Few bilateral relationships have shaped the modern Middle East as deeply as the one between Washington and Tehran. The history of US-Iran relations runs from close Cold War partnership to decades of open hostility, with a covert coup, a hostage crisis, and a contested nuclear program marking the major turning points. This is a factual … Read more
The US military presence in the Persian Gulf began as a tiny naval outpost in 1949 and grew into one of the largest concentrations of American forces outside the United States. Today it spans naval headquarters in Bahrain, sprawling air bases in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and army logistics hubs in Kuwait. This … Read more
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is one of the most watched groups in the global economy, yet its core function is fairly simple. It tries to manage how much oil its members put on the market. Understanding how OPEC influences oil prices mostly comes down to one idea, which is supply. What OPEC … Read more
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow band of water between Iran and Oman, and it carries a share of the world’s energy that few other places can match. Roughly a fifth of global petroleum liquids and a similar slice of liquefied natural gas pass through it. That concentration is why a single waterway commands … Read more
In the months before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, US and allied officials told the public that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons and was rebuilding a nuclear program. No such stockpiles were ever found. The gap between those confident claims and the postwar reality became known as the Iraq WMD intelligence failure, … Read more
The Iraq War began on 20 March 2003 when a United States-led coalition launched an invasion to remove Saddam Hussein from power. What followed was nearly nine years of military presence, an insurgency, and a long political transition. This Iraq War 2003 timeline traces the conflict from the first strikes on Baghdad to the final … Read more
In the final days of the Gulf War, retreating Iraqi forces set fire to hundreds of oil wells across Kuwait. The blazes turned day into something close to night and left behind one of the largest deliberate environmental disasters on record. This is what happened, why it lasted so long, and what the smoke and … Read more
When Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, it set in motion the largest military coalition assembled since the Second World War. Operation Desert Storm, the combat phase that followed, lasted roughly six weeks and ended with Iraqi forces driven out of Kuwait. This is how the Operation Desert Storm coalition came together, fought, and … Read more
On 2 August 1990, Iraqi forces crossed into Kuwait and seized the small, oil-rich emirate within hours. The reasons why Iraq invaded Kuwait were a mix of debt, oil economics, a territorial dispute, and longstanding claims to Kuwaiti land. This article breaks down the main causes, each well documented in the historical record. The Backdrop: … Read more
The Gulf War of 1990 to 1991 was a short, intense conflict that pushed Iraqi forces out of Kuwait and reshaped the modern Middle East. A coalition led by the United States ran two main military operations, Desert Shield and Desert Storm, across roughly seven months. This Gulf War 1991 timeline walks through the key … Read more