Between the Ideal and the Real

Between the Ideal and the Real describes why Iraq state-building and democratic transformation failed by offering a very new, and unusual, perspective, away from the usual blame assigned to the US that has become part of the “conventional wisdom” about Iraq and the Middle East. Although the book acknowledges US failings in Iraq, the main argument it presents is that the main causes of failure lie in a problematic alliance between Iraqi Shiite Islamist parties and the clerical establishment in Na