Regime change

摘要

A decade on from the US-led invasion of Iraq, the sectarian- ism unleashed by the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime con- tinues to deepen political fault lines across the Middle East. Nowhere is that clearer than in neighbouring Syria, two years into a now bitterly sectarianised civil war. Post-Saddam, the US oversaw the crafting of an Iraqi constitution that weakened central control, politically favouring Shiites and Kurds and marginalising Sunni Arabs. This paved the way for Iraq's subsequent slide into chaos. The Syrian conflict now threatens to spill over into Iraq, where Baghdad still faces its own internal divisions. But Iraq's rising oil production and revenues could make it a strong enough power to once again become a geopolitical buffer zone for the world's key oil producing region.