The author, with expertise both on the economics of civil war and on the functioning of democracy in oil economies, analyzes the case of Iraq from these perspectives.The article assesses the role international actors can play, pointing out that thecritical importance of accelerating growth through aid and encouraging reformthrough international templates of economic governance. Iraq has three of theclassic risk factors: large natural resource rents, ethnic dominance, and a longhistory of economic decline. Elections, by themselves, will hardly bring peace. Thekey priority will probably be the building of credible institutions of social inclusion,and checks and balances that restrain the corrupt politics of patronage...Please click here to read the text in full.