ABSTRACT

T he restoration of law and order, and a return to some normalcy and economic development in Iraq, has been a persistent desire for its people since 2003. The challenges of daily life in the shadow of the war against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), in addition to a fall in oil prices toward the middle of 2014, have proven detrimental to the country’s development. The scourge of the post-2003 insurgency, and the sectarian conflict and demographic changes that accompanied it from 2006 to 2008 and after 2014, have made both social and economic repair more difficult. There were also indications of cultural changes that would shape the new Iraq, especially in the media and in education, as the country struggled to find a new identity and ways of coping with its new freedoms after 2003, in addition to coping with new threats such as the resurgent ISIS. Most of the literature on Iraq since the rise of ISIS has focused on the security-related aspects, analyzing the strategic political and military responses to this crisis. Equally important, however, is the nation’s cultural milieu and the evolution of socioeconomic conditions since 2003. Both provide context for understanding the emergence of ISIS and its impact on Iraq’s national development.