Human Interest and Humane Governance in Iraq: Humanitarian War and the Baghdad Zoo

Abstract

This article argues that the story of the Baghdad zoo in the Iraq war and the ‘human interest’ it attracted are important for the analysis of warfare and humanitarian intervention. The activities at the zoo are notable precisely because they provide a specific site through which to analyse the increasing entanglements between war and humanitarianism, and practices associated with civil–military cooperation. The recovery and reconstruction efforts at the Baghdad zoo brought together a diverse, ad hoc assemblage of civilian, military, local and international actors around a common problem: how to turn a symbol of the tyranny and ‘backwardness’ of the Hussein regime into a space that would foster liberal humane values amongst the Iraqi population. The activities at the zoo thus tell us much about the kind of warfare that not only involves lethal force, but also fosters civilian and military action in reforming a carceral and leisure institution. They also reveal a broader aspiration of reforming the whole Iraqi population around an idea of humane governance, while providing a potentially profitable investment opportunity for foreign speculators.     

Evolution of subnational foreign economic relations in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

In the current dispensation of civilian rule in Nigeria (1999–present), her subnational governments (SNGs) have increasingly been engaging in economic activities which impact on how Nigeria conducts her international economic interactions. This emerging trend is at variance with the existing legal provisions under the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, which preclude SNGs from this policy space. This article examines the evolution of the constitutional framework for SNG involvement in Nigeria’s foreign economic relations since independence. It is the argument in this article that the exclusion of SNGs from foreign affairs under the 1999 Constitution is a departure from the original configuration at independence. It is further argued that the recent episodes of SNG involvement in international economic activities are occurring despite the constitutional restrictions owing to external factors such as globalisation and internal factors such the growing need among SNGs to find alternative ways to fund their economic development objectives.     

Privatising the war on drugs

A defining feature of the ‘9/11 wars’ has been the prominent role played by private military and security companies (pmsc). The growth of this market for military and security services has not gone unnoticed. Yet the role pmsc have played in supporting the US-led war on drugs has largely gone under the radar, both literally and figuratively. The aim of this article is to look at the activities of pmsc funded by the USA in Latin America, and to consider the specific consequences that arise from employing them in the field of counter-narcotics. It is argued that the use of pmsc further entrenches a costly and unsuccessful way of dealing with drugs. There is a need to move from a strict prohibitionist stance and consider alternatives to the war on drugs approach, but the use of pmsc creates another strong vested interest in maintaining an increasingly problematic and costly status quo.     

Recruiting,Retention, and Race in the Military

In the United States (U.S.) military, race and/or ethnicity serve as identifiable factors in recruitment, promotion, and retention patterns. African Americans are overrepresented especially in the Army and within the enlisted corps relative to their proportion within the civilian population. And while Hispanics constitute the fastest growing segment of the workforce as well as in society, they are underrepresented in the military.

This study confirms the disparity of underrepresented minorities within the officer corps. It explored the recruiting and retention challenges with certain groups, the role of race and/or ethnicity, and what the U.S. military can do to attract underrepresented groups to its officer corps. As part of the discourse, the author also draws from similar experiences of militaries within the international community.     

Civilian supremacy in democracies with ‘fault lines’: The role of the parliamentary standing committee on defence in Bangladesh

This article sets out to identify the conditions that promote civilian supremacy over the military in the post-military democracies. The article addresses the case of Bangladesh, where a decade-old post-military democratic political process is riddled with problems, such as the absence of opposition parties in the parliament, chronic political instability and violence and inefficient governance. However, the powerful military has not yet shown any inclination towards intervention in domestic politics. Rather, various civilian institutions, such as the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence (PSCD), have been successful in raising the level of the military's accountability to the civilian government and society. The article seeks to explain the role of PSCD during 1998–2001 in promoting civilian supremacy in Bangladesh. It argues that three sets of factors can explain the PSCD's role. First, there is intense competition for political power between the two major parties, which resists the military's involvement in politics in favour of any one political party. Second, there is the important role of civil society in favour of civilian supremacy. Third, there are external factors such as the donor countries' and international agencies' stance in favour of democracy and the Bangladesh military's participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions, which are discouraging military intervention in politics at home.     

Democracy's Quality and Breakdown: New Lessons from Thailand

In what may amount to a new phase in the study of democratization, assessments of democracy's quality have become quite common. This article attempts to assess democracy's quality in Thailand under the recent Thai Rak Thai government. It begins by enumerating some of the conceptual difficulties that bedevil these measuring exercises. The account makes use of a ‘sequenced’ framework involving electoral mandates, policy responsiveness, and accountability. Analysis reveals a ‘mixed’ record under Thai Rak Thai, one in which the government's strong mandates and high levels of responsiveness were offset by executive abuses, corrupt practices, limits on civil liberties, and gross violations of human rights, behaviours in which many elites and mass-level constituents acquiesced. It shows also, however, that when these elites and constituents sought later to impose accountability, they resorted to direct action, further eroding the quality of democracy. Thus, the article demonstrates too that democracy's quality can be diminished in ways that, far from placating rival elites, so inflame tensions that it can finally break down.     

An assessment of democratic vulnerability: regime type,economic development,and coups d’état

Prior research has not established a clear relationship between democracy and insulation from coups d’état, with very few studies illustrating robust findings on the subject. I contend that the lack of attention paid to the conditional influences of democracy on coups has resulted in these mixed findings. I posit that insulation from coups occurs at higher levels of economic development in both autocracies and democracies. However, the vulnerability present at low levels of economic development is significantly greater in democracies. Poor democracies lack the coercive capacity associated with authoritarian states, suffer from relatively weaker patronage networks, and have smaller pots for public goods provision, all making them less capable of maintaining elite loyalty. An assessment of 165 states for the years 1950–2011 offers strong support for the argument. Democracies are indeed an important part of the coup story, but only when simultaneously addressing their level of economic development.     

Classifying political regimes revisited: legitimation and durability

This article presents a new typology and a new dataset of political regimes (1946–2010). The classification presented is based, in theoretical terms, on the distinctive patterns of legitimation exhibited by the political regimes. To demonstrate the usefulness of the classification, I explore the extent to which the classification and its theoretical foundation, namely the pattern of legitimation, helps to explain the durability of different political regime types. I compare the results and explanations with those of Geddes and Hadenius and Teorell in order to clarify the differences made by the use of the presented classification.     

Class conflict,state terrorism and the Pakistani military: the Okara Military Farms dispute

In their dispute with their tenants, in what is known as the Okara Military Farms dispute, army landlords in the Punjab province of Pakistan resorted to state terrorism conducted by paramilitary troops, in alliance with other state agencies, in an unsuccessful attempt to break farmer resistance to attempts to remove their security of tenure. Analysis of the dispute provides strong support for the argument that state violence can, in some instances, be categorised as a specific form of terrorism. The article, therefore, aims to contribute to the growing literature on state terrorism which has been neglected as a legitimate and important topic for scholarly inquiry.