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Ten years after the fall of Saddam's regime, Iraq is still entangled in a difficult reconstruction process which presents bright opportunities but also a series of daunting challenges threatening the very future of the country.
In the past decade the "new Iraq" underwent one of the bloodiest civil wars of the new century while laying the foundations for creation of a democratic system that staged 6 elections in 8 years. Despite a persistent lack of basic services, the country witnessed an oil-led economic growth which is poised to transform it into one of the fastest-developing economies in the world. Baghdad also succeeded in regaining its formal independence with the completion of US troop withdrawal in December 2011, its removal from Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, the restoration of formal ties with its neighbours and the significant (albeit not complete) curtailing of their meddling in Iraqi affairs.
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Unfortunately, despite these important results, the recent history of the "land of the two rivers" has underlined the existence of multiple threats that could derail the reconstruction process begun in 2003. While the current levels of violence cannot be compared with those seen during the peaks of the conflict, the recent wave of attacks registered in July made it the bloodiest month in the country since 2008. At the same time, the economy continues to be dominated by
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state-owned companies and by the oil sector, with private Iraqi enterprises unable to compete with foreign firms even in the agricultural sector. And, finally, there are problems with Iraqi political institutions, whose effectiveness has been severely paralysed by the continuous infighting of its main socio-political actors as well as by the effects of the regional Saudi-Iranian-Turkish competition.
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