Iraq

Abstract

Mesopotamia (now modern Iraq) was historically part of the Ottoman Empire and was ruled as a set of three regions until the end of World War I, with the UK assuming control of modern Iraq as mandated by the League of Nations (Deflem and Sutphin 2006). The UK established the first Iraqi police academy in 1914 and a police college in 1947 to create a police force with a military-style chain of command (see Pfaff 2008). Iraq became independent in 1932 and was ruled by the Hashemite monarchy until 1958 (Deflem and Sutphin 2006). During Hashemite rule, Kurds, Shi’ia groups and mullahs fought against the monarchy and its British supporters (Rathmell 2005), and in 1958, the Iraqi military staged a coup whereby Prime Minister Qassem established a left-leaning republic that was friendly to the Soviet Union (Arabic Media 2003; Deflem and Sutphin 2006). Qassem was assassinated in 1963, and the military installed another government under the Ba’ath party. In only nine months, however, the government was deposed in another coup, resulting in leadership changes until the Ba’ath party regained power in 1968 (Arabic Media 2003). Saddam Hussein slowly gained power and took control of the country in 1979. The Revolutionary Command Council led by Hussein was comprised mainly of Sunnis, and the Ba’ath party controlled all government institutions in such a way that state structures fully supported dictatorial rule (Deflem and Sutphin 2006; Perito 2004). Hussein maintained power by concentrating decision-making among family, close acquaintances, and tribal members, and ’skilfully balanced competing forces within the country, playing on ethnic and religious rivalries and using co-optation and financial inducements’ (Perito 2004: 299).