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- Volume 10, Issue 1, 2016
International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies - Volume 10, Issue 1-2, 2016
Volume 10, Issue 1-2, 2016
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Iraq’s political economy post 2003: From transition to corruption
More LessAbstractThis article focuses on the transition of Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 as a result of the American-led invasion. Although the country’s institutions were shattered, efforts to rebuild them and create a truly open and democratic society failed. Thus, regime change did not lead to changes in the fundamentals of Iraq’s political economy. The article emphasizes how money was not the reason for lack of development; on the contrary, funds flooded the system, creating an all-encompassing corruption that seeped into every facet of life. The article discusses Prime Minister Hadi al-Abadi’s reforms after eight years of new authoritarianism in Iraq under Nuri al-Maliki (2006–2014).
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Reading, imagining and constructing Iraq
By Tahrir HamdiAbstractThe plight of Iraq in the Arab world is not the exception, but rather the rule. The complete physical, cultural, social and economic destruction of Iraq is currently underway; however, the planning stage for this complete destruction, or, to use Condoleeza Rice’s notorious term, ‘creative chaos’ that would lead to the ‘restructuring’ of the Arab world was put in place by Orientalists such as Bernard Lewis tens of years before the actual process took root. In order to counter such destructive imperialistic forces and discourses, an accurate reading of the situation is of the utmost importance before one can start to imagine and construct a new conception of Iraqi national identity that could withstand and survive all these imperialistically imposed divisionist agendas, which are gnawing away at the very cultural and social fabric that held this region together for hundreds of years. This article will attempt to highlight certain intellectual debates and literary productions that take active part in imagining and constructing an anti-colonial counter discourse that would lead to a new understanding of Iraqi national identity and nation. Work from the political theorist Benedict Anderson, the cultural theorist Edward Said, the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser and poems from the Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef will be examined in order to shed light on the theoretical and imaginative construction of nation.
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The deterioration of environmental and life quality parameters in Iraq since the 2003 American occupation of Iraq
More LessAbstractThe environment and overall life quality indicators found in Iraq have suffered a great deal of degradation since the 2003 Anglo-American occupation. The invading armed forces used varying conventional and unconventional illegal weapons, such as Napalm, cluster bombs, white phosphorous, microwave and Depleted Uranium (DU) munitions against the human population and the environment. DU is a by-product, or the radioactive waste, usually generated from the uranium enrichment process to produce spent fuel for the nuclear reactors. DU is a radioactive and toxic substance that imposes serious health hazards to human beings as will be explained in the other section of this article. The use of such weaponry and the destruction of infrastructure (i.e., portable water, electricity, the health care system, and the lack of security) have led to an estimated death toll of more than one million people since 2003 and the numbers continue to rise. Radioactive ‘DU’ was deployed during the invasion in crowded, heavily populated cities, such as Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah. It was also used in areas in southern Iraq like Basra, where it was deployed in 1991. Published scientific studies and evidence indicate that ‘DU’-related radioactive contamination increases the risk and incidence of cancer, congenital birth defects, and other diseases. Medical records and epidemiological studies in Iraq have proven that the use of DU led to the multifold increase of cancer and congenital birth defects. Collapse of environmental protection systems immediately after the invasion exposed the population and ecology to dangerous risk levels that have been a threat to people’s health, livelihood and security. It has also resulted in inefficiency in the performance of the new environmental protection staff members, along with corruption, a lack of transparency, as well as the other related obstacles that have been preventing the implementation of any effective actions that might lead to resolving environmental problems over the last thirteen years. Today, Iraq is suffering from critical environmental issues that need to be urgently resolved – issues such as the scarcity of potable water, desertification and land degradation, air pollution including dust storms with toxic metals, sites contaminated with hazardous waste, and impairment of the natural flow of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Additionally, the construction and operation of the Keban and Atatürk dams in Turkey during the last three decades has contained annual flooding downstream and prevented the river’s large discharges from reaching Iraq. This, with other GAP waterway projects in Turkey, are the real reason behind the gradual drying up of the Iraqi marshlands in addition to water quantity and quality problems. These add to the challenges facing environmental protection efforts, beyond the DU contamination issue. In this article, many different aspects of environmental deterioration found in Iraq will be identified and analysed, with their impacts on the quality of Iraqi life parameters presented, with emphasis on the issue of contamination by DU.
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Conceptualizing an internal conflict: ISIS and international law
More LessAbstractThis article investigates the challenge for international society in understanding ISIS’s continuing presence in Iraq and which aspects of international law may be applied so as to allow ISIS to be better held responsible for its actions. Particular emphasis is placed on the nature of an internal conflict and the rules of international law that apply to such conflicts. There is also a wider analysis of the difficulty in contextualizing ISIS within the prevailing Westphalian framework of an international society predicated on independent sovereign states. As such, the article explores aspects of international relations and the history of the Middle East, as well as international law.
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The idea of legislative budgeting in Iraq
More LessAbstractIn spite of Iraq’s ample natural wealth, its people have in large part remained bereft of the benefits of these extractive endowments, and insufficient legislative oversight of the extractive industries has been partly responsible for this unrealized potential. This article focuses on the importance of parliamentary oversight of Iraq’s extractive industries, and considers the broader evolutionary history of budgeting in Iraq, including the difficulties and setbacks that the budget process has faced both prior to and after the American invasion. The article identifies a mismatch between American budgeting in their local context, which advocates a strong role for Congress in the budget process, versus budgeting in an Iraqi context, where they had advocated alarmingly non-democratic arrangements, including an ‘Economic Czar’. The article finally assesses how legislative oversight can serve to address the longterm budget challenges of Iraq, particularly with respect to its extractive wealth.
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Economic growth, abrupt institutional changes and institutional policies: The case of an oil-exporting country
More LessAbstractThis article deals with economic growth in Iraq when formal institutions are subject to abrupt institutional change. The article follows a quantitative mode of enquiry to determine the impacts of institutional changes on economic performance. I built an expanded and updated version of Rowat’s model for the Iraq war of 2003. Thus, I estimate the effects of oil price, oil production, and abrupt institutional change in terms of war on Iraq’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 1971–2012. Likewise, I estimate the effects of the new institutional arrangements on the country’s economic performance for the sub-period 1998–2012. The results demonstrate that the 2003 war and institutional arrangements have had a negative and significant effect on GDP growth, while the effects of both oil production and oil prices are positive but the latter is not statistically significant. In line with these findings, a static comparative analysis was also carried out for before and after the 2003 war. On one hand, the results show the destructive realities of the wars at the macro level and on the standard of living for common citizens and, on the other, the findings illustrate the difficulties and challenges related to creating institutional arrangements in the post-2003 war period that can enhance or promote sustained economic growth.
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The Iraq war in the context of global capitalism
More LessAbstractThe 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 occupation of Iraq were central to US global strategy to dominate global capitalism after the fall of the Soviet Union. The United States dealt with perceived challenges to its domination through conquest. The Middle East has been central to US global strategy to maintain control of Western Europe and in its rivalry with its two main competitors, the Russian Federation and China. Developing crises in global capitalism exposed the United States to instability in its global position, which it countered by invading and destabilizing Middle Eastern states. The following questions present themselves: What is the relationship between the crises of capitalist globalization and US global strategy? In what way is the Middle East central to US global strategy and instrumental in meeting the challenges posed by its rivals and competitors, the Russian Federation, China, the European Union and Iran? What role has Iraq played in this strategy? Attempting to answer these questions would go a significant way in assessing the US role in Iraq and the Middle East.
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Conference Panels
AbstractPANEL SESSION 1 – IRAQI STUDIES AS A FIELD OF STUDY (10:00 A.M.–11:30 A.M.)
PANEL SESSION 2 – ROUNDTABLE ON IRAQ’S PROGRESSIVE FORCES (11:45 A.M.–01:15 P.M.)
PANEL SESSION 3 – IRAQ’S DOMESTIC ECONOMY (02:30 P.M.–04:30 P.M.)
PANEL SESSION 4 – IRAQ AND THE REGIONAL STATE SYSTEM (04:45 P.M.–06:30 P.M.)
PANEL SESSION 5 – THE ASSAULT ON IRAQIS AND IRAQI CULTURE (09:00 A.M.–10:30 A.M.)
PANEL SESSION 6 – MONARCHICAL IRAQ: EDUCATION, LITERATURE, MEMORY (10:45 A.M.–12:15 P.M.)
PANEL SESSION 7 – CINEMA AND POLITICS IN/OF IRAQ (02:00 P.M.–03:30 P.M.)
PANEL SESSION 8 – SCREENING OF AL-QADISIYYA (1981) (145 MINUTES) (03:45 P.M.–06:15 P.M.)
ROUNDTABLE ON SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING (9:00 A.M.–10:15 A.M.)
PANEL SESSION 9 – HIGHER EDUCATION AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN IRAQ TODAY (10:30 A.M.–12:00 P.M.)
PANEL SESSION 10 – IRAQ, THE U.S. AND THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISTS I (1:30 P.M.–3:00 P.M.)
PANEL SESSION 11 – IRAQ, THE U.S. AND THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISTS II (3:15 P.M.–4:45 P.M.)
CLOSING REMARKS DELIVERED BY SINAN ANTOON (05:00 P.M.–06:00 P.M.)
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Reviews
Authors: Jacqueline S. Ismael, Mohaned Talib Al-Hamdi and Antony T. SullivanAbstractMEMOIR OF AN IRAQI WOMAN DOCTOR, SANIHA AMIN ZAKI AND ELLEN JAWDAT (EDS) (2015) CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 528 pp., ISBN-10: 1501077988, ISBN-13: 9781501077982, p/bk, $17.95
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF IRAQ: RESTORING BALANCE IN A POST-CONFLICT SOCIETY, FRANK R. GUNTER (2013) England: Edward Elgar Publisher, 320 pp., ISBN: 9781849809887, h/bk, $110.00
WAR AND OCCUPATION IN IRAQI FICTION, IKRAM MASMOUDI (2015) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 238 pp., ISBN: 9780748696550, h/bk, $120
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