Building Sustainable Peace In Iraq

This event was the launch of the special issue 'Building Sustainable Peace in Iraq' published in the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding. Peacebuilding and transitional justice are viewed as integral components of statebuilding in post-conflict spaces. This special issue critically evaluates statebuilding and peacebuilding in Iraq through macro and micro-level analyses of Iraq's political development following foreign-imposed regime change. Ruba Ali Al-Hassani is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Lancaster University's Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion and Project SEPAD. Her research employs interdisciplinary methodologies in the study of state-society relations in Iraq and beyond to centre and amplify voices on the ground in public discourse, analysis, and policy. Ruba's research interests also include the Sociology of Law, transitional justice, crime, social control, and social movements. She has taught Sociology at her alma maters York University and Trent University. Ruba holds an LL.M. in transitional justice, as she completes her Ph.D. at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. She sits on the Board of Directors at the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture and co-founded the Canadian Association for Muslim Women in Law. Ruba wrote the article 'Storytelling: Restorative Approaches to Post-2003 Iraq Peacebuilding' featured in this special issue. Ibrahim Al-Marashi is an Associate Professor of History at California State University San Marcos and Visiting Professor at the IE University School of Global and Public Affairs in Madrid, Spain. He is co-author of Iraq’s Armed Forces: An Analytical History (Routledge, 2008), The Modern History of Iraq, with Phebe Marr (Routledge 2017), and A Concise History of the Middle East (Routledge, 2018). Ibrahim wrote the article 'Demobilization Minus Disarmament and Reintegration: Iraq’s Security Sector from the US Invasion to the Covid-19 Pandemic' featured in this special issue. Shamiran Mako is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Shamiran co-authored the introduction to this special issue 'Evaluating the Pitfalls of External Statebuilding in Post-2003 Iraq (2003–2021)' with Alistair D. Edgar, as well as the article 'Subverting Peace: The Origins and Legacies of de-Ba’athification in Iraq'. Toby Dodge is a Professor in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics. His publications include Iraq: From War to a New Authoritarianism (Abingdon: Routledge) and Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied (New York and London: Columbia University Press and Hurst & Co). He has published papers in Nations and Nationalism, Historical Sociology, The Review of International Studies, International Affairs, International Peacekeeping and Third World Quarterly. Toby wrote the article 'The Failure of Peacebuilding in Iraq: The Role of Consociationalism and Political Settlements' featured in this special issue.