How Iran aligned militias seized Iraq: irregular warfare, lawfare and regime change

Crispin Smith and Michael Knights

Small Wars and Insurgencies, 2025, vol. 36, issue 4, 659-697

Abstract: Militia groups are a major tool of Iranian influence in Iraq. Over the past decade, these Iranian aligned militia groups have worked to capture Iraqi state institutions. Today, militia state capture has advanced in sophistication and breadth to such a degree that it has become extraordinarily difficult to disentangle illicit militia activity from that of the Iraqi state institutions and political parties. This paper argues that though the militias are fundamentally military actors, often conducting activities clearly identifiable as irregular warfare, their most impactful actions came through the masterful deployment of non-military activities, especially lawfare combined with elite and institutional capture (most notably, through parts of the Iraqi judiciary). The paper argues that these non-kinetic activities should be seen as part of a broad and effective irregular warfare strategy deployed in Iraq, guided by Iran, and potentially replicable in other contexts by U.S. adversaries.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/09592318.2025.2471644

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