The summer of 2014 saw an explosion of violence in the Middle East. Geopolitically, the advance of the Islamic State and the emergence of a de facto independent Iraqi Kurdistan are the most important recent developments. Any way out of the quagmire will now require a grand bargain – one that establishes a new security order in the whole region, draws borders accordingly and offers transitional justice to the victims of the many atrocities that have taken place.
Steven Blockmans is Senior Research Fellow at CEPS and Head of the EU Foreign Policy research programme.
