Book Launch for State Matters – Nida Alahmad (26 Mar)

Please join us for the launch of Dr Nida Alahmad’s new book State Matters: Theorizing State Fragmentation and Consolidation from Iraq, which is being published by Cambridge University Press. Dr Lucy Abbott and Dr Harshan Kumarasingham will act as discussants, and there will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.

Why does the state matter to its people? How do people know and experience the state? And how did the state come to be both desired and dreaded by its subjects? This study offers a historically grounded social theoretical account of state consolidation in Iraq, from the foundation of the country as a League of Nations British Mandate in 1921 through to the post-2003 era. Through analysis of key historical episodes of state consolidation (and fragmentation) during the past century, Nida Alahmad argues that consolidation rests on two sequential and interdependent factors. First, domination: the state’s capacity to dominate land and population. Second, legitimation: whereby the state is accepted and expected by the population to be the final arbitrator of collective life based on common principles. Moving between intellectual traditions and disciplines, Alahmad demonstrates that a theorization of state consolidation is a theorization of the modern state.

The event will take place from 2pm – 4pm on Thursday 26th March 2026 in the Violet Laidlaw room on floor 6 of the Chrystal Macmillan Building.