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Will Corruption Destabilize Kurdistan? - Michael Rubin, Contentions

Kurdistan may be the “other Iraq” but, when it comes to corruption, it is in a league all its own. After a disappointing trip to W...

It's Not Maliki Pushing Iraq into Civil War - Michael Rubin, Commentary

Rather than handicap Maliki's ability to govern, we should focus U.S. policy on ensuring that his government holds itself accountable to the Iraqi electorate in 2014, as schedule...

Prolonging the Tyrant Tax in Iraq - George Jonas, National Post

Saddam was pulled from his hole in the ground on Dec. 13, 2003. The coalition's human cost was about 600 lives. President Bush could have declared victory and sailed home the nex...

Gulf States Can Pull Iraq Out of Iran's Orbit - Hassan Hassan, The National

In a recent talk in Bahrain about national security in the GCC, Dubai's police chief, Lt Gen Dhahi Khalfan, listed Iraq's subordination to Iran as one of the top five potential sec...

Barack Obama, Warrior in Chief - Peter Bergen, New York Times

The president who won the Nobel Peace Prize less than nine months after his inauguration has turned out to be one of the most militarily aggressive American leaders in decades....

The Rise of Arab Republics? - Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Al Jazeera

Political developments may bring a game of musical chairs between Arab monarchies, Arab republics and the West....

Iraq a Threat to Mideast Stability - James Traub, Foreign Policy

Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq, has a remarkable ability to make enemies. As Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group puts it, "Personal relations between ev...

America's Dirty War in Fallujah - Robert Fisk, The Independent

The phosphorus shells that devastated this city were fired in 2004. But are the victims of America's dirty war still being born?...

Will Barzani Declare Kurdish Independence? - Ofra Bengio, Jerusalem Post

Since the 2003 war the Kurds have become the U.S. ally and the most credible partner in post-Saddam Iraq....

Maliki Power Grab Risks Iraq Civil War - Int'l Institute for Strategic Studies

When the American military presence in Iraq ended in December 2011, Washington and Baghdad claimed that Iraq was a stable, sustainable democracy. However, this appears quest...

A Game of Cat and Mouse in Iraq - Shakir Noori, Gulf News

Masoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader, is a man of few words. Over the years as Iraq lurched from one destabilising crisis to the next he remained focused on his home front, consolida...

How to Succeed in Baghdad - Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

As talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (P5+1) move to Baghdad, leaders and analysts alike are wondering whether diplomacy will ...

The West's Mysterious 'Red Lines' on Iran - Jonathan Schell, Globe and Mail

Although the invasion of Iraq was a debacle, the policy underlying it has survived. Curiously, that policy may have escaped discredit in part precisely because its target was a m...

A Global Assault on Religious Liberty - Doug Bandow, Forbes

Despite its best efforts, America cannot make the world free. But at least Americans can work to make the world freer. They should support religious liberty as they go out into...

Iraq's Slide Toward Renewed Violence - Ayad Allawi, Washington Times

Washington's disengagement risks wasting years of sacrifice....

Chaotic Iraqi Model as Good as It Gets - Barry Rubin, Jerusalem Post

Iraq is in a mess. Violence continues.Factionalism leads to endless bickering.Corruption is at high levels. Christians live in fear or flee altogether. Islamism is constantly cre...

Saddam's Head Not Worth the Cost - Robert Merry, The National Interest

There’s one mantra that is thoroughly embedded in all the debates surrounding the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Everyone seems to agree that, whatever one might think about that militar...

The Vicar of Baghdad, Under Siege - Robert Fisk, Independent

Andrew White got his blue Iraqi badge on Wednesday – the pass that allows him to move around Baghdad. The Anglican Chaplain to Iraq supported the US invasion – he still...

Maliki Can't Favor Iraqi Shiites Alone - Gulf News

It is important that the Iraqi government does not fall into the trap of representing the interests of one particular group or sect within the country. Iraq is a heterogeneous Arab...

Forging Ties With Iraq's Kurds (PDF) - Institute for the Study of War

The U.S. has a vital strategic partner in Iraq's Kurds....

Obama's Real Iraq Errors - Andrew Exum, World Politics Review

Since at least 2003, Americans have overestimated our influence in Iraq. Although the U.S. invasion and overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime paved the way for both a bloody civil...

Obama and the Eisenhower Standard - Fouad Ajami, Wall Street Journal

From its very beginning, this presidency has been about the man himself and his personal ambition, and less so his duty to democracy....

Maliki Ploy Masks Iraq-Syria Axis - Marwan Kabalan, Gulf News

Over the past few weeks, the Iraqi government did its best to convince Arab leaders that their personal security is assured should they attend the Arab summit in Baghdad. Despite t...

Arab States Redraw the Map of Alliances - Jamal Khashoggi, The National

While Syria's army cruelly and stupidly shells its own people and storms its cities, the so-called "axis of resistance" stretching from Tehran to Damascus is falling apart. Said ...

'Why Nations Fail' Comes Up Short - Francis Fukuyama, American Interest

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson have just published Why Nations Fail, a big book on development that will attract a lot of attention. The latest fad in development studies has b...

Battling the al-Qaeda Hydra - Ian Bremmer & David Gordon, NY Times

While the threat to the homeland is diminished, the demise of 'Al Qaeda central' is coinciding with a resurgence of radical extremist Sunni political activism. The two trends are...

Iraq Can Lead Arab World on Economics - Meghan O'Sullivan, Bloomberg

The last Arab League Summit held in Baghdad was in 1990, just months before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Since then, Iraq has effectively been out of the Arab fold -- on account ...

Geography and Oil Are Fate - Daniel Serwer, Peacefare

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki seems for the moment to be winning his high stakes bet on hosting the Arab League summit this week in Baghdad. The first bar is set pretty lo...

Iraq Isn't Sovereign or Stable - Bernhard Zand, Der Spiegel

The garden is in a grove of palm trees in downtown Baghdad, as clean and manicured as a golf course, and surrounded by a high wall to keep out the noise and filth of the city. Ah...

Maliki's Dangerous Tightrope - Kenneth Pollack, The National Interest

Next week, the Arab League will hold its annual summit in Baghdad. It is a day a great many Iraqis have long awaited. For years, Iraqis hoped to host the Arab League in their liber...

U.S. Battles Iran for Iraq Influence - Josh Rogin, The Cable

The first major test of U.S. post-war influence in Iraq is now raging over efforts to stop Iran from funneling arms to Syria through Iraqi airspace, but the Iraqis are either unwil...

Iraq's Choice: Dictatorship or Chaos - Michael Bell, Globe and Mail

Iraq is headed for another dark age. Next week’s Arab League meeting in Baghdad is nothing but cover for a state collapsing at full force. The surface manifestations are...

Iraq and Limits of American Power - Paul Mutter, Asia Times

"Washington has lost a valuable opportunity to nurture and support a key counterweight to Iranian influence among Shi'ites in the Arab world," lament Danielle Pletka and Gary S...

America, Terrorism Sponsor? - Hussein Ibish, NOW Lebanon

By legitimizing the MEK, Washington would lose almost all credibility when it comes to opposing terrorism. The enemy of my enemy is by no means necessarily my friend. That way ma...

Sgt. Bales and Tragedy of America's Two Wars - Robert Merry, The Atlantic

Two stories in the Washington Post on Saturday should be read in tandem for insight into how we might best interpret the recent killing of sixteen Afghan civilians by a U.S. comba...

Will Libya End Up Like Iraq? - Mohamad Mohamedou, Project Syndicate

As post-revolution Libya looks ahead, Iraq looms as a perilous example. After 42 years of dictatorship, Libya, like Iraq in 2003 after the fall of Saddam Hussein, needs more than w...

History's Shadow over the Middle East - Robert Kaplan, Stratfor

1848 in Europe was the year that wasn't. In the spring and summer of that year, bourgeois intellectuals and working-class radicals staged upheavals from France to the Balkans, sh...

Obama Makes the World Disappear - Dan Henninger, Wall Street Journal

Don't get too distracted by the Republicans' road-tour version of the 2012 presidential election as it hits theaters in the likes of Mississippi, Alabama, Hawaii and Illinois. Th...

Ending the Iraq War Helped America - Center for American Progress

This week marks the ninth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. Americans should pause to remember and honor the hundreds of thousands of brave men and women who served there, ...

Time Is Running Out on Iraq - Irena Sargsyan, The National Interest

Since the last U.S. troops left Iraq in December 2011, the country has been embroiled in power-sharing struggles, with the Shia-dominated government trying to weaken its opponents...

Containing Iran - Daniel Trombly, Slouching Towards Columbia

The United States already has a very large amount of coercive military options against Iran because of the many forces it has stationed in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. retains a mass...

The Kurdish Quiet Spring - Ofra Bengio, Jerusalem Post

The big question mark is if Kurds will be able to enhance their national cause for self-determination....

Afghan Killings Must Hasten U.S. Departure - The National

As Americans and other NATO troops approach the 2014 target for their withdrawal from Afghanistan, the situation only seems to worsen. This is not an argument to prolong their stay...

Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians - Michael Oren, Wall St. Journal

Just as Jews were once expelled from Arab lands, Christians are now being forced from countries they have long inhabited....

Iranian Dissidents Languish in Iraq - Raymond Tanter, National Interest

On February 29, a bipartisan group in Congress expressed concern about the State Department’s terrorist classification of an Iranian dissident organization—the Mujahedeen-e-Kha...

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