
Dr. Massaab Al-Aloosy is a Non-Resident Fellow at Gulf International Forum and a researcher focusing on Iraq, Iran, and Shia non-state armed groups. He holds a PhD from the Fletcher School-Tufts University and is the author of The Changing Ideology of Hezbollah, Palgrave 2020.

The Costs and Consequences of Iran’s Brain Drain
Politics & GovernanceThe deteriorating conditions within Iran prompted many of its citizens to seek a better life...

Systemic Failures in Iraqi Prisons Create Breeding Grounds for Extremism
Politics & GovernanceThe prisons of Iraq have maintained their abysmal pre-2003 reputation and serve as another indicator...

Iraq’s PMF Wants to Be Iran’s IRGC
Defense & SecurityThe Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in...

Dictatorship Without a Dictator: Iraq 20 Years After the Invasion
Politics & GovernanceTwo decades after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statues in Baghdad and the dawn of...

Iraq’s Depreciated Currency Holds Consequences at Home and Abroad
Economy & InnovationThe steady devaluation of the Iraqi dinar against the U.S. dollar over the past three...

Spinning Plates: Al-Sudani’s Foreign Policy Balancing Act
GeopoliticsAfter more than a year of political deadlock, Mohammed al-Sudani finally succeeded in forming a...

Three Tests for the New Iraqi PM’s Reform Agenda
Politics & GovernanceThough Iraq finally formed a government this October after more than a year of political...

Instability, Revolutions, and the Future of the Islamic Republic
Politics & GovernanceThe Iranian society is witnessing yet another wave of demonstrations against the regime in Iran,...

Iraq’s Absent Political Opposition
Politics & GovernanceAs a general rule, most nations are stronger and more stable when they have a...

Taliban Afghanistan: A Double-Edged Victory for Iran
Defense & SecurityMany Iranian officials celebrated the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as a momentous strategic victory. One...

The Regional Contest Over Iraq’s Electricity
GeopoliticsIraq has remained a contested geopolitical arena since the 2003 invasion. As Iran’s primacy in...

Biden in Jeddah: Pursuing U.S.-Saudi-Israeli Alignment
GeopoliticsPresident Joe Biden’s visit to the Middle East, and more specifically Saudi Arabia, has put...