All Policy Analysis by Michael Knights

Pro-Iranian brigades are looking to settle old grudges in a notorious town near the Islamic State's Iraqi stronghold.

Read or watch a conversation between a Washington Institute expert and the governor of Kirkuk, who shares firsthand perspectives on how Iraqi authorities and their partners can handle ethnic tensions in post-liberation Mosul.

The most reliable road to Kurdish sovereignty still runs through Baghdad, not through Ankara or the Trump White House.

An in-depth look at where Iraqi military, Peshmerga, and Shiite militia forces have wound up in their push toward Mosul, and what sort of resistance they are encountering along the way.

Diyala offers a look into the near-future of Iraq’s security situation in areas where ethnosectarian tensions are neglected or even exacerbated by government policies and the presence of uncontrolled militias.

But kicking out the Islamic State and keeping the peace are two very different things, so longer-term coalition support will be needed.

After three antishipping attacks in two weeks by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, Washington should take firm steps to prevent this from becoming the new normal off Yemen's coast.

In early 2017, Iraqi security forces are likely to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State, which has held the city since June 2014. As the event draws near, big-picture questions regarding how Arabs, Kurds, and microminorities can work together have justifiably drawn much scholarly attention, as have immediate challenges such

Yemeni rebels successfully attacked a UAE military vessel with what appeared to be an Iranian cruise missile, raising the need for a stronger U.S. role in the strategic waterway.

Coalition and Iraqi planners seem to have settled on a phased approach aimed at encircling the city, hitting Islamic State targets with precision weapons, and minimizing civilian casualties, but the aftermath could prove more difficult than the battle itself.

As the battle for Mosul looms, however, national fragility may require postponing larger boundary-drawing initiatives.

Two years into Operation Inherent Resolve, where does the U.S. campaign to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State stand?

New military facilities and operations in Eritrea and elsewhere on the Horn of Africa are serving the UAE's power-projection ambitions.

Far away from the exaggerated debates of misguided pundits, Western officials have moved on from past mistakes and are making grownup policy choices on Iraq that are reasonably good under the circumstances.

Although the scale and effectiveness of coalition efforts to train and equip the Peshmerga have grown, U.S.-Kurdish ties have yet to change fundamentally.