The Popular Mobilisation Units in the Iraqi State

: A Quest for Legitimacy

Abstract

Widely celebrated by Iraqis for their contribution to the operations against the Islamic State (IS), Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU), also known as al-Hashd al-Sha‘bi (HS), now regard themselves as entitled to co-shaping not only the political decision-making process, but also the very nature of Iraqi statehood. Focusing on the first six years following the initiation of the PMU through Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani’s fatwa, this thesis analyses how the paramilitary has sought to establish itself as a legitimate actor in the Iraqi state. By disecting the PMU’s externally projected self-perception, the author has identified six prevailing practices, and examines how each of those behavioural patterns has been utilised by the paramilitary with the aim of attaining legitimacy in Iraq’s political, religious and civic fields. The author focuses on the rationale urging the PMU to adopt and advertise different behavioural practices meant to boost the paramilitary’s claims to legitimacy in each of these three inter-related social fields, constituting the main arenas of competition within the Iraqi state. The triangulation of field interviews, government decrees and legislative documents, as well as first-hand testimonies by PMU representatives and security officials, have altogether enabled the author to showcase the PMU’s multi-layered quest for legitimacy and symbolic power. Based on the collected empirical evidence, the author conludes that the paramilitary’s approach to generating legitimacy will continue to reflect primarily how its leaders and their protégés interpret and adapt to the contours of power underlying the contestation of Iraq’s political, religious and civic fields.

Date of Award	1 Jun 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	King's College London
Supervisor	Shiraz Maher (Supervisor) & Peter Neumann (Supervisor)