Summary The United States still lacks an integrated and sustainable strategy to confront religious extremism in the Muslim world. Policymakers have failed to recognize that the challenge is not only a conflict with the West but also involves ideological shifts within the Muslim world. These shifts have precipitated a major battle for the future of Islam as a faith and a civilization.

Religion

Summary Understanding the background and visions of Iraq's new leaders is critical to analyzing where the country may go in the future. Changes in leadership since Saddam have been revolutionary. Among Iraq's new leaders there are virtually no holdovers from the Ba'th era. A "de-Ba'thification" program to remove the old guard reinforces the divide between those who held office before and those who hold it now.

Summary

Religion

Summary Even with the approval of a permanent constitution in the October national referendum, Iraq’s future is uncertain. Widespread Sunni Arab opposition to the new constitution has confirmed the existence of a fault line that profoundly divides Iraqi society. The Transitional Authoritative Law (TAL) envisaged a six-and-a-half-month, transparent, participatory, and orderly constitutional process. The TAL also provided the option, in Article 61(F), of a further six-month extension....

Introduction

Summary Social justice and economic development are essential for democracy in Iraq to succeed. The idea of a democratic Iraq is not one imposed by foreign powers, but rather one that Iraqis themselves vigorously support. Iraq has a tradition and history of democracy that can help promote the successful establishment of a democratic form of government in post–Saddam Hussein Iraq.

Summary Throughout the 1990s, Turkey was the anchor in the containment of Saddam Hussein's Iraq by the United States. The unpredictable set of events unleashed by Operation Iraqi Freedom has unnerved both Turkish decision makers and the public alike. The U.S.-led coalition's operation in Iraq has also upended Turkey's fundamental interests in Iraq, which are fourfold:

Summary The 9/11 attacks shattered the conventional wisdom that the Middle East’s stability— anchored by the region’s authoritarian governments—could endure indefinitely and would come at little cost to U.S. interests. Energized by external calls for democratic change, numerous elements in the region—nongovernmental, government, and multilateral—have generated reform initiatives.