EPA/Eric Draper
Tony Blair insists to this day that his decision to go to war in Iraq was made in good faith. Does that make him any less culpable?
Tony Blair and his then-foreign minister, Jack Straw, in 2003.
EPA/Louisa Gouliamaki
The Iraq Inquiry has found that the case for invading Iraq was far from watertight and made without proper care. Deception, however, is another matter.
Iraqi doctors weighs a child at a Baghdad clinic.
Jamal Nasrallah/EPA
Most of the country’s 1,717 primary healthcare centres have no running water or electricity and the hospitals are ill-equipped and under-staffed.
EPA/Ali Abbas
Too many people still believe that Iraq collapsed because there was no plan for it; others think the West has learnt from its mistakes. Wrong and wrong.
Please, stop it.
Matt Dunham/PA
British political life increasingly revolves around expensive investigations that make a fetish of looking backwards.
Ian Gavan/PA
As the Chilcot report finally sees the light of day, the former leader’s motives need to be seen in their full context.
Picking up the pieces.
EPA/Ali Abbas
As the Chilcot Report’s release approaches, Iraqis are helping each other survive terror, insecurity and corruption.
EPA/Nawras Aamer
Islamic State lost ground, Colombia got a chance at lasting peace, and the Pope sounded a liberated note on homosexuality.
The Iraqi people continue to call for government reforms cracking down on corruption.
Methaq Al Fayyadh/Newzulu/AP
Why is it that we want strong democracies for ourselves, but “economic czars” for others?
EPA/Nawras Aamer
Fallujah has been an icon of Sunni resistance ever since the US bombed it in 2004.
Antiquities seized in a raid on Islamic State fighters in Syria were returned to the Iraqi government by the United States.
Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters
Profit estimates have ranged from $4 million to $7 billion. But with the Paris attacks costing only $10,000, does a number even matter?
Woman at wreckage of deadly car bomb in Baghdad.
REUTERS/Wissm Al-Okili
Obama’s military strategy in Iraq and Syria hasn’t defeated the Islamic State, but it isn’t a total failure either. A retired major general and law professor looks at the successes and shortcomings.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement divided up the Asiatic provinces of the Ottoman Empire into zones of direct and indirect British and French control.
By Royal Geographical Society via Wikimedia Commons
Over the years the words Sykes-Picot have taken on two meanings – one significant, the other less so.
The promise of recently explored oilfields dictated British interest in Mesopotamia (roughly, modern-day Iraq) during the Sykes-Picot Agreement negotiations.
Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani
The Sykes-Picot Agreement delivered the spoils of war to Britain and France, and deferred the dreams of Arab nationalists.
The Iraqi army is in increasing need of the US’s help.
EPA/Nawras Aamer
The Obama administration likes to say it won’t put “boots on the ground” in Iraq – but that’s increasingly at odds with reality.
Remembering ISIS victims at the U.N., November 2015.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
The urgent need to respond to ISIS has redefined the use of “self-defense” to include attacking a nonstate threat in another country. But what are the implications of this? change?
The world can only expect more attacks such that that took place in Brussels, as Islamic State continues to decline and lash out.
EPA/Christophe Petit Tesson
Although not an intuitive conclusion, the Brussels attacks are actually indicative of Islamic State’s growing decline and desperation.
Crimes against humanity.
EPA/Islamic State video
What is the likelihood of stateless terror suspects being brought to book for their crimes?
Without the perfect-storm conditions of post-invasion insurgency, this most potent expression of al-Qaedaism yet would never have risen to dominate both the Middle East and the world in the way that it does.
Reuters/Stringer
The final article of our series on the historical roots of Islamic State examines the role recent Western intervention in the Middle East played in the group’s inexorable rise.
Free Syrian Army fighters on their smartphones.
Jalal Al-mamo/Reuters
As usage continues to grow in the region, what’s the ongoing dynamic between the Middle East and social media? It’s complicated.