The political economy of sectarianism in Iraq

Concentrating on the period since 1990, this article analyses the rise of sectarianism in Iraq with reference to the literature on the economics of conflict. The article posits that rising sectarianism cannot be viewed as the simple result of ongoing sectarian divisions, but is the consequence of the interaction of adverse initial conditions and of damaging policies and actions. Economic sanctions (1990–2003), I argue, laid the social and political basis for elevated sectarianism; post-occupation economic policies enabled this heightened sectarianism to be violently expressed. The article does not argue that sectarian sentiments or narratives are absent or irrelevant in Iraq, but rather presents a political-economic analysis of how and why such narratives have been ascendant.