ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the connections between various forms of organized political violence and ostensibly private, non-political violence in post-invasion Iraq, focusing on gender-based violence and the links between militias and organized crime. It argues that, as in other civil wars, much of the violence is 'dual-purpose', simultaneously serving private and political goals, and that despite a decline in violence since 2007, the situation created by the overthrow of the previous dictatorship remains extremely dangerous. The chapter also argues that the breakdown of the Iraqi state's monopoly of violence has resulted in a dispersal of violence from a once highly centralized and repressive state to a broad range of competing power blocs and in a blurring of the boundaries between what can crudely be called 'political' and 'ordinary' crime. The invasion and occupation of Iraq have resulted in a documented rise in internecine violence.
