Real or Imagined Consolidation? The Case of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) presents an intriguing case study of rebel consolidation, in which pro-regime militias opportunistically seized the reins of a new and rapidly expanding government security institution. The organizational wrapper of the PMF Commission gave an illusory sense of instant consolidation, whereas the formation of the PMF was just the beginning of one of many cycles of armed actor consolidation that came close to overtaking the Iraqi state in 2018–2019. The partial consolidation achieved by the militias within the PMF was largely an organizational, competitive and coercive phenomenon, masquerading as an ideational, cooperative merger. The effort to further consolidate PMF’s control over the Iraqi state became harder as it came close to achieving a near-hegemonic outcome, resulting in a factional field presently characterized as a multipolar distribution of power across militia factions.