In Search of Institutional Order: Can the Shi'a Marja'iyya Depart from Traditional Limits and Unlock the Future Potential?

Dr Abbas Kadhim (Atlantic Council) gives a talk for the Middle East Centre seminar series, charied by Toby Matthiesen (St Antony's College). Dr. Abbas Kadhim leads the Atlantic Council Iraq Initiative. He is an Iraq expert and author of Reclaiming Iraq: The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State. He earned a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. The subject of his dissertation was Shia political theology in Baghdad in the 5th A.H./11th C.E. century. Most recently, he was a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He was formerly an assistant professor of Islamic and Middle East studies at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and a visiting assistant professor at Stanford University. He also previously held a senior government affairs position at the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, DC. His books include Governance in the Middle East and North Africa and The Hawza Under Siege: Studies in the Ba’th Party Archive.