A Fledgling Land: The Perpetual Conflicts in Arab Iraq

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A Fledgling Land: The Perpetual Conflicts in Arab Iraq

Last month, the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS/ISIL took the Iraqi city of Ramadi. Further compounding this stunning seizure was the extremist group’s capture of the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, thus gaining control of over half of Syria. As its biggest victory in almost a year, it illustrates that despite western intervention the group is not going away quietly. ISIL was propelled into the news last summer when on the morning of June 11th, the world was stunned to hear that Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, had fallen to the extremist group in a lightning advance. Since then they have continued to push south and spread their control across the region. Yet what does all of this mean? Factionalism and sectarian rifts are nothing new in the ancient lands that hold tribalism and religion over all other political wants. Iraq, however, was not always Iraq, and the Sunni-Shia rift is not a product of the twentieth century. To understand the issues of ISIL and Iraq today, we must understand the history of this divided region of the world.

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Back to the Future: ISIL and Confessional Conflict in the Modern World

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Recent attacks in Paris and Nigeria have once again cast a light on extreme elements of Islam. Many in the West condemn these extremists, some through hyperbolic statements denouncing the Islamic faith, others with declarations of unity with the majority of Muslims who practice their faith peacefully. The rise of Islamic extremism is a complex issue. Few commentators have compared it with Christianity’s religious history and the relationship between extreme ideology and transforming political structures. In the case of ISIS, some useful and interesting parallels exist.

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'Buying a Seat at the Table': Canadian Defence Policy in Reaction to ISIS

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As pressure mounts on the United States and its allies to take strategic action against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, commonly known as ISIS, Canada’s financial contribution (or lack thereof) to Western democratic defence is taking severe heat in political forums and the media. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has pledged further action in support of growing international efforts to combat ISIS and the persistent threat of Islamic extremism in the Middle East. Harper’s promise came this week while speaking with other world leaders in London, England in response to the horrific execution of a second US freelance journalist, Steven Sotloff. Calls for an increase in Canada’s financial contribution to Western defence are reportedly growing stronger from within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), putting the nation in an awkward and touchy situation. In today’s post we briefly examine the economics of Canada’s post-1945 defence policy, to provide a historical perspective to this most recent predicament.

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Palestinian Sovereignty and Peace in Israel

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Recent events involving the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers have escalated existing tension between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza and sparked a wave of protests across Israel. As a result, Israel has mobilized roughly 20,000 troops for a possible invasion of Gaza in an attempt to neutralize militant targets. Israel’s mobilization of troops and aerial strikes against Gazan targets, as well as Hamas’ continuing rocket fire have significantly reduced the possibility of a lasting peace in the region. Coupled with the broader geopolitical situation in which Israel and Palestine find themselves, a meaningful and lasting peace does not seem likely in the near future. Yet, there have been several important developments relating to the peace process in the Middle East that provide some hope for a better future.

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Making Asymmetrical Warfare Even: Drones and UAVs

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Since NATO’s International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) became involved in the war in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, warfare has undergone a dramatic shift. The training that Canadian and American soldiers received in the 1990s closely reflected the types of operations in which they would eventually find themselves. In the former Yugoslavia, for example, NATO’s IFOR (Implementation Force) and SFOR (Stabilization Force) missions, of which Canada was an integral part, coalition forces often engaged a visible enemy, individuals clearly identified with one belligerent. Much of this changed, however, when Canada chose to participate in combat operations in Afghanistan in attempt to dislodge the Taliban from power and rebuild a country that had largely lain in ruins since the 1980s.

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“Canada Supports Israel Because It Is Right To Do So” Harper’s Knesset Address

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Last week Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Canadian delegation began their inaugural visit to Israel. The visit, which included laying a cornerstone at the Hula Lake Nature and Bird Park in the north, galvanizes an immense shift in Canada’s position on Israel and the Middle East. We have discussed the Conservative shift on the Middle East several times before, but this week we want to concentrate on Harper’s historic address to the Knesset in particular.

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Common-Ground: Assad's Syria and Summer 1914

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According to most contemporaries in the summer of 1914, a European war couldn't have been further from the imagination. After all, they were living through Europe's longest, general peace since the Napoleonic Wars and many had never witnessed war. The small crises which riddled global news bulletins were not at all tied to the survival of their own countries. Yet, when the Balkans erupted for a third time in just a decade, European peace was broken and the Great War engulfed nations from around the globe. In this post, we raise questions about similarities between the situation in Syria and how states have reacted to US and British plans to attack Assad's regime.

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Intervention and Assad

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For about two and a half years, Western governments have stood idle whilst the leader of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, has contributed to a death toll of over 100,000. News of chemical weapons being used last week, however, has changed the posture of the US and the United Kingdom, who are now considering seriously military intervention. This post looks at the contradictory nature of the West's stance on Syrian intervention and the foreign policy issues associated with it. 

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Time for More Failed Peace Talks? The “Kerry Accords” and Israel

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In his 2011 book, The Anatomy of Israel’s Survival, Israeli journalist Hirsch Goodman posed a question that politicians and observers have dealt with for decades: can Israel survive? For Zionists and pro-Israelis, the question is frustrating, and most emphatically answer positively. Yet, against the backdrop of the Arab Awakening, the ongoing war in Syria, and the uncertainty of a new Iranian president, the answer to Israel’s survival is not as clear as it once was.

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Canada and Israel

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Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has called for a “two-state solution” to the Israel-Palestine problem. It might not be the first time that such a solution has been sought, but Canada's support for it is questionable. Since coming to power in 2006, the Conservatives have been vocal supporters of the Israeli state. Though Canadian policy has often been supportive of Israel, it has never been as strong as it is today under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

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Syria and the American Foreign Policy Dilemma

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After last week's conceptual history of humanitarianism, we would like to comment on the current state of humanitarian intervention and speak even more directly to the conflict in Syria, in which Western military intervention has been considered but rejected since it began more than two years ago. Today, we look at how intervention and human suffering have changed in the last decade since the attacks of September 11, 2001.

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