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Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Perspective—Recognizing and Repairing the Harm to Iraq’s Minority Communities — Displaced Iraqis from the Yezidi community at a camp for internally displaced persons in Khanke, in Dohuk province, January 20, 2023. Safin Hamed/AFP/via Getty Images

MER Article

Perspective—Recognizing and Repairing the Harm to Iraq’s Minority Communities

As the Costs of War project has documented, the US invasion of Iraq and its aftermath (including interventions, the rise of militant groups and terror attacks) resulted in more than three hundred thousand deaths due to direct violence. Twenty years later, the knock-on effects of war on Iraq’s

Hannibal Travis • 6 min read

The Political Logic Behind Iraq’s Fragmented Armed Forces — Iraqi Security forces are heavily deployed on the Jumhuriya (Republic) bridge leading to Baghdad’s Green Zone, during a demonstration by supporters of Iraq’s influential Shi’i cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on September 28, 2022, in conjunction with the parliament’s first session in two months. Ameer Al-Mohammedawi/dpa via Getty Images

MER Article

The Political Logic Behind Iraq’s Fragmented Armed Forces

On the cusp of losing power following a poor performance in the October 2021 election, Iraq’s Fateh Alliance and its Popular Mobilization Forces—a coalition of armed factions under the umbrella of the Iraqi state—sent protesters to occupy parts of Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone. The winner

Renad Mansour • 7 min read

The Rise and Fall of Kurdish Power in Iraq — Security forces intervene in a demonstration by university students as they protest the failure of the Kurdistan Regional Government to increase the financial allowances allocated to complete their education. (Later photos show they set fire to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan building in the background.) Sulaymaniyah, November 23, 2021. Fariq Faraj Mahmood/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

MER Article

The Rise and Fall of Kurdish Power in Iraq

More than thirty years after its founding, the KRG faces an uncertain future.

Bilal Wahab • 11 min read

Two Decades of Uneven Federalism in Iraq — A bridge over the Shatt al-Arab river, formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. (Hussein Faleh/AFP via Getty Images)Iraq with governorate boundaries. Map by the United Nations.

MER Article

Two Decades of Uneven Federalism in Iraq

Transforming the centralized Iraqi state into a federal state was one of the most pressing political goals for the engineers and so-called nation builders behind the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Proponents of federalism, like the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), saw

Hamzeh Hadad • 8 min read

Water, Oil and Iraq’s Climate Future — Mehdi, Abbas and Eidan hanging out after school in the town of Chibayish, near the Iraqi Marshlands, 2018. Tamara Abdul HadiRead this article in Arabic at Jummar. Image designed by Atef Al-Jaffal/Jummar.

MER Article

Water, Oil and Iraq’s Climate Future

Two resources tell the story of Iraq's climate vulnerability.

Zeinab Shuker • 9 min read

Iraqi Women’s Activism—20 Years After the US Invasion — Iraqi women take to the streets in a Tishreen demonstration in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on February 13, 2020. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

MER Article

Iraqi Women’s Activism—20 Years After the US Invasion

What the last two decades have meant for Iraq's women's movement.

Zahra Ali • 9 min read

Perpetual Protest and the Failure of the post-2003 Iraqi State — Image of a protester and the Turkish restaurant building in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, designed by Atef Al-Jaffal/Jummar.

MER Article

Perpetual Protest and the Failure of the post-2003 Iraqi State

Tishreen transformed Iraq's protest culture. Can protest transform the post-2003 state?

Fanar Haddad • 13 min read