ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 addresses national political life in the remaining years from 1988 to the present. It elaborates on the most important domestic developments in an era marked by Iraq’s increasing engagement with powerful international actors, beginning with Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The reader will learn more about how, after surviving the international response and his military’s ejection from Kuwait, Saddam managed to remain at the helm. As the chapter explains, his subsequent coup-proofing successes protected his rule, but could not shield him from his own errant decision-making, which already had led to disastrous foreign adventures in 1980 and 1990 before precipitating a third national trauma in 2003. Readers also will learn about the profound governance changes that followed in the wake of the American invasion, from the chaos of war-induced state failure and civil conflict to parallel efforts to build democratic institutions and reconfigure political life. The chapter includes an up-to-date discussion of the parliamentary elections of 2005, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2021, as well as more recent civil discontent and turmoil associated with the Tishreen protest movement.
