Can the success of the Sunni Awakening in Iraq be applied to other counter-insurgency conflicts, or is it an exemplary case? Using case studies including Iraq and Afghanistan, it will be examined whether or not militias can be can be used to fight counterinsurgency campaigns in Afghanistan and generally to other conflicts. It may not work in Afghanistan, and certainly presents a Catch-22 situation, but it may be applicable in certain situations in other conflicts under certain conditions.

No description available.

An elementary precondition for the EU Member States to act coherently in the field of foreign policy is to reach a common standpoint on particular issues of the CFSP. Due to the intergovernmental character of decision-making in the sphere of the CFSP, the Member States reach a common position primarily through negotiations. In this regard the thesis focuses on an analysis of the EC/U Member States negotiations about two politically highly controversial foreign policy issues – the Yugoslav recognition crisis of 1991 and the Iraqi crisis of 2002/2003. Developing a theoretical model of analysis based on merging Moravcsik’s liberal intergovernmentalism and negotiation analysis the author seeks to examine and explain the outcomes of these negotiations, while emphasising the necessity to view negotiation as a process throughout which a variation in certain factors can occur and hence influence the outcomes of negotiation in a decisive way.

The purpose of this study was to synthesize emergent agricultural development reports related to post-conflict needs assessments in eight southern Iraqi provinces. This study is an empirical case study of Post Conflict Agricultural Development Assessments and Strategies in Eight Southern Iraqi Provinces. The objective is a systems approach using qualitative and quantitative methods to improve Iraqi agricultural practice, extension and training, community development, security, and policies for governance. The design called for a case study and a description of pre-deployment activities of a military-based civilian assessment team, initial organization and adjustments, and techniques for internal and external communication. Particular attention was given to agricultural specialties, crosscutting constructs, and data collection and analysis protocols in eight provinces in Iraq. Three objectives were identified to achieve the purpose of this study. The first objective was to identify emergent agricultural development themes from each of the eight Iraqi provinces. The second objective was to identify emergent agricultural development trends from each of the eight Iraqi provinces. A third objective was to provide relevant case documentation to assist in future agricultural development/post conflict development efforts. It was found that Iraqi agricultural production lags due to many factors, including counter productive government policies that undermine productivity, distort local economies, and confound security issues and competition via subsidized credit and agricultural inputs. Outdated technology and undertrained producers lacking knowledge of production related areas such as plant and animal genetics, fertilizers, irrigation and drainage systems and farm equipment. Inadequate and unstable electricity availability and provision, degradation of irrigation-infrastructure and management systems, a complete lack of or insufficient access to credit and private capital as well as inadequate market development and network infrastructure have all taken their toll on evolution and improvement of agricultural growth in southern Iraq. It may be that the largest threat to the future of Iraq is not violence, but the diminishing hope of young people caused by their inability to obtain vocational based skills training and the lack of jobs that match such skills. A pervasive lack of job opportunities or perceived lack of job availability may encourage continued civil unrest and possibly continue the insurgency. In order to address this issue, an aggressive youth development focus can make a positive impact in the current society. A majority of youth without useful skills are forced to abandon the farm and move to cities or to pursue other means of earning income in rural areas.

Proefschrift--Leiden.

Thesis (B.A.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-205). Also available via the World Wide Web. http://www.pol.uiuc.edu/news/largio%5Fthesis.pdf

This thesis outlines hydrological, political, economic and social facts related to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers dispute between the three major riparian states, Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Once the factual base was constructed, it describes how each of the states uses water based on direct quotes, inferences and interpretations from secondary literature, interviews and other primary sources. The author used these narratives to analyze the current level of coordination and prospects for further cooperation among the riparians. Using these narratives, the author has drafted an agreement that could be a starting point from which the riparian states could address regional water issues.

The Marshall Plan and post-2003 Iraq represent the two largest US-led, post-war reconstruction projects in history, yet the two cases embody the implementation of two nearly opposite political ideologies. Whereas proponents of the Marshall Plan emphasized the supremacy of the state in reconstruction, Bush administration officials felt that neoliberal market reforms, aided by the opportunistic nature of Schumpetarian creative destruction, were the only legitimate steps required in post-war Iraq. Such discrepancies were largely due to the changing role of the US in the international arena; by the end of the Cold War, Washington was able to take a unilateral approach abroad and more actively push for political and free market reforms. Yet the sectarian chaos that quickly engulfed Iraq and the economic rise of China have all but delegitimized neoliberalism and effectively reopened the issue of the role of the marketplace versus the state in the 21st century.

The fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 is the one of the most important events in the history of Iran-Iraq relations. Prior to the US-led invasion, Iran and Iraq were by no means friends and fought each other bitterly for eight years in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. The enmity continued throughout the following decade, as Iran and Iraq developed intimate relationships with each others' dissidents and exiles. When Coalition forces finally toppled Saddam Hussein's government on April 9, 2003, the slate was cleared for Shi'ites and Kurds to assume power for the first time in Iraq's 80 year history. For leadership in the new Iraq, Shi'ites and Kurds turned to the organizations that struggled against the Ba'athists. Thus, Iran's Iraqi allies were able to fill Baghdad's power vacuum through elections and, at times, by force. As a result of regime change, Iran-Iraq relations have improved considerably. Despite some clear progress though, several contentious issues still remain.

In this dissertation, I develop a theory of rhetorical catharsis and apply this theory primarily to George W. Bush's rhetoric of the War on Terror in Iraq. Contrary to the standard Aristotelian perspective of catharsis as the "purging of pity and fear" that brings relief and resolution to an audience, I turn to Kenneth Burke's claim that catharsis is tied to the scapegoating process and argue that catharsis is the purging and projection of one's trauma to a victim who serves as the sacrificial vessel for one's pain. I thus redefine catharsis as the purging of trauma that plays a key role in catharsis and leads to the victimage and scapegoating of the Other in language and public life.To explore how rhetorical catharsis functions in language use, I analyze the concept of a rhetorical catharsis through literature, presidential rhetoric, and print media and show how catharsis operates in the rhetoric of war, particularly that of President Bush's war on terror in Iraq. In addition to Kenneth Burke, I draw on scholars such as Rene Girard, Deborah Willis, Terry Eagleton, Robert Ivie, Allen Carter, Robert McChesney, and Bartholomew Sparrow, among many others. I argue that communities experiencing tragedy use language to name people and entire nations as the scapegoat for their ills.By understanding how language makes possible the victimage and scapegoating of vasts groups of people and even entire nations in times of national trauma, I offer ways of speaking about trauma that may help redirect the violent impulse of catharsis.