Iraq is seeking to fund post-ISIS reconstruction through private-sector growth and foreign direct investment, but structural challenges and regional geopolitical competition could derail this effort...
The most powerful groups within the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) existed long before ISIS seized Mosul in June 2014, and will continue to build influence in the future now that operations to liberate the city have concluded. … Read more
Iraq’s southern oil capital could be the country’s richest city, but over a decade of corruption, demographic shift, and insecurity has handicapped its development. … Read more
As he prepares for graduate study, our departing program assistant reflects on his time and research at EPIC, and looks toward Iraq’s reconstruction after ISIS.… Read more
The agricultural sector — Iraq’s second largest industry, employing nearly one-third of the population — has been decimated by conflict, mismanagement, and halfhearted reform. … Read more
In March 2017, EPIC Program Assistant Matthew Schweitzer traveled to the recently-liberated neighborhoods in eastern Mosul. During this trip, he accompanied Layla Salih, Director of Antiquities for Ninewa Province, into tunnels dug by ISIS underneath the now-destroyed shrine and tomb of Jonah (known in Arabic as Nabi Younis). There, ISIS… Read more
