Federal Government of Iraq: National and Regional Opportunities and Challenges

How to organize power is the first problem that preoccupies the minds of lawyers and politicians in each society regarding the question of creating a legal order and writing a new constitution. Since the fall of Saddam and his Baath Party, the fundamental legal and political issue has been how the political institutions should be organized. On the one hand, the political, cultural, and geographical characteristics of Iraq led some thinkers to support the theory of “the establishment of federalism in Iraq”. On the other hand, in the name of values such as unity, some intellectual groups supported a united and centralized Iraq and preventing the formation of separatist approaches. The confrontation of these positions finally resulted in the official creation of a federal system under the new constitution adopted on 25 October 2005. However, there is still debate concerning the success or failure of that system, which brings vast theoretical and practical challenges. The present essay seeks to clarify all aspects of Iraqi federalism and considering the arguments of both approaches concludes that Iraqi federalism can be a successful experience in the Middle East.