Transparency International’s much-awaited annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) was released last month. This year, New Zealand emerged on top with an overall score of 89/100 while Somalia was ranked as the country with the highest levels of perceived corruption with a score of 9/100. The average global score was...
Iraq’s parliament finally approved the 2018 federal budget last week after amendments were made by the parliamentary finance committee to the original bill submitted by the government. Key takeaways from this budget include cuts to security and defence spending; greater investment in the electricity and health sectors; and an...
Introduction
The Iranian economy is one of the most diversified economies in the Middle East. Iran is one of the few countries in the region with a truly diversified export base, exporting all categories of product, as classified by the International Monetary Fund.
The efforts by US President Donald Trump’s Administration...
Iraqi Airways is often criticised for neglect and mismanagement, and for the continued decline in its performance and services. It has become synonymous with failure to meet deadlines and constant delays and the cancellation of flights without warning, all to the detriment of its passengers. These and other matters...
Despite some individual calls for boycotting the upcoming election on May 12, 2018, there are several institutional, political, and socio-economic factors that will motivate Iraqi voters to participate at an acceptable level. Election turnout has been taking a decreasing trend in Iraq, as appears in Chart I, therefore, it...
Introduction
Omani-Iranian relations have always followed a path of positive neutrality on many sensitive issues in the Gulf region. The Muscat-Tehran alliance should be understood within the context of Oman's independent approach to foreign policy matters, led by Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who since taking power in 1970, has managed...
By Zuhair Jum’a Al-Maliki
When the Chinese Admiral Zheng He launched his expeditionary fleet of 62 ships in the fifteenth century AD, he could not have imagined that the seven trips he undertook would provide the inspiration for a new war at the beginning of the second millennium. These expeditions...
Each electoral cycle, thousands of people in Iraq, including those with little chance of winning, announce their candidacy to run in the elections. 9043 candidates competed for 328 seats in the previous parliamentary election of 2014, which represents about 27 times the number of available seats. This ratio is...
Those who follow closely Saudi and Turkish media these days will witness an intense “undeclared” war of words between the two countries, triggered initially by the change in Turkey's policy of hostility towards Russia in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt of July 2016, and subsequently carried forward...
The electoral system of provincial councils is based on proportional system, which enables many parties to win seats in proportion to their vote share, leading to politically unstable councils. Furthermore, each province is one electoral district, which weakens the dimension of accountability. These two aspects inhibit the ability of...
