sectarianism and state failure .pdf (original) (raw)

ISIS and Sectarianism as a Result of a Meltdown of the Regional Orders in the Middle East

This paper aims to analyze the background of the emergence of “Islamic State” and prevailing sectarian strife in the Middle East from the aspect of international relations, considering it as the result of the failure and mistakes, accumulated not only since the Iraq War and the Syrian Civil War but also from the post-WWI period when the territorial-state system was introduced in this area. This paper emphasizes the importance of the norms and ideas that provide the basis of regional order, and focuses on conflicts between norm-based regional order and interest-based regional alliance. The former has been pursued by the actors that underline supra- or sub-state identity as cores for regional solidarity, while the latter has been introduced by external actors, or established by conservatives to maintain the status quo to react to revolutionary/revisionist movements. The situation became complicated when regional actors faced three different cataclysmic transformations in 1979. Although each incident necessitated a different re-arrangement of their relations, a shorthand patchwork-like formation of alliances was applied, in which the US and Saudi Arabia played key roles. In the post-1979 regime, rivalry became dominant between the interest-based pro-US regional alliances vs. the challengers that justified their own interests with norm-based regional order, manipulating supra-state identity. Once the influence of the US declined after 2011, pro-US state actors found neither interest-based regional alliance nor norm-based regional order supported their own interests. Here, sectarian identity has emerged as a kind of norm to cover their collective interest. Thus sectarianism is the result of necessity for the regional actors to legitimize their interest-based actions and to secure partners for collective action. “Islamic State” was born in this circumstance, where sectarian identity became an ostensible factor for new regional order in the Middle East in the absence of the US-led regional alliance.

Sectarian revolution in the Middle East

This article examines the current sectarianization of the Middle East. It begins with a conceptualization of sectarianism, distinguishes kinds of sectarianism and examines the factors that determine which versions of sectarianism dominate at a particular time. It surveys the preconditions of sectarianization—unequal modernization, instrumentalization of identity in regime power-building practices; the initial precipitant of sectarianization, the US invasion of Iraq; and the impact of the Arab uprisings, in which sectarianism was instrumentalized by regimes and oppositions. Instrumentalized sectarianism reached the grassroots and was transmuted into militant sectarianism by the security dilemma, competitive interference in failed states and trans-state diffusion of sectarian discourses. The consequences of sectarianization include its challenge to state formation and its tendency to empower authoritarianism. Civil war has unleashed militant sectarianism leading to exclusivist practices among both regimes and opposition. The regional power struggle has taken the form of sectarian bi-polarization between Sunni and Shia camps. Sectarianization can only be reversed by an end to the current civil wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen and the regional power struggles that keep them going.

People, sects and states: interrogating sectarianism in the contemporary Middle East

Global Discourse, 2016

Our special issue seeks to do something different, broadening the term "Sectarianism" beyond a narrow definition. Much like others have sought to do with terms such as violence, conflict and peace, we suggest that broader understandings of the term are important, which, in turn, also challenge the ontological assumptions that are inherent within narrower definitions. It returns sectarianism to a pure sense of difference, removing the baggage that goes alongside it and seeks to show how the term has resulted in the manifestation of difference within a number of contexts. It does this by applying the concept to 10 different case studies, within individual states, but also at a regional level and possesses an implicit comparative dimension. The interaction of these different levels of analysis facilitates a greater awareness of Middle Eastern politics and this is often driven by (the perception of) sectarian difference. We consider how sectarian differences can shape political, economic and security contexts, while also questioning the extent to which the concept itself can be used as a tool of securitisation. To this end, we look at the dynamics of sectarianism within states and the consequences of such differences upon political and economic stability. We explore the importance of sectarian difference between states, to explain foreign policy, while also serving as a tool of legitimisation.

Sectarianism in the Middle East/Workshop Proceedings

Sectarian conflict and polarisation has become a key feature of Middle East politics in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings of 2011. This workshop looked at some of the key drivers of this, such as the troubled legacy of foreign intervention, state failure, regional rivalries between Saudi Arabia, Iran and others, ruling strategies of authoritarian regimes as well as the spread of identity and sect-based political movements. With in-depth analysis of the two key arenas of sectarian conflict in the contemporary Middle East, Syria and Iraq, and a paper on the consequences of state collapse, this publication looks also tries to make recommendations how the EU could help reduce sectarian tensions.

"Statecraft and the Re-imaging of Regional Disorder," Al Sharq Forum, 01 Nov 2015

The problem of the Syrian civil war is not merely empirical but also conceptual. The proliferation of armed groups, the interventions from myriad of international actors, have transformed the situation from one of a bipolar struggle between the Baathist regime and its enemies, into a multipolar conflict in which various armed forces are engaged in complex permutations of competition and co-operation. As a consequence, the scale of death and destruction seems to show little sign of abating. The explanations for the occurrence and continuation of the Syrian Civil War are as cloudy as the prospects and prescriptions for its speedy conclusion. It is not, however, the existence of the multiple actors which have only served to make the strategic calculations more difficult but also the absence of a conceptual vocabulary to describe and analyse the events effectively, which is to blame.

Post-ISIS Era and the State Dissolution in the Middle East: Iraq as a Case

Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

Since its establishment, the modern Iraqi state has witnessed instabilities, insurgencies, continuous cyclic violent conflicts among its heterogenic components. The emergence of IS group in Iraq was the latest and at the same time one of the darkest episodes in the series of modern Iraq's turbulent history. This bloody and horrible violent wave that embodied in the form of such terrorist organization, which committed all kinds of brutality against humanity, forced ordinary Iraqi people from all its heterogenic populations, together with experts to question the possibility of peaceful coexistence, stability, and continuance in living together within the border of an integrated Iraq. Unlike most experts that tend to deal with each of Iraq's violent waves separately and prescribe particular prescriptions for each of them, this paper argues that those continuous, persistent, and intractable conflicts were just symptoms, and the cause of modern Iraq's problems had proceeded f...

The Arab World on the Road to State Failure

The failed state phenomenon is not new to the Arab world, having existed there well before the current regional upheaval. However, since the upheaval, states that were already in various stages of failure have declined further. Furthermore, the turmoil has challenged the geopolitical logic that long structured the Arab world, namely, states defined according to the territorial nation-state model, with clear borders and an authoritative central government. The weakness of the central governments has led to the expansion of ungoverned peripheries and the blurring of borders, which in turn has enabled jihadist organizations and foreign elements to penetrate state territory and create military and political bases of operation, thereby challenging central governments and systematically undermining state structures. The failed states are thus not simply a local problem, but constitute a global challenge due to the instability they export to other areas and the regional and international confrontations they invite. In recent decades, the West has tried to deal with the failed state phenomenon by means of humanitarian intervention and reconstruction missions, but in most cases these efforts have failed. The international community has found it difficult to reach a consensus regarding determined intervention that will be based on a broad coalition and enjoy the support of the superpowers and the UN Security Council. The result is war and human tragedy on a scale not seen in the Middle East for centuries. The Arab World on the Road to State Failure examines the causes and characteristics of the failed state in the Middle East and its spread throughout the region, and evaluates the implications of the phenomenon for Israel, as well as for the regional and international arenas