Checkpoints, competing ‘sovereignties’, and everyday life in Iraq

Dylan O'Driscoll, Omran Omer Ali, Remonda Armia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Iraq is home to a patchwork of competing sovereignties with their own security actors, all of which routinely use checkpoints in the provision of ‘security’. However, as this article demonstrates, checkpoints predominantly function to assert authority over space. Utilising 262 interviews with those forced to move through checkpoints in Nineveh, Iraq, and through the development of an analytical framework that focuses on the ‘theft of time’ and the ‘stolen dignity’, this article examines the everyday strain that checkpoints exert on people’s lives. It asks what the control of space by the multiplicity of competing ‘sovereignties’ means for those who must live in and in between these spaces. In doing so the article demonstrates how the impacts of creating borders reverberate way beyond the checkpoint itself, the inequalities it creates and reproduces, and the varied types of loss it fashions.
Original languageEnglish
Article number103220
Number of pages11
JournalPolitical Geography
Volume115
Early online date8 Oct 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2024

Bibliographical note

This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Funder

This publication was made possible through support provided by the Innovation, Technology and Research Hub of the U.S. Agency for International Development, through the LASER PULSE Programme under the terms of Cooperative Agreement No. 7200AA18CA00009.

Funding

This publication was made possible through support provided by the Innovation, Technology and Research Hub of the U.S. Agency for International Development, through the LASER PULSE Programme under the terms of Cooperative Agreement No. 7200AA18CA00009.

FundersFunder number
United States Agency for International Development7200AA18CA00009

    Keywords

    • Everyday
    • Checkpoints
    • Peace
    • Conflict
    • Temporal
    • Iraq

    Themes

    • Peace and Conflict
    • Security and Resilience
    • Governance, Leadership and Trust

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Checkpoints, competing ‘sovereignties’, and everyday life in Iraq'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this