Arab and Non-Arab Tribes as State-Like Entities: Informal Alliances and Conflict Patterns in the Historic and Contemporary Middle East

Abstract

The process of postwar reconstruction in Iraq since 2003 has revolutionized the significance of Arab and other tribes in policy approaches toward the Middle East. However, much attention directed at tribal structures during this period has focused on engagement with influential sheikhs with the aim of promoting stability rather than identifying tribes' role as informal organizations in a context of altered Iraqi state formation. This study instead conceptualizes tribal confederations and sub-tribes as state-like actors that function at both the international and the domestic level. I examine historical precedents of tribal alliance formation, conflict resolution and security mechanisms, coalitions and political participation, and variations in interactions across ethnic groups, and consider their implications for present-day Iraq and its neighboring states.

'They Talk to Us but Never Listen to Us': Development-Induced Displacement among Syria's Bedouin

“…To establish peace and security in the rural areas, strong states or imperial powers either used military force against the tribes or created alliances and coalitions between themselves and prominent tribal groups. By the seventh century ad, the surrounding empires of the settled areas -the Byzantines in the north, the Persians in the East and the Yemenis in the deep south -established partnerships with the camel herding tribes of Arabia (Strakes 2011). An earlier example is the cooperation between the Roman Empire and the nomadic Amlaqi tribe, to which Queen Zenobia belonged (Stoneman 1995).…”

“…Historically, the political friction between nomads and sedentary populations goes back at least as far as we have any sort of documentation (Strakes, 2011). The tribes' engagement in raiding, feuding and fighting Nomadic Peoples 18 No.1 (2014) among themselves for livestock, territory and honour was a threat to urban and rural security for millennia.…”

Umstrittene Regierungsführung in Afghanistan

“…Es gibt weitere wissenschaftliche Aufsätze zu diesem kulturellen Konzept der Vermittlung (geschrieben: wasta) im Irak und Jordanien, die persönliche Beziehungen, wie Nepotismus und Klientelismus innerhalb von Stammesstrukturen beschreiben(Strakes 2011;Ronsin 2010;Cunningham/Sarayrah 1993).…”

Groundwater-based agriculture in arid land : the case of Azraq Basin, Jordan

“…New money made on the sale of tribal tracts around the Queen Alia airport enriched the Al-Qaisi and Derabani tribes and, as a result, representatives of these tribes were able to run a highly organized and expensive campaign, and to beat eight Al-Abbadi tribal candidates in the 2010 Parliamentary elections (Weir, 2013). Participating in parliamentary elections and accessing positions of power are essential to "maintaining wasta, or individuals who provide informal goods and services in office" (Strakes, 2011), and having kin members in official state positions ensures the allocation of resources according to their interest (Bouziane, 2010). Political crises or tribal uprisings are invariably soothed away by changing the cabinet and appointing tribal leaders, or opening employment opportunities to youth (Weir, 2013).…”