Iraq’s security sector and armed forces have grown beyond the constitution and now pose a major challenge to the state’s ability to control violence. Reforming this sector is an urgent priority.

Iraq authorities must take greater responsibility for displaced Iraqis, including Yazidis, in camps. In this panel: the recent efforts to support reconstruction in Sinjar, and what more can be done to support the Yazidi community.

The President of the KRI, Nechirvan Barzani, expressed his views on the current dynamic between the Erbil & Baghdad, and the role of the Region on the world stage, how it engages, and how it is perceived by the national and international community.

Iraq Forum was held 6m after the inauguration of PM Al-Sudani’s government, which faces high expectations to address Iraq’s multi-layered challenges. In this debate, Al-Sudani sheds light on his overall strategies.

Since 2003, outstanding issues between Baghdad and Erbil have gone through various phases & taken different forms, with critical milestones characterising and shaping an uneasy relationship.

The US led ‘coalition of the willing’ invaded Iraq in 2003, ending the most oppressive regime. The two countries started a tumultuous mutual engagement, which is likely to become more amicable, predictable and mutually rewarding in the future.

The Iraq Forum is a new Baghdad-based platform for policy debates; organised by MERI in partnership with Iraq Institute for Dialogue and Al-Nahrain Centre for Strategic Studies

The special policy debate was dedicated to discussing US policy in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, following a visit by a high-level US delegation to Baghdad and Erbil.

This session (at MERI Forum 2022), experts debated the reform of the Iraqi financial sector and the role of the government and the private sector in it. Ava Nader, from the Iraqi Communications and Media Commission

Qubad Talabani and Jeanine Plasschaert debated the challenge of governance and reform in both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.