The initial step in assessing the potential military response to recent events in Iraq is to seek to understand how the security situation in the country degenerated so quickly. The most obvious and urgent question that needs to be answered is how as few as 800 ISIS militants (out of a total of around 6,000 in Iraq), were able to overrun a garrison of around 25,000 Iraqi troops.

On Tuesday, the jihadist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham) launched a long-planned assault on Iraq, seizing control of Mosul, the country’s second largest city, after taking large parts of the central city of Fallujah and nearby Ramadi in December 2013.

The Arab Spring has turned into an Orwellian Winter for the ancient Christian communities of the Middle East. Persecution has reached unprecedented levels and throughout the region Christians are being killed, displaced, tortured, kidnapped, enslaved, and forced to convert.

Whilst there is reason to be positive about the ongoing Geneva negotiations between the Assad government and the opposition, the general consensus is that there is little chance of these talks leading to any substantial progress. The reason for this underlying feeling is as clear as it is familiar, the rebels ultimately demand Assad goes, Assad refuses to do so.

The unrest in Syria has quickly spiralled beyond a sectarian civil war and into a regional crisis.

Guest Contributor: Robert Halfon MP 20th January 2014 Robert recently visited Kurdistan in Northern Iraq with the All-Party Kurdistan Group.  In this article he describes the three challenges facing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). When people ask me if the Iraq ...

While the Middle East is going through one of the most turbulent periods in history, America is governed by one of the most, if not the most, risk-averse post-war Presidents. The consequences of this unfortunate match are devastating, far-reaching and long-lasting.

The EU somehow managed to cover up its failure in Libya and Mali, but the disaster of its Syria policy cannot be squashed as easily. The time has come for the member states to ask themselves how far they want to go in terms of a common foreign and security policy.

Guest Contributor: Robert Halfon MP 27th August 2013 There are always three and half arguments against intervention: first, that it is outside the framework of international law; second, that Realpolitik should be the order of the day; and third, ‘What ...

When I walked towards the memorial in Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan a fortnight ago to attend the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the genocide, I passed by a seemingly endless stream of images.