Description
Iraq’s integration into the global capitalist market has involved a complicated history of multiple unsuccessful attempts at neoliberalizing the economy, including, most notoriously, dismantling the interventionist Ba’athist state through the 2003 US-led intervention. The invasion paved the way for the creation of a neoliberal security state, which was founded on a complete rewriting of the constitution. This neoliberal restructuring took place from April 2003 to June 2004 under the auspices of the Anglo-American occupation’s Coalition of Provisional Authority (CPA). During these 14 months, CPA applied “Shock Therapy,” which included 100 legally binding administrative orders implemented without democratic consent, forming the foundations of Iraq’s new governance structure, economy, and criminal justice system. Among the 100 orders, the first three are of the utmost importance because they laid the groundwork to undo the previous framework of political and economic governance and ushered in the superimposition of a new constitutional legal framework to guide macroeconomic, microeconomic, and social policy in line with neoliberalism. Drawing from political economy and state theory, I analyze these three orders and argue that the CPA followed the script for new constitutionalism of disciplinary neoliberalism by implementing laws that outlasted the CPA and the occupation itself, ultimately facilitating Iraq’s integration into the world market. I investigate how new constitutionalism in Iraq ultimately failed because of the emergence of various classes, social movements, and insurgencies that rose to resist the intensification of dispossession and exploitation. In making these arguments, I contribute to ongoing conversations on authoritarian neoliberalism and capitalist development and statehood.
