Iraq’s descent into civil war : a constitutional explanation
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1940-3461; 0026-3141
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The Middle East Journal, 2014, Vol. 68, No. 4, pp. 547-566
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ROMANO, David, Iraq’s descent into civil war : a constitutional explanation, The Middle East Journal, 2014, Vol. 68, No. 4, pp. 547-566 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/33413
Abstract
In the summer of 2014, the Iraqi government lost control of much of the country. Insurgents — including the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), former Ba'thists, and an array of Sunni tribes — captured Mosul, and then much of western Iraq. Although complex factors lay behind these developments, this article focuses on one theme of central importance: attempts to consolidate power in Baghdad and the concomitant evisceration of Iraq's constitution. When key provisions of a very decentralizing federal constitution were ignored or violated, the blowback from disenfranchised groups in Iraq brought the country to the brink of collapse.