Publication

This paper examines the challenges facing Iraq’s attempt to deal with the economic causes of violence in the country, including the destabilizing effect of high unemployment levels. The author outlines that while the oil sector generates significant revenue, it only employs 2-3% of the population. He also contends that the government itself cannot solve the problem as it has already passed the reasonable limit for increasing public employment. He suggests that increasing the availability of productive private sector jobs would reduce political instability and violence in Iraq, but that due to short-term domestic and international crises, the the country's political class may find doing this difficult.