Is what is happening in Syria signaling the end of the preventing violent extremism research and policy programme?

Over the past several years, I’ve conducted extensive research on violent extremism in Iraq and the region. This work shows that those who joined ISIS were never a monolithic group,...

Join us for the launch of Dr Malika Zeghal's latest book, The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa.

🗓️ 28 January
⏰ 7:00-8:30 pm
📍 Wolfson Theatre, LSE

https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/events/2026/the-making-of-the-modern-muslim-state

Iraq’s system endures not because of its structural efficacy but through the interaction of three mechanisms operating over time: Identity Reconfiguration, Legitimacy Erosion, and Priority Divergence.’ By Kamaran Palani
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I was quoted in this piece by Winthrop Rodgers: “The region has never really escaped the legacy of dictatorship, and in Syria, it has worsened. The old Baathist denial of Kurdish rights is back, now reinforced by ethnic chauvinism and religious extremism.”

Two years ago, the fear of confronting Iran centered on its capacity to destabilise the wider region, from Beirut and Baghdad to Sanaa and Damascus. Today, the fight against the Islamic Republic is happening at home, in its very streets, exactly what the authorities worked for decades to prevent.

Join us on Saturday, February 14, for PeaceRep Iraq's final conference, 'Reframing Iraq: Power, Politics, and Paths to Inclusion'.

@lsemiddleeast.bsky.social @peacerep.bsky.social

www.lse.ac.uk//middle-east...

NEW from me in @thenewarab.bsky.social: Kurds around the world are watching events in Aleppo and Iran with outrage and trepidation. They reinforce both the centrality of Kurds in the changes taking place in the Middle East and the precarity of their position.
www.newarab.com/analysis/ale...

What happens to refugees when they can finally leave the camp? For PeaceRep–Iraq, @kamaranpalani.bsky.social examines the challenges residents of Syria's Al-Hol camp face attempting to integrate in Iraq blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2025/10/...

2) 'Why Kurds in Syria Are Unlikely to Follow the Iraqi Kurdistan Path to Autonomy' by @kamaranpalani.bsky.social

blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2025/02/...