RUSI Middle East Forum - The Second Iraqi State: Prospects and Challenges

13:00, 8 Dec 2008
RUSI, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2ET

Link to map: multimap

About the event:

RUSI Middle East Forum
The Second Iraqi State: Prospects and Challenges

8 December 2008

1300 – 1400 hours

Royal United Services Institute, Whitehall, London

Mr Ali Allawi
Former Interim Minister of Trade, Iraq (2003–2004);
First Interim Minister of Defence, Iraq (2004–2005); and
Former Minister of Finance (2005–2006), Transitional Iraq Government

About the Event:

The first Iraqi state, midwifed by the British, was born in 1921 and was destroyed in 2003 with the US-led invasion and occupation of the country. Between these times, Iraqis more or less ran the country, but ultimately with disastrous consequences for state and society.

The second Iraqi state, midwifed by the United States, is in the process of being delineated. Whilst the first Iraqi state was built on the notion of a centralised state, a strong military, a dominant Sunni Arab class, an authoritarian political culture, a clear secular tilt, and an affirmation of Iraq’s Arab identity, the second Iraqi state – during a period of crisis from 2003 to 2007 – has essentially reversed or changed almost all of these priorities.

In this RUSI Middle East Forum, Mr Ali Allawi will discuss the prospects and challenges associated with the development of the second Iraqi state. Against the background of the country’s forthcoming provincial elections in January 2009, Mr Allawi will also examine the diverse social, economic, cultural and political elements of this new Iraqi order. There is still a question mark over the survival and success of the second Iraqi state. It might very well suffer the same crisis of legitimacy were it to lose relevance or meaning to some, or most, of the country’s inhabitants.

 
About the Speaker:

From September 2003 to June 2004, Mr Ali Allawi served as the Interim Minister of Trade in the new Government of Iraq. In April 2004, he was also appointed to the post of the first Interim Minister of Defence of Iraq. In January 2005, he was elected to Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly as a member of the United Iraqi Alliance and, in April 2005, he was appointed to the post of Minister of Finance in the Transitional Iraq Government. He is author of The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace (Yale University Press, 2007).

This event is open to RUSI Members only and spaces are limited.

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Event manager: Ayesha Stout, +44 (0)20 7747 2600