Crisis in Iraq

Obama’s Unauthorized War

In his speech, President Obama avoided the word “war,” but that is the common word for the kind of military campaign he described. And under our Constitution, the president cannot go to war without congressional approval.

September 11, 2014

Iraq: The Outlaw State

Constant and fearsome violence has added hugely to Iraq’s woes.

April 23, 2024 issue

Iraq Illusions

Much of the media coverage about Iraq has been misleading; some is outright wrong

April 23, 2024 issue

Can the Kurds Break Away?

How important is Iraq’s stability to the Kurds’ own security and long-term aims?

July 10, 2014

ISIS: The New Taliban

In many ways, what ISIS is doing to Syria and Iraq resembles what the Taliban did in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the early 1990s.

July 2, 2014

The Map ISIS Hates

The importance ISIS places on the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement about the Middle East may seem puzzling. But jihadist groups have long drawn on a fertile historical imagination, and on old grievances about the West in particular.

June 25, 2014

Iraq: The Road to Chaos

As Iraq prepares for its first national election in four years, the speed with which the new political order has fallen apart is a puzzle.

April 15, 2014

Syria's New Jihadists

Arab and European jihadists are being indoctrinated and trained in the world’s most active battle zone—experience they may someday bring home.

December 27, 2013