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Christine Martin is a Research Associate at the Middle East Institute since September 2012. She recently completed her graduate studies at New York University, where she wrote her thesis on the influence of Hezbollah on the stability of sectarianism in Lebanon. She was also published in the Journal of Political Inquiry on the same topic.
Reconciliation Efforts in Iraq—Reversals and Paradoxes
For the benefits of reconstruction to take hold in today’s Iraq, it is essential to avoid oversimplified arguments that merely “fixing” ethno-sectarian tensions will be sufficient to attain the goal of political stability. A broader approach, which recognizes the country’s current ethno-sectarian polarization as both a symptom and a cause of instability would be a far more appropriate means of addressing the deep-rooted problems faced by Iraqis since 2003.
