Iraq: From War to a New Authoritarianism

Iraq recovered its full sovereignty at the end of 2011, with the departure of all US military forces. The 2003 invasion of Iraq was undertaken to dismantle a regime that had long threatened its own population and regional peace, as well as to establish a stable, democratic state in the heart of the Middle East. This Adelphi looks at the legacy of that intervention. It analyses the evolution of the insurgency, the descent into civil war and the ‘surge’ as a counter-insurgency strategy and ex...