R4D Iraq

Supporting science journalism in Africa and the Middle East

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:00:00 GMT

A dozen new teams of science journalists from different countries across Africa and the Middle East trained through the DFID-funded SjCOOP Programme are collaborating on science related stories

Policing, Regime Change, and Democracy: Reflections from the Case of Mexico.

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:47:00 GMT

Miscellaneous D. E. Davis 2007 Working Paper No. 22 (series 2), 2007, London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 27 pp. This paper explores the experience of attempts to mount new policing operations and restore order in post-revolutionary Mexico, with the aim of generating policy insights for contemporary countries experiencing regime change, and in particular Iraq. It describes how and why the challenges of policing regime change in post-dictatorship Mexico laid the foundation for that country's descent into chaos. Central to this process were the problems engendered by trade-offs between democracy and public security, whereby the privileging of attempts to secure the latter over the former ultimately worked against both, producing further police corruption and abuse of power. More generally, the paper seeks to understand which organisational, political, and societal conditions are more or less likely to lead to the establishment of stable, professional, and non-partisan police who in turn play a positive role in facilitating democratic regime change. The experience of Mexico suggests that the more a new regime needs to count on citizen militias with their own political, ethnic, and religious exclusivities, as opposed to professional police with a commitment to non-partisan social inclusion, the worse the societal fragmentation and the greater the likelihood of persistent violence. The paper concludes that in situations where new regimes have been born out of violent conflict it might be unwise to rush into constitutional reforms that enhance and set in stone police powers. While putting off the task of constitution-making may prolong the effort to establish the foundations for democracy, the question is which elements of the constitution should be dealt with right now, and which might wait until a more propitious moment. In Iraq, a focus on building state institutions and making them accountable, transparent, and pluralistic is likely to provide a more fruitful way forward at this stage than constitutionally enhancing greater police powers.

RoboWar Dreams: Global South Urbanisation and the US Military's 'Revolution in Military Affairs'.

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:37:00 GMT

Miscellaneous S. Graham 2007 Working Paper No. 20 (series 2), 2007, London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 27 pp. This article seeks to open up to critical scrutiny the attempts currently being made to reengineer post-Cold War US military power to directly confront global south urbanisation. Through analysing the discourses produced by US military commentators about 'urban warfare,' and the purported military and technological solutions that might allow US forces to dominate and control global south cities in the future, the paper demonstrates that such environments are being widely essentialised as spaces that necessarily work to undermine the United States' military's high-technology systems for surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting. The paper shows how, amid the on-going urban insurgency in Iraq, widescale efforts are being made to 'urbanise' these military systems so that US military forces can attempt to assert high-tech dominance over the fine-grained geographies of global south cities in the future. This includes an examination of how US and Israeli forces, by 2007, had already begun to implement ideas of robotised or automated urban warfare to counter the complex insurgencies in Iraq and Palestine/Israel, respectively.

Discussion Paper No.3. Democracy in the Desert: Civil Society, Nation-Building and Empire.

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Discussion Paper Jean-Paul Faguet 2004 Faguet, J. P., Discussion Paper No.3, Democracy in the Desert: Civil Society, Nation-Building and Empire, 2004, London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 16 pp. The new era of US empire commenced with decisive military victories in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the aftermath of war has proved surprisingly difficult and violent. Explanations of the US's failure to win the peace have largely overlooked the inherent difficulty of planting democracy in so inhospitable a social environment as Iraq's. This paper examines the prospects for US empire, focusing on the problem of nation building, and in particular the role of a well-functioning civil society in making democracy work.

On the Death Toll in Iraq from 1990.

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Research Paper T. Dyson 2006 Occasional Paper No. 1, London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 32 pp. The number of child deaths that have occurred in Iraq since 1990 because of the effects of conflict and economic sanctions is a matter of considerable contention. This paper examines detailed demographic data on the country, in particular that collected since 1990. After presenting a brief modern history of Iraq and commenting briefly on recent population trends in the country, the paper deals with levels and trends in fertility and child mortality by discussing the data and the context in which they were collected. The final sections provide estimates of the number of excess child deaths during 1991-2003 and comments on mortality at ages other than childhood, with particular reference to what has happened since the invasion of 2003.

Field Exchange - August 2003. Operational definition of famine: Summary of workshop.

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Report S. Devereux 2003 Field Exchange - August 2003. Operational definition of famine: Summary of workshop. IDS Sussex, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 3 pp. A one day workshop was held on 14th March, 2003 by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Sussex, with the aim of developing an operational definition of famine. Convened as a follow-up to an IDS 2002 conference on famine, it was attended by a group of academics, donors, agencies and ENN. Four cases were highlighted to focus discussion.

Peer to Peer Development and Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World - the Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World Programme (SjCOOP)

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Current The WFSJ is a Canadian non-profit, INGO representing science and technology journalists associations. Its members are national, regional and other international associations of science and technology journalists. It serves to further science journalism as a bridge between scientists and the public. Its goal is to improve the quality of science reporting, promote standards and support science and technology journalists worldwide.

The Support of Science Journalism in the Developing World Programme (SjCOOP) has four main objectives. They are;

The professional development of science journalists in the developing world
The establishment of national and regional associations of science journalists in developing countries
Establish the WFSJ as a support to science journalists and associations in the developing world
Establishment of relationships between scientists and the media

This peer-to-peer mentoring project was successful in mentoring and graduating 32 science journalists, creating an online course in science journalism, fostering science journalists associations in Africa and the Middle East, supporting local activities of these associations, and creating international twinning arrangements among associations. Networking and contacts among journalists were highly valued and were directly linked to: improved training; reduced feelings of isolation; enhanced opportunities for twinning of associations; the development of local initiatives; and a sense of community among science journalists.