Guest Speakers
Dr. Mostafa Khalili
(Visiting research fellow at the Institute of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Studies at Sophia University)
&
Akiko Yoshioka
(Senior analyst of JIME Center – Institute of Energy Economics, Japan)
Moderator
Prof. Keiko Sakurai
(Waseda University)
The fourth Majlis@Waseda 18:00-19:30 (JST) 08th November 2022
Venue: Waseda University, Waseda Campus, Building 3, Room 801.
Spread across four countries of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, the Kurds comprise the biggest nation without a state in the Middle East. For the last several decades, their strive for self-determination in each of those states has continued in various forms, from armed resistance and social movements to media activism. The conflict within one state occasionally has spread to the regional context and influenced the geopolitical balance in the greater Middle East. The new dynamics in the region after the emergence of the Islamic State made the Kurds more visible in world politics. However, despite these developments, the prospects for achieving conflict resolution have not improved either at the regional or any state levels.
The 4th Majlis will discuss the new dynamics of the Kurdish issue in the Middle East from a socio-political perspective. Some questions which will be addressed to the speakers are:
How have the regional geopolitical shifts in the last decade influenced the Kurdish issue and vice versa?
What happened after the ill-fated Kurdish referendum on independence from Iraq?
What are the similarities and differences in the reaction of different states to the new dynamics of the Kurdish issue?
How do the Kurdish armed groups activate cross-border ties to strengthen their resilience?
How is everyday life affected in the highly securitized borderlands dividing the so-called Kurdistan?
About the guest speakers
Dr. Mostafa Khalili is a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Studies at Sophia University, Tokyo. His research interest is to explore ethnicity and minority nationalism from an anthropological angle, particularly in the context of politically unstable regions. He is an expert on the Kurd’s trans-border relations with an extensive field research experience in the tri-border region of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey.
Akiko Yoshioka is a senior analyst of JIME Center – Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, and specializes in contemporary Iraqi politics. She has often traveled to the Iraqi Kurdistan region since 2012 and studied relations between the state and the autonomous region from the perspective of governance in a fragile state.
