Walled in, Out of Sight: The Contested Urban Environment of Baghdad

Between 2003–2017, multiple state and non-state factions fought for control of Baghdad, Iraq. Government-sanctioned armed groups and illegal militias each constructed and appropriated defensive architecture for their own purposes. This article argues that licit and illicit armed groups co-produced Baghdad’s security infrastructures, creating increasingly homogeneous neighborhoods. Within the walls and behind checkpoints, residents’ restriction of movement and vision resulted in an ‘antiopticon’ in which they faced and negotiated a changing environment of new places and non-places. Through an extensive literature review from the fields of anthropology, urban studies, and conflict studies, this paper explores the tangible role that illicit armed groups played in shaping Baghdad’s urban geography and its residents’ sense of place.