Losses resulting from shutdown of conduit to Turkey estimated at more than $4 billion The once-thriving oil industry in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq has ground to a halt as the closure of the export pipeline to Turkey, now in its sixth month, continues, inflicting economic devastation. In late March, Turkey halted flows of oil produced in the region after an arbitrat
Read MoreTwenty years after the Iraq War began, scholarship on its causes can be usefully divided into the security school and the hegemony school. Security school scholars argue that the main reason the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq was to safeguard the United States against the conjoined threat of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorist groups. Hegemony
Read MoreIFC Regional Director Aftab Ahmed and Iraqi Prime Minister.jpg Baghdad, Iraq, September 03, 2023—IFC signed a flagship agreement today with the government of Iraq that will harness private sector capital and expertise to develop the country's main airport—opening the door for more private sector investment and establishing a competitive model for other critical infrastructur
Read MoreA generational shift in geopolitics is creating new possibilities for prosperity in the Greater Middle East The Middle East is often seen as an arena of unending conflict: ambitious regional rivals vie for advantage as restless young people struggle against authoritarian rule and ailing economies. And yet despite the region’s many challenges—from the Islamic Republic of Iran
Read MoreAbstract Iraq’s economy continued its recovery after the sharp, pandemic-induced recession in 2020 but growth constraints in the oil sector have reemerged. After moderating in 2022, consumer price inflation ticked up in early 2023, fueled by the depreciation of the Iraqi dinar in the parallel market. Fiscal and external account balances benefitted from the oi
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