Iraq

Despite long-documented public weariness with Middle East conflicts, Trump’s successor could well recognize the value of reestablishing American credibility in the region.

As new protests and further government crackdowns loom, Washington should call out abuses by Iran-backed entities and sanction the key offenders.

Russia has steadily inserted itself into Iraq's military, energy, and educational sectors, and these relationships could turn Baghdad further away from the United States now that the Trump administration has ceded Syria to Moscow.

Muddled governance, harsh crackdowns, and outside interference threaten to overturn the fragile freedom that Iraqis have won at great cost.

The public’s demands are just and their patience is all but gone, so Baghdad needs to get on with the hard work of opening up the economy and providing critical services before the violence spirals out of control.

Even as Baghdad works to rein in militias that invite outside attacks, Washington needs to be patient with the country’s contradictions in the near term and give space for it to exert sovereignty in the long term.

The current holder of the highest clerical rank in Shia Islam is eighty-nine-year-old Ali al-Sistani, who is based in Najaf, Iraq. Sistani has played an important role in Iraq’s post-Saddam era, supporting political reconciliation and a constitution-based society. While the transnational reach of marjaiya will likely diminish after Sistani leaves the scene, the specific contours of this shift and Tehran's efforts to intervene remain an open question.

A newly announced system could further the regime’s longstanding desire to create an A2AD umbrella in the Gulf and forward-deploy antiaircraft missiles in other countries.

Tehran-backed militias must be monitored more closely on a host of destabilizing activities, though policymakers should be careful not to lump them in with the many PMF factions that don't support Iran.