Iraq, Imperialism and Global Governance
2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 26; Issue: 4-5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/01436590500127909
ISSN1360-2241
Autores Tópico(s)Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
ResumoAbstract The Iraqi state is not representing Iraq in a globalising world: it is representing the globalising world in Iraq. The fact that the USA physically occupied Iraq, installed a government and passed a raft of legislation by decree might suggest almost total US dominance over broader globalising forces and thus that the Iraqi state is almost solely an instrument of US empire. Certainly, Iraq's imperial globalisation from above is not primarily decentred in terms of the actors involved or the interests served: US actors and interests are at the forefront. However, other actors have played a significant role, and the actions of the US agents have tended to favour US political power and the US-based fraction of capital less than the fact of occupation would suggest. Furthermore, this advantage has declined over time. In addition, there is a second force for decentred globalisation in Iraq, namely, globalisation from below by means of the workings of the transborder informal economy. Many but not all of the activities of this informal economy are closely related to the insurgency. The interaction of all these forces is generating sometimes competing and sometimes mutually reinforcing effects, and these effects are highly contingent and continue to be contested. Notes Eric Herring is in the Department of Politics at the University of Bristol UK. Email: eric.herring@bristol.ac.uk. Glen Rangwala is a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge Thanks to Anne Alexander for superb research assistance, to Doug Stokes and Sultan Barakat for comments on an earlier draft and to the esrc for financial support. This article is adapted from material in our forthcoming book Iraq in Fragments: The Occupation and its Legacy (London: Hurst, 2006). See especially M Hardt & A Negri, Empire, Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001; and WI Robinson, A Theory of Global Capitalism: Production, Class, and State in a Transnational World, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. See especially N Chomsky, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, London: Penguin, 2004; T Barkawi & M Laffey, ‘The imperial peace: democracy, force and globalization’, European Journal of International Relations, 5 (4), 1999, pp 403 – 434; M Laffey & J Weldes, ‘Representing the international: sovereignty after modernity’, in J Dean & P Passavant, The Empire's New Clothes: Reading Hardt and Negri, London: Routledge, 2003, pp 121 – 142; R Biel, ‘Imperialism and international governance: the case of US policy towards Africa’, Review of African Political Economy, 93, 2003, pp 77 – 88; and D Stokes, ‘The heart of empire: theorising US empire in an era of transnational capitalism’, Third World Quarterly, 26 (2), 2005, pp 217 – 236. An Historic Review of cpa Accomplishments, Baghdad, nd, p 2, emphasis added. A prospective example is found in the speech of L Paul Bremer, cpa Administrator, 24 March 2004, ‘One hundred days to a sovereign Iraqi government’, at http://www.cpa-iraq.org/transcripts/20040324_Bremer_100.html. Operative Paragraph 2, Security Council Resolution 1546 (8 June 2004). The text of the resolution, together with its short annex, refers to the sovereign nature of the new Iraqi government 16 times. For example, NJ Brown, ‘Leaving a trail of legislative “orders” behind in Iraq’, Daily Star (Beirut), 30 March 2004. T Dodge, ‘A sovereign Iraq?’, Survival, 46 (3), 2004, pp 39 – 58. Council on Foreign Relations, Iraq: The Sovereignty Issue, 25 May 2004, at http://www.cfr.org/background/background_iraq_sovereignty.php, accessed 16 October 2004. N Ferguson, Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire, London: Allen Lane, 2004. In Kaldor's New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999, there is a single, passing reference to ‘colonial wars’ on p 15. M Kaldor, ‘Iraq: the democratic option’, 13 November 2003, at http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article.jsp?id = 2&debateId = 95&articleId = 1579. Examples are interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, resident in the UK from 1972 to 2003, Foreign Minister Hoshyar al-Zibari, resident in the UK from 1979 to 2003, and Minister of Defence Hazim Sha'lan, resident from 1985 in the UK, where he managed a real estate firm. US examples are provided in Farah Stockman and Thanassis Cambanis, ‘As Iraq seeks own way, many involved have US links’, Boston Globe, 10 June 2004. This system was established via cpa Regulations 5 (June 2003) and 7 (5 December 2003). US General Accounting Office (gao), Rebuilding Iraq, June 2004, pp 22 – 24. Programme Review Board, cpa, at http://www.iraqcoalition.org/budget/program_review_board.html. P Finn & P Baker, ‘US decision on Iraq contracts irritates excluded war critics’, Washington Post, 11 December 2003. pco, at http://www.rebuilding-iraq.net/. http://www.export.gov/iraq/. pco press release, ‘pco transition of authority’, 15 August 2004, at http://www.rebuilding-iraq.net/pdf/Main_Story_press_release_filter.htm. M Curtius & P Richter, ‘State Dept criticizes focus of Iraqi effort’, Los Angeles Times, 22 July 2004; and US Department of State, ‘Transcript: US increases spending in Iraq for security, election preparations’, 14 September 2004. pco, ‘pco transition of authority’. pco, ‘Programme Management Office concept of operations’, at http://www.rebuilding-iraq.net/portal/page?_pageid = 35,74115&_dad = portal&_schema = PORTAL, accessed 21 September 2004. For a survey of all US firms with Iraq-related contracts, see the Windfalls of War project of the Center for Public Integrity, at http://www.publicintegrity.org, accessed 1 October 2004. ‘FY2004 reconstruction contracts and grants’, US Department of Commerce website, Export.gov/Iraq, at http://www.export.gov/iraq/market_ops/contracts04.html, accessed 6 November 2004. pco, ‘pco transition of authority’. Iraq Revenue Watch (irw), Disorder, Negligence and Mismanagement: How the cpa Handled Iraq Reconstruction Funds, Report No 7, September 2004, p 2. See also P Chatterjee, Iraq, Inc: A Profitable Occupation, London: Seven Stories Press, 2004. Parsons, at http://www.parsons.com/about/default.asp, accessed 21 September 2004. http://www.rebuilding-iraq.net/portal/page?_pageid = 35,62867&_dad = portal&_schema = PORTAL, accessed 21 September 2004. Parsons, ‘Taji Military Base renovation, Iraq’, at http://www.parsons.com/about/press_rm/potm/09-2004/index.html, 21 September 2004. Bechtel Corporation, ‘Bechtel's outreach to Iraqi subcontractors’, at http://www.bechtel.com/sample_iraq_supplier_information.htm, accessed 5 October 2004. Bechtel Corporation, ‘US government's Iraq infrastructure reconstruction program’, at http://www.bechtel.com/iraq.htm, accessed 5 October 2004. International Crisis Group (icg), Reconstructing Iraq, 2 September 2004, pp 11 – 15, 17 – 18. iamb, at http://www.iamb.info/. See also gao, Rebuilding Iraq, pp 27 – 35. UN Compensation Commission, at http://www.unog.ch/uncc/. iamb, ‘Statement: release of the kpmg audit reports on the Development Fund for Iraq’, 15 July 2004, at http://www.iamb.info/auditrep/pr071504.pdf. kpmg Audit and Risk Advisory Services, Development Fund for Iraq, Appendix, June 2004, at http://www.iamb.info/auditrep/r123104.pdf. irw, Disorder, Negligence and Mismanagement, p 8. Ibid, pp 3, 7; and cpa Office of the Inspector General, Coalition Provisional Authority's Contracting Processes Leading Up to and Including Contract Award, 27 July 2004, p 3, at http://www.cpa-ig.com/pdf/cpaig_audit_cpa_contracting_processes.pdf. irw, Disorder, Negligence and Mismanagement, pp 2 – 3, 8. N King & YJ Dreazen, ‘Amid the chaos in Iraq, tiny security firm carved out opportunity’, Wall Street Journal, 13 August 2004. UN – wb International Reconstruction Trust Fund Facility for Iraq, at http://www.uniraq.org/donors/irffi.asp, accessed 1 October 2004; gao, Rebuilding Iraq, pp 17 – 26; and icg, Reconstructing Iraq, pp 24 – 26. gao, Rebuilding Iraq, pp 18, 23. Jubilee Iraq, at http://www.jubileeiraq.org/debt_today.htm, accessed 10 October 2004. imf, ‘imf Executive Board approves US$436.3 million in emergency post-conflict assistance to Iraq’, Press Release No 04/206, 29 September 2004, at http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2004/pr04206.htm. Islamic Development Bank, ‘idb allocates US$500 million for Iraq reconstruction’, 7 January 2004, at http://www.isdb.org/english_docs/idb_home/content.htm?content = include/iraqpress.inc. Jubilee Iraq, at http://www.jubileeiraq.org/iraqiviews.htm, accessed 22 November 2004. These themes are explored with regard to cases other than Iraq by M Pugh & N Cooper with J Goodhand, War Economies in a Regional Context, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004. MA Centeno & A Portes, The Informal Economy in the Shadow of the State, Working Paper #03-06, Center for Migration and Development, Princeton University, February 2003, at http://cmd.princeton.edu/papers/wp0306.pdf. R Collier, ‘Black market drains Iraq oil: Pentagon out to stop ships plying booming trade’, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 October 2003. J Cole, ‘Basra: massive drug, petroleum smuggling; Christians, musicians harassed’, Informed Comment, 31 December 2003, at http://www.juancole.com/2003_12_01_juancole_archive.html. ‘Oil Ministry cracks down on smugglers’, Iraq Press, 14 January 2004, at http://www.iraqpress.org/english.asp?fname = ipenglish%5C2004-01-14%5C0.htm. I Wilkinson, ‘British troops hunt night oil raiders who are bleeding Iraq’, Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2004. Xinhuanet, ‘Iraq confiscates ships for smuggling oil’, 21 August 2004. J Cox, ‘Audit finds US lax on control of oil money’, USA Today, 15 July 2004. E Eckholm, ‘On Iraq's border, sailors of the desert smuggle subsidized gasoline’, New York Times, 21 August 2004. UN Information Service, ‘Organized crime to be a growing problem in Iraq unodc fact-finding mission reports’, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, 27 August 2003, UNIS/CP/445, at http://www.unodc.org/unodc/press_release_2003-08-27_1.html. J Glantz, ‘Not all scrap metal leaving Iraq is junk’, New York Times, 27 May 2004. For example, A Janabi, ‘Drugs trade thriving in Iraq’, Aljazeera.Net, 29 March 2004. Z Bahrani, ‘Days of plunder’, Guardian, 31 August 2004. V Firmo-Fontan, ‘Abducted, beaten and sold into prostitution: a tale from Iraq’, Independent, 26 July 2004. Additional informationNotes on contributorsEric Herring Eric Herring is in the Department of Politics at the University of Bristol UK. Email: eric.herring@bristol.ac.uk. Glen Rangwala is a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge
Referência(s)