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Articles by Bilal Wahab
Iraq Between Suits and Fatigues
Last week, Nick Danforth sat down with Denise Natali, Doug Ollivant and Bilal Wahab to discuss the latest in Iraqi politics? They debated what Iraq was like on Oc. 6th, how it has been impacted by the war in Gaza, and where the country will be five years from now. Image: Tasnim News Agency
Opinion | Iraq’s Delicate Balancing Act With Iran and the U.S.
Baghdad With the Gaza war threatening to spiral into a wider Middle East conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month paid an unannounced visit to Baghdad, where he met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani. Mr. Sudani faces the delicate task of balancing his country’s ties between America and Iran and stopping Iran-aligned militias from attacking U.S. military and diplomatic personnel in Iraq. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Opinion | Twenty Years After the War, Iraq Needs U.S. Support
As America marked the 20th anniversary of its invasion of Iraq last month, Washington was consumed by the same questions that have daunted it for two decades. Meantime, a different kind of event was taking place in one of Iraq’s most vibrant cities.
The Paradox of Centralization and State Fracture in Iraq
The Paradox of Centralization and State Fracture in Iraq Bilal Wahab, researcher at the Washington Institute, is interested in the governance of the Iraqi Kurdish region and the whole of Iraq. According to him, the decentralization of power and authority in post-Saddam Iraq would have been the remedy against the authoritarianism and brutality of this regime. Yet decentralization has regularly been limited in favor of centralization. Bilal Wahab explains this.
Saving Iraqi sovereignty: Iran, Turkey and a fractured homeland
Corruption and political dysfunction have belittled Iraqi sovereignty. Iran and Turkey have recently carried out simultaneous drone and missile attacks deep inside Iraqi Kurdistan. These assaults have caused casualties, stunted business and angered the Iraqi public. Further, such acts of aggression by its neighbours embarrasses the Iraqi state and delegitimises its leaders who are in turn unwilling and unable to stand up for their country.
After Afghanistan Collapse, Iraqis Fear They Could Be Next
Argument An expert's point of view on a current event. The parallels are easy to list. By Bilal Wahab, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Protesters burn tires in Karbala, Iraq, following the reported assassination of a local anti-government activist, on May 9. MOHAMMED SAWAF/AFP via Getty Images August 19, 2021, 1:02 PM Perhaps no one is more shocked by the debacle in Afghanistan than the people of Iraq.
Can New Tech Save Iraq's Old Economy?
By Editor on 26th April 2021 in Iraq Industry & Trade News By Bilal Wahab and Michael Rubin, for The National Interest. Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Can New Tech Save Iraq's Old Economy? As the United States recalibrates its relationship with Iraq, the advent of Iraq's cyber economy also provides an opportunity for the Biden administration to consider how it can encourage the evolution of Iraq's economy.
Can New Tech Save Iraq’s Old Economy?
Eighteen years after a U.S.-led invasion ended President Saddam Hussein’s rule, Iraq’s moribund economy is poised to make a technological leap that could enable it to bypass both structural problems and petty corruption that have strangled its private sector. On May 1, 2021, the Trade Bank of Iraq will inaugurate its mobile money app.
Opinion | Iraqi Freedom Confronts Iranian Domination
Americans long ago lost interest in the democratic experiment they set in motion more than 15 years ago in Iraq—abandoning the “freedom agenda” that was once the heart of U.S. Middle East policy in favor of a realpolitik focused on threats like Iran.
Opinion | A window of opportunity has just opened in Iraq. Will the U.S. act?
Bilal Wahab is the Wagner fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. After more than 15 years of American military entanglement in Iraq, the sense of idealism that characterized the original U.S. intervention has long since dissipated. Rather than dreaming of midwifing a model democracy in Baghdad, Washington’s aims there have become more modest and realist: preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State and balancing Iranian power.
Iran’s Missile Attack In Iraqi Kurdistan Could Backfire
A few minutes after the start of a leadership meeting on September 8, the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran (KDP-I) came under missile attack. The next day, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed responsibility, saying it had launched seven surface-to-surface missiles at a compound on the outskirts of Koysinjaq in Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government.
Iraq’s Elections: Red Flags And Opportunities For Inclusion
Iraqis head to the polls on May 12 to elect a new parliament, after which legislators will choose a speaker, president, and prime minister. The elections come at the end of four tough years for Iraq, with the Islamic State seizing a third of the country in 2014 and the Kurds making a strong push for independence last September. Despite the turmoil, Kurdish-Arab violence has been minimal, and the numerous victors of the war against IS are all hoping to turn their battlefield triumph into votes.
Managing The Shift In U.S. Relations With Syria’s Kurds
In a November 24 call with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Trump reportedly pledged to stop providing arms to the Syrian Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG), according to Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. U.S. officials have qualified such reports, suggesting that no immediate cutoff is in the works and that arms reductions will be gradual.
Kurdish independence remains a worthy cause
ANALYSIS/OPINION:Whether a gamble or a calculated move, the Kurds will head to the polls on Sept. 25 to choose between independence and staying in Iraq. That a vote for statehood will win is a certainty.
Why two new Kurdistans are better than one
For nearly a century now, the question of whether there should be an independent Kurdish state has loomed over the Middle East. The issue achieved new urgency after U.S. forces evicted Saddam Hussein from northern Iraq after the Gulf War in 1991, effectively creating the preconditions for Kurdish autonomy there. The American-led invasion in 2003 and the war that followed have merely accelerated that process.
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