Feisal al-Istrabadi stood at his window, marveling at the magnificent Manhattan skyline. 83 floors below, the city began to stir. Across the street stood the United Nations Headquarters, where he was serving as an ambassador from Iraq. Since moving to New York, he often caught himself admiring that alluring horizon. Each time he did, just like he did that day in 2004, he would remind himself that, like all diplomatic posts, this was only temporary.
As a natural born citizen of both the United States and Iraq, Istrabadi, now an IU professor, spent his childhood in both countries. At 1 year old, his family returned to their home country, Iraq.
“There was a period of great instability in Iraq for about 10 years, a number of coup d'états, some of which were successful,” Istrabadi said. “So, I always say my parents went back and forth depending on who led the last coup d'etat in Iraq.”
The last coup d'état in Iraq occurred the summer of 1968, which brought the Arab Socialist Baath Party to power. Consequently, Istrabadi’s parents left the country again.
“In 1970, my parents left Iraq again for what turned out to be the last time,” he said.
Istrabadi spent his eighth birthday in Bloomington, while his mother worked toward a doctorate degree at Indiana University. Like his mother, Istrabadi went on to attend IU. He first received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1986, then his first law degree from what is now known as the Maurer School of Law in 1988.
During his 15 years practicing law in Northwest Indiana and Chicago, Istrabadi became more involved in Iraqi politics. In the years leading up to the 2003 war in Iraq, Istrabadi began working closely with Dr. Adnan Pachachi, who was serving as a member to the Presidency of the Iraqi Governing Council. The two ideologically connected and worked in opposition to the previous regime.
“This was sort of a hobby,” Istrabadi said.
In 2003, when Pachachi was appointed chair of Iraq’s interim constitution drafting committee, he asked Istrabadi, then his legal advisor, to come to Iraq and help. In the end, Istrabadi became a principal legal drafter of Iraq’s interim constitution, even authoring the Iraqi Bill of Rights.
“It was a very exciting time. When I look back on it, it was a very tiring time, but you didn't feel it when you were doing it,” Istrabadi said.
By June 2003, after regular travel between his work in Baghdad and taking cases to trial in the U.S., Istrabadi decided to leave his law practice.
“I didn't know what I was going to do, but I wanted to have something to do with the effort to rebuild Iraq,” Istrabadi said.
After completing the draft for Iraq’s interim constitution, Pachachi nominated Istrabadi to the position of ambassador and deputy permanent representative of Iraq at the UN. A month prior to his official diplomatic appointment, Istrabadi assisted in the negotiations for U.N. Security Council Resolution 1546, adopted in June 2004, which recognized Iraq’s reassertion of its sovereignty. Istrabadi shared why this was a critical resolution.
“I don't know that any other lawyer uses it, but I always say Iraq's sovereignty became dormant,” Istrabadi said. “So, Resolution 1546 was our effort, and the American effort, to find ways of restoring Iraq's sovereignty in a formal way.”
He noted it’s important to remember Iraq had been a pariah state for at least 13 years.
“Now we had…a sort of total state collapse. What was left of the state was dismantled by the American administrator in Iraq,” Istrabadi said. “The technical requirements, forget the practical requirements, but the technical requirements for getting Iraq’s sovereignty recognized, we made them up.”
At this point, there were newly existing independent states which had gone through a process of declaring sovereignty in the modern international community, but never a previously recognized state.
“For a state which is a founding member of the United Nations, as Iraq, to have gone through this (process of reasserting sovereignty), this was unprecedented,” Istrabadi said.
Seventeen years later, Istrabadi reflects on his efforts to rebuild Iraq.
“Nothing has gone the way I had hoped,” he said. “I don’t think we have yet succeeded in truly rebuilding the state of Iraq. If we have, it’s a relatively weak state.”
Istrabadi said Iraq has been successful in establishing periodic federal elections and has even had multiple, successful transfers of power in the modern day. Still, the country struggles.
“We still have a relatively weak state, a cacophonous state with militias that are supported in particular by Iran, which are a threat to the cohesion of the state,” he said.
In recent months, there have been negotiations to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. But even after the drawdown, it is likely a number of U.S. troops will remain in Iraq. These negotiations represent a deeper issue: Iraq’s attempt to balance two contrasting allies, the U.S. and Iran.
“If I were still advising people in Iraq, and I don't, I would be saying to them, pick the U.S.,” Istrabadi said. “Anybody who's bet against the U.S. for the last 80 years has lost, including Iraq, multiple times. I fear that the Iraqis are about to make the wrong choice again.”
If all American troops are withdrawn from Iraq, Istrabadi said he hopes Iraq at least continues a strategic cooperation with the U.S.
“The history of American withdrawal from Iraq does not typically end well. A country like Iran will always — no matter who rules Iran and who governs in Iraq — Iran will always want Iraq to be weak, because it's a strategic competitor,” Istrabadi said. “It’s, therefore, in my opinion, a strategic blunder for Iraq to rely on Iran in a strategic sense.”
But Istrabadi said that doesn’t stop Iraq’s temptation to partner with Iran.
“We [Iraq and Iran] have shared culture, shared religion or sect at least,” he said. “We have economic ties, trade and what have you, and that's fine.”
However, he strongly believes in a quote from Robert Frost: ‘good fences make good neighbors.’
Now, Istrabadi is the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He first came to IU in 2007 as a professor at the law school.
“It took a while to get used to,” he said. “You know, the phone doesn't ring as often as it does when you're in that world...it was exciting to sort of be involved, to be somebody who was involved in interacting, at least, with the decision makers when decisions were being made.”
Now, as an academic, Istrabadi embraces the freedom to write and say what he pleases — something he couldn’t do as a diplomat.
“I still think about Iraq, and I still write about Iraq, but it's also not in the headlines as it once was. Over time, I have also just sort of had a natural progression to try to think about the Middle East more broadly, anyway,” Istrabadi said. “And so, there are various things that I do look at, for instance, security issues on the Gulf generally. So, I'm focusing a little more on Iran than I used to.”
Although Iraq is not in the headlines as it once was, Istrabadi said these topics are still worth exploring.
“The world is connected. It may happen over [there], but it has consequences here,” he said. “That may sound to some, a kind of a crude reason to care about other parts of the world, but it's a very practical one. Now, how you respond to what happens over there? That's an entirely different question.”
CORRECTION: This article has been updated with the correct spelling of Feisal al-Istrabadi’s name in the headline.
