Democratization and the Challenges of State-Nation in Iraq after 2003

The Middle East is one of the regions whose countries have not undergone a successful nation-state-building process compared to other parts of the world. One of the most important reasons for this is the fabrication of most Middle Eastern countries and their withdrawal from post-World War I treaties and the consequent non-compliance of the government with the nation. . Thus, both the geographical map and the state of the borders, as well as the government of these countries, were formed by foreign powers. For these reasons, Iraq has always faced ethnic and religious heterogeneity, domination with the suppression of minority groups over other groups, and as a result, tension and instability. Even after the fall of Saddam Hussein and the beginning of the democratization process, the country has faced fundamental challenges to state-nation building. This question can be examined by asking what challenges and harms the nation-building in Iraq has faced since the fall of Saddam. The hypothesis is that various internal and external challenges, such as ethnic, religious, and racial divisions, lack of national identity formation, and foreign intervention, have prevented successful nation-state building in Iraq.