DETERRING NON-STATE ACTORS: APPROACHES TO DETER THE POPULAR MOBILIZATION FORCES (PMF) IN IRAQ

Download
Author
Aldowsary, Nasser M.
Date
2022-09Advisor
Hafez, Mohammed M.
Malkasian, Carter
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Since its creation in 2014, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) has played a critical role in Iraq’s political, security, and social environments. Working concurrently with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) promotes its role as a regional actor within the Iranian Threat Network (ITN). Moreover, the PMF’s asymmetric activities create a deterrence trap in which responding or binding to self-restraint results in undesired outcomes. This research intends to describe the deterrence trap against the PMF and seeks approaches to stable deterrence. The research argues that creating change in the deterrence social structure can result in defusing the deterrence trap. The research finds that dismantling the conflict’s complexity, building shared deterrence knowledge, and minimizing the PMF’s ability to influence Iraq’s security, political and social environment can diminish its advantages. It suggests three policy options for deterring the PMF. The first option is through understanding the PMF’s internal factionalism. Exploiting the PMF’s sub-militias’ competing interests may enhance the fragmentation of the PMF. Secondly, strengthening the Iraqi security forces outside of the PMF is necessary to balance against militia forces. Finally, continuing to endorse deterrence by denial and punishment vis-à-vis enforcing legal and financial accountability on the PMF’s activities.
Rights
Copyright is reserved by the copyright owner.Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Deterrence and the United States Coast Guard: enhancing current practice with performance measures
Palin, Philip; Hall, Steven; Lewis, Ted; Baldwin, Craig (2012-03); UDI# 1181Deterrence displaces or delays unwanted behavior. More ambitiously, deterrence aims to permanently discourage an individual or individuals from such behavior. It operates through the prospect of pain or pleasure. Fear ... -
Three Items in One: Deterrence as Concept, Research Program, and Political Issue
Knopf, Jeffrey (2008-03);This paper proposes a broader concept of deterrence than has been standard in the security studies field. It analyzes the past history of debates about deterrence to show that, despite recent doubts about deterrence, the ... -
Deterrence and the national security strategy of 2002 : a round peg for a round hole
Robinson, George M. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2003-12);The National Security Strategy of 2002 suggests that the United States has determined that when faced with the threat of attacks from actors in possession of weapons of mass destruction, a strategy of deterrence is not ...