The effort to secure Iraq’s borders after the defeat of ISIS has created other, new sources of instability, as conflict supply chains adapt to new circumstances.
A close look at two border towns in Iraq’s western desert illustrates the law of unintended consequences. The Iraqi government, bordering countries, and the international community moved to more tightly control official border crossings in order to defeat ISIS. As a result, however, militias and smugglers have moved a great deal of commerce, legal and illicit, to other crossing points. In the meantime, people along once-prosperous trade routes suffer privation and violence, driving new conflicts.
Researchers Renad Mansour and Hayder Al-Shakeri tell the tale of trade, smuggling, and conflict across Iraq’s borders. The trajectory of trade route towns Rutba and Qaim help explain the mechanics of conflict supply chains and the unintended consequences of efforts to secure parts of the border without thinking of the spinoff effects.
Participants:
America’s Blind Spot on Palestine
Contesting Sectarian Identity in Iraq
[Arabic] LGBTQ Rights in Egypt
Kurdish Nationalism at an Impasse
[Arabic] Universal and Minority Rights in the Middle East
Universal and Minority Rights in the Middle East
The Caliphate’s Last Stand
Israel’s Global Security Industry
Syrian Voices
A New Progressive International?
Iran after the Broken Deal
The Difficulty of Reporting from Assad’s Syria
The Challenges of Defending Human Rights in U.S. Foreign Policy
The Overlapping Wars in Yemen—and U.S. Complicity in Catastrophe
Iraq’s New Government, and Rebuilding Syria
Basra Protests Shake Iraqi Status Quo
How Germany Is Integrating One Million Syrian Refugees
New thinking about American liberal foreign policy
How to Research Lebanon’s Youth Problem (and Other Questions)
Recruiting militants: Greed or grievance?
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