ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 examines key events, junctures, and trends in national-level politics from 1958 to the end of the war with Iran in 1988. It starts with the pivotal years after the July revolution led by Abd al-Karim Qasim, details his undoing and ouster by Abd al-Salam Arif, and digs deeply into the Ba‘athist era under Hassan al-Bakr and Saddam Hussein. The chapter emphasizes how each regime sought to protect its rule at all costs, acting in an evolving context of rising oil revenues and shifting pressures from external parties. The reader will acquire a better sense for how regime efforts produced incremental but cumulative and ultimately transformative changes in Iraqi politics. Iraq transitioned in this period from a weakly institutionalized postcolonial state to a more durable authoritarian regime, as Saddam built a fearsome mukhabarat state. The chapter offers insights into how Saddam’s organizational talent, cunning political skills, close family and tribal ties, and carefully managed patronage network allowed him to defend against regime threats and eliminate his enemies.
