State matters : theorizing state fragmentation and consolidation from Iraq / Nida Alahmad, University of Edinburgh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alahmad, Nida, Author.

Series:

Global Middle East (Cambridge, England).

The global Middle East

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nation-building--Iraq.

Nation-building.

Legitimacy of governments--Iraq.

Legitimacy of governments.

State, The.

Iraq--Politics and government.

Iraq.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xx, 236 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

The people, the state, and questions of legitimation

Domination and violence at a war-counterinsurgency nexus

Consolidating in the margins

Undoing of a state : state-building and the electrical grid

Theoretical reflections on the illusive business of capturing the state

Epilogue: Who decides?

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Mar 2026).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-67398-X

1-009-67396-3

1-009-67397-1

9781009673969