Iraq

Are all great civilisations doomed?

4 May 2024 9:00 am

If plague, war or natural disasters don’t destroy our own, then ‘a cascading systems failure’ seems likely, on past evidence, says Paul Cooper

A war reporter bravely faces death – but not from sniper fire

2 March 2024 9:00 am

As a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, Rod Nordland learned to expect many dangers, but a brain tumour wasn’t one of them

Downhill all the way: the decline of the British Empire after 1923

13 January 2024 9:00 am

Matthew Parker gives us snapshots of Britain’s sprawling dominions in September 1923, showing both governors and governed increasingly questioning the purpose of the empire

Bush is leading us to tragedy (2002)

7 September 2022 5:00 pm

It’s 20 years since the clamour for the invasion of Iraq was at its loudest. Boris Johnson, The Spectator’s then…

There’s no such thing as an ‘ordinary Russian’

8 August 2022 5:25 pm

There was a whiteboard in the BBC Baghdad bureau for noting down phrases we hoped to ban from the airwaves.…

Nadhim Zahawi: how I escaped Saddam’s Iraq

12 March 2022 9:00 am

The Education Secretary has come a long way since his Baghdad schooldays

Is Christianity about to end in the place it began?

4 December 2021 9:00 am

Janine di Giovanni’s book begins in a Paris apartment during the first lockdown. She’s at a friend’s home, which she…

Colin Powell: A great man – and a failure

19 October 2021 8:18 am

My memory of Colin Powell feels personal, even though we were 6000 miles apart at the time. I was in…

Isis’s weakness is now its strength

2 April 2021 5:00 pm

As coronavirus swept the globe a year ago, Isis began issuing pronouncements. ‘God, by his will, sent a punishment to…

Why are Covid conspiracies so appealing?

23 March 2021 6:30 pm

The recent decision by a several European countries to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine will have thrown petrol…

The British army in the 21st century under scrutiny

20 March 2021 9:00 am

In his history of the Pacific War, Eagle Against the Sun, Ronald Spector described the state of the US army…

We shouldn’t forget the horrific crimes of Isis returnees

16 March 2021 7:00 pm

Summer 2015. A five-year-old girl is chained up and left outside in the desert sun in Fallujah, Iraq – a…

The twisted logic of Shamima Begum's defenders

16 March 2021 4:29 am

Shamima Begum is back in the news. Firstly because she’s had a makeover. She can be seen on the front…

What the Pope's visit means for Iraq

7 March 2021 7:01 pm

You could be forgiven for taking a cynical view of Pope Francis’s visit to Iraq this weekend. How could the…

Iran’s missile diplomacy

19 February 2021 7:00 pm

It’s a time for delivering messages in the Middle East, where messages rarely come without their near constant attendant: violence.…

Why the US assassination of Iran’s top general didn’t spark a war

1 August 2020 9:00 am

Why the US assassination of Iran’s top general didn’t spark a war

Letters: We must sing again

18 July 2020 9:00 am

Growing pains Sir: James Forsyth (‘Rewiring the state’, 4 July) shocked this loyal Spectator reader with the following: ‘Even before…

Letters: Why Hugh Dowding deserves a statue

11 July 2020 9:00 am

Police relations Sir: As a former Met Police officer, with a similar background to Kevin Hurley, I was surprised how…

navy persian gulf

What is the US Navy doing in the Persian Gulf?

30 April 2020 5:39 am

American alliances and security commitments tend to live on long after the world has changed. Many of our far flung…

war with iran coronavirus

Will coronavirus lead to a US war with Iran?

13 March 2020 9:53 pm

In a roundabout way, coronavirus may have been responsible for the deaths of two American service personnel and a British…

The Shia Krays: the whole of Iraq is being held to ransom

15 February 2020 9:00 am

The whole of Iraq is being held to ransom

As prisons minister, I saw how bad things really are on the inside

7 February 2020 10:00 pm

What I saw as prisons minister

Philip Pullman is right about the Oxford comma

1 February 2020 9:00 am

It was with regret that I read that Albert, retired King of the Belgians, has finally had to admit, following…

de-escalation al asad iran

So much for de-escalation

8 January 2020 11:56 am

‘We are not looking to start a war with Iran,’ said defense secretary Mark Esper today. ‘We are looking to…

Ten handy phrases for bluffing your way through the coming Iran crisis

4 January 2020 8:42 pm

That gathering drumbeat you hear could be the sound of World War III, or it could be 10,000 journalists still…