The Mobilization of Grievances. An Alternative Narrative for Understanding Sunni Militancy

Master’s Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, course: MSc International Relations of the Middle East, language: English, abstract: There is a virtual consensus among commentators that the post-2003 Sunni insurgency in Iraq has been driven by political exclusion and grievance. This grievance narrative features prominently in the commentary put forth by journalists, academics and politicians. It is the aim of this research to look beyond the grievance narrative. In doing so, this project uses the political process model as its conceptual lens. This better explains the timing of particular outbursts of Sunni violence, why militants are more or less successful at various times, the organisational forms and practices of the insurgency and the key allies ISIS has in assisting the insurgency. Two case studies are employed to demonstrate this. The first considers the culturally encoded factors informing the political violence in Iraq. This follows that a network based insurgency (NBI) better explains how insurgents orchestrate episodes of political violence. Second, the changing political and security landscape in neighbouring Syria has increased insurgents’ ability to mobilize their grievances vis-a-vis the Iraqi government. The research finds that these two case studies offer an alternative perspective on the insurgency in Iraq. This further nuances the insurgency and unpacks how the ISIS led insurgency has mobilized.