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I don’t intend to become my university’s new publicist, but this month saw the beginning of an initiative to have Shippensburg assist with the development of business education in Iraq:
“The two-year grant has three components and different individuals will work on the components simultaneously. Their initial visit will be to assess the present [...]
Shortly after the official end of U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki moved against high-ranking Sunnis in his government:
“On December 18, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki requested the dismissal of his deputy, Saleh al-Mutlaq…
“The next day, December 19, an arrest warrant was issued for Iraqi vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi, also [...]
Maria Fantappie looks at the relationship between Nouri al-Maliki and the Sadr movement in Iraq:
“In 2007, Maliki’s forces drove the Sadrists’ Mehdi army out of Basra. Although allied in the central government, Maliki and the Sadrists are once again competing, but this time through political rather than military means…
Gregory Gause’s The International Relations of the Persian Gulf provides an excellent overview of its subject over the past 40 years since the British withdrawal, while providing both interesting unifying themes and well-supported arguments about several controversial issues. Gause views the Gulf states bordering the Gulf as forming a “regional security complex,” meaning that [...]
Toby Jones notes Bahrain’s ongoing crackdown on dissent:
“An eerie silence and a paralyzing sense of fear currently grip Bahrain. Since mid-March, when tens of thousands of protesters last took to the streets demanding political reform, Bahraini security and military forces have engaged in an ongoing, systematic, and brutal campaign to crush the country’s [...]
Denise Natali reports on Kurdish politics in Iraq:
“The protests, which are still ongoing, have not only unleashed populations’ pent-up frustrations with the KRG-party apparatus but also have reinforced fractures in Kurdish politics and society. While most Kurdish populations seek political reform, only those in Sulaimani have had the opportunity and interest to openly [...]
Today saw protests throughout Iraq, and six protestors were killed by government security forces. As with other recent protests in Iraq, these are connected to the broader wave of protests in the Arab world these past two months, but Reidar Visser usefully highlights their specific Iraqi context:
“Indeed, the striking aspect of today’s demonstrations [...]