In what was only meant to be a three month trip, Emma Sky travelled to Iraq in 2003 having volunteered to help rebuild the country immediately after the invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein. She soon found herself as a political advisor to the US military and three months turned into a decade.
Over her time in Iraq she witnessed the American efforts to transform the country, the insurgencies and slide into civil war, the planning and implementation of the surge, the subsequent drawdown of US troops, and finally the takeover of a third of the country by the Islamic State.
Sky will be joining us in conversation with The Guardian‘s Middle East editor, Ian Black to share her unique insight into the US military, and the complexities, diversity and evolution of Iraqi society as documented in her new book The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq.
Emma Sky is a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute. She worked in the Middle East for twenty years and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services in Iraq.
