Iraq

Iraq in Between Iran and the United States
  • Podcast

    • Iraq in Between Iran and the United States

    Hosts Alistair Taylor and Matthew Czekaj are joined by MEI Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow Amb. (ret.) Robert S. Ford to examine what is at stake for Iraq in the Iran war. The only country to have been hit by both sides, Iraq is caught in the middle of a regional conflict, with the local Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) carrying out attacks on American interests and personnel — and the US responding. This escalation comes at a period of internal political transition in Iraq, which has been locked in negotiations to form a new government since the November 2025 elections. Ford, who served as Deputy and later Acting Ambassador in Baghdad from 2008 until 2010, unpacks how Iraq is navigating the current moment, how the Kurdistan region fits into this equation, and what this all means for the future of US-Iraqi relations.

    April 9, 2026

    Alistair Taylor, Matthew Czekaj

    Iraq’s oil paralysis: A self-inflicted wound and a gift to Tehran
    Photo by Ismael Adnan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
  • Commentary

    • Iraq’s oil paralysis: A self-inflicted wound and a gift to Tehran

    With the Strait of Hormuz closed and oil production from Iraq’s south in free fall, Baghdad’s failure to maximize the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline is no longer a policy dispute. It is a national emergency.

    March 16, 2026

    Yerevan Saeed

    The Transatlantic Alliance Will Survive Just Fine
  • Commentary

    • The Transatlantic Alliance Will Survive Just Fine

    Media and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are hyping the idea that President Trump’s attempt to gain sovereign control of Greenland has caused unprecedented and irreparable damage to the over 75 year-old Transatlantic Alliance.  This “analysis” stems from multiple sources.  On both sides of the ocean, there are those who pounce on any deviation from the norm by Trump as evidence the world as we know it is ending. And in Europe, there is the human but unattractive reaction of weak, dependent states against their one powerful ally when it rejects Europe’s preferred script. Much of the US media criticism is summarized by the concept that our other NATO allies can never again “trust” the US.

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    Taking stock of the first 100 days of Iraq’s new government
    Photo by Bernd von Jutrczenka/picture alliance via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • Taking stock of the first 100 days of Iraq’s new government

    In its first 100 days in office, the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani has already left warning signs about what might lie ahead for the country. Although it is still in its early days, government actions have largely strayed from the promises Sudani made before taking office and resulted in setbacks on several fronts.

    January 31, 2023

    Omar Al-Nidawi

    Kurdistan gas and diversification
    Photo by Reza/Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • Kurdistan gas and diversification

    The issue of diversification is difficult but urgent, given increasingly tight global climate policies, the advances of non-fossil technologies, and the limited lifespan of the KRI’s oil resources. Harnessing the region’s natural gas productively is the first step to a cleaner and more diversified economy.

    January 20, 2023

    Robin M. Mills

    Iraq’s crisis of elite, consensus-based politics turns deadly: The Coordination Framework
    Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • Iraq’s crisis of elite, consensus-based politics turns deadly: The Coordination Framework

    Iraq’s ongoing government formation power struggle pits the Sadrist Movement, led by populist Shi’a cleric Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, against the Coordination Framework (CF), a loose association of Shi’a parties, united mostly by their opposition to the Sadrist Movement. This piece explores the perspectives of members of the CF and their supporters toward the crisis.

    September 26, 2022

    Haley Bobseine

    OPEC+: Neither with the West, nor with the East
    Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • OPEC+: Neither with the West, nor with the East

    Under current, highly unpredictable market conditions, it is unreasonable for OPEC to make sharp movements to saturate the oil market or withdraw a significant number of barrels from it to meet divergent Western interests of lowering prices and punishing Russia.

    Iraq: A crisis of elite, consensus-based politics turns deadly
    Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • Iraq: A crisis of elite, consensus-based politics turns deadly

    Iraq is facing one of its worst political crises in years. Following the bloody street battles at the end of August that left more than 30 dead, violence has stopped, for now, but the political crisis is far from over, even if superficial solutions may be found in the interim. Iraqis anxiously await the end of the Arba’een holiday on Sept. 17 to see what will happen next.

    September 15, 2022

    Haley Bobseine

    Domestic Political Chaos Is Not the Only Thing Happening in Iraq
  • Commentary

    • Domestic Political Chaos Is Not the Only Thing Happening in Iraq

    It appears that calm has returned to Iraq after the reported intervention of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country’s chief and widely respected Shia cleric. In recent weeks, violence had occurred in and near parliament, which has been unable to implement last October’s election results. The clashes involved demonstrators and armed forces loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the leading candidate in the elections, and militias loyal to a loose array of rival Shia political parties calling themselves the Coordination Framework.

    September 15, 2022

    Daniel Serwer

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