ABSTRACT
This study examines the impact of the Arab uprisings on state formation in the Arab world, with emphasis on Iraq and Syria. I argue that the uprisings have exacerbated a process of state fragmentation, which has roots in long-term statebuilding processes in the postcolonial era. In this process, the ability of regimes to monopolize power domestically was eroding and the states’ immunity against external penetration was waning. In Syria and Iraq, the uprisings had two direct impacts. First, they accelerated sectarian and ethnic mobilization, which was latent under the ideological hegemony of Arab nationalism, but had gradually became salient, especially after the fall of SaddamHussein in 2003 and the uprising in Syria in 2011. This not only sharply increased long-standing challenges to the monopoly of power by ruling regimes, but also has contributed to state disintegration and blocked attempts to reform their political systems. Secondly, they
accentuated Iraq and Syria’s vulnerability to external penetration by rival regional powers, making state reformation even more difficult.
