عراق

The 1 February suicide bombings of Kurdish political offices in Arbil highlight a growing instability in northern Iraq. Having operated autonomously during the last 13 years of Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq, leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government are keen to continue this arrangement in the new constitution, but are

American efforts towards a democratic Iraq seem to have created some strange bedfellows in the Middle East. The Sunnis of the region -- from Baathist loyalists in Iraq and hardcore Wahhabi zealots in Saudi Arabia to secular-minded elites in Amman, Cairo, and elsewhere -- are now united around a common

On February 9, 2004, Patrick Clawson, Soner Cagaptay, Jeffrey White, and Jonathan Schanzer addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. All four were part of the Institute fact-finding delegation tasked with conducting an independent survey of local security conditions and emerging political currents in Iraq. The delegation traveled throughout Iraq

The current situation in Iraq constitutes a unique moment in the history of the Islamic Middle East. For the first time, Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, and Assyrians of the same nation have an opportunity to cooperatively evaluate the task of shaping their shared future. The challenge between now and June 30

Months before the Iraq war of 2003, The New Yorker, Christian Science Monitor, and The New York Times published reports about Ansar al-Islam (“Partisans of Islam”), a brutal band of al-Qa‘ida guerrillas based in a Kurdish area of northern Iraq near the Iranian border. U.S. officials pointed to Ansar al-Islam

On December 9, 2003, the Iraqi Governing Council announced that it would expel the Iranian opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from Iraq. Reacting to this decision, Paul Bremer, administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, recently told Iraqi television that MEK members should be settled in other countries with the help

The December 13 capture of Saddam Husayn elicited a variety of reactions from government officials and other prominent figures throughout the Middle East. Following is a sampling of these reactions, quoted and paraphrased from various regional and international media sources. Arab League. Secretary-General Amr Mussa stated that the Iraqi people

MICHAEL EISENSTADT The War and the Resistance Some have argued that the coalition might not be facing stiff resistance today if it had fought the war differently. To be sure, coalition forces would likely have killed more of the regime's Fedayeen Saddam cannon fodder if they had invaded from Turkey

The increase in resistance attacks in Iraq is not simply a matter of a few spectacular successes, such as the five coordinated suicide bombings in Baghdad on October 27, the downing of a Chinook helicopter on November 2, or the suicide bombing of the Italian base in Nasiriyah on November