The Geopolitics of Social Reproduction and Depletion: The Case of Iraq and Palestine

This article explores the relationships between social reproduction, depletion, and geopolitical processes, drawing on two case studies: Iraq and Palestine. It underlines the importance of social reproduction to geopolitical processes and of particular geopolitical contexts to how states intervene in social reproduction, with differential implications for depletion. It argues that Iraqi state measures targeting social reproduction have sought to organize and instrumentalize the life of Iraqi citizens in the service of postcolonial state building and war-making, whilst, by contrast, Israeli state measures targeting Palestinian social reproduction have largely sought to erase Palestinian life in line with a settler colonial logic.