State and society in Iraq : citizenship under occupation, dictatorship and democratisation / edited by Benjamin Isakhan, Shamiran Mako, Fadi Dawood.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-315) and index.

Preface: Whither Iraq? / Peter Sluglett -- Introduction: State-society relations in Iraq: Negotiating a contested historiography / Benjamin Isakhan and Fadi Dawood -- Part I: Colonial rule and the making of modern Iraq -- The Ba'qubah refugee camp, 1919-22: State-society relations in occupied Iraq / Fadi Dawood -- State-society relations in the urban spheres of Baghdad and Kirkuk, 1920-58 / Arbella Bet-Shlimon -- 'The government is the servant of the people': State and society in the short stories of Shakir Khusbak and Gha'ib Tu'ma Farman / Hilla Peled-Shapira -- Education policy in Iraq, 1921-58: Competing visions of the state / Hilary Falb Kalisman -- Military-society relations in Iraq, 1921-58: Competing roles of the army / Ibrahim Al-Marashi -- Part II: Republican Iraq: State-society relations under authoritarian rule -- 'Dangerous liaisons': Abd al-Karim Qasim and the student movements of the first Iraqi republic, 1958-63 / Jordi Tejel -- Assyrians and the early Ba'thist period in Iraq: Between state and non-state actors / Alda Benjamen and Sargon George Donabed -- Ba'thi Iraq in the 1970s: Historiography of medieval Islam and contemporary politics / Amatzia Baram -- Ba'thist penetration of Shi'a religious institutions / Samuel Helfont -- Part III: Communal strife and re-emergent authoritarianism in post-2003 Iraq -- The consolidation of the Kurdistan region of Iraq and the integrity of the Iraqi state / Gareth Stansfield -- Political parties, elections and the transformation of Iraqi politics since 2003 / Marc Lemieux and Shamiran Mako -- The road to the 'Islamic State': State-society relations after the US withdrawal from Iraq / Banjamin Isakhan -- Conclusion: Lessons from the past for a future Iraq / Benjamin Isakhan and Shamiran Mako

The activities of ISIS since 2014 have brought back to centre stage a series of very old and very troubling questions about the integrity and viability of the Iraqi state. However, most analysts have framed recent events in terms of their immediate past and without the contextual background to explain their evolution. State and Society in Iraq moves beyond a short-sighted analysis to place the complex and contested nature of Iraqi politics within a broader and deeper historical examination. In doing so, the chapters demonstrate that beyond the overwhelming emphasis on failed occupations, cruel tyrants, ethnic separatists and violent religious fanatics, is an Iraqi people who have routinely agitated against the state, advocated for legitimate and accountable government, and called for inter-communal harmony. When, the authors maintain, the Iraqi people are given agency in the complex process of consent, negotiation and resistance that underpin successful state-society relations, the nation can move beyond patterns of oppression and cruelty, of dangerous rhetoric and divisive politics, and towards a cohesive, peaceful and prosperous future - despite the many difficulties and the steep challenges that lie ahead.