University of Otago Middle East expert Prof Bill Harris returns to Catalyst to flesh out recent developments in this fractious arena.
He will discuss how ISIS is shrinking in Syria and Iraq. In western Syria, Russia, Turkey and Iran are uneasy partners during a lull between the regime and the rebels. In eastern Syria, the Syrian regime, the US, Russia, Iran, and the Kurds look to fill the ISIS space.
In Iraq, a big question mark hangs over the devastated Sunni Arab provinces, while the Kurdish Regional Government plans an independence referendum and Iranian influence overshadows the Shia Arab parties that dominate the federal government in Baghdad.
Meantime in Turkey, President Erdoǧan heads for one man rule, divisions become more inflamed, and evolution is out of the high school curriculum.
Register at connect@catalystnz.org. $5 koha at door. Please carpool if possible.
Note: This talk was planned for Thursday 13 July but, due to weather affecting our speaker’s travel plans, it has been rescheduled to Tuesday 18 July.
Prof Harris was in Turkey in April this year, at the time of the referendum on enhanced presidential power and has travelled, researched and studied throughout the Middle East.
He is the author of Lebanon: A History 600-2011 (New York, Oxford University Press, 2015) and The Levant: A Fractured Mosaic (Princeton, Markus Wiener Publishers, 4th edition 2015), both of which have gained Choice Magazine outstanding academic title awards.
