Hosted by Sarwar Kashmeri, the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions podcast series will headline issues together with the leaders whose decisions today will mold the foreign policy of tomorrow. Each podcast will tackle a different Great Decisions topic in the 2014 series, a list of which can be found here. The Great Decisions podcasts can also be found on iTunes.
From renewed conflict in Israel-Palestine to the incursion of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq, the summer of 2014 has proven to be a tricky time for U.S. policymakers. Many have begun to question some of our previous strategic moves in the region. Would, for instance, ISIS have had as much success in Iraq had the U.S. been slower to withdraw? Did the U.S. focus too much on withdrawing from Iraq at the expense of the country’s security and stability?
This week, we spoke to Dr. Larry Goodson the Dwight D. Eisenhower Chair of National Security and Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the Army War College. Dr. Goodson discussed the role of the U.S. in ensuring stability in the region, the performance of the U.S. military in Iraq from 2003 to present, and what the future could hold for Iraq.
“I think if we see the breaking apart of Iraq,” noted Dr. Goodson, “it’ll prove to be a messy, violent and traumatic affair for the broader region, although in the long sweep of history will be a more natural fit with what I call ‘primordial identity groups’ that exist there.”
