The State
Ahmad Zarean
Abstract
After the massive and sudden attack of ISIS on Iraq, the existence of the Iraqi state and nation and the sanctities of Muslims were under serious threat. While ISIS was approaching gates of Baghdad and the Iraqi army and security forces were not able to deal with it, with Ayatollah Sistani's fatwa regarding ...
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After the massive and sudden attack of ISIS on Iraq, the existence of the Iraqi state and nation and the sanctities of Muslims were under serious threat. While ISIS was approaching gates of Baghdad and the Iraqi army and security forces were not able to deal with it, with Ayatollah Sistani's fatwa regarding jihad to confront ISIS and ward off this real danger, a defense-security organization called Hashd al-Shaabi, consisting of volunteers People and militia groups, which are considered the military arm of Iraqi political parties and currents, were formed. The Iraqi state, which was in a state of emergency, supported the formation of this new defense-security organization and provided it with financial, logistical and weapons support. With the threat of ISISremoval and the end of state of emergency, the existence of such an organization, which is mainly controlled by militia groups, has become a significant challenge for Iraqi state, which seeks to obtain a monopoly on the use of legitimate force. Therefore, after 2014, all heads of the Iraqi government have tried to prevent the formation of a parallel defense-security institution outside the government's control by adopting different strategies. This article, in which the data has been collected by referring to library and online sources and explained and analyzed with a descriptive-analytical method, seeks to find an authentic answer to this question: "The relationship between the Iraqi government and Hashd al-Shaabi and its constituent militia groups. How has it been?" The findings of the article show that the relationship between the Iraqi government and the militia groups was subject to the requirements of the time in such a way that in emergency and threatening situations, the government used the capacity of these groups and in the absence of these conditions, these groups were considered by the government as a disturbing, undesirable and threatening element, a range of control policies and strategies have been applied to them by the Iraqi government. In the post-crisis era, the Iraqi government, as a system actor that considers itself committed and accountable to the existing rules, norms and order, cannot support the anti-systemic actions of the militia groups that it cooperated with and supported during the ISIS crisis in the form of Hashd al-Shaabi. to bear Therefore, since 2014, the governments of Haider al-Abadi, Adel Abdul Mahdi and Mostafa Al-Kazemi have tried to control these groups as much as possible through adopting a series of strategies and measures. Among the four strategies of repression, containment, collusion and integration, these governments have put two strategies of collusion and integration on their agenda. The reason for choosing these two strategies is that, firstly, Hashd al-Shaabi and its constituent groups are still considered strategic allies of the government, and the political currents of which these groups are considered as their military arm participate in the political process and in the formation of the government. Secondly, even if these groups strongly deviate from the government's criteria and the relationship between the militia groups turns from reconciliation to conflict, the Iraqi government does not have the ability to restrain or suppress these groups. In the collusion strategy, the Iraqi government tries to relatively control the actions of Hashd al-Shaabi groups by granting some concessions and through financial and logistical support tools. As well, in the integration strategy, the Iraqi government has put the recruitment of the Hashd al-Shaabi and its integration in the official Iraqi defense-security structures on its agenda, and the heads of the Iraqi government have issued orders and adopted measures in this regard. Collusion and integration strategies have not been able to be fully and effectively implemented due to the resistance and opposition of the commanders of the militia groups and their insistence on their organizational independence and ideological and identity foundations, and these two strategies have only been implemented superficially and formally.
Seyed Amir Niakooee; Saeed Pirmohammadi
Abstract
The Arab Awakening which encompassed the broad region of the Middle East and North Africa led to a huge change in the internal politics and especially the pattern of statehood in the region. In the state level, the mentioned developments were accompanied with the symptoms of evolution in the structure ...
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The Arab Awakening which encompassed the broad region of the Middle East and North Africa led to a huge change in the internal politics and especially the pattern of statehood in the region. In the state level, the mentioned developments were accompanied with the symptoms of evolution in the structure of states in the region. In the present paper, the authors are going to explore the transition of Iraq and Syria from statehood to quasi statehood since the eruption of uprisings and civil wars in the region. the recognised Quasi states examined here have been recognised as a political entity. however they lack legitimacy and monopoly in exercizing power in the given territory. It is noteworthy that the context of this evolution in Iraq started since the overthrow of Sadam in 2003 and exacerbated since the Arab spring. The main question of the manuscript is as follows: how can the transition of Iraq and Syria from statehood to quasi statehood since the eruption of the uprising in the region be explained? Accordingly, the following hypothesis has been examined: The weakness of nation state and legitimacy, identity and participation crises coupled with the destructive roles of foreign actors have led to the mentioned transition in Iraq and Syria. The methodology of the manuscript is descriptive explanatory approach and the method of gathering data is based on library studies.
Hoda Ghafari; Maziyar Khademi
Abstract
The function of protection institution of the constitutional in every legal system is always protecting the aspirations of the nation and fundamental rights. This institution can accelerate or even weaken the movement of people in countries that are transitioning to democracy. Public trust in these institutions ...
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The function of protection institution of the constitutional in every legal system is always protecting the aspirations of the nation and fundamental rights. This institution can accelerate or even weaken the movement of people in countries that are transitioning to democracy. Public trust in these institutions is closely linked to their independence. The effective factor of this independence is the appointment of the judges of the courts. As for the various systems of selection of judges, it is possible to determine the extent and manner of the interference of other organizations in this regard. Iraq and Turkey, which have undergone democratic changes in recent years, have experienced varying degrees of independence and, consequently, legitimacy by following different patterns of selection of constitutional judges. With the implementation of administrative model, the Iraqi state has strongly influenced the executive branch, and the issuance of unilateral sentences for the benefit of the ruling party can prove this hypothesis. However, Turkey, deviating from the executive model and accepting a multi-domain pattern, has increased the participation of civil society organizations and other branches in the selection of court judges and increased the legitimacy of the court.
Shahrouz Shariati
Abstract
Geographical continuities, intraregional requirements, underdevelopment, and energy issue are among the issues which can justify the convergence of the Iran-Iraq economic relations; Iran and Iraq both are among Middle Eastern countries whose fundamentals of power and political legitimacy have been ...
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Geographical continuities, intraregional requirements, underdevelopment, and energy issue are among the issues which can justify the convergence of the Iran-Iraq economic relations; Iran and Iraq both are among Middle Eastern countries whose fundamentals of power and political legitimacy have been formed on the basis of religion. These two countries have many convergence grounds including Kurds issue, cooperation with OPEC, cultural and religious subjects, and the problem of foreign intervention. But despite the convergence factors, there are some factors such as capturing the regional consumer markets and production and the sale of oil that place the two countries against each other. This article by political economy approach and using a theoretical framework which is based on "the rentier state theory" and "integration theory" will assess the internal problematic of integration between Iran and Iraq by studying the structure of power in the region, and it will deal with the feasibility assessment of the convergence grounds of these two countries. This essay will show that domination of rentierism over the two countries’ state is the most significant obstacle for regional integration. Finally, the article will present some proposes which can help the promotion of economic cooperation and integration between Iran and Iraq in the region.
