Iraq War Research Articles

Single-Stage Conversion of External Fixation into Internal Fixation for Compound Fractures in War-Wounded Patients: A Cohort Study in Iraq

Background: War-induced. Compound fractures cause considerable damage to the limbs, affecting mobility and quality of life; surgeons consider managing compound fractures to be a difficulty. Although multi-stage conversion from external to internal fixation is still common, multiple studies worldwide are promoting single-stage conversion. Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of a single-stage conversion from external to internal fixation using the functional results of many Iraqi war wounded patients who were initially treated with external fixation. Methods: A retrospective cohort study analyzed the data of 40 war-wounded patients (39 males and 1 female) ranging in age from 18 to 50 years. All patients came with war-related complex fractures, which were stabilized and referred for external fixation. Following a single-stage conversion to internal fixation, the patients were followed up to assess the functional outcomes of this approach using Ketenjian's functional criteria. Results: A study of 40 patients (45 limbs), mostly male (97.8%), demonstrated a statistically significant link between non-union and time to convert from external to internal fixation. However, fracture type, Gustilo categorization, fixation method, and complication rates had no significant impact on Ketenjian's score results. Conclusions: The single-staged external to internal fixation conversion is regarded as a safe and reliable procedure with good overall functional outcomes; it could be performed by experienced surgeons instead of two-staged conversions, taking into account the patient's general health and the state of the local soft tissue.

Japan’s Prisoners of Conscience: Protest and Law During the Iraq War

Japan’s Prisoners of Conscience: Protest and Law During the Iraq War

Explaining the 2003 Iraq war (again) - Gore-war vs. Gore-peace revisited

ABSTRACT I offer a response to Professor Joseph Stieb’s article entitled ’Rethinking Gore-War: Counterfactuals and the 2003 Iraq War’. In his critique of my book, Explaining the Iraq War: Counterfactual Theory, Logic and Evidence, Stieb claims that neoconservatives and right-wing hawks in the Bush administration were singularly responsible for mobilizing domestic and international support for the US–UK invasion based on fabricated threats about Iraq’s WMD and links to 9/11, Al-Qaeda and globalized terrorism. The central objective of my book (and this reply) is to refute and repudiate Stieb’s fundamentally flawed and simplistic ’neoconist’ account of the 2003 invasion.

“You forgot Poland?” Polish involvement in the Iraq war and its aftermath through a postcolonial lens

ABSTRACT This article examines Polish participation in the Iraq war (2003–2008) and its aftermath through a postcolonial lens within the context of Warsaw’s foreign policy choices in the post-Cold War era. After the fall of communism, Poland attempted to join “core” Western countries and institutions, while simultaneously distancing itself from the countries of the “periphery”. The article argues that Poland has operated in a liminal space during the Iraq war and its aftermath as it has been treated as an “internal other” of the West, and at the same time has “othered” the Iraqi periphery. The article does this by applying three key postcolonial theories to the case study: Said’s concept of orientalism, Coronil’s concept of occidentalism and Spivak’s ideas related to the subaltern. The article finds the following to be true: (a) Poland has been orientalised by core Western states while it has also orientalised the Iraqi and Middle Eastern periphery, (b) Poland has generally been a willing participant of occidentalist strategies concerning Iraq and the Middle East and (c) Western core states have attempted to speak for/silence Poland while Poland has spoken for/silenced the Iraqi/Middle Eastern periphery.

Uncle, Look at This!

Abstract This article considers the epistemic value of Iraqi first-person documentaries of family life, or domestic ethnographies, during the Iraq War (2003–2011). The article analyses Life After the Fall (Abid 2008) and Homeland: Iraq Year Zero (Fahdel 2015), two documentaries about the everyday life of the videomakers’ family members in the advent of the US-led 2003 invasion and shortly after the occupation. The article examines how Iraqi domestic ethnographies dispute and complement dominant (Western) media, filmic and historical discourses of the conflict. I argue that these videos provide a nuanced understanding of the complex social, cultural and historical dynamics of this period, exceeding essentialisms and hegemonic discourses of violence, terror and victimhood. In addition, I demonstrate how this approach facilitates the participation of historically marginalized voices of young female family members, particularly in the representation of the conflict, and situates otherwise unusual discussions around Iraqi women’s rights and gender issues at the core of everyday life in post-invasion Iraq.

Democratization, Foreign Military Intervention, and Rebel Fragmentation in Civil War: Evidence from the PKK Insurgency in Turkey

Abstract In this paper, by studying the fragmentation of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 2004, I identify two distinct pathways to rebel fragmentation: one that is triggered by democratization in the home country (EU-anchored democratization in Turkey) and the other by the empowerment of a rival co-ethnic organization in a neighboring country through foreign military intervention (American invasion of Iraq and the empowerment of Iraqi Kurdish leadership). First, by expanding the room for nonviolent mobilization, democratization can result in an organizational fragmentation between soft-liners, who support laying down the arms, and hard-liners, who prefer the continuation of the armed insurgency under new circumstances. Second, foreign intervention in a neighboring country can radically change the distribution of power and empower an organization’s rival co-ethnic organization. This can lead some actors within the organization to rethink their alliances and advocate a better relationship with their rival co-ethnics and the intervening foreign power, resulting in organizational fragmentation over the organization’s external relationships. The paper broadly contributes to the literature on rebel fragmentation, the effects of democratization on civil war processes, international dynamics of civil wars, transborder ethnic-kin, and rebel alliances in civil wars.

An intimate prayer with the dead

AbstractThis article explores how listening to monājāt (Islamic sung prayer) creates dynamic and unsettling imaginative spaces for Amir—a paraplegic veteran of the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War—to be‐with Sohrab, his comrade killed in combat. Amir, who both witnessed Sohrab's tragic death and endured severe physical trauma himself, engages in a profound, nonreciprocal relationship with Sohrab through the act of listening to the sung prayer. Monājāt is a collective experience that derives its power from Amir's imagined world where he finds himself whispering the prayers alongside Sohrab. This participatory mode of listening allows the living to host and welcome the dead. Monājāt creates a nonreciprocal relationship with the dead, a place where Amir hears what is otherwise inaudible. In this imaginary world, Amir finds proximity to be‐with his dead friend. Listening is a mode of being‐in‐the‐world that challenges one to not neglect the other's needs. For Amir, monājāt provides both images of Sohrab in heaven (the radiant face with the angels) and a disturbance by alerting him to recall Sohrab's suffering and the injured face. Listening, then, becomes a response and obligation to care for the dead; a way to attend to and be responsible for Sohrab which for Amir is both healing and haunting.

The Role of Oil in Iraqi Politics: From Independence to the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century

This study reviewed how oil affected Iraq's internal and foreign policies throughout contemporary history, as it sought in its goal to identify the role of oil in Iraqi politics from independence until the beginning of the twenty-first century, and to achieve the goal of the study, the descriptive analytical approach was relied on, and the historical method, in order to identify the scene of Iraqi politics and the impact of oil and its role in the political practices of the Iraqi state since independence until the beginning of the twenty-first century, and the importance of the study is due to the importance of oil The first is the importance of oil in Iraq, and it has two requirements, the first is a brief summary of the history of the importance of oil in Iraq The second demand focused on the status of oil in the period following the independence of the Iraqi state. .and the second section was entitled Oil crises and their repercussions on Iraqi policy, and it has two requirements, the first dealt with the crisis The first oil and its repercussions on Iraqi politics, and the second requirement dealt with the second oil crisis and its repercussions on Iraqi politics, then came the third section entitled the role of oil in the political scene of the State of Iraq, and it has two requirements, the first talked about the political situation of the State of Iraq at the beginning of the 21st century and the role of Iraqi oil in the international scene, The second and final requirement of the study focused on Iraq's political and economic landscape in the aftermath of 2003; The study also explored the role of oil in the reconstruction of the Iraqi state. It uncovered several key findings, among which the most significant are: the management of oil in Iraq is synonymous with the management of all industrialized nations. The post-2003 period brought about transformative changes, as Iraq's oil market endured severe crises. Politically, the lack of democracy and the challenges of establishing a more democratic system in Iraq can only be fully understood by considering the economic dimensions, particularly the role of oil. The study highlighted that Iraq faced significant market risks and oil price fluctuations. Additionally, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent period up to 2011 confirmed that historical narratives about Iraq remain deeply influential. Although there are multiple political reasons for the invasion of Iraq, all reconstruction policies and projects after the invasion also relied on the oil sector, and the study justifies that the Iraqi state cannot withdraw from the economic scene, but will be forced to adopt economic policies, However, oil remains a political and strategic commodity over which no country can cede control to non-state actors.

Intersection of CBRN, military forensic science, and counterterrorism

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required that forensic science was used beyond the traditional law enforcement and criminal justice goals and applied to military operations. The 9/11 terror attacks in the United States (US) inspired further attacks in the Western World and highlighted the importance of national and international intelligence sharing for counterterrorism operations. Following the 9/11 attacks, anthrax was disseminated in the US mail system, demonstrating a successful modern use of biological agents. As a result, nations enhanced their Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) capabilities to prevent, prepare, respond, and recover from CBRN attacks but in the last decade, there has been a decrease in capabilities across military forensic science, counterterrorism, and CBRN. Recent changes in the global and strategic environment such as, the war in the Ukraine, the threat of grey zone conflicts (below the threshold of war) such as the conflict in the Middle East, and strategic competition, indicates international, national, state and local CBRN capabilities need to be reinvigorated in a world under digital transformations. There is a need for a harmonized approach to enhance the integration of military, law enforcement, and CBRN operations to support decision-making. In this paper, we look back to where we have come from and where we are now to make recommendations on where to from here for military forensic science and counterterrorism, including CBRN which intersects both of these systems.

The Role of The International Court of Justice ICJ in Redressing the Environmental Damages Caused by States During Wartime

Over the past century, it has been more evident that one manifest consequence of conflict is the detrimental impact on the environment. Although there has been beneficial growth in international environmental law, the environment has nonetheless suffered from following international armed conflicts, including the Kosovo conflict, the Iraq war, the Israel-Lebanon war, and Ukraine. In fact, there has been no legal responsibility imposed on any State for violating the responsibilities outlined in Articles 35 and 55 of Additional Protocol I. Remarkably, the International Court of Justice ICJ has acknowledged that environmental damage is eligible for compensation and to take "active restoration measures". the main problem is that the environmental damage persists even after the war has ceased. This article attempts to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the State responsibility for environmental damage during wartime before the ICJ. This article shows the significant contributions from ICJ to protect the environment but while also showing the ambiguity related to the development of reparation for the damage caused during wartime. The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which international law could apply to environmental damage in wartime. How much environmental damage needs to happen how much reparation must be deliberated? The article explores a methodology for evaluating environmental damage caused during a conflict by the ICJ and takes the lessons learned from the jurisprudence of the ICJ to determine the appropriate amount of compensation for such damage. This article examines the ineffectiveness of the current international legal framework for dealing with environmental damage during wartime. It provides an overview of the historical context of environmental damage in armed conflicts and a review of existing customary and conventional laws.

Verses of Despair (Robert Bly’s Poetics between Idealism and Naturalism)

The Vietnam War generated a major outpouring of American antiwar poetry that served as a powerful medium of expressing dissent and disillusionment with the war. One of many American poets who extensively contributed to the antiwar poetry movement during the war is Robert Bly. While Bly’s poetics are often appreciated for their revolutionary fervor, there exists a subtle and concealed naturalist streak in his poetry that deserves further exploration. The scholarly marginalization of such an aspect of his literary legacy undermines the richness and complexity of Bly’s poetic vision. This paper seeks to identify moments of rupture that challenge Bly’s idealized poetics of antiwar stance, moments that strike a naturalistic chord that capitalizes on the pessimistic belief that the world and politics are outside of one’s own control. Through a naturalistic theoretical framework, the paper looks closely at two of Bly’s lesser-known poems: “The World is a Confusion of Three Worlds” (1960) and “The Approaching War” (2003), written respectively in reference to the Vietnam and Iraq Wars. The significance of this study lies in deepening our understanding of the breadth and width of Bly’s poetics and politics, illustrating the potential and limitation of his antiwar stance and rhetoric. It also helps rectify the prevailing misconception that naturalism is irrelevant in the late twentieth century’s evolving literary styles of expression.

Progress and scenario-based projections of health service availability and coverage towards UHC in the post-conflict and post-pandemic Iraq: a Bayesian hierarchical regression approach

BackgroundTwo decades have passed since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. Iraq has long suffered from conflicts and instability, where the people have limited access to healthcare. The...

An Examination of the Role of U.S. Media Diplomacy in the Second Gulf War (The 2003 Invasion of Iraq)

An Examination of the Role of U.S. Media Diplomacy in the Second Gulf War (The 2003 Invasion of Iraq)

Non-therapeutic laparotomies in military trauma (2009-2014).

Combat casualties are frequently injured in austere settings where modern imaging modalities are unavailable. Exploratory laparotomies are often performed in these settings when there is suspicion for intra-abdominal injury. Prior studies of combat casualties reported non-therapeutic laparotomy (NTL) rates as high as 32%. Given improvements in combat casualty care over time, we evaluated NTLs performed during later years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military personnel with combat-related injuries (6/1/2009-12/31/2014) who underwent exploratory laparotomy based on concern for abdominal injury (i.e. not performed for proximal vascular control or fecal diversion) and were evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (Germany) before being transferred to participating U.S. military hospitals were assessed. An NTL was defined as a negative laparotomy without substantial intra-abdominal injuries requiring repair. Characteristics, indications for laparotomy, operative findings, and outcomes were examined. Among 244 patients who underwent laparotomies, 41 (16.8%) had NTLs and 203 (83.2%) had therapeutic laparotomies (i.e. positive findings). Patients with NTLs had more computed tomography scans concerning for injury (48.8% vs 27.1%; p = 0.006), less penetrating injury mechanisms (43.9% vs 71.9%; p < 0.001), and lower Injury Severity Scores (26 vs 33; p = 0.003) compared to patients with therapeutic laparotomies. Patients with NTLs were also less likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit (70.7 vs 89.2% for patients with therapeutic laparotomies; p = 0.007). No patients with NTLs developed abdominal surgical site infections (SSI) compared to 16.7% of patients with therapeutic laparotomies (p = 0.002). There was no significant difference in mortality between the groups (p = 0.198). Our proportion of NTLs was lower than reported from earlier years during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No infectious complications from NTLs (i.e. abdominal SSIs) were identified. Nevertheless, surgeons should continue to have a low threshold for exploratory laparotomy in military patients in austere settings with concern for intra-abdominal injury.

Refuge in the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean: Spaces of containment or places of choice?

Abstract After the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the European Union became fixated on keeping refugees from the Middle East out of Europe. By 2015, with the mass influx of Syrians, Iraqis, and others, seeking safety across the Balkans, the European response was an extraordinary effort to push back and contain these displaced people within the Eastern Mediterranean region through physical barriers, bilateral agreements, and the establishment of refugee camps. This paper suggests that Europe’s efforts to keep displaced Syrians and Iraqis out of Europe were misguided. That is, contrary to what much of the European main media reported at the time, relatively few of those displaced Syrians and Iraqis had a strong desire to seek asylum in Europe. Rather, depending upon socio-economic and kinship networks, and historical ties developed over 500 years of Ottoman suzerainty, they preferred to remain in the region following long-established transnational socio-economic networks and kinship ties.

Governing transit and irregular migration: informality and formal policies

ABSTRACT Informality has attracted significant attention in migration studies, yet a fresh look is needed given the succession of world crises over the past 15 years and the increasing use of informality to deal with them. This special issue considers informality as practices of governance that supplement, substitute, replace or operate beyond formal rules. It focuses on dissecting the governance of transit and irregular migration in the liminal space between formal policies and informal practices, and focuses on three major questions: Why and how has migration governance experienced informality’s expansion in policies and practices? What are the drivers, sites, temporalities, and implications of such an expansion? How do power relations among different stakeholders affect such governance compared to normative and institutional logics? This special issue ventures beyond existing constatations that the formal and informal are entangled. A core assertion is that informality can be a deeper structuring force, because informal interactions repeat over time, creating alternative or supplementary forms of governance beyond formal institutions. This collection of articles is original in shedding light on such governance from the perspective of world politics and political regimes, little discussed thus far in systematic ways. It is also at the forefront of theorizing on how stakeholders use mechanisms of power to govern polycentrically, that is from multiple centres related to each other but not hierarchically subordinated. This collection provides novel perspectives on socio-spatial and temporal aspects of informality’s use in such governance. Building on extensive fieldwork and data-driven secondary research, this collection covers Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland, post-socialist countries in Eastern Europe, including Belarus and Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Turkey and Iraq in the Middle East, and Albania in the Balkans, as well as Thailand and Myanmar in Asia.

Remembering the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait: Anniversary journalism’s role in collective memory and the State’s pursuit of ontological security

Seeking to broaden collective memory research beyond major nations and high-profile events (e.g., the Cold War and September 11), this study explores how Kuwaiti newspapers memorialized Saddam Hussein’s August 2, 1990, invasion of Kuwait. By tracing the evolution of commemorative narratives over three decades and observing how they resonate with the state’s political context, the role of the Kuwaiti press in shaping collective memory is shown. Additionally, given the shifts in Kuwait’s foreign policy—from initial animosity toward Iraq to a strategic partnership—prompted by leadership changes and the 2003 US–Iraq War, this study examines how commemorations reflected and solidified Kuwait’s evolving identity. In this context, the study evaluates the role of journalists as active participants in the state’s continuous pursuit of ontological security, which focuses on establishing a stable and recognized national identity alongside physical security.

Analysis of the Causal Relationship between Money Supply, Foreign Reserves and Bank Credit in Oil Countries: Evidence from Iraq

This study investigates the causal relationships among money supply, foreign reserves, and bank credit in Iraq, a major oil-producing economy. Understanding these interconnected variables is crucial for effective monetary policy formulation and macroeconomic stability. this study employs the Toda-Yamamoto approach to Granger causality testing and quarterly data spanning from 2004 to 2022 to capture the dynamics following the Iraq War and explore the post-conflict economic landscape. Granger causality tests are conducted to determine the direction of causality among the variables. Impulse response functions and variance decompositions provide insights into the magnitude and persistence of shocks, shedding light on the relative importance of each variable in influencing the others. The empirical findings reveal a bidirectional causal relationship between money supply and foreign reserves, indicating that changes in one variable significantly influence the other. Additionally, a unidirectional causality is observed, running from foreign reserves to bank credit, highlighting the significance of foreign exchange reserves in facilitating bank lending. However, no causal link is detected between money supply and bank credit, suggesting that monetary policy may have limited direct impact on credit expansion in Iraq’s banking sector. These results have important policy implications for the Central Bank of Iraq in managing monetary policy tools and navigating the challenges of an oil-dependent economy. The study contributes to the literature on monetary economics in resource-rich countries and provides valuable insights for policymakers and researchers alike.

Genocide and the Assimilation of the Faylee Kurds from Zygmunt Bauman's perspective

This paper is a methodological analysis research which uses sociological theory, employing Zygmunt Bauman's view of modern genocide - especially the Holocaust - to analyse the process of the Faylee Kurd genocide. The Holocaust undoubtedly manifested distinctive features of modern society, and it reproduced structural sources of genocide that go back many centuries. Some of the main aims of acts of genocide will be discussed, particularly the example of the assimilation and erasure of the Faylee Kurds' identity. These elements are the product of a mentality that is not able to understand modernity and its multiplicities, yet nevertheless, at the same time, one that uses modern tools and systems for genocidal purposes. This paper attempts to show the relationship between the kind of modern mentality in the Middle East that has dominated 'the Iraqi Ba'ath Party' and the Kurdish genocide. It will consider, for example, the efforts of 'the Ba'ath Party' to implement this mentality to ensure that Kurds like the Faylee, who revolted and did not want to accept the hegemony of 'the Ba'ath Party,' would be neutralised and destroyed. This study explores Bauman’s intended warnings that the dangers of Holocaust-type actions and outcomes are still present. After the invasion of Iraq by the United States (US) and its allies in 2003, the Iraqi authorities and regional states continued their policy of extermination and cleansing of the Kurdistan population in general and the Kurdish nation in particular. Such intentions can be seen in the genocide of Yezidi Kurds by ISIS, supported by Arabism and extremism.

Strategic Storytelling: Russian State-Backed Media Coverage of the Ukraine War

Abstract Strategic narratives help shape wars. In modern history, strategic narratives were used during the Cold War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War to justify military invasions and manipulate opponents. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia was accused of weaponizing its state-backed media outlets to promote a pro-Russian version of the war. Consequently, Russian state-backed media faced a series of new sanctions from Western governments and technology companies. While some studies have sought to identify disinformation about the war, less research has focused on understanding how these stories come together as narratives, particularly in non-English language contexts. Grounded in strategic narrative theory, we analyze Russian state-backed media coverage of the Ukraine war across 12 languages. Using topic modeling and narrative analysis, we find that Russian state-backed media focused primarily on promoting identity narratives, forming an image that Russia is powerful, Ukraine is evil, and the West is hypocritical. Russian strategic narratives both converged and diverged across languages and outlets in ways that met Russia’s desired image and objectives in each region. This paper allows us to better theorize the evolving and transformative role of strategic narrative in Russian state-backed news media during times of conflict.