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Oil, war, and semiperipheral mobility: The case of Iraq

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Abstract

Semiperipheral states have been characterized as politically tumultuous and economically dynamic. Iraq, in particular, manifests these tendencies. I explore the crucial events, shifts, and discontinuities that add up to Iraq’s changing position within the world-system over the past half century. These elements cannot be studied independent of transformations in the historic “weak state/strong bourgeoisie configuration,” which are integral components of its change. Nor can they be examined apart from world conditions. The outcome of Iraq’s attempts at semiperipheral mobility is also determined by the global petroleum hunger and geopolitical situation. Especially in the last instance, whether the world context is favorable to a particular kind of move virtually determines the outcome.

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Authors
  1. Cynthia Siemsen
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Cynthia Siemsen is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Her interests include classical sociological theory, development, and the sociology of law. Work that Ms. Siemsen co-authored with Walter Goldfrank, “Lessons from the Gulf Wars: Hegemonic Decline, Semi-Peripheral Turbulence, and the Role of the Rentier State,” recently appeared in the volume of essays,A New World Order?, edited by David A. Smith and József Böröcz.

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Siemsen, C. Oil, war, and semiperipheral mobility: The case of Iraq. Studies in Comparative International Development 30, 24–45 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02687158

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