Transitional government in Iraq

This semester I'm taking a political science seminar entitled "Failed States and State-building" from a professor who was part of UNOSOM in 92-93, and we're tasked with writing a paper 30-50 pages in length. Our focus is on transitional government, including significant sections of our papers devoted to conflict analysis, assessment of the role of the international community and the transition itself, et cetera. After the success I had in my Insurgencies/Counterinsurgencies seminar last semester with my paper on COIN strategy in Iraq, I figured I would dive back into the Mesopotamian morass, this time with a perspective that is decidedly less military-oriented.

So here's my appeal: if anyone on the forum has any experience, either with the military or with civilian agencies or NGOs, dealing with Iraq's transitional government, I would absolutely love your input, and I'd be more than happy to cite you in my paper. I know the members of the forum are full of connections, so if you have no personal experience but you have a legitimate contact who has worked in this field, I'd appreciate if you could put me in touch with them.

If you are aware of any reports, articles, books, editorials, or other credible sources that you believe are particularly relevant to my research topic, I'd sincerely appreciate it if you could let me know about them. I'm about to start scouring JSTOR, LexisNexis, WORLDCAT, et cetera, for sources, and I'm currently about halfway through Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City after finishing Thomas Ricks's Fiasco two weeks ago, so I'm going to be compiling a mountain of research material for me to sift through in the coming months, and I'd like it if anyone on the forum could either add more to it or, even better, tell me what works best/worst so I can lighten my burdens a little.

Thanks!

Get onto Lightfighter.net and look for the moderator of the PMC forum. He goes by the handle of Abu Buckwheat.

He is extremely busy, but he is a former Naval Intelligence cat, and was hired on by an NGO consortium IIRC to provide security for some folks right after things started to shake out in 2003 I think. He should have tons of primary source (even if anecdotal) information on what happened in the government inner workings.

He is also an author and FOX news consultant.

Thanks, sir. I've been to Lightfighter before because my brother occasionally posts there, and I'll definitely look up the guy.

Personally, I've found Lexis-Nexis to be of little use, and in the rare instances when I do have to plunge in, it annoys the hell out of me.

Does your university provide you access to the Economist Intelligence Unit website? If so, their annual country profile, quarterly reports, monthly updates and extensive statistical data available on Iraq both pre-and post OIF will provide you with a substantial foundation of information to build on.

If you don't have access to it, PM me.