Iraqi Sociologist Speaks at Sociology Cafe

The director of the Iraqi Institute for Strategic Studies, Faleh Abdel Jabbar, discussed the nation and ethnicity in Iraq in the first Sociology Café gathering of the academic year that was held on October 17 at T-Marbouta Café in Hamra.

In the lecture, entitled "Ethnicity, Nationness and Statehood: the Case in Iraq," Abdel Jabbar introduced three schools of thought dealing with the idea of "nationness." The first is the modernist school, which sees nations as the result of modernity, industrialism, free society, science, and culture. The second school of thought says that nations predate industrialism, as they are formed by language and culture. And the third school, personalized by Anthony Smith, sees the nation as a compromise between the first two schools.

Starting with the basic definition of nation, Abdel Jabbar referred to "culture," as a nationalist marker of different groups and a sign of exclusiveness, which includes languages and race. He then discussed nationness as a result of unified markets, such as currencies and other material webs that unite individuals. In addition, there is a cultural web, made up of the press, universities, print capitalism, and the media. The third is the political apparatus. "Some nations develop the three systems into one unit. Some nations start from a unified market and culture. Only then can a unified political apparatus emerge," Abdel Jabbar said. As for developing countries, they do it the opposite way round and are what are called "artificial nations."

The Arab states, previously part of the Ottoman Empire, faced two layers of identity and therefore two levels of communication: one is the elite and the other is the Islamic identity. In Iraq, social identification was fragmented along religious or sectarian or tribal lines.

"At the moment, there is a fragmentation of identities [In Iraq] beyond imagination," Abdel Jabbar said. "National groups are in different multinational stages." He noted how the British drew Iraq's boundaries and built railways to connect otherwise loosely connected administrative units, namely Mosul, Basra, and Baghdad. The British then installed the political apparatus. Modern private ownership of land was introduced, which created the new Iraqi multiethnic aristocracy.

Abdel Jabbar concluded by discussing Iraq's current situation, saying: "Now, the local identity is hyper- fragmented beyond Sunni, Shiite. and Kurds. Iraqis are renegotiating their identities. Forming identities in Iraq now involves the bulk of national wealth, and controlling the government is controlling the economy and the wealth, which makes it fierce."