From our team

In June 2014, the Sunni “jihadi” group that called itself the Islamic State (IS) took over Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, in a shockingly easy operation. As the Iraqi army collapsed and its troops deserted, IS rapidly marched southward threatening to invade Baghdad and the Shiʿi shrine cities

Dr Renad Mansour analyses the political and economic dilemmas of mediation, reconciliation, and state-building in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan in an interview with the Hungarian daily Népszava

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the name of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Grand Shiʿi cleric, has come to prominence. Sistani emerged as a key player in the processes that constituted and sustained the post-2003 Iraqi political order, as manifested in key events such as the writing of constitution or the mobilization against the Islamic State

The SFM Research Project presented its current research findings to the audience of distinguished experts on the Middle East from an academic, political and diplomatic background and engaged in a stimulating debate on which margins are currently striking in the Middle East

Prof Aziz Al-Azmeh delivered a Keynote Speech at Rice University and University of Houston's Conference on Anti-Sectarianism on December 1, 2018

This article written in Arabic and published by Alarabi al-Jadid, argued that the war against ISIS and the events that followed the Kurdish independence referendum were parts of a broader dynamic in which a new form of Shi’a-dominated nationalism is emerging

In the wake of the September 25 referendum in Kurdistan, the Iraqi government announced on October 15 that it began a military deployment to reestablish authority in Kirkuk in coordination with the Peshmerga.

Monday’s referendum in Kurdistan resulted in a situation whereby all parties lack good options. To be sure, Masoud Barzani, the leader of Kurdistan Region Government (KRG), achieved some immediate political gains. He managed to mobilize his base by calling for and conducting the referendum despite international objections.

تتنــاول هذه الدراســة تجربة اعتمــاد نظام الديمقراطية التوافقية فــي العراق بعد عام 2003 ، وهــي تنطلــق مــن محاولــة فهــم النظــام التوافقــي واألســس النظريــة التــي قــام عليهــا، ّ والخصائــص التــي تمي ّ ــزه من األنظمــة الديمقراطيــة األخرى، ومن ثــم مقارنة ذلــك بالنظام ّ الذي تم اعتماده في العراق والمدى الذي تنطبق عليه صفة التوافقية.

عزيز العظمة

بين التاريخ والاستكانة للقدر أزمات العرب واستعماء العقل

حارث حسن

1. PATEL, David: Myths related to Sykes-Picot

2. PURSLEY, Sara: Iraq's Borders and the Legend of the Artificial State