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Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Insurgency
Languages : en
Pages : 96
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Book Description
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Insurgency
Languages : en
Pages : 96
Get Book Here
Book Description
![Security Situation in Iraq and Syria: U.S. Policy Options and Implications for the Region, [H.A.S.C. No. 113-123], July 29, 2014, 113-2 PDF](https://books.google.com/books/content/images/frontcover/m1D1jgEACAAJ?fife=w80-h100)
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Author: Congressional Research Service
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781973754626
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 46
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Book Description
The Syrian civil war, now in its seventh year, continues to present new challenges for U.S. policymakers. Following a deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria on April 4, 2017, and subsequent U.S. strikes against Syrian military infrastructure and pro-regime forces, Members of Congress have called on the President to consult with Congress about Syria strategy. Other Members have questioned the President's authority to launch strikes against Syria in the absence of specific prior authorization from Congress. In the past, some in Congress have expressed concern about the international and domestic authorizations for such strikes, their potential unintended consequences, and the possibility of undesirable or unavoidable escalation. Since taking office in January 2017, President Trump has stated his intention to "destroy" the Syria- and Iraq-based insurgent terrorist group known as the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL, ISIS, or the Arabic acronym Da'esh), and the President has ordered actions to "accelerate" U.S. military efforts against the group in both countries. In late March, senior U.S. officials signaled that the United States would prioritize the fight against the Islamic State and said that Syrian President Bashar al Asad's future would be determined by the Syrian people. Nevertheless, following the April 4 attack, President Trump and senior members of his Administration have spoken more critically of Asad's leadership, and it remains to be seen whether the United States will more directly seek to compel Asad's departure from power while pursuing the ongoing campaign against the Islamic State. Since late 2015, Asad and his government have leveraged military, financial, and diplomatic support from Russia and Iran to improve and consolidate their position relative to the range of antigovernment insurgents arrayed against them. These insurgents include members of the Islamic State, Islamist and secular fighters, and Al Qaeda-linked networks. While Islamic State forces have lost territory to the Syrian government, to Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups, and to U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters since early 2016, they remain capable and dangerous. The IS "capital" at Raqqah has been isolated, but large areas of central and eastern Syria remain under the group's control. The presence and activities of Russian military forces and Iranian personnel in Syria create complications for U.S. officials and military planners, and raise the prospect of inadvertent confrontation with possible regional or global implications. Since March 2011, the conflict has driven more than 5 million Syrians into neighboring countries as refugees (out of a total prewar population of more than 22 million). More than 6.3 million other Syrians are internally displaced and are among more than 13.5 million Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance. The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to the Syria crisis (which includes assistance to neighboring countries hosting refugees), and since FY2012 has allocated more than $6.5 billion to meet humanitarian needs. In addition, the United States has allocated more than $500 million to date for bilateral assistance programs in Syria, including the provision of nonlethal equipment to select opposition groups. President Trump has requested $191.5 million in FY2018 funding for such assistance and $500 million in FY2018 defense funds to train and equip anti-IS forces in Syria. U.S. officials and Members of Congress continue to debate how best to pursue U.S. regional security and counterterrorism goals in Syria without inadvertently strengthening U.S. adversaries or alienating U.S. partners. The Trump Administration and Members of the 115th Congress-like their predecessors-face challenges inherent to the simultaneous pursuit of U.S. nonproliferation, counterterrorism, civilian protection, and stabilization goals in a complex, evolving conflict.
Author: United States. Congress
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781981442386
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 92
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Book Description
Security situation in Iraq and Syria : U.S. policy options and implications for the region : Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, second session, hearing held July 29, 2014.
Author: Iraq Study Group (U.S.)
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 164
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Book Description
Presents the findings of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which was formed in 2006 to examine the situation in Iraq and offer suggestions for the American military's future involvement in the region.
Author: Congressional Research Congressional Research Service
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781505589108
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 50
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Book Description
Since the 2011 U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, reemergent sectarian and ethnic divisions have fueled a major challenge to Iraq's stability and to Iraq's non-Muslim minority communities. Many of Iraq's Sunni Arabs are willing to support even radical Sunni Islamist insurgents if doing so will reduce Shiite political domination. Iraq's Kurds have been separately embroiled in political and territorial disputes with Baghdad, particularly the Kurds' intent to separately export large volumes of oil produced in the Kurdish region. The political rifts-which were largely contained by the U.S. military until 2011-erupted in December 2013 into a sustained uprising led by the extremist group Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The group and its allies took control of several cities in Anbar Province in early 2014 and captured Mosul and several other mostly Sunni cities in June 2014, accompanied by a partial collapse of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). The crisis has had some potentially serious consequences for Iraq's long-term future. The ISF collapse enabled the Kurds to seize control of the long-coveted city of Kirkuk and its crucial oil fields. And, the crisis has caused Shiite militia forces to revive; they are politically aligned not only with dominant Shiite factions in Iraq but also with Iran. These forces have helped defend Baghdad and other areas to compensate for the weakness of the ISF, but the militias have also reportedly committed human rights abuses against many Sunnis and reinforced Sunni resentment of the Iraqi government. The Islamic State's gains in Iraq have prompted a U.S. military response in Iraq and formulation of a broader strategy, articulated by President Obama on September 10 to try to defeat the Islamic State. The President's speech came as a new government headed by Shiite Prime Minister Haydar al-Abbadi was inaugurated in Iraq. U.S. officials assert that Abbadi's government is more inclusive of Sunnis than was the government of ex-Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, but many Sunnis apparently seek to assess his actions over an extended period of time before giving him their support. However, the government has reached a crucial agreement with the Iraqi Kurds over Kurdish oil exports, earning U.S. and other praise for inclusiveness and compromise. President Obama states that he has ruled out reintroducing U.S. combat troops to Iraq (or Syria). Since the crisis began in June, the Administration has authorized deployment of up to 3,000 military personnel to assess, advise, and train the ISF; gain intelligence on the Islamic State; and protect American personnel and facilities. Since early August, U.S. forces have been conducting air strikes against Islamic State positions in Iraq to assist efforts by Baghdad and the Kurds to reverse Islamic State gains and relieve IS pressure on Iraq's religious minorities. The Iraqi government is also receiving substantial military assistance from Iraq, helping Baghdad confront Islamic State power but also aggravating resentment by Iraq's Sunnis. The Administration has held discussions with Iran diplomatically on restoring stability to Iraq, but has repeatedly ruled out any direct cooperation with Tehran in Iraq. The Islamic State crisis upended what had been a relatively stable situation at the time U.S. forces left in December 2011. The last U.S. troops departed then in keeping with a November 2008 bilateral U.S.-Iraq Security Agreement (SA). At the time of the U.S. departure, the United States and Iraq had agreed to continue a number of security cooperation programs, including U.S. training for the ISF through an Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq (OSC-I) and a State Department police development program. However, those programs languished as Iraqi leaders sought to end U.S. political and military tutelage. Please see CRS Report R43612, The "Islamic State" Crisis and U.S. Policy, by Kenneth Katzman et al.
Author: Joseph Sassoon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857713744
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
In the years since the US-led invasion of Iraq, over 4 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes, in what amounts to one of the largest people movements in modern times, far exceeding the Palestinian outflow after 1948. Despite media reports of an improved security situation in Iraq, the majority of refugees are still not prepared to return. The social, economic, political and security consequences of the Iraq refugee crisis are huge. In this rigorous and timely book, Joseph Sassoon explores the underlying trends of Iraq's refugee flow: which class, ethnic and sectarian groups have gone - and are continuing to go - where and how. Based on extensive original research, he examines the economic impact of this exodus on Iraq itself, and on the host countries of the region: Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. He analyses international policy on the refugee issue, and assesses the options for return and resettlement. The Iraqi Refugees is both the first and the definitive guide to what will come to be seen as one of the most significant issues affecting the entire Middle East.
Author: Kenneth Katzman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 104
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Book Description
Operation Iraqi Freedom overthrew Saddam Hussein''s regime, but much of Iraq remains violent because of Sunni Arab resentment and a related insurgency, compounded by Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence that, in the judgment of many, constitutes a "civil war." Mounting U.S. casualties and financial costs -- without dramatic improvements in levels of violence or clear movement toward national political reconciliation among Iraq''s major communities -- have intensified a debate within the United States over whether to reduce U.S. involvement without completely accomplishing initial U.S. goals. President Bush announced a new strategy on January 10, 2007 ("New Way Forward") consisting of deployment of an additional 28,500 U.S. forces ("troop surge") to help stabilise Baghdad and restive Anbar Province. The strategy is intended to provide security conditions conducive to Iraqi government action on a series of key reconciliation initiatives that are viewed as "benchmarks" of political progress. The FY2007 supplemental appropriation, P.L. 110-28, linked some U.S. reconstruction aid to progress on the eighteen named benchmarks, but allows for a presidential waiver to continue the aid even if little or no progress is observed in Administration reports due July 15, 2007 and September 15, 2007. The latter will include a major assessment of the effects of the "troop surge" to date. According to the required July 15, 2007 Administration report, released on July 12, the Baghdad security plan has made progress on several military indicators and some political indicators, but progress is unsatisfactory on the most important political reconciliation indicators. The Administration report asserts that the "overall trajectory... has begun to stabilise," a finding on the security situation that is corroborated, to some extent, by an August 2007 National Intelligence Estimate A required report by the GAO released September 4, 2007, assesses less progress on security benchmarks than does the Administration and is pessimistic, as is the NIE, on the prospects for political reconciliation. Some in Congress -- as well as the Iraq Study Group -- believe that the United States should begin winding down U.S. combat involvement in Iraq. Both chambers adopted a FY2007 supplemental appropriation to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (H.R. 1591) that would have set an outside deadline of March 31, 2008, for U.S. combat withdrawal if the President did not certify Iraqi progress on the "benchmarks." President Bush vetoed it on May 1, 2007, and subsequent bills mandating forms of withdrawal or combat reduction have not moved forward. Some observers say such legislation might see further action after the Administration''s September 15 progress report, while others say some positive assessments of the "troop surge" might forestall immediate congressional action. Iraq has not previously had experience with a democratic form of government, although parliamentary elections were held during the period of British rule under a League of Nations mandate (from 1920 until Iraq''s independence in 1932), and the monarchy of the Sunni Muslim Hashemite dynasty (1921-1958). The territory that is now Iraq was formed from three provinces of the Ottoman empire after British forces defeated the Ottomans in World War I and took control of the territory in 1918. Britain had tried to take Iraq from the Ottomans earlier in World War I but were defeated at Al Kut in 1916. Britain''s presence in Iraq, which relied on Sunni Muslim Iraqis (as did the Ottoman administration), ran into repeated resistance, facing a major Shiite-led revolt in 1920 and a major anti-British uprising in 1941, during World War II. Iraq''s first Hashemite king was Faysal bin Hussein, son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca who, advised by British officer T.E Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), led the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Faysal ruled Iraq as King Faysal I and was succeeded by his son, Ghazi, who was killed in a car accident in 1939. Ghazi was succeeded by his son, Faysal II, who was only four years old. A major figure under the British mandate and the monarchy was Nuri As-Said, a pro-British, pro-Hashemite Sunni Muslim who served as prime minister 14 times during 1930-1958. Faysal II, with the help of his pro-British Prime Minister Nuri al-Sa''id who had also served under his predecessors, ruled until the military coup of Abd al-Karim al-Qasim on July 14, 1958. Qasim was ousted in February 1963 by a Baath Party-military alliance. Since that same year, the Baath Party has ruled in Syria, although there was rivalry between the Syrian and Iraqi Baath regimes during Saddam''s rule. The Baath Party was founded in the 1940s by Lebanese Christian philosopher Michel Aflaq as a socialist, pan-Arab movement, the aim of which was to reduce religious and sectarian schisms among Arabs. One of the Baath Party''s allies in the February 1963 coup was Abd al-Salam al-Arif. In November 1963, Arif purged the Baath, including Baathist Prime Minister (and military officer) Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr, and instituted direct military rule. Arif was killed in a helicopter crash in 1966 and was replaced by his elder brother, Abd al-Rahim al-Arif, who ruled until the Baath Party coup of July 1968. Following the Baath seizure, Bakr returned to government as President of Iraq and Saddam Hussein, a civilian, became the second most powerful leader as Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council. In that position, Saddam developed overlapping security services to monitor loyalty among the population and within Iraq''s institutions, including the military. On July 17, 1979, the aging al-Bakr resigned at Saddam''s urging, and Saddam became President of Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein, secular Shiites held high party positions, but Sunnis, mostly from Saddam''s home town of Tikrit, dominated the highest party and security positions. Saddam''s regime repressed Iraq''s Shiites after the February 1979 Islamic revolution in neighboring Iran partly because Iraq feared that Iraqi Shiite Islamist movements, emboldened by Iran, would try to establish an Iranian-style Islamic republic of Iraq.
Author: Us Government Accountability Office
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781973835257
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 50
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Book Description
The emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has undermined stability in Iraq, Syria, and the broader Middle East and poses a threat to international peace and security, including to the United States. Since its emergence in Iraq in 2003 as the predecessor organization al Qaeda in Iraq, ISIS has declared branches and established networks in other countries and attracted an international network of supporters, launching acts of violence and terrorism in various countries throughout the world. U.S. officials have noted that, in response to territorial losses on the ground in Iraq and Syria, the threat of ISISinspired attacks may grow, including on Western targets such as the United States. In September 2014, the White House issued the U.S. Strategy to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) with the goal to degrade and destroy ISIS through an approach that included working with regional and international partners. The Department of Defense (DOD) reported that it has allocated $10.9 billion for counter-ISIS operations from August 2014-when these operations began-through 2016. The Department of State (State) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) report having allocated more than $2.4 billion in funding for Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria to counter ISIS, respond to and mitigate the Syrian crisis, bolster regional security, and support development programs. State and USAID also report that, separate from U.S. political efforts to counter ISIS, the two agencies have provided more than $1.3 billion in humanitarian assistance to Iraqis in the region since fiscal year 2014 and more than $6.5 billion in humanitarian assistance to Syrians and others in the region affected by the Syrian crisis. Given the importance of this issue as a U.S. national security priority and the level of resources expended to counter ISIS and address humanitarian and other effects related to these efforts, we have identified a number of key issues for the 115th Congress to consider in developing oversight agendas and determining the way forward. Significant oversight will be needed to help ensure visibility over the cost and progress of these efforts. This is a public version of a classified report issued in April 2017.
Author: Daniel Silander
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315536072
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 238
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Book Description
This book seeks to understand the obligations of the international community to promote and protect state and human security in situations of international humanitarian crises. In Iraq and Syria, as well as in neighbouring states, the rise of ISIL has raised serious state and human security challenges. This study explores the relationships between the Global-Regional Partnership, the United Nations and nine organizations in their attempt to deal with the challenges presented by ISIL. Each organization is analyzed in terms of how it has responded in the past and how it is now responding to the ISIL threat based on three perspectives; resource capacities (military, political, economic, technological, normative); willingness and readiness; and impediments to capacity and abilities. The overall aim is to discern what capacities and abilities international organizations have to protect state and human security and prevent civilians from mass atrocities inflicted by ISIL forces. The study addresses the role of international organizations when the UNSC is unable or unwilling to uphold the most fundamental norms and values in the UN Charter. This approach acknowledges that within the international community there is an overall acceptance on security for a partnership between the UN and regional organizations, but that there is also a contested call for a renegotiated international contract on state and human security. This volume will be of much interest to students of international relations, human rights, peace and conflict studies, terrorism studies and International Relations.
