Comparison of the state building methods of the British mandate and the US occupation administrations in Iraq

The word Iraq has generally been used to refer to the southern region of Mesopotamia throughout history. However, in the 20th century, it became the name of a state that united the Ottoman Empire's provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra. The history of Iraq is a complex process filled with various wars and revolutions. This process ranges from the 1920 revolution against the British mandate to the military coups that led to the transition from monarchy to republic in the late 1950s; from the Iran-Iraq war to nationalist and sectarian conflicts, to the coalition wars against ISIS. The countries that invaded Iraq struggled to understand the country's social and political structure. This is because building a state requires everyone to abandon their negative thoughts, to trust a social contract that integrates and ensures justice in the system. However, despite serious efforts to achieve these goals, they have not been fully successful. This thesis examines the governance approaches in two different periods: the 1917-1921 British occupation and the 2003-2006 American occupation. It focuses on the societal, political, and economic realities of Iraq that have failed to create a national identity. While analyzing the establishment of the state and the evolution of the political system during the British occupation, it also explores how security institutions collapsed and were rebuilt during the American occupation.