
During his second term, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki emerged as a dominant player in Iraq’s political landscape, but his struggle to consolidate power has created a climate of continuous political crisis in the country.

Syrian Kurds are caught between the ambitions of their fellow Kurdish parties in neighboring Iraq and Turkey, and the strategies of a Syrian regime struggling to survive.

Acting as an essential mediator in the Syrian crisis could fulfill Iraq's wishes to return to the regional scene and the Kurds’ goal of expanding their influence over neighboring regions.

Iraq hosted the Arab League summit last week, a significant development for a country that has been marginalized from its Arab neighbors. But as Arab relations with Iraq improve, relations with its neighbor Syria are deteriorating.

The escalation of the Syrian crisis provides an opportunity for the Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party to consolidate its influence within Syria and increase its presence on the Syrian-Turkish border.

Increasing control over the Iraqi army and the Ministry of Defence gives Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki the means to dominate his main political rivals, the Iraqiya coalition.

Enticed by concessions offered by the Syrian regime and conflicted by their allegiances to other Kurdish parties in the region, the Syrian Kurdish parties have yet to find their place in the on-going revolution.
The Sadrists have the tools to mobilize the general population in Iraq, making them both Prime Minister Maliki’s most dangerous political adversary as well as his most critical ally.

Iraqi Prime Minster Nouri Maliki is using the deteriorating security situation in the provinces and the political stalemate between Iraq's top political leaders to tilt the political balance in his favor.

Inspired by the region’s ongoing unrest, Kurdistan’s youth are demonstrating against decades of two-party control over Kurdish institutions and society, hoping to reform the region's political arena.