A GRAVEYARD FOR EXPERTISE: POST-INVASION IRAQ, AND THE DEATH OF TECHNO-POLITICS

Abstract

Iraq, the world’s third-largest oil exporter, has been sliding towards energy dependency post-2003, through a significant increase in electricity and gas imports. Almost every summer, Iraqis have been taken to the streets demanding better electricity provision. Engineers, the technical backbone of the energy sector, have been participating in protests, rallies and vigils, and some were organizing public socio-political talks. In 2018, a massive public outcry in Basra, home of 70% of Iraq’s oil production, has triggered a notable improvement in electricity that was supported by engineers and acknowledged by the minister of electricity. Against a rich literature on the role of experts as vectors of power in colonial and post-independence eras, this research investigates the socio-political role of engineers and the limits to such role, in a post-authoritarian and neo-colonial context. Their socio-political role is explored through their interaction with politics in their line of work, active political participation and position towards techno-political endeavours. Techno-politics here is generally defined as technical interventions attempting to de-politicize politically and economically contentious matters.

A qualitatively led mixed-method was adopted for data collection and analysis. Thirty-three personal interviews were conducted with engineers and experts in the energy sector in Basra, and a comparative historical approach, including synthesizing descriptive statistics from exiting datasets and reviewing relevant public laws and reports was used to reflect structural factors. The results indicate that the socio-political role of engineers is marginalized by politics. Under the hegemony of political quota disguised as ethno-sectarianism and global capital formations, both the state’s institutions and engineers’ role are systematically undermined, by various interest groups to allow resources extractions. Prominence is given to rent-maximization and short-term profit-making through unabated financial circulation, at the expense of the public good and public accountability. The developing organic intellectuals of the technical base are limited by various interest groups operating with impunity and assimilated by neo-technocratic anti-politics machine advancing free-market policies. The research suggests the death of techno-politics of massive construction projects indicated in most of the literature. The debate might be taken further by examining how experts relate to power in a cross-contexts analysis, particularly, at times of global pandemic and recurrent health-related lockdowns.