Research

Today, political and military power in Iraq is highly centralized in Prime Minister Maliki’s personal office. This will have important implications for the future of Iraq and the trajectory and durability of its democratic transition.

In early 2012, ISW, AEI, and the Brookings Institution undertook a war game designed to simulate a worsening of the Syrian conflict and its effects on neighboring countries.

The conflict in Syria transitioned from an insurgency to a civil war during the summer of 2012. This report seeks to explain how the Assad regime lost its counterinsurgency campaign, but remains well situated to fight a protracted civil war against Syria’s opposition.

Current estimates of Syrian opposition strength have generated confidence that the Assad regime will be defeated militarily. This assessment cannot be made without also estimating the real fighting power of the Syrian regime.

The apparent beginnings of a campaign to remove Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the threat of a similar campaign against his most significant opponent suggest that Iraqi politics is entering a period of intense political jockeying.

A suicide bombing in Kabul on December 6 targeted the head of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), Asadullah Khalid, in an event that has rattled Afghan elites and rekindled controversy between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This report examines the political, religious, and military resurgence of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. Forces, identifying the group’s key actors, their present disposition and strategy, and their regional expansion.

Recent rebel victories in the Syrian capital region, such as the closure of the Damascus International airport, have led to speculation that the Assad regime may be close to collapse

The success of transitioning security responsibility to the Afghans is contingent upon their willingness and ability to receive the handoff.

This backgrounder examines the PYD within the context of regional Kurdish politics in order to forecast their likely course as the Syrian civil war unfolds.