CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2010
| Author | Lazau-Ratz, Alexandra |
|---|---|
| Title | FOUCAULDIAN COUNTERINSURGENCY: A POSTSTRUCTURALIST READING OF "HEARTS AND MINDS" IN IRAQ |
| Summary | In this paper I propose analyzing the strategy of “hearts and minds”, which informed American counterinsurgency in Iraq post-invasion. I seek to do this through a Foucauldian lens for two reasons. First, “hearts and minds” is a strategy that requires engaging techniques belonging to two types of power, a power that kills life and a power that protects life. In this sense, the paper is interested in finding out whether sovereign power cooperates with biopower and if the two can be balanced. Second, it is interested in exploring the elements related to this strategic concept, insurgency in relation to insecurity and population in relation to development, and thus find out how these elements react when there is an incompatibility between the two forms of power. The question that this research raises then is the following: what does “hearts and minds” as an expression of the security-development nexus found in counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine reveal about the relations of power and resistance in Iraq after 2003? |
| Supervisor | Paul Roe |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2010/lazau-ratz_alexandra.pdf |
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