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The Infrastructures of Occupation: Iraq, 2003 – 2012
The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, beginning a nine-year-long military engagement and occupation. Alongside more orthodox military activity, the US occupation attempted to rebuild and reshape Iraq's infrastructure networks, most of which had been severely damaged during the 2003 invasion,...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Sociology
2023
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| _version_ | 1867613203609944064 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Cannard, Jonathan |
| author2 | Kar, Bodhisatva |
| author_browse | Cannard, Jonathan Kar, Bodhisatva |
| author_facet | Kar, Bodhisatva Cannard, Jonathan |
| author_sort | Cannard, Jonathan |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, beginning a nine-year-long military engagement and occupation. Alongside more orthodox military activity, the US occupation attempted to rebuild and reshape Iraq's infrastructure networks, most of which had been severely damaged during the 2003 invasion, the United Nations sanctions, and previous wars. This dissertation is a critical history of the efforts of the US occupation to produce new infrastructures in Iraq. Drawing on a specific range of primary sources (namely, the documents of the various institutions of the occupation), the dissertation attempts to write a new narrative of the so-called reconstruction of Iraq. It rejects the absolutist understanding of state sovereignty as reflected in the state-building discourse as a productive analytical frame, and instead offers to look closely at the material, social, and cultural contingencies that shaped the state's agency. This narrative explores the materiality and the performativity of discourse in examining the effects of infrastructure on Iraqi politics, economy, and subjectivity. The first chapter focuses on material infrastructures, exploring the materiality of power and the interactions of US discourses and practices with Iraqi material and social actants. The second chapter examines financial infrastructure, analysing the occupying regime's attempts to produce the instruments of monetary policy, while conjuring a new figure of financial subjectivity. The third and final chapter focuses on political infrastructure, examining the process of drafting of the constitution and the production of civil society organisations through an infrastructural lens. All three chapters are linked by explications of the political and economic assumptions built into technical objects, the deployment of infrastructure as a counterinsurgency strategy, and revelations of the limits of state agency. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37139 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:24.523Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publishDateRange | 2023 |
| publishDateSort | 2023 |
| publisher | Department of Sociology |
| publisherStr | Department of Sociology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37139 The Infrastructures of Occupation: Iraq, 2003 – 2012 Cannard, Jonathan Kar, Bodhisatva Theories of Justice and Inequality The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, beginning a nine-year-long military engagement and occupation. Alongside more orthodox military activity, the US occupation attempted to rebuild and reshape Iraq's infrastructure networks, most of which had been severely damaged during the 2003 invasion, the United Nations sanctions, and previous wars. This dissertation is a critical history of the efforts of the US occupation to produce new infrastructures in Iraq. Drawing on a specific range of primary sources (namely, the documents of the various institutions of the occupation), the dissertation attempts to write a new narrative of the so-called reconstruction of Iraq. It rejects the absolutist understanding of state sovereignty as reflected in the state-building discourse as a productive analytical frame, and instead offers to look closely at the material, social, and cultural contingencies that shaped the state's agency. This narrative explores the materiality and the performativity of discourse in examining the effects of infrastructure on Iraqi politics, economy, and subjectivity. The first chapter focuses on material infrastructures, exploring the materiality of power and the interactions of US discourses and practices with Iraqi material and social actants. The second chapter examines financial infrastructure, analysing the occupying regime's attempts to produce the instruments of monetary policy, while conjuring a new figure of financial subjectivity. The third and final chapter focuses on political infrastructure, examining the process of drafting of the constitution and the production of civil society organisations through an infrastructural lens. All three chapters are linked by explications of the political and economic assumptions built into technical objects, the deployment of infrastructure as a counterinsurgency strategy, and revelations of the limits of state agency. 2023-03-02T09:49:46Z 2023-03-02T09:49:46Z 2022 2023-02-20T12:22:12Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37139 eng application/pdf Department of Sociology Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | Theories of Justice and Inequality Cannard, Jonathan The Infrastructures of Occupation: Iraq, 2003 – 2012 |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The Infrastructures of Occupation: Iraq, 2003 – 2012 |
| title_full | The Infrastructures of Occupation: Iraq, 2003 – 2012 |
| title_fullStr | The Infrastructures of Occupation: Iraq, 2003 – 2012 |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Infrastructures of Occupation: Iraq, 2003 – 2012 |
| title_short | The Infrastructures of Occupation: Iraq, 2003 – 2012 |
| title_sort | infrastructures of occupation iraq 2003 2012 |
| topic | Theories of Justice and Inequality |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37139 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT cannardjonathan theinfrastructuresofoccupationiraq20032012 AT cannardjonathan infrastructuresofoccupationiraq20032012 |