Mines and Mosul
Mine clearance south of Mosul, 2016 © Des Clark Photos They make look innocuous in this photo - but they are devastating and cause...
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When I grow up, I will be working in the fields collecting potatoes...
Good to see that this NRC produced short film has won an award of excellence at One Reeler, a Los Angeles based film festival. Filmed in...
What's making Iraqi Kurds try to get to Europe?
© Des Clark photos Trading in Erbil under the eyes of past and present Kurdish leaders. With many Kurds feeling that a promise of their...
ACAPS’ Global Risk Analysis for October 2021
ACAPS’ Global Risk Analysis outlines a number of key contexts where a notable deterioration in a particular crisis may occur within the...
How dire is the humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan?
© Des Clark photos Two months after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the country is grappling with twin economic and humanitarian...
Iraq votes on 10-10 but don't hold your breath...
© Des Clark photos Iraq votes this coming Sunday, 10th of October but few are expecting any significant changes as a result to their...
Afghanistan needs international support. But what kind?
Before the fall of Kabul and the chaos in HKIA, Kabul, Afghanistan © Des Clark photos Will the international humanitarian system repeat...
Afghanistan's neighbours look at Opportunities - as well as Threats..
ISW analysis on the Taliban’s swift seizure of Kabul [which] has altered key regional states’ calculus toward Afghanistan. Russia, China,...
Fours years since ISIS & Iraq's Tal Afar is still riven with divisions
The Sheikh Jawad Al-Sadiq Mosque as seen February 2018 © Des Clark Photos Having visited Iraq's Tal Afar after the re-taking of the city...
Does all this (Foreign) Aid bring peace? And if so - to what extent?
Damage caused to NGO offices CARE USA and Counterpart International following a Taliban attack in Kabul, May 2019 © DesClark Photos A...
Unemployment Replaces ISIS as Top Security Concern for Minorities in Iraq
Employment opportunities, especially for women, in Mosul, are few and far between.. © DesClarkPhotos 2021 In the summer of 2014, the...
Politically sanctioned corruption in Iraq is a key impediment to good governance...
Iraqi street wiring representing the political system. Connections. Convoluted. Complicated. Challenging. Corrupting. © DesClark Photos A...
11 Things to Know: Afghanistan on the Eve of Withdrawal
Ready to take off and leave Afghanistan.... © DesClark desclark.photos U.S. and NATO troops are rapidly executing President Biden’s...
A Collapsing Order in Iraq
West Mosul June 2021 © DesClark Photos The biggest question now is when the system will collapse completely—and equally important what...
U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan: End to an Endless War?
The September pullout of US troops will change the calculations of the Afghan negotiating parties and could lead to a recharged civil war...
The Hijacking of Democracy: The Role of Political Parties in Iraq...
Looking across the Tigris to the unfinished Al-Rahman Mosque, Baghdad © Des Clark 2018 In the eighteen years since the fall of Saddam’s...
Would a peace deal for Afghanistan actually mean peace - and what does peace mean anyway?
The tomb site of Ahmad Shah Massoud in Panjshir, Afghanistan © Des Clark 2020 Serious conflict risks will exist in Afghanistan even after...
Iraq is fragile - not hopeless...
The stabilization of the Iraqi state remains strategically important to the United States and worthy of a concerted US policy effort....
Networks of Power - The Popular Mobilization Forces and the state in Iraq
A recently published research paper by Dr Renad Mansour, Senior Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme; Project...
U.S. troop withdrawal looms over negotiations a year after the historic agreement...
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the U.S.-Taliban agreement, Afghanistan remains unfortunately far away from peace. The historic...