CONFLICTED Iraq: Anatomy of a Broken State
May 5, 2026
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli researcher and Princeton doctoral student who conducts field research in the Middle East and survived captivity by Kata'ib Hezbollah, unpacks Iraq’s militia-driven political economy. She explores Saddam’s faith campaign, the rise of Shia politics and the Sadrist movement. Conversations cover how militias extract wealth, their difference from Lebanese Hezbollah, impacts on daily life, and Iraq’s oil-dependent, dysfunctional governance.
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Militia Rank And File Often Lack Deep Ideological Sophistication
- Elizabeth found many militia members surprisingly ignorant and prone to conspiracy beliefs rather than ideologically sophisticated.
- Interrogations revealed commanders and rank-and-file who genuinely believed conspiracies linking regional events to foreign plots.
Proxy Affinity Doesn't Equal Doctrinal Commitment
- Iraqi militias mix affinity for Iran with limited theological grasp; wilayat al-faqih's complex theory isn't widely understood by ordinary militiamen.
- Popular Shia expectations about the Mahdi also drive domestic movements like the Sadrists.
Iraqi Militias Operate As Criminal Economies
- Iraqi militias function largely as criminal-political enterprises focused on theft, oil smuggling, dollar movements and extortion to fund commanders and Iran.
- Members often receive state salaries that are siphoned by commanders into militia coffers.