Iraq (2004) | Iraq’s Oil Resources May Hinder Future Development

Ask pessimists why Iraq will never be a democracy, and they most often cite its ethnic and religious divisions. A post–Saddam Hussein Iraq, they warn, could devolve into an Arab Yugoslavia,1 with open warfare between the Sunnis, Shia, and Kurds, and with Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia taking sides. Optimists . . . respond that a federation could manage these divisions. Except that federations don’t work well in countries where mineral wealth is concentrated in potentially secessionist regions, as the experiences of Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the former Belgian Congo attest. And most...

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