Globalization and Nation- State Building in Post- Conflict Countries (A Case Study of Iraq)

In globalization era the first signs of the decline of nation- state building paradigm have emerged. After a period of civil conflicts and tensions، the government of Iraq has entered the path of nation- state building. The late entrance of this country into the nation- state building process coincided with the rapid spread of globalization over traditional territories، and following the spread of democratization waves، relativity of identities and weakening of international peace and security، many of the traditional concepts of politics such as governance، state، legitimacy، participation، security، and identity have been deeply transformed. Nevertheless، the main question of this paper is how Iraq، which is a post- conflict country in the globalization era، can reconstruct and complete its nation –state building process? The hypothesis of this article is that political elites of Iraq can achieve peace، sustainable stability and legitimacy in the society through the following means: (a) Reforming and engineering the institutions compatible with the needs and conditions of the society، (b) Establishing peaceful relations between government and the society، (c) Holding relative majority elections، (d) Autonomy and spread of local government، (e) Integration and convergence of militant groups in the national reconciliation process. This paper utilizing the method of qualitative research and descriptive- explanatory method is divided into two major parts. First، through a pathological perspective، it studies the impacts of globalization process on the endogenous nation- state building process in developing countries، and then based on Lijphart’s theory of consensus democracy it provides a theoretical framework focused on practical strategies for formation of optimal nation- state building in Iraq in the globalization era.