Mac Skelton

Oct 16, 2023 | tcf.org | Mac Skelton |Zachary Cuyler |Amr ElAfifi |AbdelRahman Ayyash

Palestinian militant organization Hamas’s massacres on October 7 have provoked shock and horror around the world. But revulsion at the group’s atrocities should not lead America into a historic disaster. The Biden administration’s almost unfettered support for Israeli retaliation in Gaza will not just implicate the United States in grave violations against Gaza’s civilians. It is also likely to embroil the United States in a broader regional war that will cost more American lives.

Sep 12, 2023 | tcf.org | Husam Sobhi |Safaa Khalaf |Maha Yassin |Mac Skelton

After the U.S. invasion and the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, Iraqi politics coalesced around the identity groupings of the exile opposition: Shia Arabs, Sunni Arabs, Kurds, and smaller minority groups. As factions competed for power during the following two decades, rivals in each community never even tried to distinguish themselves by politics or ideology.

Sep 1, 2023 | tcf.org | Safaa Khalaf |Maha Yassin |Mac Skelton |Zeinab F. Shuker

Water resources in Iraq face critical challenges that threaten their sustainability and have a profound impact on the livelihoods of the population and the environment. In the past four years, the country has experienced a deeply concerning decline in water sources and a noticeable degradation in water quality, which have affected the viability of agriculture in certain areas. Iraq is at the epicenter of a global drought crisis.

Aug 30, 2023 | tcf.org | Maha Yassin |Mac Skelton |Zeinab F. Shuker |Armenak Tokmajyan

In Iraq, climate change and water scarcity—two closely interlinked crises—are fueling the growth of new types of violence with some alarming characteristics: a state of chronic fragility, fierce struggles over power, weak institutional security, the growing armed power of factions and tribes, and the immiseration of large segments of the population.

Aug 30, 2023 | tcf.org | Mac Skelton |Zeinab F. Shuker |Thanassis Cambanis |Safaa Khalaf

Iraq is at the deadly intersection of multiple major climate and environmental crises. The government’s attempts to mitigate the impact of climate change are too feeble to match the scale of the climate crisis, particularly drought. For Iraq to find its way out of the grim status quo of poor governance and environmental catastrophe, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society will need to play a crucial role.