Nathaniel Kern - Work On Iraq

Work On Iraq

Kern was a frequent visitor to Iraq during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, at a time when U.S.-Iraqi relations were improving, and was tasked by the U.S. government with maintaining ties with certain key Iraqi officials from 1991 onwards, at a time when the U.S. government maintained a policy of shunning any official contact with the Iraqi government.

He has written extensively for a variety of publications on the future of Iraqi oil production following the invasion of Kuwait, correctly anticipating that Saddam would remain in power and that sanctions would continue for more than a decade thereafter. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, he provided detailed analysis of the difficulties the U.S. would face in the post-invasion phase and of the dire state of the Iraqi oil industry, while his firm pinpointed the consequences of major decisions made by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which are now, but were not at the time, credited with contributing to the failure to achieve post-war stability.

Kern continues to write on Iraqi political developments as well as on the status of Iraq's oil industry.