COIN through the eyes of Bourdieu: American legitimation practices in Iraq 2007-2009: American legitimation practices in Iraq 2007-2009

Yet despite the excellent work done by academics and practitioners alike to reflect upon COIN in the modern era, there are still critical questions that are unanswered about how and why the US failed to achieve its objectives in what has been dubbed the ‘counterinsurgency decade’. In Iraq, specifically, where America’s legitimacy-oriented expeditionary COIN model was invented, the question of what the Surge accomplished has been answered, but the question of how it was (or was not) accomplished has not, to date, been rigourously examined.

As we look toward future conflicts in the information age, this central question of legitimation is likely to become increasingly important. <br><br>The core research question driving this thesis – to what extent and how was the United States able to legitimize the government of Iraq between 2007 and 2009 through its counterinsurgency practices – is designed to look anew at the US experience in Iraq, through the lens of counterinsurgency’s core logic of legitimation.

The originality of the argument in this thesis, aside from its central focus on COIN as a process of legitimation, lies in its theoretical and methodological approach. Using a Bourdieusian sociological framework to conduct analysis of practices as patterned and repeated actions allows for a unique approach to bridging the structure-agent divide. By tracing COIN ‘practices’ as the ontological focal point and unit of analysis within the single case study of Iraq, the thesis is able to integrate structure and agency and focus on the operations and interactions that shaped the cognitive and physical battlespaces in Iraq during the Surge.

The ontology of practice is central to both the theoretical and methodological frameworks used in this thesis, which are linked by a Pragmatist epistemology that is neither overly dogmatic nor relativist in its commitments to truth claims. Acknowledging the contingent and evolving character of human interaction and warfare alike, the findings in this thesis are considered to valid until proven otherwise. <br><br>