Discussion Meeting
Professor Toby Dodge, Consulting Senior Fellow for the Middle East, IISS;
Director of the Middle East Centre, LSE
Arundel House, London
Thursday 17 September

Events
Iraq
Islamic State
United States
Insurgency
Middle East

Date: 17 September 2015

It is now over a year since the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) seized the Iraqi city of Mosul, moved its forces towards Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish Regional Government, and started to ethnically cleanse Jebel Sinjar of its Yezidi population. These actions forced US President Barack Obama to launch an air campaign against ISIS forces in August 2014.

This talk assesses the transformation that Iraq has undergone since the start of ISIS’s offensive and the US-led air campaign. This includes the appointment of a new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, and a new government, but also the formation of the Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces), a fluid group of militias primarily motivated by sectarian ideology. The talk will conclude by arguing that ISIS is a violent symptom of primarily political problems that have destabilised Iraq since regime change in 2003. Until these political problems have been successfully addressed, ISIS cannot be beaten.