Vanda Dahlbom
Analyst in Iraq
Vanda Dahlbom is on secondment from FBA to the EU Advisory Mission in Iraq, where she works as an analyst. The EU mission supports Iraqi authorities with advice and expertise in its efforts to reform the security sector, aiming to strengthen state institutions in order to improve their capacity to deliver security and rule of law.
After the overthrow of long-term dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, a power vacuum was created, paving the way for the creation of the Islamic State (IS). In the summer of 2014, the terrorist group began taking large swaths of Iraq. Following a large-scale counter-offensive, IS was declared defeated in 2017, but remaining IS cells still continue to carry out terror attacks in the country. The Iraqi government lacks the ability to provide its citizens with satisfactory security and basic services, and to carry out successful reconciliation and reconstruction programmes.