Partitions in Practice The Case Against Dividing Iraq

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/142408/nicholas-sambanis-and-jonah-schulhofer-wohl/partitions-in-practice

Partitions in Practice

The Case Against Dividing Iraq

By Nicholas Sambanis and Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl

NICHOLAS SAMBANIS is Professor of Political Science at Yale University. JONAH SCHULHOFER-WOHL is Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia.

Earlier this year, Iraq’s parliament approved a new power-sharing government led by Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi. The move toward political inclusion was encouraging, especially as Iraqi forces continued to battle the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). For weeks, though, two key cabinet positions—Minister of Defense and Minister of the Interior—remained unfilled. Onlookers held their breath as they waited to see whether Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish politicians would be able to compromise on these all-important security posts.
The appointments, which were finally made in October, might represent a genuine attempt at reconciliation. The choice of Mohammed al-Ghabban, who belongs to the Badr Organization, as the new interior minister could be an adept way to bring hardliners into the fold. So, too, could the selection Khaled al-Obeidi as the new minister of defense be a genuine attempt at inclusivity. Obeidi previously served as an adviser to the governor of Nineveh Province. When Mosul fell to ISIS this summer, he emphasized the need for granting Iraq’s regions greater autonomy and even creating a separate Sunni Arab army.