Iraq 20 Years after the US Invasion: The Politics and Memory of the Transition from Dictatorship and Occupation

The US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 was a watershed event in recent history. It ended the reign of one of the most brutal anciens régimes in the Middle East. Together with the war in Afghanistan, it marked the beginning of American “forever wars.” Europe was reframed by the United States as a region with an “old” and a “new” part, and the regional power balance shifted in favour of Iran. The impact on Iraq was profound: Outright dictatorship gave way to civil war and the construction of a hybrid regime that combined sectarianism and formally democratic institutions with rampant corruption and authoritarian forms of patronage. Yet the transition also opened new opportunities for Iraqi civil society to express its aspiration and grievances, including vis-à-vis the politics of gender, minorities, and memory. Economic sectors such as education, health care, and natural resources underwent new developments and legal and governance structures were reformed.

This online lecture series by internationally renowned experts gives an overview of developments since the invasion in 2003, discusses how they have shaped Iraqi society, and provide an outlook on possible future pathways.

The Politics of Memory II  Tuesday, 20 June 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST) Speakers: “Rewriting history between Ba‘athist politics under the Saddam era and Islamic parties after 2003”  Amer Sultan (Al Salam University Company, Kuwait and Bangor University, UK) 

“Iraqi Martyrdom Foundation (Mu’assassat al-Shuhada’), a public institution founded in 2006: What values does it convey, and what discourses does it engender?”  Arran Walshe (New York University, USA)

“Repatriation and Retribution? The Archives of Saddam Hussein’s Baʿth Party and the Politics of Remembering the Baʿthist Era in Iraq” Michael Brill (Princeton University, USA)

Moderator: Dina Khoury (George Washington University, USA)

The Politics of Memory I  

Tuesday, 13 June 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST) Speakers: “Presentation of the Hoover archives and their challenges”  Haidar Hadi (Stanford University, USA) 

“A Tale of Two De-Ba‘athifications in Iraq: Evidence from Erbil and Baghdad”  Ruiheng Li (Peking University, China) 

“Behind Closed Doors: Saddam’s Chemical War Strategy”  Asher Orkaby (Princeton University’s Transregional Institute / Harvard University, USA)  

Moderator: André Bank (GIGA) 

Gender Politics and Imaginaries in Iraq  

Tuesday, 6 June 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST) Speakers: “Iraq Remembered – The Meaning of Home in the Narratives of Iraqi Women Refugees in Jordan and the USA”  Isis Nusair (Denison University, USA) 

“Gender Policy and Its Relations with Women’s Political Participation in Parliamentarian Action in the Kurdistan Region”  Zhiya Qader (University of Sulaimani, KRI, Iraq) 

“The Impact of War, Invasion and Nationalism on Iraqi Women in Muhsin Al-Ramli’s ‘I Killed Her Because I Loved Her’”  Thamir R. S. Az-Zubaidy (Wasit University, Iraq)  

Moderator: Nadje Al-Ali (Brown University, USA) 

Violence and Protests

Tuesday, 30 May 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST) Speakers: “State and Sufism in Iraq: The Sufi Insurgency of the Former Baʿath Regime”  David Jordan (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany) 

“Is Protest a Luxury? Evidence from Post-ISIS Iraq”  Mujtaba Ali Isani (King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Saudi Arabia, and University of Mannheim, Germany) 

Moderator: Achim Rohde (Academy in exile / Universität Hamburg) 

Iraqi Politics  Tuesday, 23 May 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST)

Speakers: “How do geo-historical factors affect political preference: The case of the Baghdad constituency in the Iraqi parliamentary election in 2021” Keiko Sakai (Chiba University, Japan) 

“The new Iraqi state and the ruling families”  Sardar Aziz (former senior adviser in Kurdistan Parliament/Iraq) (co-author Bilal Wahab) 

“The Muhasasa System, Ethnosectarian Identities, and Popular Protests in Iraq”  Jinan Al-Habbal (London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK) 

Moderator: Hamit Bozarslan (EHESS) 

Art and Literature  

Tuesday, 9 May 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST)

Speakers: “Samir Naqqash, Jewish Iraqi author, settled in Israel, and his possible reappropriation in Iraqi culture”  Phoebe Carter (Harvard University, USA) 

“Post-2003 events in Iraqi literature”  Ronen Zeidel (Tel Aviv University)

“The ‘First True Iraqi Citizen’: The Pitfalls of the Nation in Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013)”  Nuha Askar (Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) 

Moderator: Achim Rohde (Academy in exile/Universität Hamburg) 

Institutions: Education, Health, and the Legal System  Tuesday, 2 May 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST)

Speakers: “We Don’t Need No Education? The Challenges of the Higher Education Sector of the KRI”  Silvia Nicola (Bundeswehr Center for Military History and Social Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) 

“Constitutional reform in Iraq focusing on legal and constitutional change”  Mohammad Koperly (Al Nesoor Law Firm, Baghdad, Iraq) 

“Sectarianism and the Epidemic of Mental Illness in Iraq”  Ruba Ali Al-Hassani (Lancaster University, UK) 

Moderator: Dalia Abid (American University of Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq) 

Economy and Natural Resources Tuesday, 25 April 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST)

Speakers: “Legacies of Hydrological Change and Political Conflict in Iraq”  Ariel Ahram and Farhad Mamshai (Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs, USA) 

“An Analysis of the Sustainable Development Policies and Natural Resources Governance in Iraq: 1990–2020”  Adnan Aljawareen (University of Basrah, Iraq) 

“Political Economy of Modernization in Iraq: Challenges & Consequences”  Ebrahim Abbassi (Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran) 

Moderator: Eckart Woertz (GIGA and Universität Hamburg)  

The Politics of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Tuesday, 18 April 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST)

Speakers: “Institutionalising Islamism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq”  Ibrahim Malazada (Soran University, KRI, Iraq) 

“The War at Home: The Need for Internal Security Sector Reform in Iraqi Kurdistan” Mera Bakr (Freelance Consultant and Researcher)

“Food Security, the Public Distribution System and Cooperation between Baghdad and Erbil” Eckart Woertz (GIGA and Universität Hamburg) 

Moderator: Dastan Jasim (GIGA and University of Erlangen) 

Diaspora and Identity Politics

Tuesday, 11 April 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST)

Speakers: “A Saddam Cult in Jordan? How the 2003 Iraq war has re-shaped identity politics in the near abroad”  André Bank (German Institute for Global and Area Studies, Germany) 

“The Ba‘athist Struggle for the Iraqi Diaspora”  Samuel Helfont (Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, USA) 

“Twenty years of Iraqi History Since the Fall of Saddam Hussein through the Lens of the Iraq Chamber of the Hamburg Administrative Court”  Nils Lukacs (Universität Hamburg, Germany)  

Moderator: Ibrahim Al-Marashi (California State University San Marcos, USA) 

War and the Military Security Complex in Iraq  

Tuesday, 4 April 2023 | 6:00–7:15 p.m. (CEST)

Speakers: “The U.S. Army and Iraqi Security Forces: Legacy and Rebuilding”  Kate Tietzen-Wisdom (U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington D.C., USA) 

“Stand-Off Warfare since the 2003 Iraq War: Mercenaries, Drones, and Their Proliferation” Ibrahim Al-Marashi (California State University San Marcos, USA) 

“Iraq: US Grand Strategy and the Unlearned Lessons of the Iraq War” James Russell (Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, USA) 

Moderator: Eckart Woertz (GIGA and Universität Hamburg)