Warning Orders: Strategic Reasons for Publicizing Military Offensives
Does publicly announcing an impending military offensive expose assaulting troops to dangers that could be avoided if plans to invade were kept quiet? During all three presidential debates, Republican...
View ArticleThe Bigger Issues at Play: Mosul and the Future of Northern Iraq
Mosul was not the first city to fall to the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), but it was its capture that shocked the world into action. Over two years later, the...
View ArticleStabilizing Iraq With and Without the Islamic State
The military campaign to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has generated much-needed attention to “day-after” scenarios. This includes security arrangements for Mosul...
View ArticlePhases of War and the Iraq Experience
Editor’s Note: This article is the fourth in a series from thinkers at the Center for a New American Security that explores the U.S. military’s phasing construct and the line between war and peace....
View ArticleWaking Up to the Truth About the Sunni Awakening
Martha L. Cottam, Joe W. Huseby, Bruno Baltodano, Confronting al Qaeda: The Sunni Awakening and American Strategy in al Anbar (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016) The campaign to retake Mosul...
View ArticleAnkara’s Turkmen House of Cards
The Mosul operation has made the predominantly Turkmen city of Tal Afar the latest focus of Turkey and Iran’s sectarian struggle for influence in post-Islamic State Iraq. Turkish President Recep Tayyip...
View ArticleThe Next War in Iraq Needs to be on Corruption
A particularly poignant banner raised at the pro-reform demonstrations in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square stated that “Daesh and corruption are two sides of the same coin.” Iraqis have long recognized the...
View ArticleThe Best Thing America Built In Iraq: Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service and...
When the last pocket of the self-styled Islamic State (ISIL) was eradicated in west Mosul last week, it was fitting that the 36th Commando Battalion struck the final blows. The 36th was the first Iraqi...
View ArticleThe Unvarnished Tyrant: American Soldiers and the Final Months of Saddam
Will Bardenwerper, The Prisoner in His Palace: Saddam Hussein, His American Guards, and What History Leaves Unsaid (Scribner, 2017) More than 14 years after former Army officer Fred Wellman deployed to...
View ArticleIraq’s Competing Security Forces After the Battle for Mosul
In July 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced victory and the end of the “fake Daesh [ISIL] state”. But the prime minister was careful with his wording. He did not want to proclaim...
View ArticleBack on the Playground: Returning to Iraq, Eight Years Later
Revisiting the location of significant moments in your life unleashes a flow of memories. Walking the halls of your high school, you recall your glory days. But you also see how the place has changed....
View ArticleAmerica’s Opportunity in Iraq is Ready to Be Seized
The American contribution to the defeat of the Islamic State (ISIL) has given Washington a new prestige in Iraq. Indeed, the United States has an extraordinarily favorable image in Baghdad. It is hard...
View ArticleMust the War Go On? Let’s Talk About Iraq and the Kurds
The Kurds of Northern Iraq held an independence referendum, Iraqi federal forces seized Kirkuk, and the world wondered if we were on the precipice of another round of what could be described as one...
View ArticleIt’s Too Early to Pop Champagne in Baghdad: The Micro-Politics of Territorial...
“What government?” scoffed Abu Ali, a local Turkmen force commander affiliated with the League of the Righteous, a powerful Iranian-backed Shi’a militia, when we asked whether he took orders from Iraqi...
View ArticleDebunking Myths About the Kurds, Iraq, and Iran
The Kurdish referendum in Iraq has failed spectacularly, despite predictions of beckoning independence. Many who relied on the trope that “statehood was not a matter of if but when” were shocked and...
View ArticleWhat Do We Really Know About the Anbar Awakening?
Carter Malkasian, Illusions of Victory: The Anbar Awakening and the Rise of the Islamic State (Oxford University Press, 2017). In September 2006, Abu Sittar declared the birth of the Anbar Awakening...
View ArticleHarnessing Iraq’s Deadly Array of Armed Groups After ISIL
Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a series, produced in collaboration with the U.S. Institute of Peace, on the challenges faced by a post-ISIL Iraq. Earlier this week, Iraqi Prime...
View ArticleBaghdad Must Seize the Chance to Work With Iraq’s Tribes
Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a series, produced in collaboration with the U.S. Institute of Peace, on the challenges faced by a post-ISIL Iraq. Read the first installment here....
View ArticleA New Era Beckons for Iraqi-Saudi Relations
Iraq is witnessing a rare moment of confidence. The defeat of the Islamic State in the country, along with the Iraqi government’s proactive measures to prevent conflict from erupting over territorial...
View ArticleIraq’s Real Weapons of Mass Destruction Were ‘Political Operations’
Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in “Ministry of Truth,” a special series on state-sponsored influence operations. Read the first installment here. Influence operations are by their nature...
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