State Matters
Theorizing State Fragmentation and Consolidation from Iraq
Seiten
2026
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-1-009-67400-3 (ISBN)
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-1-009-67400-3 (ISBN)
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Moving between intellectual traditions, this study offers a historically grounded social theoretical account of state consolidation from Iraq. Nida Alahmad analyses key episodes of state consolidation (and fragmentation) during the past century, examining the nature of the state, its power, and its importance in the lives of its citizens.
Why does the state matter to its people? How do people know and experience the state? And how did the state come to be both desired and dreaded by its subjects? This study offers a historically grounded social theoretical account of state consolidation in Iraq, from the foundation of the country as a League of Nations British Mandate in 1921 through to the post-2003 era. Through analysis of key historical episodes of state consolidation (and fragmentation) during the past century, Nida Alahmad argues that consolidation rests on two sequential and interdependent factors. First, domination: the state's capacity to dominate land and population. Second, legitimation: whereby the state is accepted and expected by the population to be the final arbitrator of collective life based on common principles. Moving between intellectual traditions and disciplines, Alahmad demonstrates that a theorization of state consolidation is a theorization of the modern state.
Why does the state matter to its people? How do people know and experience the state? And how did the state come to be both desired and dreaded by its subjects? This study offers a historically grounded social theoretical account of state consolidation in Iraq, from the foundation of the country as a League of Nations British Mandate in 1921 through to the post-2003 era. Through analysis of key historical episodes of state consolidation (and fragmentation) during the past century, Nida Alahmad argues that consolidation rests on two sequential and interdependent factors. First, domination: the state's capacity to dominate land and population. Second, legitimation: whereby the state is accepted and expected by the population to be the final arbitrator of collective life based on common principles. Moving between intellectual traditions and disciplines, Alahmad demonstrates that a theorization of state consolidation is a theorization of the modern state.
Nida Alahmad is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests connect social theory with Middle East politics. Alahmad has published in journals including Constellations and Humanity and contributed to volumes including A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa (Stanford University Press, 2020).
Introduction; 1. The people, the state, and questions of legitimation; 2. Domination and violence at a war-counterinsurgency nexus; 3. Consolidating in the margins; 4. Undoing of a state: state-building and the electrical grid; 5. Theoretical reflections on the illusive business of capturing the state; Epilogue: who decides?; List of references; Index.
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 31.5.2026 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | The Global Middle East |
| Zusatzinfo | Worked examples or Exercises |
| Verlagsort | Cambridge |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Gewicht | 500 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Europäische / Internationale Politik | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-009-67400-5 / 1009674005 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-009-67400-3 / 9781009674003 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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