Kurdish Rivalries Create New Challenges for Islamic State Fight

by Robert Olson and Derek Davison The U.S.-led anti-Islamic State (ISIS or IS) coalition is being challenged by a new but fairly predictable problem. Tensions between the Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), along with its Syrian affiliate, the Democratic Union… Continue Reading

Turkey’s Relations with Syria

by Robert Olson Turkey’s relations with Syria are different from its relations with Iraq. The main difference is that Ankara has no close partners in Syria as it does in the form of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) which works… Continue Reading

Obama Brought the Islamic State to Its Knees; Watch Donald Trump Take the Credit

by Wayne White Much like the vicious rampage against suspected German Army “cowards” and “traitors” by SS fanatics in Nazi Berlin in 1945 as the Red Army closed in, Islamic State cadres have been on a frenzy executing real or… Continue Reading

Turkey’s Post-Mosul Calculations in Iraq

by Robert Olson Turkey does not have one foreign policy toward Iraq but several. Its primary concern is not toward the Shi’a-dominated government in Baghdad but rather toward the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Irbil, and, in particular, toward the… Continue Reading