Mako Delivers Lecture on Conflict Dynamics in Iraq
On April 16, 2021, Shamiran Mako, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, delivered a lecture as part of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) at the University of Arizona’s Spring 2021 colloquium series.
During her lecture, titled “Setup to Fail: The Institution Origins of Communal Conflict in Iraq,” Mako discussed the relationship between state institutions, exclusion, and ethnic conflict in Iraq by situating its evolution along a historical continuum of ethnic elite state capture throughout three time periods: colonial state formation, the Ba’athist era, and post-2003. Mako illustrated why historical legacies of institutionalized exclusion in divided authoritarian polities shape conflict dynamics across time and during political ruptures where the adoption of more inclusive institutional choices could have bolstered inter-ethnic cohesion and amicable state-society relations.
Details of Mako’s lecture and the CMES colloquium series can be found.
Shamiran Mako is an assistant professor of international relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. She is also a member of the Graduate Faculty at the Political Science Department at Boston University. Her research explores the historical and contemporary drivers of inter and intra-state conflicts that produce weak and fragile states across the MENA region. She is the author of After the Uprisings: Progress and Stagnation in the Middle East and North Africa, with Valentine Moghadam (forthcoming June 2021). Read more about Professor Mako on her faculty profile.