Shia Ascendancy in Iraq and the Sectarian Polarisation of the Middle East

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the evolution of sectarianism in post-2003 Iraq, looking in particular at the issue of Sunni–Shia political relations and how sectarianism in the formative stages of the new Iraq has come to define the Iraqi state and society today. Against this backdrop, it analyzes the impact it has had on the sectarian polarisation of the region. It argues that the 2003 toppling of the Baath regime set in motion a series of events that, in the absence of authoritarian and violent containment, allowed pre-existing cycles of sectarian divisions and struggles to spin at a much more destructive rate, with far-reaching consequences for Iraq and the broader region. In this respect, the first legacy of the Iraq War is the intensification of sectarian tensions in Iraq, namely the divide between Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities; the second is the impact this has had on the definition and identity of the Iraqi state, as a result of the rise and liberation of the Shias and the Shia identity, and ultimately on sectarian polarisation in the Middle East.