Iraq’s Dangerous Moment

Since 2014, the campaign against the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) has kept Iraq’s various political factions, both in Baghdad and within Iraqi Kurdistan, uneasily aligned against a common enemy. But with the defeat of IS in Iraq now approaching, sectarian tensions have resurfaced rapidly. So what happens next?

The stakes are high for Washington. Unlike the case of Syria — which was clearly not a U.S. ally before the campaign against Islamic State began, and where the reality of Bashar al-Assad’s hold on power is reluctantly acknowledged by the West — in Iraq, the future of the U.S. position in the Middle East is at stake.