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That is not just a general statement - with all the caveats going along with that - but stating that "westerners" assume such a thing is yet another assumption on your part. As someone who was not...

This article speaks to several points that have been made in this thread:

Military Review, May-June 2007: The Power Equation: Using Tribal Politics in COIN

I second Tom as to the availability of this type of info on Iraq both pre-Desert Storm and pre-OIF. The pre-OIF info was even more detailed, because we had people on the ground inside Iraq reporting...

Here's a very brief summary of the key points of Iraqi Arab tribal structure from the Congressional Research Service:

Iraq: Tribal Structure, Social, and Political Activities

Marc,

This paper addresses conflict resolution as influenced by Islam at the local level. I believe you will find the portion on Sulh and Musalaha of interest (beginning on page 11 of the pdf...

Well, not a "similar length", but certainly not hundreds of pages either...

The article jcustis posted the link to is well worth the read, as is this other material...

Earlier SWC threads:
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