Negotiating Subjection: The Political Economy of Protection in the Iraqi Mandate (1914-1932)

Main author: Menon, Parvathi
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-41456
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description The Mandate System provided a viable means for protecting European interests (without annexation), embedding the principle of foreign property protection as the basis for future relations between capital exporting and importing states. At the same time, the Mandates also protected the non-European Mandate inhabitants in preparation for their emancipation by introducing welfare measures, development, and ‘order’ that could support the protection of (foreign) property. The Iraqi example best explicates how the Mandate System uniquely combined vestiges of older imperial protection models and a future model for newly emancipated states, demonstrating the fluidity between the imperial and the international. I argue that such a fluidity helped facilitate a reciprocal causality between protecting people and protecting property, where protecting Iraqis facilitated British propertied interests. Equally, by separating the protection of people and property, I show how political self-determination of Mandate inhabitants remained distinct from their economic emancipation. Through these arguments, I demonstrate how protection of people and property was divergent and mutually constitutive.
format Journal Article
author Menon, Parvathi
author_facet Menon, Parvathi
authorStr Menon, Parvathi
author_letter Menon, Parvathi
title Negotiating Subjection: The Political Economy of Protection in the Iraqi Mandate (1914-1932)
publisher University of Windsor Faculty of Law
publishDate 2021
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/41456/