@article{2016:hinnebusch:state_dec,
title = {State De-Construction in Iraq and Syria},
year = {2016},
note = {In International Historical Sociology, states and states systems
co-constitute each other. While IHS focuses on state formation, this
paper argues that state de-formation, and in its extremes, state
failure, is also “co-constituted”. In Syria and Iraq, state
failure was co-constituted through an interaction between internal
insurgencies and the Western interventions aiming at regime change.
Iraq and Syria were created by Western imperialism as weak states
suffering from identity fragmentation and pervasive irredentism.
Ba’thist state builders used populist versions of neo-patrimonialism
to consolidate regimes but excluded social forces were permanently
poised for rebellion and regime decline gave them opportunities to bid
for power. Nevertheless, external intervention was the extra factor
that initiated state de-construction and tipped both into failed
states. In Iraq the US invasion deconstructed the existing state and
established a sectarian based regime bound to fail. In Syria,
shrinking in- clusiveness led to revolt but external intervention,
making it a battleground of regional and global powers, tipped the
country into a failed state. Two failed states left a vacuum in which
the ‘Islamic State’ arose, inviting yet a further round of
external intervention.},
journal = {PVS Politische Vierteljahresschrift},
pages = {560--585},
author = {Hinnebusch, Raymond},
volume = {57},
number = {4}
}