Modern Iraq's History of Social Conflict

Political scientist Michael J. Sodaro (2004), writing of the myriad factors impacting upon the process of democratization now underway in post-Saddam Iraq, argues that the most critical variable with the potential to disrupt or even inhibit this process is related to cultural diversity. Iraq, an artificially created country constructed out of elements of the Ottoman Empire, has long been plagued by internecine civil conflicts, violent clashes among disparate internal groups (e.g., Kurds and Arabs, Sunnis and Shi'ites) and between Iraq itself and its neighbors (Iran and Kuwait) (Tripp, 2000). Since its independence from the British Protectorate established in 1920 by the League of Nations, Iraq has experienced alternating periods of monarchial rule under the Hashemites, military coups, dictatorships, and invasion in recent years by a U.S.-led coalition (Tripp, 2002). Certainly, as Samir al-Khalil (1989) commented in a pre-Gulf War text on Iraq's history, the country has failed to achieve anything resembling harmonious relationships among its cultural groups.