Saddam Hussein
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Donald Trump the author
"Strengthen American Muscle"
Donald Trump has long been known in America as a book author and cautionary voice. He has already set down his plans for the Middle East in writing – and they give cause for concern. By Joseph Croitoru
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The Chilcot Report
It's a no brainer
The lesson of the Iraq War should not be that armed intervention is to be avoided per se, but that such action should only be undertaken when it is the best available strategy – and the results are likely to justify the costs. By Richard Haass
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Sykes-Picot and the role of Gertrude Bell
Midwife of the Middle East
The order of nation states in the Middle East has been disintegrating since Islamic State fighters overran the Syrian border in 2014 – a border that dates back to 1916 and a secret agreement between the diplomats Sir Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot. Yet one woman also played a key role: the British national Gertrude Bell. Birgit Svensson visited her grave in Baghdad
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Tony Blair and the Iraq war
A case of smoke and mirrors
We don't need to wait for Chilcot, Blair lied to us about Iraq, asserts Peter Oborne, former political editor-in-chief with the British "Daily Telegraph"
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Caricaturists in Iraq
Walking a satirical tightrope
Caricaturists in Iraq have been under pressure for years: while the Kurdish regional government has been waging all-out war against them in the north of the country, their colleagues in Baghdad live in fear of jihadist extremism. By Birgit Svensson in Baghdad
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Protesting corruption and mismanagement in Iraq
Caught in the spotlight
Haider al-Abadi′s faltering reform programme and the effects of partial IS occupation are being thrown into stark relief by the latest wave of protests against corruption and government inefficiency in Iraq. By Chiara Cruciati
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State and religion in Iran
"Shias tend to support the underdogs"
The Shia faith has always been a defining aspect of Iranian nationhood. In the twentieth century, the pro-Western regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi silenced critics and was eventually toppled by a popular revolution with strong religious dimensions in 1979. Tehran's stance has since been basically anti-Western, but that may now be changing. Maysam Behravesh, a political analyst with Tehran Bureau, assessed the nature of the Shia regime in an interview with Hans Dembowski
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Interview with Wilfried Buchta on the rise of IS and the fall of Iraq
"Iraq is irreversibly split"
In his new book, "Terror vor Europas Toren" (Terror at the Gates of Europe), Wilfried Buchta analyses the reasons for the rise of the jihadist militia of the self-styled "Islamic State" and the disintegration of the Iraqi state. Ulrich von Schwerin spoke to Buchta, a scholar of Islam, who worked as a UN analyst in Baghdad for many years about the future of the nation
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One year of IS in Iraq
The caliphate is a reality
One year ago, Islamic State began its triumphal march through Iraq. The capture of the province Anbar played a key role in this advance. Birgit Svensson in Baghdad looks back on a year of IS in Iraq
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Women writers in Iraq
Writing to stay alive
The anthology "Through the Eyes of Inana" is a collection of poetry and short stories by 19 Iraqi women writers. It is a cross-section of what women are writing in the country right now – about their lives and how they survive in a state of war, their wishes, their dreams and their sufferings. By Rosa Gosch
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Interview with Iraqi political scientist Ghassan Al-Attiyah
A nation torn apart
According to Ghassan Al-Attiyah, Iraq's political elite failed to develop an interdenominational understanding of the state after the end of the Baath dictatorship. Mulham Al-Malaika spoke to the renowned Iraqi political scientist about the country's future and the fight against IS
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Interview with filmmaker Samir
An Iraqi odyssey
In his impressive 3D documentary "Iraqi Odyssey", the Iraqi-born Swiss filmmaker Samir combines the personal stories of some of his relatives with archive footage of events in Iraq from the Ottoman Empire to the era of Saddam Hussein. Igal Avidan spoke to him in Berlin