Performing a State: State-building in Iraq (2003-2006).

Project Information

PS-IRAQ

Grant agreement ID: 658988

DOI

10.3030/658988

Project terminated on 1 August 2018

EC signature date 3 April 2015

Start date 1 April 2016

End date 30 March 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 172 800,00

EU contribution

€ 172 800,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PS-IRAQ (Performing a State: State-building in Iraq (2003-2006).)

Reporting period: 2016-04-01 to 2018-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

This project examines the interconnection of knowledge and practice when statebuilding, a set of practices and ideas with roots in policy and academia, is translated into projects. This project argues that how we understand the state is as important a question as how the state is crafted in particular periods of time. It asks how is the state (as an object of intervention conceived), identified, quantified and acted upon in the production of knowledge about intervention and during the intervention itself? How does the act of intervention and the knowledge that informs it become part of the reality such intervention seeks to amend?

This project contributes to a deeper theoretical understanding of the political agency of the “state” and the nature of its relation with the knowledge and expertise that are produced about it and that aim to mould it. It generates conceptual and empirical insights relevant to European external action in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries, especially crisis response and state-building. European excellence and innovation is promoted by developing a reflexive understanding of the relationship between social science knowledge and state-building practice and policy. Lessons from the US experience enhance the mutual understanding of US policy formation and social scientific knowledge formation processes. This will enhance potential for European international cooperation on state-building.

The objectives of this MSCA are: 1) Study the relationship between knowledge production and political engineering in state and nation-building of occupied Iraq (2003-6); 2) Analyse how scientific knowledge of the state acted as a constituent element of political agency. 3) Develop detailed analysis of two sites of state and nation-building in Iraq (2003-6). These cases are: a) The occupation’s and US efforts in restoring electrical supply and rebuilding the national electrical grid; b) The occupation's and US effort in the introduction of new Iraqi representative bodies.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

I published:
• two academic articles that I began working on prior to the start of this MSCA. Their content is part of the same MSCA project.
• an encyclopaedia entry on Iraq's economy. This is part of a world encyclopaedia publication intended for the general public.

• I did a preliminary research visit to the Iraq archives in the Hoover Institute, Stanford University, 2017. I made connections with scholars who work on the same archives and have been in touch with them for informal feedback on research findings and publications.

• I delivered five guest lectures in my host department, and a lecture in Brussels
• I presented in a conference for Middle Eastern Studies in Boston.

I co-convened:
• a semester-long workshop with colleagues from different disciplines and Europe-based universities. The workshop brought scholars from across Europe who spoke with students and colleagues on the tradition of Pragmatism and its uses in the social sciences and humanities. 2018
• a public lecture and seminar "Evidences and Futures [on evidence, policy making, and the social sciences]" by Prof. Richard Rottenburg, Ghent University, 2017.

• I peer reviewed an ERC Consolidator Grant, step 2 of double peer review, 2017.

• I volunteered in the outreach activity organised by the EC in ExpoScience 2017, at Tour & Taxi in Brussels in April 2017. The outreach activity was aimed at promoting a career in research among Belgian school students.
• I was featured as Fellow of the Week by the MSCActions to promote the fellowship among perspective applicants, May 2017.
• I volunteered in an event hosted by the European Office at Ghent University to promote MSCF among perspective student and faculty applicants. March, 2018.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

PROGRESS
The publication outcomes of this project contribute to the state of the art in the study of state-building and Iraq. They employ interdisciplinary methods and sources and offer innovative research findings: e.g. the connection between repairs of the Iraqi electrical grid and questions of state-building, democracy, and social science knowledge. My ability to communicate for a non-specialised public was employed in writing publications and engage in outreach activities for the general public.

I convened and participated in events that aim to investigate methodological and theoretical questions that are relevant to this project, have contributed to collective efforts to furthering research agendas in creative and innovative manner. For example, my involvement in co-convening a workshop on Pragmatism. This workshop hosted scholars from different European universities and different disciplines in humanities and social sciences to discuss questions that have implications to the study of knowledge in/and policy, democratic theory and theories of knowledge accumulation and communications. The workshop was open to researchers, faculty and students from various disciplines, as well to students from different Belgian universities. It created a dialogue among colleagues and students and helped them see ways to bridge different research projects together.

I launched a website for this MSCF in which these publications and events were advertised. The website also contained a blog where I wrote entries on research questions that I have been investigating in a simple and accessible language. One of my posts was featured in another blog that is run by The Birmingham Centre for Modern and Contemporary History. I invited colleagues whose work has relevance to this project to contribute in blog entries either as summaries of their publications, or as a dialogue between colleagues on a particular research question.

I was involved in outreach activities to promote careers in research. I spoke to Belgian school children who were interested in future careers in research about my work, the challenges and experiences that one encounters in a career in research. I helped promote applications to the MSCF at Ghent University by speaking to students and faculty members on my experience during the application process and how this MSCF has been beneficial in furthering my career. I was featured by the MSC Actions as the "Fellow of the Week" where I shared the benefits of this MSCF to my own research and furthering my career especially as a researcher who has no previous experience working in the European university systems and also as a mother of young children.

EXPECTED RESULTS
The research completed so far will contribute to the publication of more work that bridges disciplinary methods and queries within the social sciences and humanities to answer pressing questions relevant to the public and policy makers who are concerned with state-building efforts. I am preparing a book proposal that will encapsulate the research findings of this MSCF and should be accessible for academics of various disciplinary backgrounds as well as the general public.

I completed a book chapter on the political economy of Iraq (under submission). It is part of a survey book of the political economy of different countries of the Middle East. It is targeted to a general audience and students who are in their early years of preparing for a graduate degree to help them map main questions that are relevant to further studies of these countries. The book will have an online resource page for the general public.

Dr. Nida Alahmad