A Quarterly colloquium  entitled  ” State Building in Iraq, in post-2003 .. Successes and Failures “.

A Quarterly colloquium was held by Iraqi Institute for Dialogue.  entitled  ” State Building in Iraq, in post-2003 .. successes and failures “. On 6 May 2022.  hosted Mr. Roger Petersen, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 Dr. Abbas Radhi Al-Amiri, Director of the Iraqi Institute for Dialogue, welcomed Dr. Petersen, and turn the discussion over to him to talk about the factors surrounding Iraqi state-building from 2003 to the present in particular.

Dr. Petersen talked about the factors taken into account by the American political scientists when comparing states, and how identity plays a key role in the state’s power and sovereignty.

In his view, individuals were naturally divided into groups that thought in terms of ethnic hierarchy.

Individuals who viewed their groups from the perspective of domination and dependency.

Also talked about mechanisms to enhance trust between the citizen and the State.

A number of researchers and specialists enriched the colloquium with their perspectives and substantive inputs.

Dr. Adel Badiwi, Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, University of Baghdad,  said: “We have a major problem from 1958 to the present, this problem relates to the fact that the identity of Iraqis is incompatible with Iraqi geography, our identity is either fraught or an identity that leads to depletion of resources state. I think that one of the major obstacles to identity in Iraq is the form of a rent-based system in Iraq, which is based on loyalty, patrons, and citizens, which prevents building of Iraqi national identity.

“There has been a significant demographic transition, if we know that 50% of the Iraqi people were born after 2003, and 25% of the Iraqi people were young in 2003, we are facing a new generation with certain orientations, looking for something different, the priorities are no longer ideological as they are economic priorities, jobs and services, these priorities are becoming an entry point for identity at the present time.

Dr. Ali Taher Al-Hammoud, Director of Bayan Center for Planning and Studies, said:

“Iraq is a complex composition, the sequence you talked about in Iraq is Non-identity-based, but It is fully hierarchical from the first moment, before 2003 and after 2003, and the conflict was on three types of rent- based system.

1- Oil rent-based system represented by contracts, salaries, etc.

2- The rent-based system of land, and distribution, which is constituting Iraq’s wealth.

3- the rent-based system of government jobs since we don’t have a real private sector.”

In her intervention Dr. Suhad Al-Azzawi, Head of Strategy, University of Al-Nahrain. Asked: ” Where does the United States find itself in building the Iraqi state, in any direction?”.

Dr. Petersen answered all the questions during the colloquium session: “I don’t see the system collapsing because a lot of people now have an interest in that political system,”. They get a pension. And they get a public job, what I see in Iraq, just a kind of stumble, but maybe I’m wrong about that.

     There is no possibility of the system collapsing. because all parties have an arm in the game.  I’m not sure where it’s going.

“Americans need eyes on the ground,” Mr. Petersen said. So I think they’re going to stay here for safety and to fight terrorism, they’re going to stay here maybe for oil,”. So America finds itself in its favor. then he has explained his answer by saying: ” America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”.