Peer-Reviewed Articles

Promoting civil society has been a standard component of post-conflict democratic peacebuilding. In post-2003 Iraq, however, the international coalition's introduction of the muhasasa system (apportionment) inhibited local nongovernmental organizations' ability to hold the government to account and made many NGOs into vehicles of state capture.

Today, the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003 is widely regarded as a strategic failure that caused tremendous humanitarian suffering, especially in its aftermath. Two decades later there is a shift in memory culture toward the inclusion of more Iraqi voices and alternative approaches.

The Iraq War of 2003 has been described as a conflict over the meaning of Europe between a transatlantic and a more independent, “Carolingian” vision of the continent. As such, it highlighted the continued importance of a US-led NATO for defining such meaning.

This article examines Australia’s ‘Pacific Step-up’, a signature foreign policy initiative of the Scott Morrison government (2018‒2022), from a signalling perspective. It also explains why Solomon Islands signed a security agreement with China in 2022 despite Australia’s wooing of Pacific Island countries.