In August 2014 ISIS had launched attacks on Kurdistan region and captured some parts of Kurdistan land. ISIS has exploited the chaos of the Arab spring in Syria. According to geopolitical experts this is considered as geopolitical change therefore Kurdistan had to adapt with the new geopolitics of the region.
Rudaw Research Center held a virtual panel interview with Major-General Jennie Carignan, Commander of NATO Mission Iraq (NMI) in Baghdad
This study aims to analyze the impact of sectarianism on regional order with regards to state identities and geo-political considerations in the Middle East. Primarily, roots of sectarianism will be contextualized in historical process. The Sunni/Shia divide shaped political and cultural life of societies.
The Rudaw Research Center was held a webinar on the fall of Afghanistan and future of US policy in South Asia with participation of Peter Galbraith Former US diplomat, and former deputy UN envoy for Afghanistan and General Ernie Audino (Ret) Senior Military Fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy and the event was moderated by Ali Kurdistani
Kurdish jihadism already has a 40-year history. It has gone through various stages: from the Islamisation of the Kurdish struggle (Islamic Movement of Kurdistan) to the internationalization of the Islamic struggle (Ansar al-Islam). More recently, from 2012 to 2017, the new generation of Kurdish jihadists entered a reterritorialization process of their armed struggle and joined the Islamic State.
In recent years, the activities of ISIS have escalated in Iraq which once again drew attention to the terrorist organization. Despite Iraq’s announcement on December 9, 2017, to expel ISIS and impose its control over the entire territory of the country, including the border with Syria, the organization’s sleeper cells never ended and the terrorist organization was later able to carry out many remarkable operations in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, and Syria.
Sunni Arabs' domination over the Iraqi state lasted more than eighty years (from 1920 to 2003) and survived several military coups. Excluding the other two large communities (the Shiites and the Kurds) that make up three-quarters of the population, the Iraqi state was thus in perpetual warfare with its society when it was not with neighbouring countries (Iran, Kuwait)
In a report published on the 9th of February 2023, the UN affirms that the threat of Daesh remains high. According to senior UN officials, the terrorist group continues to exploit the local fragility and the inter-communitarian tensions in the Middle-East and in Africa. Virginie Sauner analyses the Iraqi current perspectives of this global threat who still remains “particularly worrying.”
