scholarly journals Abu Ghraib, 2004: Doctrinal Confusion of American Military Police

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelby House
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Abu Ghraib ◽  
Military Doctrine ◽  
Military Police ◽  
American Military ◽  
War In Iraq ◽  
Abu Ghraib Prison ◽  
Prisoner Abuse

The Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2004 was one of the worst and most widely talked-about cases of prisoner abuse by American forces during any war. This scandal had lasting implications for the War in Iraq and America's War on Terror as a whole. This essay examines what failures in military doctrine led to such egregious abuses and how those failures have or have not been remedied.

scholarly journals Performing Togetherness: Tourist-Like Photography from Abu Ghraib

2021 ◽  
pp. 99-125
Author(s):  
Paulius Petraitis
Keyword(s):  
Military Personnel ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Abu Ghraib ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Photographic Images ◽  
Symbolic Distance ◽  
Abu Ghraib Prison ◽  
The U.S ◽  
The Way

The article explores the infamous photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison that circulated and were made public in 2004. It specifically looks at how the sense of togetherness was enacted by the U.S. military personnel stationed in the site, and the way cameras were instrumental in this process. It argues that the resultant photographs can be seen as tou- rist-like in several respects. A notable aspect of the photographic images is that the soldiers who took them repeatedly appear in the frame themselves. Appearing in and photographing the abusive acts was not only a form of structuring and reinforcing power relations at the prison, but also an attempt to portray a fun-having personnel group. The visual signifiers – thumbs up, smiles, pointed fingers – authenticate the images, lending them some of the qualities of tourist photography. At Abu Ghraib, the soldiers’ photographic practice also partly served as a sense-making mechanism, allowing a symbolic distance between the camera-wielder and unforeseen emergent events. It promised a wishful alternative to the grim realities of the prison: an overcrowded and undersupplied facility with a lack of on-site leadership. The scars of resultant violence – and the notorious photographs that document it – remain relevant, and continue to resurface in recent so- cial and political contexts.

Torture at Abu Ghraib: Non-disclosure and Impunity

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aloysia Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
The United States ◽  
Abu Ghraib ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The World ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Culture Of Silence ◽  
Abu Ghraib Prison ◽  
Different Parts

This chapter discusses some of the long-standing social and political impacts of the torture of prisoners in Iraq by Coalition forces, and reflects on the consequences of the culture of silence and impunity that has typified torture in the so-called War on Terror. More specifically, it explores the culture of silence and non-disclosure that has led to further human rights abuses globally, including the exportation of torture techniques used at Abu Ghraib prison to different parts of the world, the increased public acceptance of torture in countries such as the United States and Australia, and the marginalisation and vilification of certain groups within the global community. Finally, the chapter explores the importance of acknowledgement, transparency, and accountability in relation to torture and for the broader promotion and protection of human rights, and the achievement of long-standing peace in the region.

Explaining Behavior

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Talbert ◽  
Jessica Wolfendale
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Abu Ghraib ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Abu Ghraib Prison ◽  
Gilbert Harman ◽  
Stanford Prison Experiment

This chapter explores the relationship between the crimes committed by American troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Philip Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo’s experiment is one of the most famous of a large body of social psychology experiments that support the “situationist” perspective on human behavior. A central situationist claim is that features of the situations in which people act have a greater influence on behavior than we ordinarily suppose, and enduring features of personality and character have a correspondingly smaller role in explaining behavior. We explain how this research has been interpreted by psychologists such as Lee Ross and Richard Nisbett and by philosophers such as Gilbert Harman and John Doris.

scholarly journals How images make world politics: International icons and the case of Abu Ghraib

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
LENE HANSEN
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Abu Ghraib ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Status ◽  
Abu Ghraib Prison

AbstractThis article introduces international icons to the field of International Relations. International icons are freestanding images that are widely circulated, recognised, and emotionally responded to. International icons come in the form of foreign policy icons familiar to a specific domestic audience, regional icons, and global icons. Icons do not speak foreign policy in and of themselves rather their meaning is constituted in discourse. Images rise to the status of international icons in part through images that appropriate the icon itself, either in full or through inserting parts of the icon into new images. Appropriations might be used and read as critical interventions into foreign policy debates, but such readings should themselves be subjected to analysis. A three-tier analytical and methodological framework for studying international icons is presented and applied in a case study of the hooded prisoner widely claimed to be emblematic of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

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