Muhasasa, is the phrase most frequently used in Iraqi popular and political discourse to describe the post-2003 political settlement. See, for example, Al-Mawlawi (2019, 7).

2 The party changed its name to The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) in May 2007.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and the UK Department of International Development, Conflict Research Programme, Grant PO7743.

Notes on contributors

Toby Dodge

Toby Dodge teaches in the International Relations Department, School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. His publications include Iraq; from war to a new authoritarianism (Abingdon: Routledge) and Inventing Iraq: the failure of nation building and a history denied (New York and London: Columbia University Press and Hurst & Co). He has published papers in Nations and Nationalism, Historical Sociology, The Review of International Studies, International Affairs, International Peacekeeping and Third World Quarterly.