Book Launch & Author Talk: Zaid Al-Ali, "The Struggle for Iraq’s Future: How Corruption, Incompetence and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy"

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies Outreach Program is pleased to present an author talk by

Zaid Al-Ali
Senior Adviser on Constitution Building, International IDEA

Moderated by Noah Feldman, Bemis Professor of International Law, Harvard Law School

About the event:

• A limited number of free copies of The Struggle for Iraq's Future will be available on a first come, first served basis to Harvard students attending this talk (please have your Harvard ID available).
• This is a brown bag (bring-your-own) lunch event. Cookies and beverages provided.

About the author:
Zaid Al-Ali is Senior Adviser on Constitution Building at International IDEA. He has been practicing law since 1999, specializing in international commercial arbitration and comparative constitutional law. He has law degrees from Harvard Law School, the Université de Paris I (Sorbonne), and King’s College London. 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. He has published widely on Iraq and on constitutional law.

About The Struggle for Iraq’s Future: How Corruption, Incompetence and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy:

Many Westerners have offered interpretations of Iraq’s nation-building progress in the wake of the 2003 war and the eventual withdrawal of American troops from the country, but little has been written by Iraqis themselves. This forthright book fills in the gap. Zaid al-Ali, an Iraqi lawyer with direct ties to the people of his homeland, to government circles, and to the international community, provides a uniquely insightful and up-to-date view of Iraq’s people, their government, and the extent of their nation’s worsening problems. The true picture is discouraging: murderous bombings, ever-increasing sectarianism, and pervasive government corruption have combined to prevent progress on such crucial issues as security, healthcare, and power availability. Al-Ali contends that the ill-planned U.S. intervention destroyed the Iraqi state, creating a black hole which corrupt and incompetent members of the elite have made their own. And yet, despite all efforts to divide them, Iraqis retain a strong sense of national identity, al-Ali maintains. He reevaluates Iraq’s relationship with itself, discusses the inspiration provided by the events of the Arab Spring, and redefines Iraq’s most important struggle to regain its viability as a nation.

Contact: Sarah Meyrick

As a Title VI National Resource Center, CMES is partially funding this program with U.S. Department of Education grant funds. The content of this program does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education.