State Matters: Theorizing State Fragmentation and Consolidation from Iraq (The Global Middle East)

Alahmad, Nida

ISBN 10: 1009673955 / ISBN 13: 9781009673952

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2026

About this Item

Seller Inventory # V9781009673952

Bibliographic Details

• Title: State Matters: Theorizing State Fragmentation and Consolidation from Iraq (The Global Middle East)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009673955
• ISBN 13: 9781009673952
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Nida Alahmad is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests connect social theory with Middle East politics. Alahmad has published in journals including Constellations and Humanity and contributed to volumes including A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa (Stanford University Press, 2020).