Iraq in Crisis

de Anthony H. Cordesman, Sam Khazai

Iraq is a nation in crisis bordering on civil war in 2014. The country now faces growing violence, a steady rise in Sunni Islamist extremism, an increasingly authoritarian leader that favors Iraq's Sunnis, and growing ethnic tension between Arabs and Kurds. The recent Iraqi election offers little promise that it can correct the corruption, the weaknesses in its security forces, and the critical failures in governance, economic development, and leadership. The problems Iraq faces in 2014 are a legacy of mistakes made during and after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, but increasingly the nation is dealing with the self-inflicted wounds of its leaders who abuse human rights, repress opposing factions, and misuse the Iraqi police and security forces to their own end. This book traces the history of these problems and projects current trends. It supports its narrative analysis with the latest data from the World Bank, United Nations, Transparency International, the Congressional Research Service, International Crisis Group, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, U.S. Census Bureau, and others to aggregate a comprehensive picture of Iraq's real-world security, economic, energy, ethnic, political, resource, and development challenges.