An influential non-state armed actor in the Iraqi context: Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi and the implications of its rising influence

Abstract

As the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) started to pose a growing threat to both Iraq in particular and the Middle East in general, new alliances, entities, formations, and actors have begun to shape the Iraqi political and security atmosphere. It has also triggered the emergence and/or the rise of other non-state armed actors. All of them have a direct impact on the security complex of the region in at least three ways: with their challenge to the state authority on whose soil they operate (intrastate), with their fight with other non-state armed actors (intergroup), and with the regional consequences of their fight, i.e., the actors which indirectly increased their influence or suffered from a loss of it in the region (regional level/interstate level). Moreover, they have posed serious challenges to some key concepts such as statehood, sovereignty, social cohesion, and territorial integrity; this paper particularly focuses on a highly controversial non-state armed actor (NSAA), namely al-Hashd al-Shaabi, and first investigates the dynamics which has led to the emergence of al-Hashd al-Shaabi.