A collection of essays by the late Dr. Ali al-Wardi that highlight Iraq's social, political, and military history. It draws on a multivolume work in Arabic by a highly respected scholar that is found in the libraries of Iraq's intelligentsia and is read by Iraqis throughout the Middle East, including insurgents. It tells how the Ottomans, British, and Safavid Persians dealt with sectarianism in Iraq and describes the battle fought over key areas. It also examines the dynamics of a year-long insurgency against the British in 1920 that ended only when London engineered a political solution to its advantage, the imposition of a monarch under King Feisal. Exploring ways in which previous powers attempted to manage Iraq and containing many lessons that are useful when analyzing conflict in the region this book also explores how the British continued their divide-and-conquer policies when they took over Iraq after WWI. Each chapter is accompanied by a foreword written by a leading American defense authority.
