Allawi withdraws PM nomination: Opportunities in Iraq despite the dysfunction

Dispatches Dec 10, 2025

Dispatch from Iraq: The biggest challenge awaiting the country’s next prime minister

By Victoria J. Taylor 

A recent visit to Iraq following parliamentary elections reveals a growing divide between the political elite and the people.
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Allawi withdraws PM nomination: Opportunities in Iraq despite the dysfunction

New Atlanticist Nov 14, 2025

Experts react: How will Iraq’s parliamentary election shape the country’s politics?

By Atlantic Council experts

Our experts examine what the results of Tuesday’s elections mean for the future of Iraqi politics and Baghdad’s regional role.
Civil Society Democratic Transitions
Allawi withdraws PM nomination: Opportunities in Iraq despite the dysfunction

Dispatches Nov 10, 2025

Dispatch from Baghdad: Don’t confuse the calm around Iraq’s election with stability

By Yerevan Saeed

Iraqi society faces several slow-burning stressors, from water and climate problems to over-centralization and narcotics trafficking.
Democratic Transitions Elections

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New Atlanticist

Mar 6, 2020

Allawi withdraws PM nomination: Opportunities in Iraq despite the dysfunction

By C. Anthony Pfaff

As dysfunctional as Iraq’s democracy can be, it is still a democracy and even the Iranian-backed political parties have to pay attention to the will of their various constituencies. This point means that an energized protest movement can help bring about conditions more favorable to Iraq’s recovery.

Democratic Transitions
Iraq

In the News

Mar 4, 2020

Kadhim quoted in The Washington Post on Shiite Muslim cleric ­Moqtada al-Sadr’s influence in Iraq

By Atlantic Council

Iraq
Politics & Diplomacy

MENASource

Feb 27, 2020

How Israel is used to delegitimize Iraq’s anti-government protests

By Seth Frantzman

Adversaries have accused Iraqi protesters of sedition and even tried to link them to the United States and Israel.

Iraq
Middle East

New Atlanticist

Feb 24, 2020

Iraqi MP: Continued protests provide opportunity for real reform

By Kyle Thetford

The massive protests that have rocked Iraq since October 2019 and have brought down one government have also given the new prime minister designee a unique opportunity to overcome vested interests and deliver meaningful reform, according to Iraqi Council of Representatives Member Sarkawt Shamsulddin.

Democratic Transitions
Iraq

In the News

Feb 18, 2020

Kadhim quoted in the Associated Press on Shiite cleric al-Sistani

By Atlantic Council

Iraq
Middle East

MENASource

Feb 7, 2020

Why Arab Sunnis are disengaged from Iraq’s protests

By Tamer Badawi

If Sunni politicians and powerful tribal chiefs back an upheaval in Arab Sunni areas, they would risk losing the political and economic gains realized by their alliance with Iran-backed political powers and could face repression and marginalization.

Iraq
Middle East

Report

Feb 6, 2020

Withdrawal deadlines in war: Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan

By Paul D. Miller

Withdrawal timetables do not achieve the political benefits that policymakers desire, but they do incur the risks policymakers rightly fear.

Afghanistan
Conflict

New Atlanticist

Feb 3, 2020

Can Iraq’s new prime minister nominee navigate Baghdad’s political chaos?

By Atlantic Council

The next task for Allawi is to win the consent from two mutually exclusive spheres of influence inside Iraq: the protesters who forced the resignation of the current government at a high cost with nearly a thousand lives lost and more than twenty thousand wounded and the entrenched political actors who are still unwilling to give up all or part of their extraordinary privileges and take steps to curb corruption.

Iraq
Politics & Diplomacy

Press Release

Jan 22, 2020

Ambassador David Mack joins Atlantic Council as nonresident senior fellow

By Atlantic Council

Washington, DC – January 22, 2020 – The Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs today announced the addition of David Mack as a nonresident senior fellow. During his fellowship, Mack will focus on US-Iraq relations.   “Ambassador Mack is an authority on US foreign policy in the Middle East. His extensive experience in diplomacy and first-hand […]

Iraq

MENASource

Jan 21, 2020

Repairing Iraq’s relations with the United States

By David Mack

Partners for mutual or overlapping national security objectives, like the governments in Baghdad and Washington, need a sustained dialogue.

Iraq
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Thomas S. Warrick

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The future of Iraq-Syria relations
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