Interview with Prof Nicole Watts Author of Republic of Dreams Ordinary People Extraordinary Struggles and the Future of Iraqi Kurdistan

San Francisco State Professor Nicole Watts recently came out with an excellent book about the life of a Kurdish family. Called Republic of Dreams, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Struggles, and the Future of Iraqi Kurdistan, the book follows Peshawa and his family from Halabja from the 1988 chemical attack upon the town during the Iran-Iraq War up to the present. Here is an interview with Professor Watts about her book and work on Iraqi Kurdistan.

How Did America Move From Containing Saddam To Removing Him? Interview With Joseph Stieb Asst Prof at the US Naval War College

The Regime Change Consensus, Iraq In American Politics 1990-2003 by Joseph Stieb is one of the rare books that attempts to breakdown the ideas that led to the invasion of Iraq. Stieb’s thesis is that the containment policy created by President George H.W. Bush lost support in the 1990s so much so that by the 2000s the American political establishment almost all agreed that Saddam must go. This is an interview with Stieb about his ideas on what led to the Iraq War. 

The Enduring Principles and Strategies Of The Islamic State Interview With Authors Of The ISIS Reader Haroro J Ingram Craig Whiteside and Charlie Winter

(Law & Liberty)

The Islamic State has a core set of principles that have driven the group since its creation by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. At the same time, it has shown the ability to reflect and adapt to its situation, especially its setbacks such as its defeat at the hands of the Awakening/Sahwa and U.S. Surge. To help explain these ideas are the authors of The ISIS Reader: Milestone Texts of the Islamic State Movement ­­­Haroro J. Ingram (George Washington University’s Program On Extremism), Craig Whiteside (US Naval War College), and Charlie Winter (International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence).

How Will The Deaths Of General Suleimani and Abu Muhandis Affect Iraq? Comments by the Washington Institute’s Mike Knights

(Al Forat)

The deaths of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force Commander General Qasim Suleimani and the deputy head of the Hashd Commission and Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Muhandis will have tremendous implications in Iraq. Both were intimately involved in Iraqi politics and security. To give his thoughts on this momentous event is Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He can be followed on Twitter @Mikeknightsiraq.

Development And Setbacks Of The Current Iraqi Military, Interview with CSU San Marco’s Prof Marashi

(AFP/Getty Images)

The Iraqi military has gone through several stages since the 2003 U.S. invasion. There was its disbandment by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the hasty attempt at rebuilding by the Americans, its collapse in the face of the Islamic State in 2014, and others. To help give some insights into the recent history of the force is California State University San Marcos’ Middle East Professor Ibrahim al-Marashi who has written about the Iraqi forces over the years including Iraq’s Armed Forces: An Analytical History. He can be followed on Twitter @ialmarashi.

World War II In Iraq and Syria Interview With Case Western’s Prof Broich

British troops at Habbaniya Air Base, Anbar which was surrounded by the Iraqis during the start of the 1941 Anglo-Iraq War (Imperial War Museim)

In 1941, the British overthrew the government of Prime Minister Rashid Al-Gailani in Iraq and invaded Syria. Baghdad had reached out to the Germans and Italians, Syria was run by Vichy France, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed that the Axis was making a play to take over the Middle East. These two conflicts are barely mentioned in World War II histories today, but at the time it was a major event for all those involved. John Broich, an Associated Professor of History at Case Western Reserve University recently published a book on this subject Blood, Oil and the Axis: The Allied Resistance Against A Fascist State In Iraq and the Levant, 1941. This is an interview with Prof. Broich about the war in Iraq and Syria.

Expansion of the Hashd al-Shaabi’s Influence In Iraq, Interview With Clingendael’s Erwin van Veen

(Getty)

Erwin van Veen is part of the Clingendael Institute in the Netherlands, which has released a series of reports about the Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq over the last several years. The last one came out in July 2019 and talked about how different Hashd groups were expanding their influence in Iraq. This is an interview about those development. Van Veen can be followed on Twitter @ErwinVeen.

Can The Islamic State Make A Comeback In Iraq Part 3? Interview With Horizon’s Alex Mello

(Reuters)

Violence in Iraq is at the lowest level since the 2003 invasion. This is despite the Islamic State announcing its annual spring-summer offensive Revenge of the Levant. That raises the question of whether IS can make a comeback again like it did after the Surge.  To help delve into this question is Alex Mello a security analyst at Horizon. He can be followed on Twitter @AlexMello2.

Can The Islamic State Make A Comeback In Iraq Part 2? Interview With Il Foglio’s Daniele Raineri

(Iraqi News)

Daniele Raineri is a reporter for Italy’s Il Foglio. He has been covering the Islamic State for years now. That group is currently attempting its second comeback from defeat. There are some questions about how successful they will be in this endeavor. Raineri weighs in on this issue. He can be followed on Twitter @DanieleRaineri.

Can The Islamic State Make A Comeback In Iraq Part 1? Interview With Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Michael Knights

(Iraqi News)

The Islamic State is trying to rebuild a second time in just a decades time. The situation in Iraq is different than the first time however providing both opportunities and problems for the group. To help explain IS’s situation is Michael Knights from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He can be followed on Twitter @Mikeknightsiraq.

Islamic State’s Car Bomb Innovations Interview With Hugo Kaaman

Camouflaged IS car bomb (IS VIdeo)

Car bombs (VBIEDs) have been a favorite weapon of the Islamic State since its origins with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He used vehicle bombs to destroy the U.N. compound in Baghdad and kill the organization’s representative to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello and assassinate Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim in Najaf along with 125 others. By 2014, IS had taken the VBIED to a new level. Its conquest of territory allowed it to build car bombs on an industrial scale. It was able to armor them, to camouflage them as civilian vehicles and a number of other innovations. Hugo Kaaman is an independent researcher who recently released a study, “Car Bombs As Weapons of War, ISIS’s Development Of SVBIEDS, 2014-19” for the Middle East Institute. This is an interview with Kaaman about the Islamic State’s car bomb developments.

Iran And Its Iraqi Allies’ Role In The Syrian And Iraq Wars, Interview With Author Tom Cooper

Gen Soleimani meeting with Badr members in Diyala Soleimani became the face of the Iranian intervention in Syria and Iraq (Rudaw)

Author Tom Cooper has written a dozen books on the Middle East. Two of his most recent were Syrian Conflagration: The Syrian Civil War, 2011-2013 and Moscow’s Game of Poker: Russian Military Intervention in Syria, 2015-2017. While doing his research he has studied the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s (IRGC) presence in both Syria and Iraq. The Iranians played a huge role in both conflicts on the battlefield and in the media promoting itself. This is an interview with Tom Cooper about the Revolutionary Guard and its Iraqi allies.

The Iran-Iraq War Interview with Author Tom Cooper

(KJ VIds)

Helion & Co. in Great Britain recently published an excellent four volume set on the Iran-Iraq War. Overshadowed by the coverage of politics and religious-related issues, military operations in this war have never gotten the in-depth coverage that they deserved – especially considering this was the longest and bloodiest conventional conflict since 1945. Tom Cooper has published widely about aerial warfare between Iran and Iraq and was one of the lead authors in the Helion’s series. This is an interview with his thoughts on the war.

How U.S. Tried And Largely Failed At Reforming Iraq’s Government Interview With Univ of VA Prof Savage

US Provincial Reconstruction Team in Basra 2010 (Alamy)

James Savage is a Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. He wrote Reconstructing Iraq’s Budgetary Institutions: Coalition State Building after Saddam, which analyzed the successes and failures of the U.S. nation building effort in Iraq. He focused not only on how the Americans tried to reform Baghdad’s budgetary system, but its government as well. Most commentators just focus upon the military and political problems the U.S. faced in Iraq. Savage brought up how the Americans tried and largely failed to change the country’s institutions, which is just as important to know to have a well rounded view of the U.S. occupation. This is an interview with Savage on lessons learned from this experience.

Lasting Lessons From “The Anbar Awakening” Interview with Carter Malkasian, Author of Illusions of Victory

The conventional American wisdom on the Anbar Awakening was that it was a turning point in the war in Iraq. When a few tribes in central Anbar decided to rise up against the insurgency in 2006 it eventually expanded across the province, and was duplicated by the Americans during the Surge in 2007. It was such a success that the U.S. attempted to replicate it in Afghanistan. In effect this became a mythos of a tribal revolt. It held such sway that when the insurgency made a return in Iraq in 2014 with the Islamic State there were people in the U.S. calling for arming the tribes. Carter Malkasian attempted to upend that entire narrative in his book Illusions of Victory: The Anbar Awakening and the Rise of the Islamic State. Malkasian argued that the Awakening was actually a fleeting success as shown by its quick disillusion in 2007, and its inability to maintain security in Anbar, which allowed the return of IS a few years later. This is an interview with Malkasian about his ideas on the Awakening and U.S. intervention.

Remembering The Iran-Iraq War Interview With Author Anthony Tucker-Jones

(Weapons and Warfare)

The Iran-Iraq War was one of the longest and deadliest in recent histories. Iran full of zeal after its revolution hoped to spread its ideology across the Persian Gulf and believed Iraq was in its way. Saddam Hussein saw the threat posed by Tehran, but also wanted to seize control of the Shatt al-Arab waterway Iraq’s only access to the Persian Gulf and weaken his neighbor. That led to an eight year war that left hundreds of thousands of casualties. Anthony Tucker-Jones was a long time British intelligence officer, journalist, and now author. His Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988 gives a brief introduction to the conflict.

Saddam and Islam Interview With Univ of Penn’s Dr Samuel Helfont

In the 1990s Saddam Hussein launched a Faith Campaign. This caught many people by surprise since they believed that Saddam was non-religious and the Baath Party was secular. There has been much speculation about how this came about. Dr. Samuel Helfont in Compulsion In Religion, Saddam Hussein, Islam, and the Roots of Insurgencies In Iraq went through the captured Baath documents that now reside in the U.S., and found that Saddam set about to co-opt, coerce, and suppress religion starting in the 1980s. The Faith Campaign was simply a culmination of this effort. The government created an entire system to place the religious sphere at the service of the Baath Party. Helfont also found that when the Americans invaded Iraq in 2003 they destroyed this infrastructure letting lose a wave of religious groups, which had been banned from operating overtly under the old regime, and were now free to arm themselves and fight. What follows is an interview with Helfont on Saddam’s religious campaign and how it shaped Iraq from the 1980s to the present.

Kirkuk In The Aftermath Of The 2003 Invasion, Interview With Kevin Petit of the 173rd Airborne Brigade

The U.S. 173^rd Airborne Combat Brigade along with Special Forces were the only American units sent into northern Iraq during the 2003 invasion. Their task was to destroy the Iraqi formations in the area, and then move onto Kirkuk city. The 173^rd was stationed in Kirkuk for almost the next year when the province became wracked by ethnosectarian divisions and violence between the Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Christians. Kevin Petit was the executive officer or second in command of the 173^rd during this time. This is an interview about his time serving in Kirkuk during and immediately after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Iraq’s Troubles Fighting Corruption Interview With Vincent Foulk Former US Anti-Graft Official

Vincent Foulk served in Iraq from 2003-12 in all types of capacities. He started as an Army Civil Affairs officer in 2003, then worked with the Coalition Provisional Authority, and assisting Iraq’s courts. He then returned as a legal adviser to the Iraqi police, moved onto helping Iraq with anti-corruption activities, and finished with the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. He is also the author of The Battle for Fallujah, Operation, Resistance and Stalemate in the War in Iraq. This interview focuses upon Foulk’s time trying to combat fraud and graft in Iraq.

Sadr-Communist Alliance And Iraq’s 2018 Elections Interview With Benedict Robin

The results of the 2018 parliamentary elections in Iraq were a shock to many. Seemingly out of nowhere the Sairoon list made of the Sadrists and the Iraqi Communist Party won the most seats. To have an Islamist religious figure align with a secular leftist was another twist. The two actually aligned several years beforehand during the annual protests that hit the country. To help explain Sairoon and its victory is University of Edinburgh PhD student Benedict Robin. He can be followed on Twitter @Benrobinz.

(Reuters)