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2016 Country Review

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2016 Country Review Iraq 2016 Country Review http://www.countrywatch.com Table of Contents Chapter 1 1 Country Overview 1 Country Overview 2 Key Data 4 Iraq 5 Middle East 6 Chapter 2 8 Political Overview 8 History 9 Political Conditions 13 Political Risk Index 302 Political Stability 316 Freedom Rankings 331 Human Rights 343 Government Functions 346 Government Structure 348 Principal Government Officials 358 Leader Biography 359 Leader Biography 359 Foreign Relations 361 National Security 382 Defense Forces 391 Chapter 3 393 Economic Overview 393 Economic Overview 394 Nominal GDP and Components 398 Population and GDP Per Capita 400 Real GDP and Inflation 401 Government Spending and Taxation 402 Money Supply, Interest Rates and Unemployment 404 Foreign Trade and the Exchange Rate 405 Data in US Dollars 406 Energy Consumption and Production Standard Units 407 Energy Consumption and Production QUADS 409 World Energy Price Summary 410 CO2 Emissions 411 Agriculture Consumption and Production 412 World Agriculture Pricing Summary 415 Metals Consumption and Production 416 World Metals Pricing Summary 418 Economic Performance Index 419 Chapter 4 431 Investment Overview 431 Foreign Investment Climate 432 Foreign Investment Index 435 Corruption Perceptions Index 448 Competitiveness Ranking 459 Taxation 468 Stock Market 469 Partner Links 469 Chapter 5 470 Social Overview 470 People 471 Human Development Index 476 Life Satisfaction Index 480 Happy Planet Index 491 Status of Women 500 Global Gender Gap Index 503 Culture and Arts 513 Etiquette 515 Travel Information 516 Diseases/Health Data 526 Chapter 6 532 Environmental Overview 532 Environmental Issues 533 Environmental Policy 534 Greenhouse Gas Ranking 535 Global Environmental Snapshot 546 Global Environmental Concepts 557 International Environmental Agreements and Associations 571 Appendices 596 Bibliography 597 Iraq Chapter 1 Country Overview Iraq Review 2016 Page 1 of 609 pages Iraq Country Overview IRAQ On the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and once known as Mesopotamia, Iraq was the site of flourishing ancient civilizations. Arabs invaded the region in the 7th century and brought the Muslim religion, and for a time Iraq was the heartland of the Islamic Empire. The 13th century Mongol invasion followed by Ottoman Turks, and Iraq became part of Ottoman Empire from the 15th century. It came under British control after World War I, and gained independence in 1932. After a military coup that overthrew the monarchy, Iraq was declared a republic in 1958. Territorial disputes with Iran led to a costly eight-year war (1980-88). In August 1990, Iraq seized Kuwait but was expelled by United States-led, United Nations coalition forces during the Gulf War in early 1991. Following Kuwait's liberation, the United Nations Security Council required Iraq to surrender all weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles and to allow United Nations verification inspections. Claims of continued Iraqi noncompliance with United Nations Security Council resolutions over a period of 12 years led to the United States-led justification for the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and the ouster of the Saddam Hussein regime. Of course, the actual legal basis for such claims remains a matter of debate. In October 2005, Iraqis approved a constitution in a national referendum and elected a Council of Representatives (CoR) in December 2005. The CoR approved most cabinet ministers in May 2006, marking the transition to a constitutional government. Elections have ensued in Iraq as the country charts the course of democratization. But the right to vote has not addressed the difficult ethno-sectarian profile of Iraq and the ensuing power struggle over who wields political influence. While the war in Iraq was officially ended in 2011 and remaining United States troops in Iraq were withdrawn at the end of that year, the security situation remains volatile in Iraq. Indeed, sectarian dissonance and conflict in post-invasion Iran created the conditions for exploitation. To this end, Sunni Islamist terrorists, under the aegis of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIL (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS), have seized control over wide swaths of Iraqi and Syrian territory. As a result, the United States has redeployed a limited number of United States military advisers to Iraq to assist in rescuing Iraq from slipping into Iraq Review 2016 Page 2 of 609 pages Iraq a failed state. Note: Iraq’s economy is dominated by the oil sector. The country has the world’s third-largest oil reserves and considerable gas reserves. Iraq Review 2016 Page 3 of 609 pages Iraq Key Data Key Data Region: Middle East Population: 33309836 Mostly desert; mild to cool winters and dry, hot summers, with colder Climate: conditions in the mountain regions Arabic is the main language; Kurdish is the other major language; Assyrian, Languages: Armenian, Turkish, Turkmen, Luri, and various other Indo-Aryan languages are also spoken in various communities Currency: 1 Iraqi dinar = 1000 fils Holiday: Anniversary of the Revolution is 17 July (1968), Army Day is 6 January Area Total: 437072 Area Land: 432162 Coast Line: 58 Iraq Review 2016 Page 4 of 609 pages Iraq Iraq Country Map Iraq Review 2016 Page 5 of 609 pages Iraq Middle East Regional Map Iraq Review 2016 Page 6 of 609 pages Iraq Iraq Review 2016 Page 7 of 609 pages Iraq Chapter 2 Political Overview Iraq Review 2016 Page 8 of 609 pages Iraq History A Brief History of Iraq The Ancient Civilizations Iraq became a sovereign, independent state in 1932, and has been a republic since the 1958 coup d'etat that ended the reign of King Faisal II. Although the modern state, the Republic of Iraq, is quite young, the history of the land and its people dates back more than 5,000 years. Here, in ancient Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers), the first civilization, Sumer, appeared in the Near East. Iraqi history displays a continuity shaped by adaptation to the ebb and flow of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Allowed to flow unchecked, the rivers wrought destruction in terrible floods that inundated whole towns. When irrigation dikes controlled the rivers and other waterworks, the land became extremely fertile. The Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers' potential to be destructive or productive, has resulted in two distinct legacies found throughout Iraqi history. On the one hand, Mesopotamia's plentiful water resources and lush river valleys allowed for the plentiful food and economic production. Surplus food production, joint irrigation and flood control efforts, in turn, facilitated the growth of a powerful and expanding state. In this way, an impressive evolution of culture and civilization began at Sumer, later in Babylon and Assyria, and was preserved by rulers such as Hammurabi (1792- 1750 B.C.E.), Cyrus (550-530 B.C.E.), Darius (520-485 B.C.E.), Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.E.), and the Abbasids (750-1258 C.E.) On the other hand, Mesopotamia could also be an extremely threatening environment, driving its peoples to seek security from the forces of nature. Throughout Iraqi history, various groups have formed autonomous, self-contained social units; and these efforts to build security-providing structures have exerted a powerful impact on Iraqi culture. Example s include: allegiance to ancient religious deities at Ur and Eridu; membership in the Shiat Ali (or Party of Ali, the small group of followers that supported Ali ibn Abu Talib as the rightful leader of the Islamic community in the seventh century); residence in the "asnaf" (guilds) or the "mahallat" (city quarters) of Baghdad under the Ottoman Turks; and membership in one of a multitude of tribes. Two factors that inhibited political centralization were the absence of stone, and Iraq's geographic Iraq Review 2016 Page 9 of 609 pages Iraq location as the eastern flank of the Arab world. For much of Iraqi history, the lack of stone hindered the building of roads. As a result, many parts of the country have remained beyond government control. Also, because it borders non-Arab Turkey and Iran, and because of the great agricultural potential of its river valley, Iraq attracted waves of ethnically diverse migrations. Although this influx of people enriched Iraqi culture, it has disrupted the country's intern al balance and has led to deep-seated schisms. The Ottoman Empire Throughout Iraqi history, the conflict between political fragmentation and centralization was reflected in the struggles among tribes and cities for the food-producing flatlands of the river valleys. When a central power neglected to keep the waterworks in repair, land fell into disuse, and tribes attacked settled peoples for precious and scarce agricultural commodities. For nearly 600 years, between the collapse of the Abbasid Empire in the 13th century and the waning years of the Ottoman era in the late 19th century, government authority was tenuous, and tribal Iraq was, in effect, autonomous. Beginning in the middle of the 19th century, the "tanzimat" reforms (an administrative and legal reorganization of the Ottoman Empire), the emergence of private property, and the tying of Iraq to the world capitalist market severely altered Iraq's social str ucture. Tribal shaykhs had traditionally provided both spiritual leadership and tribal security. Land reform and increasing links with the West transformed many shaykhs into profit-seeking landlords, whose tribesmen became impoverished sharecroppers. Moreover, as Western economic penetration increased, machine- made British textiles displaced the products of Iraq's once-prosperous craftsmen. 20th Century Iraq At the beginning of the 20th century, Iraq's disconnected, and often antagonistic, ethnic, religious and tribal social groups professed little or no allegiance to the central government. As a result, the all-consuming concern of contemporary Iraqi history has been the forging of a nation-state out of this diverse and conflict-ridden social structure, in addition to the concurrent transformation of parochial loyalties, both tribal and ethnic, into a national identity.
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