Policy Analysis

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  • Policy Analysis
    IraqDemocracy and Governance

    Baghdad Between Tehran and Washington: The Struggle for a Sovereign State

    Oct 9, 2025Patricia Karam

    Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani is walking a delicate tightrope between asserting the country’s sovereignty and maintaining relations with Iran a…

  • Policy Analysis
    The Arabian Peninsula and The GulfEnergy and Economics

    OPEC Is Pushing Down Oil Prices Despite a Cash Crunch in Saudi Arabia. Here Is Why

    Aug 21, 2025Jim Krane

    Something odd is happening in oil markets. Demand is weaker than it has been in many years, yet OPEC+ is unwinding cuts and increasing production at a brisk pa…

  • Policy Analysis
    IraqRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Pragmatism Shapes Iraq’s Position Toward Post-Assad Syria

    Jul 1, 2025Giorgio Cafiero

    Sharing a 375-mile border with Syria, Iraq has high stakes in its neighbor’s successful transition following the December 2024 fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime…

  • Policy Analysis
    IraqEnergy and Economics

    Geopolitical Dynamics Surrounding Iraq’s Ambitious Development Road Project

    Mar 5, 2025Giorgio Cafiero

    Leveraging its geography and resources to serve as an economic bridge between Asia and Europe is not a new concept for Iraq. In the 1980s, the country promoted…

  • Policy Analysis
    IraqViolent Extremism

    The Islamic State Is Trying to Rebound

    Aug 29, 2024Gregory Aftandilian

    Taking advantage of the world’s attention to the Israel-Hamas and Israel-Hezbollah conflicts, the so-called Islamic State (IS) is trying to reconstitute itself…

  • Policy Analysis
    The Arabian Peninsula and The GulfUS Foreign Policy

    Iraq’s Sudani Runs the Risks of Sustained Relations with the United States

    May 7, 2024Rend Al-Rahim

    On his recent visit to the United States, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia` al-Sudani proposed a bold new relationship with America, basing it on the joint S…

  • Policy Analysis
    LevantUS Foreign Policy

    US Troops to Stay in Syria and Iraq but Perhaps Not for Long

    Feb 22, 2024Gregory Aftandilian

    In recent weeks, there have been meetings in Washington and in Baghdad about the presence in Iraq and Syria of US troops, whose official mandate is to aid loca…

  • Policy Analysis
    IraqSecurity and Defense

    Iraq’s Illusory Sovereignty: Domestic and Foreign Culprits

    Feb 7, 2024Rend Al-Rahim

    The abridgement of Iraqi state sovereignty began at least with the Gulf War of 1991, when Iraq’s Kurds received international protection, the United States and…

  • Policy Analysis
    IranConflicts and Conflict Resolution

    Iran Between Managing Allies and Modulating Its Deterrence

    Jan 25, 2024Daniel Brumberg

    This is a bad time for Iran to become embroiled in an expanding regional war that pits the Islamic Republic and its allies in Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen against …

  • Policy Analysis
    IraqDemocracy and Governance

    A Year of Mixed Results for Iraq’s Sudani

    Nov 8, 2023Rend Al-Rahim

    Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shi`a al-Sudani completed his first year in office on October 27 with a mixed record of successes and failures owing to objective…

  • Policy Analysis
    IraqRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Iraq, Sudani, and the War on Gaza

    Oct 25, 2023Rend Al-Rahim

    In the space of just over two weeks, Israel’s war on Gaza has upended Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shai` al-Sudani’s year-long careful balancing of Iraq’s for…

  • Policy Analysis
    TurkeyEnergy and Economics

    Turkey’s Ambitions in Iraq Play Out in Kirkuk

    Oct 3, 2023Mustafa Gurbuz

    In late August, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani stirred the pot of existing tensions when he ordered the evacuation of the Iraqi military’s Joint…

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