The LSE Middle East Centre and the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit : *The Struggle for Iraq's Future* 7 May, LSE

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The LSE Middle East Centre and the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit are pleased to invite you to…

The Struggle for Iraq’s Future

Date: Wednesday 7 May 2014
Time: 6.30-8.00 pm
Venue: NAB1.04, New Academic Building
Speaker: Zaid Al-Ali
Discussant: Professor Toby Dodge, LSE
Chair: Professor Mary Kaldor, LSE

In this public lecture, launching Zaid Al-Ali’s new book The Struggle for Iraq’s Future, the author provides a uniquely insightful interpretation of Iraq’s nation-building progress in the wake of the 2003 war. Al-Ali argues that the 2005 constitution is illegitimate and established a system of government that was so extreme that it could never be implemented, creating a void that the country has been struggling to fill since. The people’s trust, he contends, has been betrayed by all segments of Iraq’s ruling elites who have negotiated the formation of government on the basis of personal self-interest, patronage and deceit. Al-Ali argues that the solution lies in establishing a road map for reform that should be imposed on the ruling parties by all the major components of civil society.  

 

Zaid Al-Ali is Senior Adviser on Constitution Building at International IDEA.  He has been practicing law since 1999, specializing in comparative constitutional law and international commercial arbitration. From 2005 to 2010, he was a legal adviser to the United Nations focusing on constitutional, parliamentary and judicial reform in Iraq.  Since the beginning of 2011, he has been working on constitutional reform throughout the Arab region, in particular in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. 

Toby Dodge is Director of the LSE Middle East Centre, a Reader in the International Relations Department at LSE, and a Senior Consulting Fellow for the Middle East, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London. 

Mary Kaldor is Director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit and Professor of Global Governance at the LSE.

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For any queries email i.spyratou@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7955 6419.
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