Iraq Initiative

A new strategic dialogue between US and Iraqi governments is meant to place the bilateral relationship on a sustainable basis. But current US policy towards the region will make this tough to achieve.

Mustafa al-Kadhimi has emerged as the compromise prime minister designate, but his potential appointment is built on shaky foundations.

Addressing Iraq’s water crisis should be a priority for any incoming prime minister as it is damaging the country’s attempts to rebuild. But successive governments have allowed the problem to fester.

Following 17 years of conflict and fragile state-society relations, the war-torn country is particularly vulnerable to the pandemic.

The populist cleric has repositioned himself in Iraqi politics multiple times, but his recent shift against youth-led protestors may signal his decline as an autonomous political force.

Regional experts examine how Iran benefits from the fallout of the killing, the implications for politics in Iraq and how Tehran might respond with its proxies in the region.

Tactics that worked for the authorities after protests in Basra last summer are unlikely to be effective in Baghdad.

After the defeat of ISIS, endemic corruption is now the main threat to Iraq’s stability, alienating the population from its ruling elite and driving young people into a protest movement that demands radical change.

A New Approach to Stalled State Transformations in Iraq and Yemen

Many Iraqis feel that protest is the only voice they have left. They view the formal political and electoral process as just reinforcing the same elites who have repeatedly failed them since the US invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein.

To have any chance of success, post-conflict governance models for Iraq and Libya must acknowledge ‘hybrid’ armed groups and incorporate them in rebuilding the state, but focus on improving their accountability.

Baghdad must unify its foreign policy and fix its domestic politics before it can realistically play that role.

A feud within the Popular Mobilization Units will change the shape of the organization and the nature of Shia politics in Iraq.

The elite and the traditional political parties remain stronger than state institutions, so the new president and prime minister will have an uphill battle translating recent developments into structural changes.

Muqtada al-Sadr’s victory shows Iraqis were less interested in sectarian politics than in the gap between ruler and ruled.

As another election approaches, the country’s international partners should avoid picking preferred winners and instead do more to build its democratic foundations.

Despite its defeat on the battlefield, ISIS is using Iraq’s black market to stockpile millions of dollars to fuel its coming insurgency.

Saad Aldouri and Renad Mansour on how a referendum over independence backfired

As ISIS loses territory and moves underground, tackling its financial model will be the next step in ‘degrading and defeating’ the terror organization.

Saad Aldouri examines the aims and prospects of the groups agitating for political reform in Iraq.

It is not that there is no plan for the day after. It is that there are too many.

After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani emerged as one of the most powerful men in Iraq. Sistani was already known to Shia Muslims worldwide as the somewhat reticent leader of the religious establishment in Najaf. The fall of the Ba’ath regime thrust him on to the national and international stage.