UMD Theses and Dissertations
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Item Consistent Sounds of War in Iraq: Iraqi Soundscapes 1979-2006(2024) Salive, Natalie; Wien, Peter; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores the evolution of the Iraqi soundscape from the rise of Saddam Hussein in 1979 to the aftermath of the 2003 invasion, focusing on how sound has been employed as a tool of power, control, and resistance. Chapter One introduces the concept of sonic history, with a specific focus on Iraq's unique soundscapes during the Ba'athist regime. It examines the role of sound as an instrument of warfare and propaganda, delving into how Saddam's regime utilized sonic environments to cultivate a pervasive cult of personality and how changing technologies altered Iraq’s auditory experience. The second chapter provides a detailed analysis of the Ba'athi soundscapes, establishing the sonic contexts within which the regime operated. It discusses the sounds associated with sites of violence like Abu Ghraib, the regime's strategies of censorship, and the pervasive sounds of terror that became normalized during the Iran-Iraq War. The chapter also previews the sounds that foreshadowed the "Shock and Awe" campaign during the 1991 Gulf War. Chapter 3 continues the narrative into the 2003 invasion and its aftermath, examining how the invasion perpetuated and transformed the existing aural environments. The chapter highlights the sounds of military vehicles, weapons, and civilian life, contrasting the propagandistic "sounds of freedom" with the persistent terror experienced by the Iraqi populace. The chapter also revisits themes of censorship and the complex auditory experience of "freedom" in wartime. Finally, Chapter 4 concludes the study by reflecting on the continuity and change in Iraq’s soundscape across these pivotal historical moments, underscoring the role of sound in shaping Iraq’s modern history. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how sound operates within contexts of violence and power, particularly within the framework of modern irregular warfare.Item Educational Experiences Amid Crisis, Trauma, and Displacement: An Ethnographic Case Study of Children Abducted by the Islamic State in Iraq(2020) Webb, Amber D.; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Education in emergencies (EiE) is a growing field within discourse on humanitarian aid, international development, and global education. It brings to the fore the challenges of educating children in crisis-contexts, a growing problem in regions around the world. Since the 1990s, increasing attention has been paid to this vulnerable population of children; however, evidence-based practice has historically been weak but improved considerably over the last decade. In this dissertation study, I aim to add to the body of literature and empirical research in the field of education in emergencies. I offer succinct problems and interventions that can enhance educational outcomes for a particular group of crisis-affected children in Iraq. Specifically, I examine the lives of five Yazidi children who had been abducted and held captive by the Islamic State before returning to their families now residing in displacement camps far from their native homeland. Using qualitative methods consistent with ethnography and case study research, I present findings garnered from the five participants that offer a window into their lived realities. As a bounded case, data collection was consolidated to Yazidi children living within a single camp in Iraq from 2016-2017. The findings suggest several key barriers and opportunities for accessing quality education during periods of crisis. These findings are divided into three categories that reflect psychological, institutional, and cultural factors impacting the education of displaced and traumatized Yazidi children. The trends that emerge in each of these categories display important points of consideration for how educational aid is conceptualized and delivered during emergencies. The research also extrapolates on the findings to speculate broad reforms that can transform for the better how the field of EiE operates globally. Implications for research and theory include a need to advance theoretical discourse on children caught up in crisis, methods for facilitating research in active conflict zones, and uncovering opportunities for greater cross-sector holistic service provisions for children.Item Between Rebel Flags: Iraqi Vexillology and State Iconography, 1921 - 2017(2020) Andrews, John T; Wien, Peter; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In under a century of existence, the Republic of Iraq has adopted seven national flags. The circumstances of these modifications occurred under times of tremendous political transformation following wars and military coups. The evolution of Iraqi vexillology often corresponded to sub-national violence and direct challenges to state authority. This thesis considers Iraqi identity through the lens of its national flags and iconography from 1921 to 2017. It argues that Iraqi flags and iconography constitute an archive revealing a national identity organized around an emphasis on ethnicity and transhistorical relationships.Item TWO STRIKES AND YOU’RE OUT: THE CONVERGENCE OF COLD WAR POLITICS, LABOR, AND ETHNIC TENSIONS IN THE JULY 1946 STRIKES AT KIRKUK AND ABADAN(2019) Hobson, Tiffany Claire; Wien, Peter; History/Library & Information Systems; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis explores the convergence of Cold War politics, labor issues, and ethnic conflict on the local scale during the labor strikes which occurred in July 1946 at the oil refineries in Kirkuk, Iraq and Abadan, Iran. The roles of the local communist parties in leading the strikes are weighed against the workers' economic concerns to determine that the workers’ motivations for striking extended beyond political support for any particular party, and claims that the violence which ended the strikes was the result of inherent ethnic conflicts are debunked through examination of both regions’ ethnic histories.Item Negotiating the Place of Assyrians in Modern Iraq, 1960–1988(2015) Benjamen, Alda; Wien, Peter; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation deals with the social, intellectual, cultural, and political history of the Assyrians under changing regimes from the 1960s to the 1980s. It examines the place of Assyrians in relation to a state that was increasing in strength and influence, and locates their interactions within socio-political movements that were generally associated with the Iraqi opposition. It analyzes the ways in which Assyrians contextualized themselves in their society and negotiated for social, cultural, and political rights both from the state and from the movements with which they were affiliated. Assyrians began migrating to urban Iraqi centers in the second half of the twentieth century, and in the process became more integrated into their societies. But their native towns and villages in northern Iraq continued to occupy an important place in their communal identity, while interactions between rural and urban Assyrians were ongoing. Although substantially integrated in Iraqi society, Assyrians continued to retain aspects of the transnational character of their community. Transnational interactions between Iraqi Assyrians and Assyrians in neighboring countries and the diaspora are therefore another important phenomenon examined in this dissertation. Finally, the role of Assyrian women in these movements, and their portrayal by intellectuals, will be evaluated using a gendered perspective.Item Why Refugees Rebel: Militarization in Jordan and Worldwide(2012) Lebson, Micah; Telhami, Shibley; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Why do some refugee groups militarize while others do not? Existing literature focuses on structural explanations and neglects factors related to refugee groups themselves. While acknowledging the importance of exogenous factors in enabling militarization, I fill this gap by proposing a framework of refugee militarization including factors endogenous to refugee groups, which will help explain the motivation of refugees to militarize and the framing used to mobilize them. In this framework, four conditions are necessary and sufficient to lead to refugee militarization in a particular host country at a particular time: a collective project to redeem the homeland from a clear enemy, socioeconomic marginalization from the host state, militancy entrepreneurs and political opportunity. This framework is applied to in-depth case studies of two refugee groups, Palestinians and Iraqis in Jordan. Why did Palestinians militarize from 1964 to 1970, but not earlier or later? Why have Iraqis not militarized despite fears that they might? What are the implications for the likelihood of militarization by either group in the near future, given the ongoing upheavals of the Arab Spring? From 2010 to 2011 I conducted 174 interviews of Palestinian and Iraqi households and local experts in Jordan. The results of these interviews reveal that from 1948 to 1963 there was a collective project among Palestinians in Jordan, but most refugees were waiting for powerful states to redeem the homeland on their behalf. From 1964 to 1970 all four conditions were met. From 1971 to 2011 militarization has not occurred mainly due to lack of political opportunity. This suggests that Palestinians would likely militarize again if political opportunity arose. Among ordinary Iraqis, however, there is little collective project, despite the presence of militancy entrepreneurs, so it is unlikely that they would militarize even if given the opportunity. To extend the global applicability of this framework, I apply it also to cases of Rwandans and Afghans, using secondary literature. I conclude with suggestions for future research, a projection of refugee militarization in the context of the new Middle East, and recommendations to reduce the risk of militarization.Item The Deterioration of Civil Society and Opposition Politics in the Police State of Saddam Husayn(2011) Norris, Evan; Wien, Peter; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this paper is to walk a narrow line between two historiographical conceptualizations of modern Iraq, a deterministic model that imagines Saddam Husayn as historically inevitable and an individualist model that blames everything wrong with modern Iraq on Husayn. In many ways, the two pictures of Husayn presented by modern scholarship represent a larger debate between structure and agency, in other words, were opposition parties and civil society organizations long-standing victims of institutional weaknesses in modern Iraq, or did Husayn target, and eliminate, these group with never-before-seen viciousness and tenacity. My argument, and my contribution to scholarship on modern Iraq, is that Husayn emerged from a broken political system built on patrimonialism, not pluralism, and thus was one in a long line of political despots, but that the ideology and violence of his particular political system was new and especially dangerous to political, and Party, opposition. Chapter One follows the advent of Ba`thism in modern Iraq, its initial relationship with the ruling authorities, and, finally, the ways in which the Iraqi state was transformed, under Saddam Husayn, into a police state. Yet the transformation from republican Iraq, with all its institutional weaknesses and democratic imbalances, to the Ba`thist interpretation of republican Iraq is not only a story of the emergence of a police state based on the threat and use of violence. What exactly Ba`thism and politics meant to those in power and those outside of power is equally important. Therefore, Chapter One is not simply a history of the Ba`th regime, but also, in the words of Kanan Makiya, an "enquiry into its meaning." Chapter Two recapitulates and analyzes clerical and popular religious opposition to the state in modern Iraq, but focuses mainly on the Shi`i party al-Da`wa, an organization and movement that became, after the fall of communism and the rise of secular, pan-Arab Ba`thism, the most potent organization capable of defending Islamic values and Shi`i civil rights in Iraq. Chapter Three follows the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), which was not merely an extension of Soviet communism, but a popular party of Iraqi nationalism. Like al-Da`wa, the ICP was one of the more influential, and more-often targeted, counter-hegemonic organizations in post-war Iraq. Its relationship with Ba`thism was particularly paradoxical and, eventually, particularly violent.Item Governance, Identity, and Counterinsurgency Strategy(2009) Fitzsimmons, Michael; Steinbruner, John D.; Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The premise of most Western thinking on counterinsurgency is that success depends on establishing a perception of legitimacy among local populations. The path to legitimacy is often seen as the improvement of governance in the form of effective and efficient administration of government and public services. However, good governance is not the only possible basis for claims to legitimacy. Prompted by recent experience in Iraq, the research presented here formally considers whether in insurgencies where ethno-religious identities are politically salient, claims to legitimacy may rest more on the identity of who governs, rather than on how whoever governs governs. Specifically, this dissertation poses and tests the hypothesis that in the presence of major ethno-religious cleavages, good governance will contribute much less to counterinsurgent success than will efforts toward reaching political agreements that directly address those cleavages. The dissertation reviews and synthesizes the record of scholarship and policy regarding insurgencies and counterinsurgencies, the politics of ethnic identity, governance, and legitimacy. Building on this synthesis, it presents an analytic framework designed to formalize the terms of the main hypothesis sufficiently to enable empirical tests. It then applies that framework to brief analyses of counterinsurgent experiences in Malaya, Algeria, South Vietnam, and then of two detailed local cases studies of American counterinsurgency operations in Iraq: Ramadi from 2004-2005; and Tal Afar from 2005-2006. These Iraq case studies are based on primary research, including 37 interviews with participants and eyewitnesses. The cases examined yield ample evidence that ethno-religious identity politics do shape counterinsurgency outcomes in important ways, and also offer qualified support for the hypothesis about the relative importance to counterinsurgent success of identity politics versus good governance. However, the cases do not discredit the utility to counterinsurgents of providing good governance, and they corroborate the traditional view that population security is the most important element of successful counterinsurgency strategy. Key policy implications include the importance of making strategy development as sensitive as possible to the dynamics of identity politics, and to local variations and complexity in causal relationships among popular loyalties, grievances, and political violence.Item EXPLORING TRENDS IN THE TARGETING OF VIOLENCE IN IRAQ THROUGH THE LENS OF CONFLICT THEORY: MARCH 2003 TO MAY 2006(2008-08-27) Foster, David Robert; LaFree, Gary; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Elements from Weber's Conflict theory are combined with a focus on legitimacy in order to predict the effects that major social and political events have on political violence in the Diyala province of Iraq. Using 39 months of time-series data from Diyala in an ARIMA analysis, this research determines the effects of eight major events on the targeting of violence across Diyala as well as against four specific target sectors: law enforcement, government, military and civilian. This research finds mixed support for conflict theory, although a clearer picture emerges when findings are summarized by target sector, hypothesis and by event. This model is particularly effective at explaining trends in political violence directed against civilian targets. Despite the suboptimal data used, this research provides support for conflict ability to offering insight into the causes and course of political violence in a nation undergoing rapid social and political change.Item Sheathing the Sword of Damocles: Assessing Al Qaeda and Devising a US Response(2007-12-18) McGrath, Kevin; Schreurs, Miranda; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Al Qaeda killed over 3,000 US citizens on September 11, 2001, and terrorism leapt to the fore of US strategic and political priorities. Yet, after nearly six year of concerted effort by the United States, the dominant power in the international system, Al Qaeda survives and is still acknowledged as a potent threat. This begs the question not just of why, but of what the United States can do to redress the situation. This dissertation seeks answers by examining the four key aspects of Al Qaeda that enable it function as a successful terrorist entity - strategy, organization, financing, and politics. These factors area analyzed relative to the dynamics of the phenomenon of terrorism in the US-Al Qaeda struggle. For each variable, Al Qaeda's perspective and efforts, as well as the perspective and efforts of the United States, are scrutinized. This dissertation assesses Al Qaeda is primarily a political threat, not a military one. Terrorists subvert legitimate political processes to achieve political ends. Al Qaeda challenges not only specific US political decisions, but also the very nature of the US political system, a classical liberal democracy, and the nature of the US-created post World War II international order. The character of the US political response is critical. As such, this dissertation concludes that US efforts to combat such a threat cannot be limited solely to a hard power approach. Such a component must be present in US strategy, for it alone directly degrades Al Qaeda's capacity for violence, the source of its power. The US approach must, however, include a greater emphasis on the US-Al Qaeda struggle's political dimension. The political aspect both drives the conflict and frames its execution, thus shaping the possible outcomes in both the near and far term. Fortunately, as the leader of the international system, the United States is in a position to politically undercut Al Qaeda. The United States can do so by adhering to globally revered traditional US political values and foreign policy emphases - the rule of law, a participatory political system emphasizing the importance of international institutions, and democratic values, such as human rights - in not just the execution, but also the formulation of US policy. The potential impact is significant. Internally, manipulating the US-Al Qaeda struggle's political dimension in accordance with traditional US values can weaken Al Qaeda's internal cohesion. Externally, the United States can narrow Al Qaeda's room for maneuver by depriving it of political support, thus strategically degrading Al Qaeda's operational capability. In the process, the United States will also stunt the terrorism process's subversive effects on the United States' political character. In short, addressing the US-Al Qaeda struggle's political dimension in a manner consistent with traditional US political values ensures US political integrity while also yielding national advantage.