The North Iraq Dataset (NIDS) files: Northern Iraq under Bathist rule, 1968‐911

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-126
Author(s):  
Joseph Sassoon ◽  
Michael Brill

The first archival collection from Saddam Hussein’s regime to receive the attention of researchers in the early 1990s was the large number of documents secured by Iraqi Kurdish rebels in the March 1991 uprising. The documents have been referred to variously as the Iraqi secret police files, the Anfal files, the North Iraq records, and are today known as the North Iraq Dataset (NIDS). In addition to being the first of several collections of Bath-era documents removed from Iraq by the US military as a result of the 1991 and 2003 wars, the NIDS was also the first collection returned to the country by the US government in 2005. This article discusses the history of the NIDS, the contents of the archive, efforts to digitize and study the documents, along with investigating the fate of the original records.

Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8 (106)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Alexey Beglov

From 1938 to 1992, the Church of St. Louis of the French was the only legally operating Roman Catholic parish church in Moscow. The peculiarity of the parish was that its core membership and its “executive bodies” comprised foreign nationals and representatives of the diplomatic corps, primarily of France and the United States. In the second half of the 1940s, amid rising tensions with the West, the Soviet authorities subjected the community of St. Louis and its clergy to their control. Today, it is possible to detail the circumstances of this case not only thanks to the Russian archival materials but also to the document published below, a copy of a memorandum by Fr. Leopold Braun, A. A., an American priest who administered the Church of St. Louis in 1934—1945. The document, originally forwarded to the US State Department in February 1954, was found in the Archives of the North American Province of the Assumptionists in the Provincial House in Boston, MA. In this document, Fr. Braun describes the history of the church in the Soviet period, focusing on the confrontation between its clergy and parishioners, on the one hand, and the Soviet authorities, on the other. He also suggests that the US Government intervene in the situation and return control of the church to Catholics of all nationalities, including those who do not have Soviet citizenship. The basis for such interference, from the point of view of Fr. L. Braun, was the Roosevelt — Litvinov agreements of 1933, which contained guarantees of religious freedoms for American citizens in the USSR.


Author(s):  
Danylo Kravets

The aim of the Ukrainian Bureau in Washington was propaganda of Ukrainian question among US government and American publicity in general. Functioning of the Bureau is not represented non in Ukrainian neither in foreign historiographies, so that’s why the main goal of presented paper is to investigate its activity. The research is based on personal papers of Ukrainian diaspora representatives (O. Granovskyi, E. Skotzko, E. Onatskyi) and articles from American and Ukrainian newspapers. The second mass immigration of Ukrainians to the US (1914‒1930s) has often been called the «military» immigration and what it lacked in numbers, it made up in quality. Most immigrants were educated, some with college degrees. The founder of the Ukrainian Bureau Eugene Skotzko was born near Western Ukrainian town of Zoloczhiv and immigrated to the United States in late 1920s after graduating from Lviv Polytechnic University. In New York he began to collaborate with OUN member O. Senyk-Hrabivskyi who gave E. Skotzko task to create informational bureau for propaganda of Ukrainian case. On March 23 1939 the Bureau was founded in Washington D. C. E. Skotzko was an editor of its Informational Bulletins. The Bureau biggest problem was lack of financial support. It was the main reason why it stopped functioning in May 1940. During 14 months of functioning Ukrainian Bureau in Washington posted dozens of informational bulletins and send it to hundreds of addressees; E. Skotzko, as a director, personally wrote to American governmental institutions and foreign diplomats informing about Ukrainian problem in Europe. Ukrainian Bureau activity is an inspiring example for those who care for informational policy of modern Ukraine.Keywords: Ukrainian small encyclopedia, Yevhen Onatsky, journalism, worldview, Ukrainian state. Keywords: Ukrainian Bureau in Washington, Eugene Skotzko, public opinion, history of journalism, diaspora.


Author(s):  
Earl H. Fry

This article examines the ebb and flow of the Quebec government’s economic and commercial relations with the United States in the period 1994–2017. The topic demonstrates the impact of three major forces on Quebec’s economic and commercial ties with the US: (1) the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which became operational in 1994 and was fully implemented over a 15-year period; (2) the onerous security policies put in place by the US government in the decade following the horrific events of 11 September 2001; and (3) changing economic circumstances in the United States ranging from robust growth to the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The article also indicates that the Quebec government continues to sponsor a wide range of activities in the United States, often more elaborate and extensive than comparable activities pursued by many nation-states with representation in the US. 1 1 Stéphane Paquin, ‘Quebec-U.S. Relations: The Big Picture’, American Review of Canadian Studies 46, no. 2 (2016): 149–61.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alcir Santos Neto

This study probes the limits and possibilities of US military efforts to facilitate the transition from warfighting to nation-building. Most comparative studies conceive the complexity of this transition along a spectrum from conflict to humanitarian assistance to post-conflict stabilization. While the last two stages have often been interpreted as a coordinated act of civil-military ‘nation-building’; the spectrum, in fact, represents an ideal type simplification. At one level, outcomes depend on the players involved, including: sovereign nations, national militaries, international and regional institutions, UN peacekeepers, private security contractors, and non-governmental humanitarian providers, among others. On the other hand, because the number, types, and causes of case outcomes are highly diverse and contingent upon many possible factors (among them for example: political, economic, military, organizational, humanitarian, cultural, and religious), institutions like the US military face serious difficulties both planning and coordinating post-conflict scenarios. Assuming this complex backdrop, the present study offers a qualitative analysis of two recent US government reports by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) on US military engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq. In both cases, the US government sought to ‘nation-build’ by facilitating post-war stabilization and humanitarian assistance, detailing its genuine efforts to record both processes. While results indicate some limited successes in both cases, they also indicate a familiar pattern of uneven performance failures consistent with other cases internationally. The analysis concludes with recommendations for further research that may better control the contingencies of post-conflict management.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Matthew Dotzler

The conflict between Turkey and the Kurds is once again reaching a boiling point. Following the defeat of ISIL in northern Iraq and Syria, Turkey is now concerned that the returning Kurdish militias pose a threat to its national security. The United States, as an ally to both parties, finds itself in a unique position to push for diplomatic solutions and to mediate the conflict before it grows out of control once again. This paper will examine the history of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, the actors involved, and how US foreign policy can be used to try and deter yet another war in the region.


2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 47-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Katherine Hayles

RFID tags, small microchips no bigger than grains of rice, are currently being embedded in product labels, clothing, credit cards, and the environment, among other sites. Activated by the appropriate receiver, they transmit information ranging from product information such as manufacturing date, delivery route, and location where the item was purchased to (in the case of credit cards) the name, address, and credit history of the person holding the card. Active RFIDs have the capacity to transmit data without having to be activated by a receiver; they can be linked with embedded sensors to allow continuous monitoring of environmental conditions, applications that interest both environmental groups and the US military. The amount of information accessible through and generated by RFIDs is so huge that it may well overwhelm all existing data sources and become, from the viewpoint of human time limitations, essentially infinite. What to make of these technologies will be interrogated through two contemporary fictions, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Philip K. Dick's Ubik . Cloud Atlas focuses on epistemological questions — who knows what about whom, in a futuristic society where all citizens wear embedded RFID tags and are subject to constant surveillance. Resistance takes the form not so much of evasion (tactical moves in a complex political Situation) but rather as a struggle to transmit information to present and future stakeholders in a world on the brink of catastrophe. Ubik, by contrast, focuses on deeper ontological questions about the nature of reality itself. Both texts point to the necessity to reconceptualize information as ethical action embedded in contexts and not merely as a quantitative measure of probabilities.


Author(s):  
Peter Dauvergne

This chapter adds to the book’s understanding of the shifting nature and great challenges confronting environmentalism, especially more radical strands. A glance at the history of Greenpeace reveals sharp differences as the organization was forming in the 1970s; even today the activism of Paul Watson, who left Greenpeace to spearhead the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, draws the ire of Greenpeace leaders. Since the war on terrorism took root after September 11, 2001, radical activists such as Watson have been increasingly marginalized, with the US government even declaring him an “eco-terrorist.” As this chapter notes, though, many environmentalists who challenge state and business interests face even greater threats, with hundreds murdered over the past two decades. State security agencies are not the only group sidelining radical environmentalists, however; so are business associations, media outlets, and mainstream environmental NGOs.


2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-58
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Yang

IS the State Immunity Act 1978 the sole basis for deciding on State immunity? It is and it is not. This seemingly self-contradictory reply is due to the fact that, on the one hand, any proceedings directly or indirectly against a foreign State must be brought under the 1978 Act while, on the other, certain provisions of that Act might paradoxically render the Act itself inapplicable and therefore entail recourse to rules outside the Act for settling the issue of State immunity. This is amply illustrated by the decision of the House of Lords in Holland v. Lampen-Wolfe [2000] 1 W.L.R. 1573, which involved a claim for defamation brought by a US university professor teaching international relations at a US military base in England as part of an education programme provided by her university under a commercial agreement with the US Government. The claim was brought against the education services officer at the base, who had written a memorandum listing serious complaints about the plaintiff’s performance and questioning her professional competence. The US Government claimed immunity on the defendant’s behalf.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-168
Author(s):  
Hyojung Cho ◽  
Ernest Gendron

Federal historic preservation is an important way to provide public recognition and to promote heritage that was selected by the government for the nation. The history of (American) Indian policies shows an arduous relationship between the US government and American Indians. In spite of the evolution of federal preservation efforts and the federal government’s public heritage communication, Indian heritage sites still reflect the authoritarian and utilitarian understanding towards the Indian heritage. This research studies the US federal government’s understanding of Indian Wars sites through the analysis of interpretation at the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site, which reveals the historically dual approaches towards Indian heritage conservation and the persistent tendency of limited under-standing for American history in the larger social and political arenas despite policy improvement. American Indian battlefields have been neglected in orthodox preservation considering their insufficient value to qualify for patriotic military history preservation or Indian relics preservation. The analysis of preservation efforts and interpretation of Indian Wars sites indicates the evolution of controlling (American) Indian heritage through policy changes and the assessment of policy implementation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-159
Author(s):  
S. Krishnan

The USA continues to deliberate over the use of military force against the Syrian regime under Bashar al-Assad, after its alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians. So long as the UN Security Council does not agree with intervention, any US action is not permissible under the UN Charter. Even the principle of Responsibility to Protect would not be justified in this case, as any action is likely to be short, punitive, and unlikely to end the attacks on Syrian civilians. To determine if international law permits the launching of US military strikes in Syria, it is the UN Charter, and not the Geneva Conventions, which must guide the US government and the American people. Then, there is the so-called humanitarian intervention, or a military campaign calculated to stop widespread attacks on a civilian population, including acts of genocide, other crimes against humanity, and war crimes.


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