Surviving the Islamic State, Austin J. Knuppe. Columbia University Press (ISBN: 9780231213875), 2024.
Summary: A comprehensive study of how civilians survived Islamic State occupation in various communities throughout Iraq.
The current conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have foregrounded the experience of civilians under enemy occupation. We tend to hear more about war-time deaths, injuries, and atrocities. But how do the rest of the population survive? For current conflicts, the answers are still emerging. But a case study of the recent Islamic State (IS) occupation in Iraq offers a wealth of data on the repertoire of survival strategies used by civilians during the time the insurgents were in control. This work represents a comprehensive attempt to study civilian responses both in areas under insurgent control and others, like Baghdad, under insurgent attack but government control.
The work begins with an overview of survival repertoires. Community membership and the degree of shared identity is a crucial factor in assessing threat. This determines whether one flees or stays. For those who stay, many will try to stay under the radar. When this is not possible, they must choose between neutrality, cooperation, and contention, sometimes blending approaches such as complying with religious rules while informing to the government or otherwise covertly, and sometimes overtly, resisting. Knuppe then traces the rise and fall of the Islamic State beginning with the US withdrawal in 2011, the rise and spread of IS control from 2012 to 2014, and the anti-IS offensive by a coalition of forces leading to their defeat from 2014 to 2017.
The following chapters offer empirical analysis of the responses to IS threats in different regions. The author begins (chapter 4) with Baghdad, drawing on his own data gathering from a representative sample of Baghdad residents, many who were Shia. He shows shifts from government support to neutrality or even collaboration with US forces as the threat shifted from IS attacks to neighborhood militias.
Chapter 5 covers the Sunnis in the cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, and Tikrit in Anbar province. These people had been politically excluded by the Shia government. As a result, many sought to remain neutral or acquiesce to IS control to survive. Chapter 6 turns to the Ninewa Governate of the north. Here, ethnoreligious minorities of Assyrians, Kurds, and Yazidis faced brutal suppression or genocide, necessitating flight by many. Knuppe traces the internal displacement and return of these people. He examines the strategies of neutrality and cooperation of those who remained.
The final chapter considers the argument of this book. It is that civilians survival strategies reflect their evaluation of the threat. They consider whether they share an identity with the insurgent. People evaluate the insurgents reputation to determine how they will be treated. Finally, the level of coercive behavior and indiscriminate violence helps people decide when to leave. Threat evaluation determines whether they try to remain neutral, cooperate, or contend if they stay.
One distinction of this book is the resourceful and ethical research methods used by the author both in the study of Baghdad’s population and the informant-based work that complemented the use of data sets in Anbar. He offers a far more nuanced and pragmatic array of threat responses that involves fine-grained analysis of the diverse peoples of Iraq. And he sets these responses within the context of Iraq’s complex politics since the fall of Hussein. This makes the work a valuable resource for not only Iraq and Middle East scholars but for others studying the impact on civilian populations of wartime occupation.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.