The Insurgent State

Résumé du livre

This study examines selected instances of communal dissent among Iraq's 5 Kurds, Assyrians, and Shi'is to uncover the impact of provincial insurgency on the formation of the Iraqi state from 1919 to 1936. Undertaken for economic, political and personal motives, armed dissent in the rural periphery presented a dire threat to the state-building efforts of the Hashimite monarchy and the Sunni elite. By demonstrating that the Iraqi government was incapable of policing its own territory, internal rebellions threatened to erode the state's autonomy from Britain. Moreover, successive revolts by the Kurds, Assyrians, and Shi.