This book offers an astute reading of Iraq's messy political transition and security sector reform. Coupling theoretical insights with sharp case studies of Iraqi cities and provinces, it is essential for anyone interested in the Iraqi security sector and its governance. - Ariel Ahram, Virginia Tech This book offers a compelling account of how the Iraqi state has been built in the aftermath of ISIS. - Renad Mansour, Chatham House Despite a lack of systemic reform following its military victory over ISIS in 2017, Iraq has defied many expectations and avoided a return to renewed civil war. This groundbreaking book explains how this has been achieved and examines the nature of the prevailing victor's peace. It is a peace that has emerged by default rather than by design, reflecting pragmatism and power rather than normative principles. While this contributes to its sustainability, it is simultaneously a fragile peace vulnerable due to limited legitimacy, corruption, and volatile international oil markets. Offering a unique analysis of peacebuilding in Iraq, the book places recent developments within the historical context of two decades of external intervention and conflict.

It explores the complexities of peacebuilding and the tensions between competing Iraqi visions of political order, focusing on key themes such as political power-sharing, security provision, transitional justice, and reconciliation. Challenging liberal understandings of the nature of both peace and the state, the book provides fresh insight into theories and practices of peacebuilding and statebuilding, emphasising the need to look beyond conventional models of governance and order. One such innovative notion which lies at the heart of the analysis, the 'mediated state', acknowledges the vital peacebuilding role played by a variety political and social actors, such as tribes, militia, and civil society actors, and their fluid relationship to the state. The book explains how together, these actors have established a delicate equilibrium of competition and cooperation which constitutes peace.