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Foreign Impacts Revisited: Islamists’ Struggles in Post-War Iraq

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Published/Copyright: July 23, 2013
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World Political Science
From the journal World Political Science Volume 9 Issue 1

Abstract

A great number of scholarship has been devoted to examining the impacts of domestic politics to foreign policies. Many studies have also examined the impacts of international politics to domestic politics, focusing on democracy-building or constructing political institutions within the framework of the state-building. However, such scholarship has not focused enough on the impacts of international politics to opposition forces and their relationship to political conflict in the post-conflict era. In countries that have experienced regime change, the formerly exiled opposition forces that became the ruling parties had changed their policies under the influence of the host country and other foreign actors in international politics during their exile. This paper sheds light on the two main Iraqi Islamist parties, the Da‘wa Party and the SCIRI, and clarifies their changing policies under the influence of the host countries and international politics. It also makes clear how these changes were reflected by the political conflict in post-war Iraq. Scholars of Iraqi politics have discussed the reasons of political conflict in post-war Iraq as following: (1) sectarian conflicts as a result of the artificiality of the Iraqi state; and (2) struggles for the mobilization of votes in elections. Against these arguments, this paper considers the historical and international impacts on the formerly exiled Islamist ruling parties as a more significant factor in explaining the reasons for political conflict in post-war Iraq.

By analyzing primary sources on segments of the Da‘wa Party and the SCIRI after their exile, the following two facts are clarified: First, the two Islamist parties came to have differing ideology as well as policy as a result of the influences from the host country and international politics, which reflected the political conflict in post-war Iraq. The SCIRI maintained good relations with the host country, Iran, and had its original Islamist ideology, while the Da‘wa Party, not being able to maintain cooperative relations with the host country, consequently changed its Islamist ideology to a more nationalist ideology under the direct influence of Western society. In the post-war era, the SCIRI attempted to construct a regional government in the south based on a transnational Islamist ideology, while the Da‘wa Party attempted to construct a centralized government based on a nationalism that aimed to strengthen national unity. Second, the international societies’ intervention into the Iraqi opposition forces created mutual distrust, which in turn prolonged political conflict in post-war era. Therefore, an analysis of the historical and international impacts on opposition forces is necessary to understand the reasons for the political struggles in the post-conflict countries.

Keywords: foreign impact; Islamist; state building; Iraq
Corresponding author: Yamao Dai, Kyushu University, Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, 744 Motooka Nishi-ku, Fukuoka-city, Japan, 819-0395, e-mail:
  1. 1

    On this argument, see (Goldstein and Keohane eds. 1993; Snyder 1991).

  2. 2

    On state-building after the conflict, see (Paris and Sisk eds. 2009). As for the democratization and international politics, see (Tsunekawa 2000; Kogure 2001).

  3. 3

    Ra’uf pointed out that the relationships among the Islamists under the SCIRI could be divided into the following three categories (Ra’ūf 2000: pp. 317–319): (1) the “semi-permanent alliance type” that aims to build and maintain another organization semi-permanently under the framework of the SCIRI; (2) the “limited coordination type” that maintained coordination even though a conflict emerged in the crisis; and (3) the “dialogue type” that coordinated relationships with other organizations through dialogue but maintained that the framework of the SCIRI should be respected. The Da‘wa Party and the Islamic Task Organization should be categorised as the “limited coordination type.” The independent Islamists as well as the Husaini Faction of the Da‘wa Party and the Abu Yasin Faction of the Islamic Task Organization should be categorised as the “semi-permanent alliance type.”

  4. 4

    The Iranian authorities provided military training to the SCIRI; Mahmud al-Hashimi inspected the training camp in Ahvaz where the united military force of the SCIRI underwent training with the Iranian semi-military organization, Basij Unit (FBIS 12 Nov. 1985).

  5. 5

    The Chairman, al-Hakim, repeatedly called on the Iraqi people and soldiers to join the Islamist opposition groups to overcome the Ba‘thist dictatorship (BI 15 Mar. 1986: FBIS 17 Feb. 1984; 23 Feb. 1984; 6 Mar. 1984; 5 Oct. 1984).

  6. 6

    Author interview with ‘Ali Maurawi (member of International Relations, the Da‘wa Party in London); conducted on 17 Aug. 2009 at the Da‘wa Party’s office in London.

  7. 7

    On the ideologies of the Iranian Islamic revolution, see (Abrahamian 1993; Moaddel 1993; Milani 1994).

  8. 8

    Calculated by the following sources (Ra’ūf 2000: pp. 221–226, pp. 305–316; Jabar 2003: pp. 239–249).

  9. 9

    Author interview with ‘Ali Maurawi (member of International Relations, Da‘wa Party, in London); conducted on 17 Aug. 2009 at the Da‘wa Party’s office in London.

  10. 10

    The election system for selecting party senior members in the Da‘wa Party’s established organization was able to exclude senior ulama at that time (Yamao 2009).

  11. 11

    Author interview with Zuhair al-Nahir (Director of International Relations, Da‘wa Party, Europe) and Muntadhar Najim (Director of International Relations, Da‘wa Party, London), conducted on 9 June 2008 at the Da‘wa Party’s office in London. Some researchers also argue that this is a reason for the Da‘wa Party’s separation. Amatzia Baram mentioned that Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim’s growing sense of grandeur, which made cooperation with other movements difficult, found expression in the introduction of a traditional ceremony during the late 1980s in which delegations would “renew an oath of allegiance” to him by giving the traditional Islamic bay’a (Baram 1994: p. 549; Jabar 2003: p. 249).

  12. 12

    This committee was composed of two Islamists, one Kurd, one member of the Iraqi Communist Party, and one member of the pro-Syrian Ba‘th Party. There was also a secretariat composed of 17 members and a consultative assembly of 48 members. Jawad al-Maliki (the Iraqi Prime Minister after 2006) was elected president.

  13. 13

    On Iraqi opposition movements in the 1990s and their “internationalization,” see (al-Shamrānī 2003).

  14. 14

    The US also attempted to find the cooperators within the opposition groups. The US Congress passed the Iraqi Liberation Act, pledging USD $97 million to the opposition groups in October 1987. Based on this Act, the US government selected seven organizations (the KDP, PUK, INC, INA, SCIRI, Kurdistan Islamic Movement, and Constitutional Monarchy Movement) as cooperators against the Ba’thist regime (Sakai 2005: pp. 14–15).

  15. 15

    The Da‘wa Party opposed the federal system advocated by the INC. Condemning federalism as a segmentation of the homeland, the party stressed the need to preserve Iraqi unity, resist occupation by the Americans, and maintain Iraqi sovereignty. Raising the banner of Iraqi nationalism and patriotism, the party maintained that it would fight for a united Iraq.

  16. 16

    The party also criticized the US for a series of aerial bombardments of Iraq in the mid-1990s, as well as Turkey’s deployment of its Army in May 1997 to fight the PKK opposition in northern Iraq, seeing both as damaging Iraqi sovereignty (SI 2 Jun 1997). In sum, the Da‘wa Party opposed foreign invasion of its homeland, maintaining the need to protect Iraqi sovereignty and unite the territorial state (SI 4 Oct. 1995).

  17. 17

    The Da‘wa Party emphasised the necessity for cooperation between opposition movements inside Iraq, mobilizing Iraqi people for anti-Ba‘thist action in the entirely different political situation of the 1990s, under its new manifesto “Political Project for Iraqi opposition groups” (SI 2 Jan. 1998).

  18. 18

    I am referring here to the political program and organs of the SCIRI (SCIRI 1994; BIJan. 1986–Apr. 1992; NR 1991–1996).

  19. 19

    ‘Ammar al-Hakim is former SCIRI chairman, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Hakim’s son, who became the new chairman on 1 Sep. 2009, after the death of his father.

  20. 20

    ‘Ammar al-Hakim advocated the formation of a central regional government based in Baghdad and a southern government based in Najaf and Karbala, which, together with the Kurdistan Regional Government in the north, would constitute an Iraqi federal structure (al-‘Adāla 17 Jan. 2008). He also suggested that regional governments should have powers over tribal leadership, community leaders, and their budgets (al-Hayāt 25 Sep. 2008). An executive member of the SCIRI, al-Hammudi, stressed that the distribution of power to the regional governments was essential (IPA8 Nov. 2008).

  21. 21

    The Iraqi constitution states: “The Republic of Iraq is an independent sovereign state whose system of government shall be republic, representative (parliamentary), democratic, and federal” (Article 1).

  22. 22

    The SCIRI often consults with the Iranian regime regarding its policy-making (BJ 21 Nov. 2007). When the Iraqi government was negotiating with the US on an agreement about the US’s withdrawal, the SCIRI consulted the Iranian regime several times (al-Zamān 17 Nov. 2008).

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Published Online: 2013-7-23

©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0007
Keywords for this article
foreign impact; Islamist; state building; Iraq

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Article
  3. The Production of Institutional Facts in Economic Discourse
  4. Different Paths of Transitional Justice in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland
  5. Homo Politicus – Towards a Theory of Political Action and Motivation
  6. Global Victimhood: On the Charisma of the Victim in Transitional Justice Processes
  7. Intervention and Promotion of Democracy. The Paradoxes of External Democratization and the Power-Sharing Between International Officials and Local Political Leaders
  8. Foreign Impacts Revisited: Islamists’ Struggles in Post-War Iraq
  9. Concentration of Decision-Making Power: Investigating the Role of the Norwegian Cabinet Subcommittee
  10. Referendum: A Complement or a Threat to Representative Democracy?
  11. MKs Usage of Personal Internet Tools, 2009: On the verge of a New Decade
  12. Ten Years of European Impact Assessment: How It Works, for What and for Whom
  13. Political Parties and Pension Generosity in Times of Permanent Austerity
  14. The Electoral Consequences of Welfare State Reforms for the Danish Social Democrats
  15. Electoral Competition and the Constituent-Representative Relationship
  16. Austria Inc. Forever? On the Stability of a Coordinated Corporate Network in Times of Privatization and Internationalization
  17. Development of Health Care in Lithuania and Estonia: Similar Conditions, Different Results
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