Egyptian foreign policy has undergone significant changes over the past half a century. After Gamal Abdel Nasser passed in 1970, Egypt’s pan-Arabist aspirations and ambitions came to an end. His successor, Anwar el-Sadat, re-oriented the country towards the West and made peace with Israel in 1979, which led to a decade-long suspension from the Arab League.

Civilian populations in the conflict-ridden countries of the Middle East and North Africa have undergone a radical transformation of their governing structures. In countries like Iraq, Syria, and Libya, these structures are increasingly dominated by unconventional security providers such as militias and paramilitary groups aligned with the state, creating complications for good governance and security sector reform (SSR).

Iraq was pushed to the brink of civil war in August following a series of tit-for-tat exchanges between Muqtada al-Sadr—head of Iraq’s most powerful socio-political movement (the Sadrist movement) and one of the country’s most powerful militia groups (Saraya Salam)—and a coalition of Iran-aligned parties and militias known as the Shiite Coordination Framework.