Occupied Iraq Research Articles

The Issue of Mosul from Turkey and England Perspective: A Constructivist Reading

Musul, OsmanlıDevleti’nin bir vilayeti olarak yıllarca Müslümanlık, Hristiyanlık gibi dini grupların yanında Türk, Arap, Kürt gibi farklı etnik grupların yaşadığı bir yer olmuştur. Birinci Dünya Savaşında, İngilizler Irak’ı işgal ettikten sonra bu bölgede emperyalist politikaları bağlamından hükmetmeye çalışmışlardır. Musul 1924 yılında Milletler Cemiyetinin de desteği ile Osmanlı Devletinden koparılarak burada yeni bir düzen yaratılmıştır. Musul tarihsel olarak çoğunluğu Kürt, Türkmen ve Araplardan oluşan Sünni Müslümanların yaşadığı bir merkezdir. Çalışmanın amacı, Musul Meselesi Lozan Konferansı, Brüksel hattı gibi uluslararası antlaşma ve sözleşmelerde konuşulurken bölgenin salt doğal kaynakları veya maddi yönlerinin değil aynı zaman da kültürel ve tarihsel yönlerinin de önemli olduğunu ortaya çıkartmaktır. Bu çalışmada Musul Meselesi Türk ve İngilizlerin tezleri ile konstrüktivizm teorisi bağlamında analiz edilmiştir. Konstrüktivizm teorisi, devletler ve toplumlar arasındaki ilişkilerin realist teorilerin iddia ettiği gibi salt materyalist veya pozitivist olgulara dayanmadığını bunun ötesinde söz konusu ilişkilerin sosyal bağlamının da olduğunu öne sürmektedir. Dolayısıyla Musul halkının 1920’li yıllardaki demografik, dinsel ve kimlik bağlamında değerlendirilmesi önem arz etmektedir. Çalışmada İngiltere çıkarları bağlamında Musul’a yaklaşırken; Türkiye’nin ise ekonomik, siyasal ve güvenlik gibi gerekçelerle Musul’u kazanmak istediği bulgusuna rastlanmıştır.

Conceptualizing displacement: the importance of coercion

ABSTRACT The paper conceptualises displacement as a process of coercive disruption to valued ways of living and functioning. It does so by engaging with coercion scholarship from moral philosophy, supported by empirical research about displacement in occupied Iraq. Coercion and force are largely taken for granted in refugee and forced migration studies, and in migration studies. The paper also considers recent scholarship on voluntariness in migration and argues that approaches to coercion are conceptually more satisfying. To build the conceptualisation of displacement, a systematic approach is used which involves identifying a phenomenon’s constitutive components, and their relationship to each other, before integrating them into an explanatory framework. It argues that displacement is a process that begins in place, during which time valued ways of living, conceptualised as important baselines, are disrupted in coercive ways. These coercive disruptions relate to power imbalances created, or leveraged, by coercers and coercive structures. Displacement’s processual nature, consisting of phases and counter phases, including evasion and resistance, is incorporated in the framework. The different forms of coercion, as well as the phases and counter-phases, that constitute displacement, are explained and illustrated from the perspectives of Iraqis who lived through the occupation.

Narratives of Democracy and Care in Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary, Naomi Alderman’s The Liars’ Gospel and Sinan Antoon’s The Corpse Washer

Abstract This article aims to explore how narratives can respond to the current crisis of democracy addressed by critics such as Pierre Rosanvallon, Jacques Rancière, Zygmunt Bauman and Carlo Bordoni among others. To do so, I analyse three texts of the last decade, Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary, Naomi Alderman’s The Liars’ Gospel and Sinan Antoon’s The Corpse Washer. Although they do not tackle democracy as a political discourse, they do address its mechanics of representation, the first two being rewritings of the Gospels through the eyes of Christ’s mother (from a Catholic and a British Jewish standpoint respectively), while the third looks at occupied Iraq through Jawad, a Shiite corpse washer. Through the three protagonists’ humility and ethics of care, these texts provide the basis for my exploration of democratic narratives that complement the classic representability of democracy with compromised relationality.

Food for the Global Market: The Neoliberal Reconstruction of Agriculture in Occupied Iraq (2003–2004) and the role of international law

AbstractThis paper revisits the occupation of Iraq between 2003 and 2004. The focus of my analysis is the agricultural reforms promoted by the occupying power, the Coalition Provisional Authority, which aimed at the marketisation of agricultural production, at the enhancement of the position of multi-national agribusiness and in the total integration of Iraq in global food markets. More specifically, this article maintains that the aggressively neoliberal reform of Iraq’s agriculture can be better understood as the extreme end of a wider spectrum of promotion of neoliberal state-building through international law and international institutions post-1990.

Collateral damage

This investigation examines ‘teasing’ of non-combatant children by US military service personnel in occupied Iraq and Afghanistan. The majority of existent investigations of teasing and related practices place significant conceptual importance on the intentions of the teaser – such that a target can understand that the tease is not true. However, in data examined here it appears that targets (children) do not understand the language in which the teasing is undertaken. Drawing from publicly available video footage posted on the video sharing website Liveleak, we provide an ethnomethodological (e.g., Garfinkel 1967) and conversation analytic informed (e.g., Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson 1974; Schegloff 2007) examination of how persons initiating teasing (soldiers) strategically exploit asymmetries in the sequential and preferential organization of interactions when tease recipients (children) do not have sufficient English skills to redress (or understand) the negative assessments being made of them. Three types of candidate teasing practices are identified: soldier initiated negative other-assessments; target parroting negative other-assessments; and offer-withdrawal games. Analysis examines how such interactions effectively fail as teases and explores how children can resist soldiers’ pursuit of degrading responses.

Fuel on the Fire: oil and politics in occupied Iraq

Fuel on the Fire: oil and politics in occupied Iraq

The Whiteness of the Soldier-Speaker in Brian Turner's Here, Bullet

In Brian Turner's collection of Iraq War poems Here, Bullet (2005), the soldier-speaker minimizes his white military subjectivity in order to preserve his own individuality. Turner meets the representational challenges of first-hand war poetry through his emphasis on narrative descriptions, his focus on natural objects and mundane particularities, juxtaposed with references to ancient Iraqi culture, and through the surrealism of his imagery. Together, these poetic strategies enable him to process and articulate his experiences in Iraq without succumbing to the paradoxically empowering and obliterating effects of his own uniformed whiteness in occupied Iraq. In the process, Turner gives space to a multiplicity of "observation posts" that decenter the lyric consciousness and enable the reader's empathy.

The sectarian state in Iraq and the new political class

This article serves as a critical examination of sectarianism in Iraqi society and politics, considering both its historical origins and its contemporary manifestations. The article thus evaluates the sectarian question in two parts: (1) its historical context in the Iraqi milieu and (2) the uses of social sectarianism for political purposes in modern Iraq. This provides the framework for a critical evaluation of the assorted actors, both Iraqi and foreign, who have used sectarianism to advance their parochial interests in occupied Iraq. The historical survey of sectarianism examines the social and folkloric bases of social sectarianism in modern Iraq. We argue that the manifestation of sectarianism in contemporary Iraq was transformed from a social phenomenon into a political programme under the Anglo-American military occupation. Even before the occupation, a primary theme of global discourse on Iraq (1990–2002) was the attempt by external actors to embed political sectarianism into the political dynamics of Iraq. This essay argues that the violent and highly politicized form of sectarianism that currently characterizes Iraq is the result of a deliberate manipulation of social differences that had been largely transcended in Iraq's major urban centres through decades of national state-building. The processes of this 'new sectarianism' are evaluated in terms of the political and legal mechanisms that have been institutionalized in occupied Iraq. The primary instigators of this new sectarianism are identified as Anglo-American occupation authorities; regional actors; and critically, a class of 'carpetbaggers' – Iraqi expatriates who were parachuted into power by occupation forces and have since developed narrow sectarian constituencies in the pursuit of their parochial interests. The development of this expatriate political class is examined in terms of the patronage it receives from foreign forces, particularly American and British, and in its ongoing dependence on external actors.

Detained in occupied Iraq

The war in Iraq has prompted some criminologists to examine such matters as the illegality of the invasion and subsequent occupation, controversial economic transformations, and the abuse — torture — of detainees at Abu Ghraib. For the most part, criminologists have neglected the problem of mass detention aimed at the civilian population: by 2007, the US military held more than 26,000 Iraqis in a network of large camps. Those civilians remained in long-term custody because the American commanders deemed them ‘imperative threats’ but not criminal nor terrorist. In an effort to shed critical light on that aspect of the occupation, this work interprets the official narratives used to justify the detention process and the role of American-styled reintegration programs. By doing so, the analysis draws on colonial theory in ways that deepen our understanding of social control and discipline in the new Iraq. Mindful of human rights, the discussion confronts important facets of enduring domination inherent in modern colonial projects.

The disintegration of Iraq: the manufacturing and politicization of sectarianism

Since the Anglo-American invasion in 2003, Iraqi politics and society have been interpreted through the lens of sectarian division and strife. Iraq under occupation has been beset by sectarian violence; however, contrary to standard belief, this sectarian violence has no significant precedent in Iraqi history, the politicized sectarianism that now dominates Iraq is argued to be the intended result of a deliberate Anglo-American occupation policy that has had at its foundation, the goal to carve Iraq into sectarian enclaves and to engineer a weak, pliable, state. The purpose of this article is thus two-fold: first, this article delineates social folkloric forms of sectarianism in Iraq from the militarized sectarianism that now constitutes Iraqi political culture. This, centred on folk practices, is argued to have been mitigated through a long process of state-building and social secularization. Today's political sectarianism, as reflected in militia activity and religious chauvinism, is presented in terms of Anglo-American occupation strategy, including: the empowering of sectarian militia parties which had no natural constituency in Iraq; the stripping and destruction of Iraq's national symbols; and the imposition of an American-written constitution drained of any national content that only reinforced sectarian division in Iraq. Second, against this backdrop of politicized sectarianism, outposts of genuine Iraqi nationalism are considered, with a particular focus on the populist Sadrist current. This current, an Iraqi national force informed by Islamic notions, represents an uneven but nevertheless genuine resistance movement, who might portend the emergence of further national movements in occupied Iraq.

Fragmented power and state-corporate killings: a critique of blackwater in Iraq

Especially given the invasion of Iraq, a growing number of criminologists have been attending to the transformation of state power and security within a neo-liberal political context. Although the capacity and influence of the state is not disappearing altogether there is a discernible erosion of authority within the sovereign state. In the realm of policing, we witness continued fragmentation of authority in which state power is relinquished to expanding commercial markets. The de-coupling of policing and government raises serious questions about the changing architecture of liberal democratic societies, prompting concerns over the waning monopoly of legitimate coercion. The project here explores the controversy over the use of private military firms in occupied Iraq, particularly the recent killings of civilians by Blackwater personnel. While offering specific details of those incidents, the analysis elaborates on state–corporate crime by revealing how state power is dispersed to the private sector; by doing so, the article examines how private military personnel evade prosecution for war crimes and other human rights abuses.

Disintegrating Democracy: From the Promise of the Soviet since 1905 to the Contemporary Crisis of Corrupt Democratic Forms

The appearance of soviets in 1905 brought the promise of democratic control from below, but the promise was short-lived and fell victim to the conditions of Civil War and later Stalinist degeneration, when democracy was crushed in every important way. A century has passed and formal democracy is disintegrating. In the USA, democratic forms and institutions are empty shells robbed of democratic content, corrupted by the direct or indirect influence of money. In the 20th century important elements of a more advanced political democracy—universal franchise, representative democracy, free speech and other basic rights—were conceded in response to the existence of the Soviet Union and to contain radicalism at home. The advances in political democracy were won through the efforts of socialists in the labor movement. After 1918 and 1945 the radicalized working class demanded and gained social protections and democratic advances. The concessions provided a springboard for more demands. The democratic reforms of the second half of the 20th century strengthened democracy, but cut into the profitability of capitalism. With the disintegration of the USSR and Eastern Europe, the social democratic concessions were less necessary, and increasingly difficult to deliver in the age of finance capital. Thus the collapse of the Soviet Union hastened the decline of Social Democracy. At the same time, bourgeois democracy is being hollowed out, nowhere more pronounced than in the USA itself. It is caricatured in the so-called new democracies of the former Soviet bloc and now in occupied Iraq.

Diplomacy under Occupation. The Status of Diplomatic Missions in Occupied Iraq

La ocupación no termina automáticamente relaciones diplomáticas o cierra misiones diplomáticas, pero el poder ocupante puede pedir de otros países que saquen temporalmente a miembros de misiones diplomáticas o la misión misma. La Convención de Viena de Relaciones Diplomáticas no se aplica directamente a poderes ocupantes con respecto a misiones diplomáticas y sus miembros en el territorio ocupado. El territorio es gobernado bajo las reglas usuales de la guerra. Aunque los agentes diplomáticos mantienen su estatus como diplomáticos, estos agentes no disfrutan de todas sus inmunidades y privilegios diplomáticos. Estos privilegios serán en práctica limitados por las necesidades militares y de seguridad del poder ocupante. El poder ocupante puede permitir a diplomáticos en el territorio, pero no puede acreditar a otros agentes, los cuales serán reconocidos al regreso del gobierno legítimo del estado.

Iranian Foreign Policy Towards Occupied Iraq, 2003–05

I<scp>ranian</scp> F<scp>oreign</scp> P<scp>olicy</scp> T<scp>owards</scp> O<scp>ccupied</scp> I<scp>raq</scp>, 2003–05

Hubris is the Handmaiden of Tragedy

Perhaps it is good thing that present war in Iraq has gone so poorly for American-led coalition. At time of this writing-and sadly these numbers will seem outdated to reader-more than 1500 coalition soldiers have fallen in conflict. The number of Iraqi dead is beyond easily verifiable count. Every soldier killed or maimed pierces American psyche. Every civilian whose life is similarly shattered dims international hopes for stability in region long torn by strife. Critics of Bush administration's seemingly ill-fated Iraq policies surely should not wish for such strife and pain in order to prove their point, lest their callous disregard for life forever taint their wisdom and legacy.But history only pauses to mourn dead, it does not stop to linger. Thus it is left for us who remain to ponder if there is not perhaps sliver of silver lining to be found along difficult road to democracy in Iraq, because painless success might well have fostered within current administration readier use of force to solve subsequent international crises. Baghdad's conquest in 2003 was considered at time blueprint for new kind of forceful regime change. The Weekly Standard's William Kristol, intellectual godfather to war's neoconservative architects, termed Iraq the first great battle for future of Middle East, while Wall Street Journal's Max Boot warned jingoistically that rogue states from Tehran to Pyongyang could either embrace American leadership, or face a visit from 3rd infantry division.'Such plans were surely hindered by sacrifices demanded in pacifying occupied Iraq. American troops continue to die in nearly daily attacks two years after president declared an end to major combat operations. So too has visible affiliation with coalition forces proven deadly for innumerable Iraqis. The cost of an occupation that was supposed to pay for itself in oil revenues now easily exceeds $200 billion, and as for Boot's 3rd ID, which spearheaded assault on Baghdad in 2003: it is presently preparing to be first combat division to redeploy for second full tour in Iraq. Even in afterglow of relatively peaceful voting this past January, democratization has surely not proven to be cake-walk promised. Similarly too have triumvirate of focus-group tested rationales employed in 2003 as justification for deposing Saddam Hussein-weapons of mass destruction, liberation, and thwarting terrorism-proved illusory, making their use in future political campaigns problematic if not impossible. If Baghdad and Fallujah had trembled at mere presence of American troops, or if terrible weapons had been found and terrorism thwarted, current administration might have tried to reform another part of world through war, bludgeoning its few remaining critics at home through politics of fear. Whether subsequent ventures in empirebuilding would have proven successful none can say. What is certain is that more would have died in attempt, including perhaps Washington's remaining good-standing in world.The United States might indeed have lost far more in future campaigns than blood, treasure, and prestige already sacrificed in Iraq, because history is replete with leaders who repeated too frequently tactics that led to their initial successes. Tragedy is often their end, when overused tactics become stale or once narrowly defined strategies become too commonly employed. A list of defeats snatched from jaws of victory would have to include subject of this essay: tragic ends of practitioners of politics of fear who ultimately lose control over their own rambunctious rhetoric. It is testament to irony's role as universe's most powerful force that success often breeds hubris, handmaiden of tragedy.The Truman administration exemplifies this lesson. Its experience in forging domestic consensus for new brand of American internationalism in aftermath of national sacrifice thus has much to teach about ongoing war on terror. …