Tag Archives: Iraq

Islamic State: death of leader is big step towards becoming a different kind of terrorist organisation

Dream of a caliphate as an Islamist homeland is receding. Mohammad Bash via Shutterstock Elisa Orofino, Anglia Ruskin University A “proto-state”, a “socio-political movement, the ”beast“ – all names given to a single group that, at its height, seemed to embody the west’s worst nightmare. You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, here. Islamic State …

Read More »

How the Arab Spring changed the Middle East and North Africa forever

Mohamed-Ali Adraoui, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) Ten years after people rose up against their leaders in country after country around the Middle East and North Africa, from Tunisia to Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain, what can we say about how society, politics and religion have changed in the region? To put it mildly, the social, cultural, religious, political …

Read More »

How Iraq’s relationship with Iran shifted after the fall of Saddam Hussein

Johan Franzen, University of East Anglia Following his capture by American troops, Saddam Hussein made a startling admission to George Piro, the FBI investigator tasked with interrogating him. The reason he had played cat and mouse with UN weapons inspectors for over a decade was not because he was trying to hide Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction from …

Read More »

« Baasiste » ou « religieux », quelle est la vraie nature de l’État islamique en Irak ?

Myriam Benraad, Leiden University La problématique des rapports entre le baasisme et l’État islamique en Irak n’en finit pas de tarauder les esprits. Depuis 2014, deux principaux narratifs se font ainsi face : l’un dépeignant le groupe djihadiste comme une sorte d’incarnation néo-baasiste, l’autre réfutant au contraire toute influence du régime défunt de Saddam Hussein. Dans l’ensemble, ces approches ne sont …

Read More »

Yazidi genocide: landmark guilty verdict for IS jihadi could transform how atrocities are brought to justice

Chamu Kuppuswamy, University of Hertfordshire The genocide verdict brought recently by a German court against an Iraqi member of Islamic State for crimes including the murder of a five-year-old Yazidi girl is a landmark decision which will clear the way for similar prosecutions. That this verdict was even possible was thanks to a detailed (and remarkably speedy) report in 2016 …

Read More »

Is the Belarus migrant crisis a ‘new type of war’? A conflict expert explains

LEONID SCHEGLOV/ BELTA / HANDOUT / EPA Sascha-Dominik (Dov) Bachmann, University of Canberra For months, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been accused of using illegal migrants as a tool to punish the European Union for imposing sanctions on his regime. In July, Belarus loosened its restrictions on visas and increased flights on its state-run airline from the Middle East, allowing …

Read More »