The thesis focuses on the activities of the United Nations in Iraq. The thesis as such aims to analyse efficiency of the UN efforts in Iraq, with emphasis on the period after the war in 2003. The framework of the analysis is the concept of peace-building and its phases. In the first part, the thesis defines the term peace-building and its phases. In the second part the function of the UN in the country is analysed based on, among others, the project reports of the multilateral funds created to reconstruct Iraq. The third part focuses on the empirical research and it gives the theoretical knowledge into contrast with the opinions of the Iraqis themselves obtained through an inquiry.

This thesis examines the relationship between the Popular Mobilization Forces and the state in post-conflict Iraq. It critically assesses their link as mutually exploitative and derives back their agency to both actors. The concept of hybridity, to characterise a behaviour that is simultaneously cooperative and competitive, is applied to both terms of the dyad. Overcoming the Western conception of the state, the research offers to consider the Iraq as a post- Weberian system where hybrid state and non-state actors collaborate to offer an alternative political order.

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Recently, academic researchers have brought critical attention to representations of the Iraq War in popular culture. Most of this work, however, focuses on film and music, leaving the influential medium of music video largely unexplored. A number of artists produced music videos that capture the zeitgeists of competing movements leading up to and following the United States' involvement in the Iraq invasion. This project, "Stars, Stripes, Cameras and Decadence: Music Videos of the Iraq War," seeks to survey music videos in order to understand how music video helps shape Americans' relationship to heavily polarized public discourses in the United States regarding this controversial military act. The thesis will take a multi-dimensional approach to analyzing each music video. The study will incorporate data on public opinion, audience reaction and political shifts in relationship to each video. On the most elementary level, the thesis will address the "anti" and "pro" war stances portrayed by music videos to understand both how they were shaped by their relationship to power and how they consequently shape their audience's relationship to power. The study will also undertake to understand these music videos aesthetically. Both "anti" and "pro" music videos draw upon schools of political messaging that largely dictate the art of the music video. Each school portrays soldiers, violence, war, enemies, families and loved ones in different ways. The thesis will delve into the histories of how various political traditions use images of war to shape their messages and how music videos continue (or break from) these traditions.

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No / This book provides a contemporary month-by-month analysis of events in Iraq since May 2005 and assesses how they impact on other countries including Afghanistan, Iran and the wider Middle East. The book charts a tumultuous period in the conflict, including a wider international perspective on the terrorist attacks in London and Sharm al Sheik, and an assessment of how US public opinion has changed as the war drags on. It brings together Paul Rogers' international security monthly briefings as published on the Oxford Research Group website between May 2005 - April 2006, and concludes with a commentary on the significance of the year's events, and an analysis of the current situation. This is the third ORG International Security Report. We have also published reports in 2004 and 2005.