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Iraq was a significant regional power during the Saddam Hussein regime, especially in his first years of reign. However, the Gulf Wars and the end of the Cold War almost wiped-out Iraq’s military and political capabilities in the region. Beginning with Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the country was smothered under harsh UN sanctions and invasive weapons inspections. Ironically, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq gave a huge room for Iranian influence on Iraqi politics, which harbored a U.S.-Iranian battle for influence. The U.S.-Iran competence and successive Iraqi governments’ failure to deliver services to Iraqi people met with a heavy backlash as massive anti-government protests that began in 2015 forced the Iraqi governments to introduce reform programs. In particular, the October Protests of 2018 challenged the Iraqi elite’s political influence on Iraqi politics and prompted them to lead technocrat governments. In the years since, Iraq’s politicians have been trying their utmost to convert Iraq from a conflict-torn and oil-dependent nation to one that is a significant player in the Middle East.
Fatih Oğuzhan İpek (Sun,) studied this question.