Iraq these days barely makes it to the main pages of the international press or the top of the foreign policy agenda. It lies in ninth place on the latest Failed State Index – unchanged from 2011 and unsurprisingly classified as ‘critical’.
Key measures such as “poverty and economic decline” are up, as are “group grievances”. The latter is importantly described as “when tension and violence exists between groups and the state’s ability to provide security is undermined and fear and further violence may ensue”.
Financial woes in the US and Europe and the momentous, continuing events in the Arab world have, perhaps understandably, pushed Iraq to the back pages. In the interim, the situation has become grave.
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