News & Events
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REVIEW: The Struggle for Iraq’s Future
February 11, 2015
MILITARY REVIEW: “Al-Ali pulls no punches when describing the incompetence and ignorance of the U.S. government, military, contractors, and businessmen who did much to create an environment in which the violent extremists and the incompetence and corru …
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PODCAST: What went wrong with the Arab Spring?
January 28, 2015
THE FINANCIAL TIMES: Zaid al-Ali, expert in the rule of law and constitutional affairs in the Arab world, talks to Borzou Daragahi, FT Middle East correspondent, about what went wrong with the pro-democracy revolutions of the Arab Spring four years ago …
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REVIEW: The best Middle East political science books of 2014
December 29, 2014
THE WASHINGTON POST: This furious, analytically acute book traces how and why Iraq failed to consolidate into a democratic state following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Ali’s primary academic and professional focus is on the constitution, and he lay …
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QUOTE: The Islamic State is waging war on technocrats
December 29, 2014
THE GLOBAL POST: “[From the point of view of the Islamic State] they’re basically the worst of the possible traitors,” says Zaid al-Ali, a former legal advisor to the United Nations in Iraq. “Theoretically it’s because they don’t recognize Iraqi law. F …
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REVIEW: Dividing a nation
December 1, 2014
Iraqis living in the west have often sought to influence the political debate about their country’s current affairs, the policy decisions of western governments towards Iraq, or some mix of the two. These politicised members of the diaspora have almos …
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REVIEW: A City of Two Tales
November 21, 2014
The Struggle for Iraq’s Future: How Corruption, Incompetence and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy, by Zaid Al-Ali. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014. Negotiating in Civil Conflict: Constitutional Construction and Imperfect Bargaining in …
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REVIEW: Review by Andrew Arato of The Struggle for Iraq’s Future
November 21, 2014
Haider Ala Hamoudi. Negotiating in Civil Conflict. Constitutional Construction and Imperfect Bargaining in Iraq. University of Chicago Press, 2013. Pp. 382. $35. ISBN: 9780226068824. Zaid Al-Ali. The Struggle for Iraq’s Future. How Corruption, Incompet …
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VIDEO: Can Iraq Unite?
September 10, 2014
Will the naming of Iraq’s new government mark a turning point in the fight against the Islamic state group? Parliament has approved the government of new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Shiite-dominated, but with Sunnis and Kurds in his cabinet, Abadi …
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REVIEW: Iraq: The Outlaw State
September 5, 2014
“Zaid al-Ali’s [book is a] well-researched study of how Iraq has gotten into its current, worsening, and possibly terminal mess. The Struggle for Iraq’s Future is not a pretty story. Indeed it seems to be populated entirely by villains, from Saddam Hus …
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QUOTE: Response to Attack Reflects Iraq’s Sectarian Divide
August 24, 2014
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Zaid al-Ali, a former legal adviser to the United Nations in Iraq and the author of a book on Iraq’s future, said the American insistence on inclusive politics was misguided. Iraq’s recent governments have included representatives f …
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