Afghanistan’s security forces unraveled this month. What broke their seven-year stalemate with the Taliban? Yuri Zhukov and Stephen Biddle - August 31, 2021 The dynamics behind this kind of collapse are more common than you might think
Groups like the Taliban have seized power elsewhere. Will the Taliban face similar difficulties governing? Raphael Lefevre - August 24, 2021 The research shows how hard it is to go from armed rebellion to leadership
The Taliban has seized more cities, despite U.S. efforts to build a strong Afghan military. What happened? Rachel Tecott - August 8, 2021 Persuading partners to emulate the U.S. military approach doesn’t necessarily work, new research finds
U.S. officials are talking about urban warfare. Here’s what urban warfare really involves. Margarita Konaev and Kirstin J.H. Brathwaite - June 4, 2020 How do you ‘mass and dominate the battlespace’ in a U.S. city?
What will happen to Iraqi Shiite militias after one key leader’s death? Ranj Alaaldin - February 28, 2020 This won’t help U.S.-Iran tensions
Iraqis have been holding peaceful mass protests. The U.S. strike and its aftermath are undermining that. Zahra Ali - January 7, 2020 Here’s what Iraqi protesters want.
In Iraq, demonstrators demand change — and the government fights back Zahra Ali and Safaa Khalaf - October 7, 2019 Initially described as protests over the economy, they have become a call for revolution.
Here’s how airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed paramilitary groups in Iraq threaten post-ISIS stability Renad Mansour - September 8, 2019 What a rift in the understanding between formal and de facto armed groups could mean for Iraq
How ordinary Iraqis resisted the Islamic State Jonathan Hall, Isak Svensson, Eric Skoog, and Dino Krause - March 21, 2019 New data from Mosul shows the power of the less powerful
Why are Iraq’s paramilitaries turning on their own ranks? Renad Mansour - February 18, 2019 [caption id="attachment_83855" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Shiite fighters from the Popular Mobilization