Open Dialogue Research Journal
On September 30, 2026, the last US and coalition personnel departed Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq. Operation Inherent Resolve -the 12-year mission launched to defeat ISIS- was formally over. The next day, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi stood before the nation and declared October 1 “Sovereignty Day,” announcing […]
The central problem confronting Donald Trump after more than seven months of war with Iran is no longer simply whether the United States can inflict additional damage on Tehran. It is whether Washington can define what political outcome would constitute success, explain how military operations are supposed to produce that […]
The evacuation of a dozen B-1B bombers of the US Air Force from the RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire is another instalment in the latest rippling of the Iran war that began as a pre-emptive, illegal assault by the US and Israel on the Islamic Republic in late February. This, arguably, […]
US Infrastructure and Personnel in the UK Are At Risk The British Police say that the five men arrested in connection with a suspected bomb plot targeting RAF Fairford are all British nationals. Nothing has yet been said officially about who was behind the plot. The risk to US assets […]
Last week’s US inflation report offered some encouraging news. Core price momentum appeared to be easing as of August, and households under cost-of-living strain could be forgiven for hoping the worst had passed. Commodity analysts are urging caution. The record run-up in diesel prices in the United States and Europe […]
Fighting in Yemen has entered a new and more dangerous phase. Yemen’s internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia, says it has retaken ground from the Iran-backed Houthi movement near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the narrow waterway linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis say Saudi […]
Russia might be reluctant to sell lethal equipment to the Taliban amidst its ongoing undeclared war with Pakistan despite the threat posed by ISIS-K to Afghanistan due to concern that they could be used in that conflict at the expense of the hard-earned Russian-Pakistani rapprochement in recent years. The Afghan […]
Twenty-five years after al-Qaeda struck Washington and New York, the organization’s most active theater of operations isn’t in the Middle East or South Asia – it’s in a stretch of West Africa most Americans would struggle to locate on a map. New figures from the conflict monitor Acled show violence […]
This incisive article by CRG Research Associate Robert J. Burrowes was first published in July 2025. On about 20 September 2001, just ten days after the destruction of the World Trade Centre buildings on 9/11, recently retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark was visiting the Pentagon for meetings with Secretary Rumsfeld and […]
For decades, Iran has been considered one of the most influential and challenging powers in the Middle East. In fact, its geographical position, missile capabilities, drone industry, nuclear technology, and extended network of regional allies have given Tehran the ability to pressure its neighbors and change the whole scene in […]
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