ABSTRACT
Modern Iraq was established by the British after the First World War. The tenuous nature of Iraq as a political community was the principal factor in the country's domestic politics and in the shaping of its foreign policy under King Faysal. The traditional families of notables whose prosperity and status had derived from commerce and from holding key posts in the Ottoman central or municipal administration had greatly benefited from the reforms of the nineteenth century. Faysal's aspirations were important factors in the formation of Iraq and the shaping of its Arab consciousness. The relationship with modern Turkey and the latter's intentions towards Iraq were also a source of concern to Baghdad. Iraq's southern border with Nejd was subject, during the 1920s, to raids by Wahabi ikhwan. In a conversation in late 1932 with Ambassador Humphrys, Faysal argued that the weakness of Iraq and Syria made a union between them necessary.
