Rebecca asks whether partition will be good for Iraq, in light of a similar partition of India and the consequent bloodshed. Her students surprise her with the answer.

yes, the situation is different in many ways, but it’s also similar: artificially reified broad categories (Hindu/Muslim–Shia/Sunni/Kurd) mapped onto territory that itself relies on earlier colonial line-drawing. my expertise doesn’t lie in Iraq, Kurdistan, or the Gulf region, but this piece provides a good argument against partition, and reveals the extent to which American pundits (next blog post! etymology of pundit and its political implications!) are making the same arguments that many in the British colonial establishment made.