Mustafa Obaid earned his doctorate at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, on the role of cities in the development of ethnic and cultural identities in 2024. Since September of the same year, he has been teaching and researching at the department of urban planning at the BTU-Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany.

• Introduction 1 Cities’ Role in Nation and Identity Building 1.1 Cities as Centers of Social Changes 1.2 Understanding Identity 1.3 Cultural Capacity 1.4 The Dialectics of City and Identity in Iraq 2 Baghdad’s Cultural Capacity Since 1920: One Century of Nation Building 2.1 The Initiation (1920–1963): The Birth of Iraq’s Modern Capital 2.2 The Disintegration (1963–2003): The Decline of Cities 2.3 The Division (After 2003): Polarized Baghdad 3 The Cultural Infrastructure of Baghdad: Spaces of Identity and Nation Building 3.1 The Cultural Corridor: Iraq’s Heart of Social Integrity 3.2 The Tahrir Hub and Its Influential Uprising 3.3 Thematic Networks Conclusions and Future Perspectives

Mustafa Obaid earned his doctorate at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, on the role of cities in the development of ethnic and cultural identities in 2024. Since September of the same year, he has been teaching and researching at the department of urban planning at the BTU-Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany.

• Introduction 1 Cities’ Role in Nation and Identity Building 1.1 Cities as Centers of Social Changes 1.2 Understanding Identity 1.3 Cultural Capacity 1.4 The Dialectics of City and Identity in Iraq 2 Baghdad’s Cultural Capacity Since 1920: One Century of Nation Building 2.1 The Initiation (1920–1963): The Birth of Iraq’s Modern Capital 2.2 The Disintegration (1963–2003): The Decline of Cities 2.3 The Division (After 2003): Polarized Baghdad 3 The Cultural Infrastructure of Baghdad: Spaces of Identity and Nation Building 3.1 The Cultural Corridor: Iraq’s Heart of Social Integrity 3.2 The Tahrir Hub and Its Influential Uprising 3.3 Thematic Networks Conclusions and Future Perspectives

Mustafa Obaid earned his doctorate at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, on the role of cities in the development of ethnic and cultural identities in 2024. Since September of the same year, he has been teaching and researching at the department of urban planning at the BTU-Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany.

• Introduction 1 Cities’ Role in Nation and Identity Building 1.1 Cities as Centers of Social Changes 1.2 Understanding Identity 1.3 Cultural Capacity 1.4 The Dialectics of City and Identity in Iraq 2 Baghdad’s Cultural Capacity Since 1920: One Century of Nation Building 2.1 The Initiation (1920–1963): The Birth of Iraq’s Modern Capital 2.2 The Disintegration (1963–2003): The Decline of Cities 2.3 The Division (After 2003): Polarized Baghdad 3 The Cultural Infrastructure of Baghdad: Spaces of Identity and Nation Building 3.1 The Cultural Corridor: Iraq’s Heart of Social Integrity 3.2 The Tahrir Hub and Its Influential Uprising 3.3 Thematic Networks Conclusions and Future Perspectives