Journal of Contemporary Iraq & the Arab World - Current Issue

Parallels between the Afghanistan and Iraq wars include phony victories (bought from local forces), phony aims and claims (train the Afghan army, secure women’s rights, rebuild Iraq), shifts of alliances (allies become outcasts), creating ‘homeless Sunnis’ (who later join the IS). If we view Iraq and Afghanistan on a wider canvas alongside Pakistan, do wider parallels emerge? The Iraq and Afghanistan wars are profoundly tragic, but are they exceptional? If we view Iraq and Afghanistan as extensions of and variations on the Cold War, do different patterns emerge? Would they help us understand problems of regime change more clearly? This article views the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a series and reflects on what this series tells us.

In thinking about the legacy of the sanctions on Iraq, some things are quite clear: the long-term impact of malnutrition; the loss of life and the suffering from lack of adequate medical care; the disappearance of the middle class; the deep corruption and growth of criminal networks and so forth. But there is a different kind of legacy as well. The sanctions imposed by the United Nations (UN) Security Council for over a decade were as damaging as they were in large measure because they were deeply imbedded in bureaucracies, and bureaucratic manoeuvres, that were both arcane and opaque. These included the ‘retroactive oil pricing policy’, the reverse veto, the holds on contracts and the consensus rule within the 661 Committee. While the narrative that emerged in the aftermath of the sanctions holds that ‘we are now in the era of smart sanctions, and the old, comprehensive measures we saw in the Iraq case are now in the past’, in fact that is not at all the case. Rather, part of the legacy of the Iraq sanctions is that precisely the bureaucratic manoeuvres that made it possible to cripple Iraq’s infrastructure, healthcare, education and food security are the mainstay of contemporary sanctions regimes. This article looks at how the reverse veto and the absence of a sunset clause in the Iraq sanctions can be seen at work in the current US sanctions against Cuba; how the interminable obstacles and burdens that choked the humanitarian exemption process are now being used in the Security Council measures against North Korea; and how macroeconomic shocks that were triggered by undermining Iraq’s oil exports have been put in place in regard to UN and US sanctions against Iran and Venezuela.

In October 2019, massive demonstrations swept Baghdad and southern Iraqi provinces. These demonstrations differed from earlier ones, in terms of duration, number of casualties and excessive methods used to silence them. This article analyses what became known as the Tishreen Uprising, or intifada, its causes, achievements and prospects. The Uprising was a peaceful rejection of the occupation, the quota system, the sectarian and racial policies applied, corruption and, above all, foreign intervention, mainly by the United States and Iran. This article will concentrate on the development of the events and their effects on Iraqi politics and way of life. It will also try to show the Uprising’s unique characteristics, such as the heavy involvement of young women, the role of the religious institution in Najaf (al-Hawza) and the fact that it mainly swept the predominantly Shi‘i provinces. Finally, the article will show the successes and failures of the Uprising, its future and the prospects of it flaring up again.

The American and British administrations invaded Iraq in a forceful military operation, culminating in the occupation of the country on 10 April 2003. Two decades later, Iraq continues to grapple with the economic, social, security and environmental repercussions of three ensuing conflicts stemming from this occupation. This article provides a preliminary assessment of the environmental impacts arising from the occupation forces’ use of excessive and indiscriminate firepower, the employment of tens of thousands of heavy tanks and artilleries and their traffic, over five hundred military bases and the 600 battles of the counter-insurgency war. The damaging effects of all of these destructive events on the semi-arid, fragile soil and ecosystem in Iraq have been profound. The contamination with radioactive, hazardous and toxic materials from explosives and war remnants, along with the collapse of the environmental protection system, have all resulted in serious degradation of quality-of-human-life parameters and the natural ecosystem.

The article explores historical and literary aspects of Kareem Ketafa’s novel The Spider’s Siege. It provides a plot summary and situates the novel within its historical context of Anfal 8 campaign in the Bahdinan region of Iraqi Kurdistan, where the communist partisans joined thousands of fugitive villagers who climbed Mount Gara for refuge from the army and its use of chemical weapons. The article discusses the novelist’s literary techniques and his use of literary devices. The structure of the novel, the article tries to demonstrate, is that of a web with parallel threads. The article also discusses the tension between narration and documentation which characterizes the novel.

Review of: The Regime Change Consensus: Iraq in American Politics, 1990–2003, Joseph Stieb (2021)

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xii + 270 pp.,

ISBN-13 978-1-10897-421-9, e-book, USD 29.99

Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq, Melvyn P. Leffler (2023)

Oxford: Oxford University Press, xix + 368 pp.,

ISBN-13 978-0-19761-080-0, e-book, USD 18.99

ISBN-13 978-0-19761-077-0, h/bk, USD 27.95

Review of: Films of Arab Loutfi and Heiny Srour: Studies in Palestine Solidarity Cinema, Terri Ginsberg (2021)

Cham: Palgrave Pivot, xii + 107 pp.,

ISBN-13 978-3-03085-353-2, h/bk, USD 49.99

ISBN-13 978-3-03085-354-9, e-book, USD 64.99