In Washington, the Brookings Institution is warning the civil war in Iraq could spread throughout the region and disrupt oil production in the Persian Gulf.

Kenneth Pollack, Brookings analyst: “Unfortunately, we are already in Iraq seeing the manifestations of that. There are already domestic disturbances in many of the neighboring states around Iraq. What’s more, all of Iraq’s neighbors are now deeply involved, supporting different proxy groups inside of Iraq, which is the typical first step before large-scale intervention before turning a civil war into a regional war.”

Kenneth Pollack co-wrote the group’s new report titled “Things Fall Apart.”