CIAO DATE: 08/2012
July 2012
Center for Strategic and International Studies
This analysis highlights the fact that despite the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, the struggle to secure Iraq moving forward is as crucial for US policymakers as ever before. The Burke Chair report also underscores the fact that Iraq remains a far more important US strategic interest than Afghanistan – a point emphasized in the new Department of Defense strategy introduced earlier this year. As tensions between the US and Iran over Western sanctions, Iran’s nuclear program, and military activity in the Gulf, Syria, and further region increase, the task of creating an effective strategic relationship with Iraq becomes all the more significant. While the US has withdrawn from Iraq, this analysis demonstrates that US withdrawal did not leave a legacy of security and stability. In fact, the presence of US forces may have artificially suppressed the severity of Iraq’s internal political, military, and economic challenges. Since the US withdrawal, Iraq has faced an unsettling rise in civil unrest, and is experiencing a political power struggle that threats to undermine its ability to develop into a functioning democracy. Perhaps most troubling, these minor skirmishes and political crises could spiral into new rounds of sectarian and ethnic conflict which has plagued Iraq in the past.
Resource link: Iraq After US Withdrawal: US Policy and the Iraqi Search for Security and Stability [PDF] - 4.1M