This is the introduction to a series of memos presented as part of a workshop organised by the LSE Middle East Centre on 13 June 2018, looking at Tribe and State in the Middle East. Members of the Qashqai tribal confederation in Iran. Source: Globetrotters On 13 June 2018, the LSE Middle East Centre organised a workshop entitled ‘Tribe and State in the Middle East’ gatheri
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Iraqis went to the polls last Saturday in the first parliamentary election since ISIS forces were driven out of Iraq last year. So far, results show the coalition led by Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s coalition is ahead, with current PM Haider al-Abadi failing to hang on to power. However, it is always tricky to simply discuss winners and losers after the elections. The system
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On Facebook and in the cafés of decimated Mosul, they envision a country free from political Islam. Do they have a shot? Iraqi students walk near a building of the central Library of the University of Mosul, in Mosul, Iraq May 14, 2018. KHALID AL-MOUSILY / REUTERS MOSUL, Iraq—Rayyan Hadidi was 18 years old when he lost his faith. It was July 2006, and he wa
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The longest-serving American in Iraq's oil sector gives an insider's account of tactical victories, strategic blunders, and hidden agendas in post-2003 reconstruction. By BEN LANDO of Iraq Oil Report Published Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018 Gary Vogler was a veteran of the U.S. Army, Mobil Oil, and ExxonMobil when he joined the Pentagon's pre-invasion Energy Infras
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Abbas Alnasrawi is at the Department of Economics at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA. E-mail: aalnasra@zoo.uvm.edu. ABSTRACT It is a well-known fact, of course, that Iraq has been under a UN Security Council system of comprehensive embargo for the past 10 years. The consequences of 'the embargo have been catastrophic for the people and the economy of
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