This paper examines the deep historical roots of social conflict in Iraq, tracing patterns of division and violence from the ancient Sumerian city-states of the Tigris-Euphrates basin through the Arab conquest of the 7th century AD and into the modern era. Drawing on peer-reviewed and scholarly literature, the paper explores power struggles between rival clans, hostility with neighboring states, Iraq's so-called "resource curse" tied to its oil reserves, and the country's deteriorating relations with the West. The analysis connects these historical patterns to the distinctive political landscape of contemporary Iraq, arguing that powerful religious and ethnic differences have perpetuated cycles of social conflict across millennia.
This study guide is drawn from PaperDue's library of 130,000+ paper examples across 47 subjects.
The paper demonstrates effective use of historical synthesis — drawing on multiple scholarly sources across different periods and disciplines (ancient military history, political science, sociology) to build a unified argument. By connecting Staub's sociological observations on ethnic violence to Gabriel and Metz's military history of Sumer, the paper shows how to anchor a broad thesis in diverse evidence without losing argumentative coherence.
The paper follows a chronological-thematic structure: it opens with a scoping introduction that states the thesis and research scope, then moves into a "Review and Discussion" section that traces conflict from ancient Sumer through the Arab conquest to the modern era. The resource curse argument introduces an economic dimension before the paper moves toward its conclusion. This organization mirrors a standard literature review format, guiding the reader from ancient origins to contemporary implications.
As the "cradle of civilization," it is not surprising that the history of social conflict in Iraq is as ancient as mankind itself. Unfortunately, the intervening millennia have not brought any substantive or lasting peace to this region. Instead, they have provided opportunities for still further major social conflicts over resources and ideological differences — conflicts that have shaped the course of the country's destiny and molded it into modern-day Iraq. Moreover, it would appear reasonable to assert that, based on the powerful historic religious differences that have divided the country, these patterns of social conflict will likely continue well into the foreseeable future.
To gain a better understanding of what the basis for this divisiveness has been, this paper reviews the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning modern Iraq's history of social conflict, power struggles between rival clans, hostility and wars with neighboring states, the aftermath of those struggles, and Iraq's deteriorating relations with the West. An analysis of the course of the modern state of Iraq's development — and how this led to its distinctive politics today — is followed by a summary of the research and salient findings in the conclusion.
As the United States continues to prosecute a war on terrorism with its front lines in Iraq, the people of Iraq at least have something in common they can agree upon: no one likes foreign troops on their soil, at least against their collective will, and it is likely that most Iraqi citizens would like to see the war over and things return to "normal" as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Iraq has never been able to achieve a long-term sense of "normality" in terms of social conflict, because when foreigners are not invading them, the different peoples of Iraq have plenty to disagree about among themselves.
According to Staub (1999), "We live in a time where genocide, mass killing, and other violence by groups of people directed at groups defined by their ethnicity, race, religion, culture, or political affiliation is widespread" (p. 303). In reality, though, such social conflict based on these differences is not a modern phenomenon; it is rather as ancient as mankind itself, and its roots can be traced directly to Iraq and the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The encyclopedic entry for Iraq notes that before the Arabs conquered the country in the 7th century AD, Iraq had been the site of a number of flourishing civilizations, including Sumer — which developed one of the earliest known writing systems — as well as Akkad, Babylonia, and Assyria (Iraq, 2004). Sumer and Akkad were the two city-states that produced the most sophisticated armies of the Bronze Age (Gabriel & Metz, 1991).
The Greeks called the area Mesopotamia, meaning "the land between the two rivers," a reference to the Tigris and Euphrates basin. In the Bible, however, the region is referred to as "Shumer," the original Sumerian word for the southern part of Iraq — the site of Sumer, with its capital at the city of Ur (Gabriel & Metz, 1991).
Modern social organization, and therefore modern social conflict, finds its collective historic basis in Iraq. According to Roux (1993), people first manifested the high degree of cooperative human effort necessary to make urban life possible in the early Sumerian cities of Eridu and Uruk. Gabriel and Metz report that these two cities "reflected the evidence of this cooperation in the dikes, walls, irrigation canals, and temples, especially the giant ziggurates, which date from the fourth millennium" (p. 4). An efficient agricultural system made it possible to free large numbers of people from the land, and the cities of ancient Sumer produced social structures comprised largely of freemen who met in concert to govern themselves.
Early Sumerian cities were characterized by a high degree of social and economic diversity, which gave rise to artisans, merchants, priests, bureaucrats, road and temple architects, and professional soldiers (Gabriel & Metz, 1991). Much like the increasingly multicultural society in the United States today, ancient Sumerian civilization was also comprised of a polyglot of ethnic peoples. Nevertheless, all fourteen of the major city-states of the region shared essentially the same culture: "For the most part all Sumerian states had the same political institutions, economic practices, religious beliefs and practices, gods, legends, administrative language, and general way of life. Not surprisingly, they also developed the same military forms" (Gabriel & Metz, 1991, p. 5).
The 1,200 years following the Arab conquest of the country have been marked by a steady stream of invasions, wars, incursions, and revolts. In this regard, it would seem that — in spite of, or perhaps because of, Iraq's abundant natural oil reserves — modern Iraq's history has been influenced more by foreign powers than by the Iraqi people themselves.
Iraq's history of social conflict stretches back to the very origins of human civilization. The patterns established in ancient Mesopotamia — ethnic rivalry, resource competition, and foreign intervention — continue to shape the country's modern political landscape. From the city-states of Sumer through the Arab conquest, centuries of invasion, and the exploitation of oil wealth by foreign powers, Iraq has rarely known lasting peace. The powerful religious and ethnic divisions that have long defined the region suggest that social conflict will remain a defining feature of Iraqi society well into the foreseeable future.
You’re 87% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 1 section.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.