This chapter introduces the puzzle and questions guiding the book, frames the argument, and introduces a historical institutionalist approach to studying ethnic state capture in divided, postcolonial societies. The chapter proceeds with a discussion about how we study ethnicity in the Middle East and Iraq by situating it within comparative works on the Middle East and offering an identity-in-context approach to nuance variation. Lastly, it concludes with how this work compares with other works on ethnicity, institutions, and conflict in the Global South. The chapter situates the framing of the book to argue that in divided postcolonial societies of the Global South, ethnic cleavages and group grievances are rooted in earlier processes of state formation and state-building. It outlines the methodological approach and data collection—relying on triangulation and process tracing as toolkits for engaging with a historical institutionalist analysis of ethnic state capture.