Lecturer II, Political Science and International Relations
- PhD, University of Oxford
- MA, Georgetown University
- BA, University of California Los Angeles
Ibrahim Al-Marashi completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford, writing a thesis on the 1991 Gulf War, parts of which were plagiarized by the British government on the eve of the 2003 Iraq War. He is an Iraqi-American who has also lived in Yemen, Morocco, Egypt, and Turkey. He is also a visiting lecturer at the US Foreign Service Institute and at the international relations departments at the Catholic University of Milan, John Cabot University of Rome, and IE University in Madrid.
Scholarly Work
A Concise History of the Middle East, 13th edition (Routledge, 2024)
The Modern History of Iraq (Routledge, 2017)
Iraq’s Armed Forces: An Analytical History (Routledge, 2008)
Areas of Interest
Al-Marashi's research interests focus on history and international security in the Middle East and Central Asia, particularly Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan. Other research interests and seminars he has taught include “International Terrorism,” on Al-Qaida and ISIS; “East Africa, India, and the Middle East,” mostly the history of Zanzibar and the Afro-Iraqi community, and the cultures of the monsoon winds;“Drugs and the Middle East,” primarily coffee, tea, and opium; “Media and Politics,” particularly digital media in the Middle East and US; “Visual Arts and Politics,” focusing on art as politics, and how power and conflict are represented in popular culture; “Technology and Politics,” primarily drones, nuclear weapons, and the weaponization of AI; “Catholic-Muslim Interactions,” from Papal diplomacy to Italy and Spain's relationship with the Islamic world; “The Politics of Food, Drugs, and Drinks,” examining gastro-nationalism to how climate change will affect the drug industry; “Hydropolitics,” about access to water, hydro-justice and hydro-terrorism; “Climate and Conflict,” looking at the global oil trade, and the intersection of climate change and insecurity, especially in Yemen and Iraq; “Pandemics, Public Health, and Global Security,” focusing on animal rights and how their exploitation leads to disease outbreaks; "Political Philosophy in the Middle East and Islamic World,” from the medieval Iraqi legal scholar Shaybani to Muslim environmentalism in the 21st century; "Muslims in Europe," particularly in Italy and Austria; Middle Eastern and Muslim women, including Muslim women in Chiapas, Mexico, and finally, "Environmental Humanities and the Mediterranean."