All Policy Analysis by Michael Knights

At this crucial time in Iraq's history, only one factor is holding the country together: the wealth created by the south's oil exports, and how these funds will be distributed in the 2015 budget.

The pundits have it wrong -- the group's move toward Baghdad is a sign of desperation.

Washington is relying on local forces to carry out ground operations following airstrikes against ISIS, but disunity within the Kurdish ranks may hamper their ability to defeat the insurgents.

Given the group's brutal, nihilistic approach to territories it has seized, any anti-ISIL uprisings that are well planned and externally supported will eventually succeed.

Washington should keep pressuring Baghdad to make early, ungrudging goodwill gestures toward the Kurds instead of reverting to hardball negotiations and broken promises.

Washington Institute research explains the complexities of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

Much of the group's early military success was due to the weakness and unpreparedness of its enemies, so the right blend of countermeasures could still roll it back.

Coordinated U.S. airstrikes with a joint Baghdad-Kurdish offensive could quickly open a humanitarian corridor without pulling American forces into deeper involvement.

Washington Institute experts assess the current state of military operations in Iraq and evaluate Abadi's ability to extricate his country from deadlock, defeat, and disintegration.

As Abadi's ratification approaches, Washington should encourage him to swiftly signal his commitment to decentralization, security reform for the Sunnis, and a revenue-sharing deal with the Kurds.

The world came to the rescue of the refugees on Mount Sinjar, so why does it continue to ignore thousands more Iraqi minorities who face imminent threat of extermination by jihadists?

While the Kurds could use more ammunition and weapons, they also need coordination, air support, and logistical help -- all of which the United States can provide on short notice.

Full and timely U.S. military cooperation could help the Kurds and Baghdad split the would-be ISIS caliphate in half and spark tribal uprisings against the group.

Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces need Washington's military cooperation if the United States expects Kurdish troops to help stabilize Iraq.