Preparing for the post-Islamic State (IS) era is not premature — it is a fundamental issue that Iraqis, including the political and cultural elite, have already begun to address. The common consensus is that the next era will be different than the one preceding IS' occupation of nearly a third of Iraq.

Iraq stands at a crossroads, and the country’s decisions today will define the state of affairs after IS is driven out of the country. In this sense, the future depends on the Iraqi political milieu's vision of the future Iraqi state: Do these politicians have a specific plan for the building of a unified Iraqi state? Or is the plan predicated on the partitioning and disappearance of Iraq as we know it, after IS is gone?

In either case, the options must be discussed. For, if Iraqi elites are seeking to build a unified Iraq, they must restore a sense of solidarity in the current fight against IS. If important emerging societal components — such as the Popular Mobilization Units, the peshmerga and the Sunni clans — each went to war unilaterally against IS, that would signify that they have chosen not to restore Iraqi unity.

Simply put, the two military forces currently able to confront IS — the predominantly Shiite Popular Mobilization Units and the peshmerga — are incapable of ruling Sunni areas for any considerable period of time. This is due to the fact that, following the defeat of IS in any given area, combatants will need to return home, and the force that liberated the land will have to either live in harmony with the inhabitants of those lands or else further violence will emerge at the hands of organizations more extremist than IS.