Mako Joins Panel Exploring Future of New Iraqi Government
On December 1, 2022, Shamiran Mako, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, participated in a webinar hosted by the Arab Center Washington D.C. on the challenges facing Iraq’s new government.
Mako joined a panel of fellow regional experts, which featured Zeidon Alkinani, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC; Marsin Alshamary, Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Middle East Initiative; Rend Al-Rahim, former Iraqi Ambassador to the United States; and Muhanad Seloom, Assistant Professor in Critical Security Studies at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
The webinar, titled “Iraq at a Crossroads: Challenges and Prospects Facing the New Government,” explored the future of the new Iraqi government, the challenges facing the country, and the impact of Prime Minister Al-Sudani’s government on regional and international relations. In her remarks, Mako detailed the significance of foreign intervention by diverse actors for Iraqi sovereignty. She focused on the Turkish and Iranian military intervention and the 2003 U.S. invasion and subsequent military interventions, which she argued led to fragmentation on multiple levels. In discussing the future role of the U.S. in Iraq, Mako argues “there needs to be this kind of collective shift in what the US prioritizes, in the way in which it starts to rethink social capacity building, economic reforms, and bolstering national unity as important mechanisms for strengthening long-term strategic outcomes because these things inherently mean that they will also strengthen Iraq’s domestic stability and sovereign control.”
A recording of the event can be viewed below or on the Arab Center Washinton D.C. website.
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. Read more about Professor Mako on her faculty profile.