Military Mobilities and Mobilising Movements in the Middle East

Some of the most enduring works of historical sociology have delineated the mechanisms through which warfare as social and political practice, and militaries as vast and powerful institutions, transform social and political relations over time and shape the contours of states, nations, and social classes (Mann 1986; 1993; 2012; Tilly 1993). Given the extent to which warfare has been a feature of politics in the Middle East, it is surprising that more has not been written in recent years on the ways in which militaries -as social and political institutions- transform social relations in the region (but see Vatikiotis 1961; Ayubi 1996).

This project will break new ground by examining the complex relations between the US military, Middle Eastern states, private and state-owned logistics firms and transportation infrastructure (i.e. ports), and the workforces that operate these facilities. I will trace how both the deployments and drawdowns of US forces from the region have entailed partnerships with private logistics firms. These not only include such military service firms as Halliburton, KBR or DynCorp, but also firms not obviously associated with providing military support. Transnational corporations such as Maersk, DHL, and FedEx are not only crucial to global commerce, but they are also classified as strategic transport and logistics assets that can be exploited in times of war. The oversized US military presence in the region has been at least concurrent with (and has possibility even encouraged) the proliferation of gigantic local logistics and infrastructure firms such as Kuwait-based Agility, Jordan-based Aramex, and Dubai Ports, all of which are important contributors to the "integrated regional commodity circuit" (Hanieh 2011).

Security experts have written extensively about the privatisation of military functions and the effect it may have on states' conduct of war, legal accountability, and state sovereignty (Singer 2003; Verkuil 2007). What I am interested in is to examine how a boom in commercial logistics activity as a result of US military presence or decamping can influence labour organisation and urban infrastructure (ports, warehousing, rails, roads, airports, etc.) in the countries that serve as US hosts. What makes Middle East relevant is the number of US bases there, the extensiveness of US military entry and exit at various times since the establishment of CENTCOM's predecessor 30 years ago, the concurrent emergence of the Gulf region as a major hub of investment and commerce, and the constant hum -however suppressed- of labour activism in and around ports, airports, and shipping firms in the region. I will argue that in this confluence of transnational commerce, US military presence, and local government coercion, forms of labour contention and claim-making nevertheless emerge which may have significant impacts on notions of citizenship, participation, and politics more broadly in these countries. These forms of contention are novel and important precisely because of the variety of power-holding actors involved: local states, US military, and private firms and because of the ways in which they mobilise transnational links both with solidarity and union networks, and because of transnational links within migrant communities that often serve as source of labour power in these contexts.

Non-Academic User beneficiaries who will be directly engaged by the research will include
1. International Transport Workers Federation (ITF)
2. AFL-CIO's International Outreach programme (US)
3. Human rights organisation and NGOs that do work on migrant labour including Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and War on Want

Having had extensive contact with the ITF, the project has been designed with their input and support. The postdoctoral fellow who will work on the project will be actively involved in the research at the ITF and will be selected with direct input from the ITF. The aim is for the project to make, in addition to contributions to sociological analyses of wars, advances in concrete mapping of the large-scale transformations that have happened in logistical infrastructures, worker mobilisation, and other such factors in the Middle East. More detail on this will be available in the Pathways to Impact document.

Dissemination among user beneficiaries will take the following forms:

1) The project postdoctoral researcher will be working closely with the ITF and his/her research agenda will be set jointly by myself and Dr Jeremy Anderson at the ITF.
2) Regular updates by email on the progress of the research to the various stakeholders
3) Regular posts to a blog and website which track the progress of the project, particularly after the main interviews are completed (in order to protect of the safety of the interviewees)
4) On completion of the project, I aim to hold a major conference, to disseminate our findings and then to discuss the implications of these for the work of the user communities discussed above.
5) A final report will be prepared by the PI explicitly for dissemination
6) The final GIS mapping of the relations between militaries, firms, and mobilisation (which will be entirely constructed from extensive but obscure open source data gathered throughout the life of the project) will be available via the project website.

Academic User Beneficiaries and Dissemination Opportunities:

In addition to the academic publication plans, outlined in the Case for Support and Academic Beneficiaries section, this research will be relevant to a wider community of academic users:

Academic colleagues
The map of military-firms-labour relation that will be constructed will be of interest and utility to three communities of academic users: those who work on militaries and war studies; colleagues engaged in research on labour activities in supply chain management and logistics sectors; and colleagues working on the Middle East.

Students
Given the topical nature of the project, this research is likely to be of considerable interest to the PI's students and other students more broadly. Dissemination of the research as it progresses among our students will be facilitated through the Project Blog.