Commodifying violence: an analysis of wartime rape and private military corporations in Iraq

This thesis theorizes the neoliberal restructuring of capitalism and the gendered trajectories of biopolitics that have occurred alongside the reconfiguration of the state, post-September 11, 2001. To understand these processes, I examine the relationship between wartime rape and the privatization of security in Iraq during the aftermath of the 2003 American-led invasion, through a textual analysis of material and discursive relations of power. My analysis has shown that the proliferation of private military corporations alters the landscape of warfare and wartime rape in Iraq. As an aspect of the neoliberal restructuring of capitalism, the privatization of violence, which emerged alongside the Revolution in Military Affairs and New Wars, compromises the reporting and discursive representations of wartime rape. As a form of biopolitical intervention, wartime rape serves to render life politically unqualified. The data indicates that the PMC in Iraq has contributed to a militarized culture which promotes rape