Who we are
Iraq Monitor is built and edited by researchers who have spent years reading Iraq from its primary sources — its politics, its security, its economy and the actors who shape them.
Hamdi MalikPhD
Associate Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Hamdi Malik is an Associate Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a co-founder of its Militia Spotlight platform, which analyses Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.
His research covers Iran’s support for armed groups in Iraq — the ideological, economic and organisational ties between the factions and Tehran — and Iran’s internal politics and foreign policy, including how domestic dynamics shape its conduct abroad.
Crispin SmithJD
National security attorney, Washington, DC
Crispin Smith is a Washington, DC-based national security attorney who leads an initiative designed to impose non-kinetic costs on human rights abusers and great-power competitors.
He is a co-founder of the Militia Spotlight platform at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which analyses Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.
Affiliations listed are each person’s own. Iraq Monitor is independent: it is not a project of, and does not speak for, any institution named on this page.