Transformation of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces. Integration into the political and economic elite

The article examines the formation of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, al-Hashd al-Shaabi) as part of the hybridization of the Iraqi security system, as well as traces the transformation of the role of the PMF during 2014–2023. The spread of the terrorist organization “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL, banned in the Russian Federation) in 2014 became a serious challenge to Iraqi statehood. This event occurred as a result of the withdrawal of US armed forces from Iraq in 2011 and in the context of a conflict among the political elites. The failure of the Iraqi armed forces to contain ISIL brought to the fore numerous non-state actors, armed groups, mainly representing the Shiite part of the country's population. Their legitimation is associated with the fatwa of the Shiite spiritual leader of Iraq Ali al-Sistani.The emergence of the PMF as a new element of the Iraqi security system corrected the situation at the front and made it possible to carry out some necessary reforms in the army. The article analyzes the current challenges faced by PMF, and also traces the evolution of the PMF’s role from 2014 to 2023. The article demonstrates that the PMF leaders exercise influence beyond the exclusively military sphere, extending it to both the political and economic spheres of the state. At the same time, the central authorities are aimed at the strategic integration of the PMF’s armed groups into the country's security system in the conditions of continued state building evolution

Economic system · Economics · Elite · Mobilization · Political economy · Political mobilization · Political science · Politics · Chemistry · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Socioeconomic Development in MENA