Iraqi Police Reconstruction and the Centrality of the State to Capitalist Imperialism

• In Event: American Culture: Crime, Capitalism, and Imperialism

Abstract

In the past several decades, scholars have increasingly eschewed the study of state power and theories of the state have been largely abandoned as theorists turned toward postmodernism and deconstruction, emphasizing the multiplicity of power arrangements independent of state action. These scholars view developments such as the increasing globalization of the economy and the proliferation of multinational institutions as the death-knell of state-centered theory, instead theorizing power as enmeshed in interactions and within individuals. The invasion of Iraq serves as a prime test case for theories of the operation of power in the twenty-first century, as the architects of the invasion relied upon a neo-liberal vision of nearly-stateless governance, instead deferring to the free market and other forms of non-state power arrangements. However, the rise of actors such as ISIS, who have consolidated power in large part through providing the welfare and especially the security which would typically be delivered through the state, challenges the move away from state-centric theories. As such, I employ a Gramscian analysis of the failed reconstruction of the Iraqi police force to argue for the continued importance of the nation-state in our understanding of how power operates in contemporary globalization and neo-liberal imperialism.

Author

• Jesse Wozniak, West Virginia University