Ungovernable Life: Mandatory Medicine and Statecraft in Iraq by Omar Dewachi

摘要

For many in North America and Europe-and, indeed, anywhere outside the Middle East-Iraq is likely most familiar as the former home of a decadent, oppressive regime; the site of US-led military intervention and insurgent and extremist violence; and the backdrop for humanitarian calamity, millions-strong mass displacement, and the ascension of the Islamic State.When such brute facts dominate the narrative, it may seem difficult to see health and medicine in any terms beyond the restoration of order or the mere triaging of bare life. But asOmar Dewachi demonstrates, there is a far richer story to tell about Iraqimedicine, one that does not fit neatly into critiques of the neoliberal development state, regional geopolitics, or a static authoritarian regime. Ungovernable Life challenges how readers think about the relationship among medicine, governance, and conflict not only in this one remarkable and heretofore underanalyzed national case but also in the context of a century of colonialism, postcolonial statecraft, and neo-imperial world order.