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This paper uses Iraq as a case study to answer the research question, how do consociational settlements impact the state? Firstly, the paper argues that consociationalism, at best, has an under-theorized conception of the state, implicitly defaulting to an unexamined neoWeberian model. The paper then surveys state theory and finds that key works on the state in the Middle East are vulnerable to the postcolonial critique of Eurocentrism. To overcome this, the paper deploys the works of Mann, Jessop, and Bourdieu to develop a universal model of the state, disaggregating the state, conceiving of it as a series of competitive fields, bureaucratic, political, coercive, and economic. The paper then uses this model to assess how a consociational political settlement impacts upon the state. Deploying a disaggregated model of the state, the paper argues that Iraq’s consociational settlement shifted the balance of power in the bureaucratic field away from any autonomous power or centralized coherence that the institutions and the civil service possessed toward the political parties empowered by the consociational system. After being empowered by the informal consociational settlement, it is the political parties who now dominate the system for their own ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a special issue on consociationalism and the state, specifically focusing on Lebanon and Iraq. It explores the use of consociational power sharing as a means of conflict resolution in post-conflict societies. The article acknowledges the ongoing debate surrounding the effectiveness of consociationalism and the tension between normative and analytical goals. The special issue aims to contribute to this debate by examining the relationship between consociational theory, the state, and political settlements in Lebanon and Iraq. The papers in the issue explore various aspects of consociationalism, including its impact on state formation, state stability, and social identity. The authors emphasize the need for a more coherent theory of the state in understanding the dynamics of consociationalism in these countries. The article also discusses the political settlements in Lebanon and Iraq, highlighting the challenges faced by each country's consociational system. It concludes by calling for further comparative study and innovative debates on the postcolonial state in the Middle East. [Extracted from the article]

Diverse forms of protest in contemporary Iraq have not altered the country's political system and in some respects have reinforced it. This paper argues that the existing literature has not fully explained this protest weakness, due in part to a division between an agency-focused protest literature emphasising discourse, symbolic politics, and the micro-politics of protests, where less attention has been paid to the material and structural elements; and a literature focused on the political system which has typically adopted more macro and structural models. By contrast, this paper uses concepts from Deleuze and Guattari to explore empirical case studies of the encounter between protests and political power in Iraq. It finds the notion of social assemblage useful for drawing the expressive and the material, the micro and the macro, back together on the same ontological plane. Deleuze and Guattari's distinction between the behaviours of rhizomatic (decentred) and arborescent (hierarchic) structures can also clarify a key source of protest weakness in Iraq as the rhizomatic tendencies of the country's political system. This refers primarily to the tendency for destabilisations of the system engendered by protests to function as a mechanism for the expansion of its political power over new social territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we model the relationship between oil price and exchange rate for Nigeria using monthly data from January 1997 to December 2019. The contributions of this paper are twofold: (i) we employ both the Symmetric ARDL and Asymmetric ARDL, and (ii) we also account for multiple structural changes in regression models. The following findings are apparent from our analyses. First, an increase in oil prices leads to depreciation of the Naira relative to the US dollar. Second, oil price asymmetries seem to matter both in the short run and in the long run. Third, the findings indicate evidence of structural breaks in the oil and exchange rate markets which coincides with the 2000 US invasion of Iraq, 2005 Asian demand soars, 2008 global financial crisis and 2015 Arab springs. Finally, we establish that disregarding the role of structural breaks and asymmetry will lead to serious biases and misleading results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under what conditions are radical alternatives to state-led diplomacy feasible? Diplomatic studies have so far denied attention to those diplomatic practices taking place without national mediation. Building on the concept of diplomacy from below (DFB), the article aims to understand under what conditions this newly theorised form of alternative diplomacy is possible in contexts of armed violence. To do so, we present the case of the diplomatic action of the (post)autonomist Association Ya Basta! between 1997 and 2004. The study adopts an interpretivist approach, reconstructing activists' stories along four conflict scenarios (Mexico, Palestine, Colombia, and Iraq). The empirical analysis allowed for formulating a "working hypothesis" according to which DFB is feasible only among groups sharing an ideological background and under minimum-security conditions for freedom of movement and physical integrity. The paper innovates debates on (para)diplomacy and opens a new research agenda on diplomatic interactions between subaltern groups in (post)conflict scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage at risk is a terminology used to describe the sites that are highly at risk of being lost as a result of intentional demolition, deterioration, negligence or subject to improper preservation or mistreatment. Iraq is one of the countries that suffered in the last decade from intentional demolition of highly valuable heritage sites and objects. As Iraq gradually recovering from wars and violence with limited resources and budgets, historical and heritage places are still at risk because of neglect, community ignorance, insufficient planning, and military actions. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the idea of using crowdsource drone images and videos which are captured by amateurs for the documentation of heritage sites. Those crowdsource images represent a great source of data that does not require significant financial and hard labor resources. It should be noted that there is no guarantee to have the captured data being sufficient for the 3D documentation and therefore it is proposed to integrate, when possible, multiple captured crowdsource data to ensure complete documentation. In this paper, three Iraqi historical sites are 3D reconstructed using crowdsource drone videos, namely: Rabban Hormizd Monastery (AD 640), Taq Kasra (AD 242 to 272), and the Great Mosque of Samarra (AD 849–851). The experiments showed a successful 3D modeling of the three mentioned heritage objects using the crowdsource drone video images despite being captured for non-3D purposes which require high expertise and planning. With the absence of highly accurate reference data, the overall relative accuracy of the object's dimensions is found to be less than 1 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 50 years, civil conflicts have grown increasingly complex due to the proliferation of new armed groups and rebel fragmentation. Yet, existing research on external support for armed groups often ignores this multi-actor dimension, overlooking the unusual amount of discretion sponsors have in deciding whom to support in any given target state. This paper explores how multi-militant conflict environments impact foreign state sponsorship decisions. Conventional wisdom predicts that shared ethnic and ideological ties increase the likelihood of external support for an armed group because these ties signal a lower risk of misuse (agency slack). In contrast, this paper highlights how an increasing number of armed groups in a conflict setting can decrease the importance of shared ties between state sponsors and militants. We argue this change occurs because multi-militant environments reduce a group's willingness to misuse support and improve a sponsor's options to shift support if misuse occurs. We utilize a mixed-methods approach to examine this logic, drawing on an original dataset of 1,402 armed groups and qualitative evidence from Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule. The results advance understanding of the consequences of conflict fragmentation and external support for non-rebel actors. Durante los últimos cincuenta años, los conflictos civiles se han vuelto cada vez más complejos debido a la proliferación de nuevos grupos armados y a la fragmentación de los grupos rebeldes. Sin embargo, la investigación existente acerca del apoyo externo a los grupos armados ignora, a menudo, esta dimensión formada por agentes múltiples, y pasa por alto la inusual discrecionalidad de la que gozan los Estados a la hora de decidir a quién apoyar en un determinado Estado objetivo. Este artículo analiza cómo los entornos de conflicto con diversos militantes afectan las decisiones de apoyo de los Estados extranjeros. La sabiduría tradicional predice que la existencia de unos lazos étnicos e ideológicos compartidos aumenta la probabilidad de apoyo externo hacia un grupo armado debido a que estos vínculos indican un menor riesgo de uso indebido (holgura de agencia). Por el contrario, este artículo destaca cómo la existencia de un número cada vez mayor de grupos armados en un entorno de conflicto puede hacer disminuir la importancia de los lazos compartidos entre los Estados que proporcionan apoyo y los militantes. Argumentamos que este cambio ocurre porque los entornos con diversos militantes reducen la disposición de un grupo a hacer un mal uso del apoyo y mejoran las opciones de los Estados que proporcionan apoyo a la hora de modificar su apoyo en caso de la existencia de un mal uso. Utilizamos un enfoque de métodos mixtos para estudiar esta lógica. Para ello, nos basamos en un conjunto de datos originales de 1,402 grupos armados y en evidencia cualitativa obtenida de Iraq durante el gobierno de Saddam Hussein. Los resultados amplían la comprensión de las consecuencias de la fragmentación del conflicto y el apoyo externo a los agentes no rebeldes. Ces cinquante dernières années, les conflits civils se sont complexifiés à cause de la prolifération de nouveaux groupes armés et de la fragmentation des rebelles. Pourtant, les travaux de recherche existants sur le soutien externe des groupes armés ignorent souvent ces acteurs multiples, et donc omettent l'ampleur inhabituelle de la discrétion des entités quand il s'agit de décider qui soutenir dans un État cible. Cet article s'intéresse aux conséquences des environnements conflictuels aux multiples militants sur les décisions de soutien d'États étrangers. Il est généralement admis que les liens ethniques et idéologiques accroissent la probabilité de soutien externe pour un groupe armé, car ils diminuent les risques de détournement. Par opposition, cet article met en évidence qu'un nombre croissant de groupes armés au sein d'une zone de conflit est susceptible d'affaiblir l'importance relative des liens qui unissent les États soutiens aux militants. Nous affirmons que cette évolution intervient parce que les environnements aux multiples militants permettent d'orienter les soutiens différemment en cas de détournement. Les groupes sont donc moins enclins à mal agir. Nous employons une stratégie aux méthodes mixtes pour analyser cette logique, en nous appuyant sur un ensemble de données original de 1,402 groupes armés et des éléments probants qualitatifs issus d'Irak à l'époque où Saddam Hussein était au pouvoir. Les résultats enrichissent notre compréhension des conséquences de la fragmentation des conflits et du soutien externe pour des acteurs non rebelles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article addresses the question of Iraq's emergence as a state in the context of the First World War with a special focus on the interplay between British imperialism and Shiʿi activism. By the twentieth century, the majority of people who lived in the territory that would become the Iraqi state were Shiʿi Muslims. Largely ignoring the activism of Iraqis, there is a line of thinking in English-language scholarship which suggests that the process of state formation in Iraq was completely driven by British imperialists. Indeed, Britain established a military presence in the Ottoman vilayets of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul during and after the First World War, and the empire was awarded an internationally sanctioned mandate for this territory in 1920. In an effort to decolonize the history of Iraq, this paper argues that the inhabitants of Iraq, especially Shiʿi activists, played a significant role in the formation of the new state. Research for this paper is based on the writings of Shiʿi activists with a special focus on clerical leaders, as well as British government officials. Challenging historical accounts that reflect British imperialist narratives, this paper argues that Shiʿi activists (and British responses to them) significantly influenced the course of state formation in Iraq. This is not to say that Britain was not influential in the creation of Iraq; in fact, British imperialists clearly had the upper hand. However, they did not operate in a vacuum, unaffected by the inhabitants of the Iraqi state that they wished to create. Instead of assuming that British imperialists single-handedly created Iraq or that ethno-sectarian divisions are the natural order in Iraq, this paper suggests that the relationship between Britain and Shiʿism played a critical role in the formation of the Iraqi state. Although many scholars consider Islamic sectarianism and Britain's colonial legacy in Iraq to be at the heart of the country's socio-political system, the relationship between Britain and Shiʿism in Iraq has not received ample scholarly attention. The intersection of British imperialism and Shiʿi activism resulted in several foundational threads that were woven into the fabric of the Iraqi state. The 1920 Shiʿi revolt against the British mandate for Iraq and the British counter-revolt became the outward manifestation of the British-Shiʿi divide. British officials installed a Sunni-run government in Iraq for fear of Shiʿi dominance, which could have resulted from democratic institutions. Anti-British resistance led by Shiʿi clerics completely changed the calculus of Iraq's emergence as an independent state and alienated much of the Shiʿi community from Iraq's political establishment. This process radically altered the roles that Shiʿi and British leaders hoped to play in post-Ottoman Iraq. This state of affairs was not inevitable given that the continuation of British-Shiʿi alliances that began to emerge during the First World War would have produced a profoundly different state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the application of consociationalism to post-authoritarian Iraq. Traditionally, consociationalism has served as simultaneously an analytical tool and a normative constitutional and institutional ideal; here, I discuss whether it presupposes a functioning liberal democracy or may also, conversely, help to create a (liberal) democracy in non-liberal (in particular Leninist) settings. As a case study, I focus on the consociational arrangements between rival Kurdish parties in the post-1991 Kurdistan Region and between Kurds and other parties in post-2003 Iraq. I argue that the latter are in important respects modeled on the former. On a theoretical level, I argue that these consociational arrangements are best analyzed not in institutional terms but in terms of practices and of strategies and tactics in ongoing power struggles. A refocus on practices leads us to rethink the normative assumptions of consociational theory, in particular concerning questions of legitimacy and the distinction between formal and informal consociation. It can better account for the instability of (informal) consociational arrangements and raises the question of how to account for non-liberal (and in particular Marxist–Leninist) state traditions in consociational analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pervasive feature of populism is the use of rescue narratives to stimulate emotional adherence with audience predicated on evoking fear versus hope for salvation. This paper argues that restricting the rhetorical appeal of rescue narratives to the affective domain obscures the argumentative function that these narratives partake in constructing political arguments. It, thus, claims that rescue narratives can perform as arguments when used to provide reasons to justify political action. The paper examines the way(s) Donald Trump employs rescue narratives as arguments to justify military interventions in Iraq and Syria. The analytical framework supplements the argumentative strategies of the Discourse-Historical Approach to Critical Discourse Studies with pragma-dialectics' argumentation schemes. The analysis shows that the different elements of the narrative construct premises for argument schemes adduced to justify the rightness of claims. Conceptualizing Trump's rescue narratives as arguments prompts a reflection on the possibility of narrative discourse to be associated with the domain of reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the Iraqi state's utilization of tribalism to mobilize and deploy forces against its opponents. The paper argues that state elites exploit tribal divisions for short-term gain, ignoring their detrimental effects on national unity. The case study laid out in this paper, that of Salahedin Brigade, a tribal mobilization unit that was established in Shirqat by members of the al-Jabbour tribe in 2015, shows how tribalism is nurtured when central power is held by an uneasy few, who prefer to govern through the tactics of divide and conquer rather than confront the basic contradictions in their society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elite cohesion structures interethnic bargaining and institutional design in post-conflict divided societies. Although works have explored how interethnic elite bargaining affects institutional design and conflict and cooperation in multiethnic states, less attention has been paid to historical antecedents that precondition bargaining strategies and outcomes in post-conflict spaces. This article explores elite bargaining dynamics among Iraqi dissident and exiled elites prior to 2003 to explain fractionalization and incongruent institutional design following regime change. Treating elite interactions as antecedent conditions for explaining statebuilding outcomes, it situates Iraq's informal consociational power-sharing institutional design, muhassasa, within preceding patterns of interethnic fragmentation of the anti-Ba'thist opposition movement prior to 2003. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with dissident elites from Iraq's pre-2003 opposition and exiled groups and American policymakers, this paper illustrates how ethnic elite competition for control and state capture impeded the adoption and design of consensual and durable power-sharing institutions following regime change. Thus, although collective grievances with Ba'thist-era exclusion and repression facilitated interethnic mobilization among disparate elite, expedient statebuilding and the reliance on fractionalized opposition groups obstructed the development and evolution of a cohesive, durable, and inclusive conflict mitigating institutional design after 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the enduring puzzles of post-2003 Iraq is why southern Iraq, a relatively homogenous, wealthy, stable, and politically represented area suffers from poverty, unemployment, and a dire lack of services. In this paper, we conceptualize southern Iraq as an imagined region, whose identity has been shaped by the collective neglect it has suffered from both internal and external actors. We argue that its situation is partially explained by a lower developmental baseline in 2003, caused by the predatory policies of Saddam Hussein's regime. In addition, the preoccupation of its Shia leaders with ruling a centralized Iraq post-2003, rather than investing in local leadership has contributed to the neglect. The continued reliance on oil – which predominantly comes from the south – contributes to citizens' sense of plunder and exploitation. Finally, the south's perceived closeness to Iran has dissuaded the international community and regional investors from engaging with the region, which has contributed to the perception of neglect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper probes the process of heritage production in documentary films with a specific focus on the documentary film Taq Kasra Wonder of Architecture (Akbarzadeh, Pejman. 2018. Taq Kasra Wonder of Architecture. Amsterdam: Persian Dutch Network. .), which tells the story of the pre-Islamic Persian/Iranian historical site of Taq Kasra (the Arch of Ctesiphon), presently located in Iraq. The paper situates the film within a broader context of documentaries about Persian edifices in the region and draws on primary interview material with the documentary maker Pejman Akbarzadeh. Through its analyses, the paper shows how, especially in the Iranian setting, a documentary film can engage and (re)produce heritage, and how, when compared to that setting, Taq Kasra exposes persistent aspects of cultural politics within the Islamic Republic since its establishment after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and Saddam Hussein's policies. In doing so, it is argued that the film provides a mode of critical enquiry into heritage in current historical and political circumstances in Iran. The paper addresses a lacuna in both critical heritage and film studies, namely, the analysis and interpretation of the making of heritage in film and as film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note looks at the radical influencers of Bosnian foreign fighters. This group is important, as the Balkan region has been seen as a spot of jihadist activism and recruitment for the IS and Al-Nusra Front. Previous research on foreign fighters emphasized that a small number of individuals (religious leaders, former combatants, and others) at the local level play a significant role in this recruitment. The influence of such figures results in hotspots of radical activism, which are called "power centers" here. This research note argues that such dynamics are likely to be even more evident in postwar societies due to state weaknesses, which create more power for social actors and inhibit counterterrorism. The paper also analyses the role of leader-led radical "institutions" that have appeared after the Bosnian War. By doing so, it stresses the significance of local radical influencers in the recruitment of Bosnian foreign fighters. The research note shows that radical influencers in postwar radical milieus manage to "institutionalize" their authority by filling the void left by domestic war(s) with life guidance and religious values. The paper provides insights into the social relations, authority and decision-making connected with foreign fighter departures to Syria and Iraq (2012-2016). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arthur C. Danto's distinction between monuments and memorials proposes a differentiation between two ideologically-determined modes of commemoration, encompassing not just architectural symbols of the past but also all other forms of cultural 'remembering', including documentary, literary, and cinematic forms of representation. My discussion will focus on a photographic album significantly entitled The Last Good War and the transhistorical depictions of the war veteran in the film Memorial Day. The purpose of this paper is to underscore the ideological ambivalences at the heart of the American Second World War veteran 'craze', which not only paved the way for overriding the post-Vietnam War cultural legacy, but also served to ethically and ideologically legitimize contemporary US military interventions in national (collective) memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written about the prevalence and politicization of public discourses on migration. Less prevalent are analyses of the role of literacy mediators in making texts, and the discourses they invoke, accessible to displaced people. With this in mind, this paper takes a discourse-ethnographic approach to the analysis of discourses of displacement. Literacy mediation in humanitarian settings is explored as a means by which refugees and humanitarian actors negotiate the unequal power dynamics of humanitarian interactions. Findings suggest that the institutional complexities of humanitarian efforts are reduced when mediators translate discourses in their literacy practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates possible sociopolitical reconciliatory mechanisms to garner support for peacemaking in conflict-torn societies. Building on the Kurdish question in Turkey, associated with a four-decade-long armed conflict that has spilled over into neighboring Syria and Iraq, we identify policies and framing that can attract support for a political solution to the conflict. We highlight the need for a sociopolitical reconciliatory approach that addresses both the hopes of the warring minority and the fears of the majority. The results from an original nationwide survey indicate that minority demands can initially be addressed through a 'soft settlement,' lying between individual and collective rights. Our results point to the need to relax the concept of negotiated settlement, which has become the most frequent approach to ending internal armed conflicts in the post-Cold War era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I use Tahrir Square as a case study to examine the significance of space to Iraq's October Revolution. I draw on the work of Henri Lefebvre to argue that the revolution in Tahrir Square was a response to the degradation of space in Baghdad after 2003 and delineate how protesters used space tactically to alter the dynamics of contention in their favour. In addition, I suggest that despite the material space of the revolution coming to an end, protesters nevertheless saw what unfolded there as revolutionary because it allowed them to imagine politics anew for the first time since 2003. In this way, I contribute to work on social movements in the Middle East by highlighting the revolutionary potential of the imagination and centring protesters' understanding of it, therefore challenging academic norms about who gets to create theory. This has also allowed me to undertake a nuanced analysis of the events that unfolded in the square, as the focus on the imagination means that I do not need to claim that social relations changed beyond recognition to argue that something of lasting significance took place during Iraq's October Revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-2003, the Iraqi Police Service (IPS) has undergone a series of overhauls that have prioritised building institutional capacities ('statebuilding') above socio-political cohesion ('nation-building'). Following the defeat of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), however, a community policing initiative premised on improving state–society relations has gained momentum. But while community policing is conceived in the Global North as a trust-building mechanism, how do Iraqi stakeholders locally perceive it, when the legacy of regime change has been to entrench a highly militarised police force beholden to patronage networks and heavily outnumbered by other security and justice providers? This paper considers policing in two diverse districts in Ninawa province: a rundown Sunni tribal neighbourhood in Mosul, and a predominantly Christian town in a multi-ethnic district. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 37 figures representing a spectrum of local interests, we explore how Iraqis understand three commonly touted characteristics of community policing: police–public partnerships; problem-solving; and preventing crime. Our findings suggest that while police conduct does impact how stakeholders view them, public trust in the police is at least as much a function of who the police are as of what they actually do, underscoring that police professionalism cannot substitute for political legitimacy more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are returning to their home countries from camps in northern Syria and require prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration. Yet, as feminist security and terrorism scholars have demonstrated, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes are mostly focused on men and neglect women's experiences. The absence of rehabilitation and reintegration programmes designed for women is influenced by gender stereotypes around women's peacefulness and their lack of agency. Alongside gender, further intersecting Islamophobic dynamics also shape these practices through, for instance, racial profiling or the trope of associating Islam with "terrorism". This paper, thus, explores to what extent rehabilitation and reintegration programmes are influenced by underlying assumptions. I build upon feminist security and terrorism scholarship and draw from interviews with practitioners and policy- makers who have worked with ISIS women returnees across juris- dictions and countries. I argue that intersecting gendered, racial and religious assumptions influence the rehabilitation and reintegration practices of women returnees. This analysis is illustrated with three themes: 1) vocational training in rehabilitation programmes, 2) the freedom in the expression of religion and 3) the stigmatisation of returnees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1987–1988 Anfal Campaign during which the Iraqi Baath regime massacred some 180,000 Kurdish Iraqis, 5,000 of whom killed by chemical weapons in the town of Halabja, is considered one of the major traumas in modern Kurdish history. Yet a few decades later, the Kurds appear to have risen from their proverbial ashes, embarking against great odds on an ambitious state building project in northern Iraq. With this story of "trauma and redemption" as background, this paper considers the lessons learned from this Kurdish experiment; lessons drawn not only by the Kurds themselves, but by all those who willy-nilly accompanied them on this journey; the Iraqi state, the international community, and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sand and dust storms are a common natural hazard in arid and dry areas of the Middle East and North Africa severely affecting human life and economic sectors, including agriculture production. In this paper, I explore the potential impact of sand and dust storms (SDS) on agricultural sub-sectors in Iraq by combining the household-level production and socioeconomic data with the climate dataset to allow the empirical assessment of agricultural impacts due to dust storms. I find compelling evidence that exposure of crops and livestock to dust storms significantly diminish agricultural productivity, vegetation cover and have significant bearings on the household welfare. Our analysis reveals a 1.1% reduction in the value of crop production as a result of an additional SDS event. This corresponds to about 0.045% losses in the GDP of Iraq, an amount equivalent to about $0.1 billion. Crop yields are reduced significantly ranging from 0.9% to 3% for an additional day of sand and dust storms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates, by means of computer-assisted qualitative and quantitative discourse analysis, how and when ideology was securitized in US presidential speech. It reveals how securitizing speech justifies methods and targets in the resistance of "dangerous ideologies" that are problematic for democracies. The analysis reveals that the entanglement of oppositional ideologies with security was articulated in the context of the War on Terror. While the original need to see ideologies as an existential threat was necessary to justify the exclusion of the ideologies of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein from the elections in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2004 and 2005 respectively, the securitization of ideologies then spread to issue areas beyond terror and to geographic contexts outside of these two countries, all the way to US domestic political competition. The need to avoid embarrassment in Iraq and Afghanistan may have thus affected US democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As terrorist groups became more technologically advanced with their media campaigns, the global audience began to see pictures of women in black burkas pledging allegiance to the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and posing with guns. Although there is a backlash against such change that we see reflected in the ideologies of violent extremism; the shifts in gender relations within these groups are significant to examine. Further, we face questions about the repatriation of ISIS women and children to their countries of origin – notably questions of agency and culpability within the mainstream media. This paper asks: to what extent have women's roles changed within and across terrorist groups? Is there a move toward women's empowerment, or is it a facade? Analyzing the three cases of Al-Qaeda (AQ), Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) does their advent represent a significant shift? The emergence of ISIS and Boko Haram's explicitly gendered strategies of violence and recruitment within the highly patriarchal and misogynistic Salafi-jihadist culture, and PKK's postconflict gender-equal political advances demonstrates that addressing women's agency through a gendered analysis outside of the masculine domain is imperative. Scholars should challenge the idea that women have limited roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces and evaluates forensic traceable liquid technology as a potential deterrent for trafficking in cultural property, earlier employed in the UK to reduce heritage crime and recently implemented in Iraq to protect over 573,000 archaeological objects in five museums. The study suggests a theoretical framework and unveils novel qualitative and quantitative empirical datasets acquired through surveying and interviewing 42 law enforcement practitioners from 21 countries. The acquired data confirms the theoretical underpinnings and reveals that forensic traceable liquid, physically applied at the source, is viewed as an efficient deterrent on the market side, providing hard evidence of provenance, enhancing traceability, increasing the certainty of being convicted of dealing in illicit material, introducing risk, and invisibly guarding objects along the trafficking chain. Notably, source-country respondents appear more enthusiastic about this innovation than market-country ones, while the support for its wider implementation is unanimous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed power generation may become an important segment in the energy sector in Iraq. The main objective of this paper is to estimate the potential of heat recovery from the Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) driving electric generators in Iraq. The heat recovery solution considered here is based on Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs). A model has been developed for an ORC-based system recovering heat from a small/medium size ICE (37.7 kW), which is appropriate for large-scale implementation in Iraq. The model has been validated against results reported in the literature. The main steps of the procedure used to design an ORC-based system are presented, with proper illustrations. They include working fluid selection, performance analysis for each component of the system (evaporator, condenser, and expander) and sizing the main components of the system (evaporator and condenser). The heat recovery efficiency is higher in the North of Iraq and ranges between 8% and 11% in January and between 4% and 7% in July, depending on working fluid and geographical location. R134a provides the highest efficiency, while the second-best working fluid is R1234ze. We adopted the hypothesis that 20% of the power capacity to be installed in Iraq until 2020 is provided by electric generators driven by ICEs of medium power (37 kW). 125000 units should be installed and the investment is about 1.5 billion Euro while heat recovery units may cost about 500 million euro, if manufactured in dedicated factories. Heat recovery may save about 7.5% of the installed power. The government should prepare appropriate policies to stimulate distributed power generation and heat recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the World Health Organization, intimate partner violence (IPV) affects 35% of women worldwide and 40% of pregnant women, often resulting in maternal and infant death and harm. Displaced persons are at higher risk of abuse compared to the general population. While few studies have explored IPV in Iraq, research from Erbil, Iraq showed nearly 60% of women reported experiencing IPV in their lifetime. No publications examining IPV among displaced women in Iraq exist. Considering the severe impacts of IPV in pregnancy and the associated risks for IPV among women in refugee camps, this paper presents the first analysis of prevalence and factors associated with lifetime IPV among displaced pregnant women in two Iraqi refugee camps. Thirteen percent of women reported experiencing any abuse and experiencing IPV was associated with receiving fewer years of schooling (p = 0.04), not having a private doctor (p = 0.002), attending the first prenatal visit during the third trimester (p = 0.03), feeling pressure to have a child (p = 0.003), knowing someone who was physically injured by their husband (p = 0.05), experiencing suicidal ideation (p = 0.02), and being worried about harming one's baby (p = 0.02). Policy and programme recommendations for screening and prevention of IPV in resource-limited settings are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study challenges the presentation of non-state armed groups as divided into anti-government rebels and pro-government proxies and proposes that some pro-government armed groups maintain explicit anti-government rhetoric. It is this anti-government agenda that enables "pro-government" groups to successfully recruit their members and to advance their interests. From Iraq's Shiite militias to Lebanon's Hezbollah and Afghan Uzbek warlords, there are numerous armed groups which, on the one hand, officially maintain pro-government stance and, on the other hand, explicitly criticize, oppose and challenge the state. On a theoretical level, this study seeks to demonstrate that a "pro-government anti-government" group is a distinct category of non-state armed groups that neither directly engages in armed confrontation with the state nor complies with its agenda and policies or fully accepts its legitimacy. On an empirical level, this paper explores why individuals mobilize for pro-government anti-government armed groups. Unique micro-level interview data with members of volunteer militia battalions in Ukraine are employed to provide insights into the functioning of pro-government anti-government militants. Drawing upon its empirical findings, this study proposes that pro-government "government challengers" emerge and persist because these groups are more efficient than the government in the provision of security and in promoting the incumbent's ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does wartime debate in democracies during counterinsurgency campaigns embolden insurgent adversaries? Despite the historical frequency of this claim, there is little direct evidence assessing this 'emboldenment' hypothesis. This paper develops a novel test of this argument during the US counterinsurgency campaign following the invasion of Iraq in 2003. We find that following spikes in US domestic debate over the Iraq war, there is no evidence that insurgent attacks on military or civilian targets increased in regions of Iraq with greater access to US news compared to regions with less access. Overall, these results offer no support for the emboldenment claim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, collaborative autoethnography is used to explore the authors' involvement as participants in and facilitator of an academic development programme that took place in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Recognising the significant differences in cultural origin between the Iraqi participants and its British facilitator, the authors share their reflections on the programme. Consideration is given to the implications of cultural differences in respect of the authors' expectations and experiences of this educational encounter, with particular emphasis on different approaches to learning and teaching prevailing in collectivist cultures, compared to those that are more individualist. The authors highlight the importance of early relationship-building in cross-cultural educational encounters, emphasising the two-way nature of this particular learning experience and the subsequent impact on their practice as educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian threat environment has changed as a result of global terrorism and foreign fighters, which are contributing factors to the blurring of the lines between military objectives and law enforcement activities. This shift requires a more integrated and interoperable forensic science framework that is coordinated at the whole-of-Government enterprise level. The forensic science 'system of systems' provides an integrating framework, which recognizes that forensic science supports the criminal justice, law enforcement, intelligence, and military systems. These systems must work together to achieve end-to-end performance, which is coordinated through integration and sharing of information across the systems. The purpose of this paper is to discuss why we need a systems thinking approach to military forensic science in the contemporary world. Implementation of a coordinated and interoperable military forensic science system of systems will contribute to the Australian Department of Defence strategic objective to deter, deny and defeat returned foreign fighters and global terrorist networks, such as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant proportion of research and initiatives challenging violence within Iraq and Syria centres on the international threat posed by Islamic State (Daesh). Consequently, much of this work is funded, designed, managed and implemented by external actors, with a security focus on Salafi-Jihadist groups and the mobilisation of (male) combatants. This paper has a dual purpose: to review and evaluate the progress of localised initiatives inside Iraq and Syria that focus on social cohesion and resilience to violence, and to explore and showcase the engagement of local women in this field. Drawing on multi-sector accounts of women serves to highlight and better understand their individual experiences, and the challenges and opportunities for female voices to be considered, amplified and impactful. This scope provides insight into individual and communal vulnerabilities to 'radicalisation' within Iraq and Syria and explores the successes and failures of female-led counter-initiatives. The paper underscores the experiences of these women from a local and non-western perspective and sheds light on what is being done on the ground to challenge violence post-Daesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a first view on the potential economic outcomes for American women serving along-side men in combat roles. Specifically, this paper examines the impact of deployment and exposure to intense combat for women who served in the most high-risk occupations open to them in Iraq and Afghanistan on their subsequent use of GI bill benefits for higher education. It also compares these women to men who served in the same capacities and women who served in lower risk occupations. Women in general, and in these occupations in particular, were more likely than their male counterparts to use the GI bill. Following deployment, this paper presents robust evidence that women in all capacities, and men, were more likely to use their GI bill benefits. Moreover, exposure to intense combat, which was far more likely to impact these women than other women, detracted from their propensity to use the GI bill. This negative impact on pursuit of higher education was similar for both men and women. Taken together, this paper provides evidence that deployment may benefit the young men and women alike who serve in the U.S. military, and that both suffer together when faced with exposure to intense fighting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between armed conflict intensity and child labor using household level data from Iraq and taking advantage of a quasi-experimental setup. Armed conflict intensity is measured by the number of deaths related to conflict, and child labor is separated by type of work: economic and household. After controlling for individual and household characteristics that determine child labor, we find that armed conflict intensity is associated with a higher likelihood of entry into economic work sufficient to qualify as child labor, but is not associated with entry into household child labor. However, conflict intensity is associated with marginal increases in hours worked for both types of activity. We also explore gender differences. These results provide further evidence of the long-term costs of war on households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consociational power sharing has become one of the leading mechanisms of governance introduced in deeply divided post-conflict societies. When communal divisions seem intractable, it is seen as a way to use these very divisions to reach an agreement and form a post-conflict government. Using post-2003 Iraq as a case study, this article critically examines consociation in practice. It argues that consociational power sharing is extremely valuable to reach an agreement, mitigate conflict, and form a post-conflict government. However, in Iraq, consociational power sharing has failed to meet the governance needs of the population, and although governments are formed, they do not necessarily govern. In a post-conflict society like Iraq with considerable development needs, failure of consociational governance has substantial negative impacts on the population. What this teaches us about consociation in Iraq is that it has a shelf life, because the governance needs continuously grow as a repercussion of them not being met and eventually reach the level where they outweigh the conflictmitigating benefits of consociation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by the general investigation of the "discursive assault" launched by Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East and beyond, this paper examines the resonance of IS' use of language in grassroots populations living in Jordan. Representing IS' communication campaign as a sender-message-receiver continuum, this research aims to give primary importance to the message and its audience. Frame theory is used as the general framework to understand the formation and reception of IS' discourse on the conflicts in Iraq and Syria. The analysis reveals that, while IS' rhetoric on the perceived "crisis of the Ummah" and its solution seems to resonate inside Jordan, the social practices this solution entails failed to convince. In that sense, if IS succeeded to echo the grievances and resentment of its audiences in Jordan, the group was unable to attract generalized support for its caliphate. Nonetheless, this apparent rejection of IS' project must be nuanced at the regional and state levels. After years of war in Iraq and Syria, the conditions that initially gave rise to IS remain. So, do the dynamics that nurtured the popular grievances against perceived illegitimate rulers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind energy has a significant role in promoting for sustainable development. Growth in power generation from wind has become a competitive and acceptable renewable energy resource. Wind energy can be shared in securing sustainable and safe energy supply. The first step of a wind energy project is the evaluation of wind speed characteristics and the condition of the site. In this paper, a small wind farm is proposed to be installed in two selected sites in the north of Iraq (Dokan 35.9496° N, 44.9621° E and Chamchamal 35.5292° N, 44.8217° E at Al- Sulimania Governorate. Ten 50 kW wind turbines are considered, and their performance is primarily evaluated. Wind energy parameters and the capacity factor are calculated for a year. The shape and scale factors for both sites (Dokan and Chamchamal) were found 2.092, 5.233, and 2.104,5.325, respectively. The net capacity factor for both sites was found 16.94% and 18.08% and the estimated cost of energy laid in the range (0.04 USD/kWh-0.06 USD/kWh) which is in good agreement with other researcher achievements. Both sites possess fair condition for installing wind turbines. An increase in the capacity factor by 5% leads to reduce the payback period by 30%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a small-scale qualitative research project with Iraqis living in Jordan, this paper aims to shed light on how ethnic identity and social class intersect to shape Iraqi experience of displacement. It focuses on two major themes. First, it discusses the relationship between the shifting social and political landscape in Iraq and ethnoreligious identity of Iraqis in Jordan. Second, it explores the ways in which ethnicity and class intersect to affect the dynamics of Iraqis' integration into their host society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On July 19th, 2005, American Army Private First Class LaVena Johnson died in Balad, Iraq, just 8 days shy of her 20th birthday. On July 13th, 2015, almost 10 years later, 28-year-old Sandra Bland's life came to an abrupt end in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas. Both women's deaths were ruled suicides, and both women's families and friends reject these judgments. Instead, they insinuate foul play by the state, which directly governed the militarized spaces within which the women both died. At first glance, these women appear to have had very different life trajectories, one a United States soldier and the other a Black Lives Matter activist. However, in both of their cases, the ruling of the suspicious deaths as suicides illustrates the state's attempt to render their deaths banal, and thereby diminish the state's own culpability. In understanding the unremitting acts of violence, on women's bodies, especially women of color, this paper focuses on how a Black feminist praxis extends feminist notions of an ethics of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

United Nations agencies report that by 1998, Iraqi infant mortality had risen from the pre-Gulf War rate of 3.7% to 12%. Insufficient food and medical supplies and deterioration of sewage and sanitation systems and electrical power systems reportedly caused an increase of 40,000 deaths annually of children under the age of 5 and of 50,000 deaths annually of older Iraqis. Why is this violence on Iraqis absent from analyses of sanctions in international relations and security studies? This paper is concerned with, first, situating sanctions against the Global South as violence by challenging the conventional theorisation of violence inflicted by the hegemon as a mechanism of 'national security'. Second, we offer a decolonial reading of the sanctions imposed on Iraq by shifting the locus of enunciation from the state to Iraqi people's suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The calculation of short circuit (SC) current has to be accurate because of their importance in power protection system's design and to determine the capacity of the protective devices. Therefore, there are many standards and programs to estimate SC calculation. The aim of this paper is to provide further calculation methods' understanding for determining SC current in PSS/E program. Here, the characteristics of SC at the busbars of Al-Nassiriya power plant; with 400/132 KV local transformers; which is part of Iraqi power system is analyzed using PSS/E program methods such as automatic sequence fault calculation (ASCC), IEC 60909 and (ANSI) standards. The finding of results comparison between the three methods refers that IEC standard result was the most accurate one in subtransient current calculation. This paper concludes that IEC have the best method to be followed in subtransient current calculations for Iraq power grid expansion studies and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the experimental activities in the field of hydraulic and Geotechnical engineering, flume apparatus was designed, manufactured, and tested in the laboratories of the faculty of engineering at Wasit University, Iraq. The flume apparatus was designed precisely based on the principles of physical modeling in order to achieve the simulation of natural rivers problems in terms of water entry to the flume in a realistic way that happens in natural rivers, and the possibility of controlling water discharge, which produce a good opportunity to study many hydraulic and Geotechnical problems in natural rivers and open channels. This paper presents the details of the manufacturing process of the flume apparatus as well as the result of preliminary test. The test was to study the failure mechanism in riverbank which showed a very good prediction of the failure mechanism types that observed. The circular failure and planar failure as well as the initial tension cracks that appeared during short term condition of streaming flow are inspected. It was concluded also that the failure of the river banks during the water flow in the flume in prototype scale is consistent with what had been observed in the model scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although scholars and practitioners are recently showing a growing interest in integrated reporting, investigating the variables affecting the integrated reporting quality in Malaysia has not been examined and is still unexplored. This paper aims to fill this gap, by exploring the influence of board of directors' characteristics on integrated reporting quality in Malaysia. The board's characteristics considered are size, independence, expertise, gender diversity, and activity, as hypothesized by the agency theory. A total of 64 companies were analyzed from 2017 to 2020, for a total number of 173 integrated reports. The findings highlight that IRQ is positively related to the board size, gender diversity and activity of the board. This study's finding adds to the current literature in numerous ways, and it contributes to the intensive scientific debate on integrated reporting. Furthermore, it is the first study that investigates such a relationship in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presenting original data from interviews conducted in Iraq between 2013 and 2019, this paper charts the evolution of conflict related narratives of the 'other' among members of the Sunni confession immediately prior to, during, and after the rise and fall of the Islamic State (IS). It charts the evolution of these narratives through three escalatory phases (victimhood narratives, divisive narratives, and violent narratives) and three de-escalatory phases (nuanced narratives, reconciliatory narratives, and unifying narratives). It concludes with reflections on the lessons this case can provide for identifying the best moments for Conflict Resolution actors to intervene in such violent conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the absence of a definitive global therapy for coronavirus, COVID-19, disease, the Health Ministry of Kurdistan Region of Iraq decided to use convalescent plasma for coronavirus patients. The decision came into effect in the city of Sulaymaniyah in late March and continues to this date, and the health and administrative officials describe the procedure as a success. This paper studies convalescent plasma for people with COVID-19, and highlights its use in Kurdistan Region. It argues that the success of the therapy is not proven and that Kurdistan's long experience with it is not promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popular imagination and the intellectual study of Babylon generally exclude any notion or understanding of the people who live most closely to it. Inscribed in 2019 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, little is known about the ways in which Babylon, located in Iraq's Babil province, is viewed by the Iraqi people, most notably by the residents of al Hillah, the provincial capital. Institutional legacies and political structures brought about by the quest to capture and appropriate Babylon by US-European Empires, the rule of dictatorships and more recently the US Occupation as well as the outcomes of post-2003 sectarian-promoted politics, have constituted heritage trajectories that have been dispossessive and exclusionary of people from negotiating sustainable connections to Iraq's ancient history. In this context, this paper examines Iraqi perspectives of those living and working in close proximity to Babylon and the ways in which connections to the historical site are negotiated in everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]