Iraq

Military State

Iraq faces an ongoing crisis of sovereignty, 90 years after independence.  

The First Tanker War with Iran

If tensions between the US and Iran in the Persian Gulf lead to war, it will not be the first time. In 1987 and 1988, the US intervened to protect shipping from Iranian attacks.

Kut Losses

Two imperial ventures, in the same Middle East town a century apart, reveal the similarities – and differences – in the exercise of power.

The Battle for Oil in the First World War

At the beginning of the 20th century the Great Powers competed for the right to extract the vast oil reserves around the Iraqi city of Mosul. The motivation – and prize – was energy security. 

Stranger than the Nights

Justin Marozzi admires Hugh Kennedy’s article from 2004, which offers a nuanced portrait of the great Abbasid caliph, Harun al Rashid, much-mythologised hero of The Arabian Nights

The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Mesopotamian Philosophy

Possibly some innate realism prevented the Mesopotamians from seeing death other than objectively. But the Epic of Gilgamesh remains an eloquent witness to the poignancy of their interrogation of the meaning of human life and destiny. S.G.F. Brandon.