The Iraq War 20 Years on

It’s been twenty years since the March 2003 Iraq War. The country is still unstable. The U.S. has, by and large, forgotten about the war and probably will only re-engage with Iraq if radical group ISIS makes a major comeback. Iraqis are now left to themselves to pick up the pieces from years of international isolation, foreign military intervention and civil war. Was the 2003 Iraq War worth the effort? Did a neutered Saddam really pose a danger to the international order in the Middle East? Join John as he speaks with Yale scholar Emma Sky to discuss this issue.

Emma is the founding Director of Yale’s International Leadership Center, which oversees the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program. She is a lecturer at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, where she teaches great power competition and cooperation, global affairs, grand strategy and refugees, and Middle East politics. She is the author of the highly acclaimed The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq (2015) and In a Time of Monsters: Travelling in a Middle East in Revolt (2019).

We originally put up the raw video file as it was on our original Zoom. However, Producer Neil Smart and I have been playing around with a better format. We're 'radio folk' and are now entering the video age! This was my attempt at using iMovie. Neil's refreshed version of our interview with Prof. Avi Loeb is better. Let us know what you think of the new format. Constructive criticism is always welcome!