Lecture 3: The Origins of ISIS in Iraq
A welcome speech will be delivered by Nikos C. Sofianos, President of the Hellenic Alumni Association, LSE (HAALSE).
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Speaker:
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Toby Dodge, Professor of International Relations, LSE; Director of Middle East Centre, LSE
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Chair:
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Spyros Economides, Director of the Hellenic Observatory, LSE; Associate Professor in European Politics and International Relations, LSE
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Discussant:
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Thanos Dokos, Director General of Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
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Date:
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Thursday 16 March 2017
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Time:
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19:00
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Venue:
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Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall (Αίθουσα Δημήτρης Μητρόπουλος), Megaron, Athens, Greece
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This lecture will examine the birth and reasons for the growth of the Islamic State or in Arabic ad-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fīl-ʻIraq wa ash-Shām, or Daʿesh. The organisation was formed in Iraq in 2006 at the height of the civil war that engulfed the country after the US-led invasion and regime change of 2003. The organisation reached the peak of its power after the US withdrew from Iraq, seizing the country’s second largest city, Mosul, in June 2014. The military campaign against the Islamic State has succeeded in dramatically reducing the territory it holds in both Iraq and Syria. However, the Islamic State is best understood as a violent symptom of a set of much deeper, primarily political problems that have plagued Iraq since 2003. If these problems are not sorted out then a new equally radical and violent organisation may well take the Islamic State’s place.
A full summary of the lecture and photos from the event will follow.