Shivan Fazil is a senior researcher at the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani’s (AUIS). Prior to joining IRIS, he was a researcher with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute based in Stockholm. His work focuses on governance, state-society relations and peace and conflict dynamics in Iraq and  spans a decade working with, amongst others, SIPRI (2020-2024), United States Institute of Peace (2019-2020), Oxfam GB (2017), and Middle East Research Institute (2015-2016). He has conducted fieldwork using mixed method research across Iraq gauging the perceptions of different segments of the population including the vulnerable such as youth and ethnic and religious minorities. He frequently provides expert insights to international news outlets about the social, economic and political conditions in post-conflict Iraq. Fazil holds a MSc in Middle Eastern Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London as a Chevening Scholar.

 

Peer Reviewed

• Fazil, S., & Connelly, M. (2023). Civil disobedience and lawfare: Protest movement and contentious politics in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 1–22. DOI: 10.1111/sena.12402
• Kamaran Palani & Shivan Fazil (2023) Fluid State-Building in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Taking Advantage of the 2003 U.S.-Led Invasion, International Peacekeeping, 30:5, 642-667, DOI: 10.1080/13533312.2023.2236925
• Fazil, S., (2023). Integrating Culture into Return Migration Programming, Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration, Vol. 11., No.1. 
• Baser, B., Fazil, S. (2022). “They Hear Us But They Do Not Listen to Us”: Youth Narratives on Hope and Despair in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.  International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 16 1-12. doi: 10.11576/ijcv-5826
• Fazil, S. and Baser, B. (2021). Kurdish Youth as Agents of Change: Political Participation, Looming Challenges, and Future Predictions. In Fazil, Shivan & Baser, Bahar (Eds.), Youth Identity, Politics and Change in Contemporary Kurdistan. London: Transnational Press London.

 

Policy Publications

• Post-conflict reconstruction in the Nineveh Plains of Iraq. SIPRI Policy Paper, November 2022. 

• Reimagining the Social Contract in Iraq, UNDP Policy Report, May 2022. 
• Iraq: Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet, NUPI-SIPRI Factsheet, April 2022.

• Reform within the system: governance in Iraq and Lebanon. SIPRI Policy Paper, December 2021. 
• Fixing the Economy and Public Service Provision in Iraq, SIPRI Policy Brief, December 2021. 
• Armed conflict and peace processes in Iraq, Syria and Turkey, Chapter, SIPRI Yearbook 2022.
• Armed conflict and peace processes in Iraq, Syria and Turkey Chapter, SIPRI Yearbook 2021. 
• Protest and State–Society Relations in the Middle East and North Africa, SIPRI Policy Paper, October 2020. 

 

Commentaries and Opinion

• Addressing challenges to tolerance and religious diversity in Iraq, Middle East Institute, June 2023. 
• Understanding the Roots of the Younger Generations’ Despair in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Arab Reform Initiative, April 2023. 
• Iraq’s new government must deliver results quickly, or fall, the New Arab, November 2022. 

• The Political Marginalisation of Ethnic and Religious Minorities in Iraq, Manara Magazine, March 2022. 
• Why Climate Change Will Exacerbate Inequalities and Grievances in Iraq, New Security Beat Blog, May 2022. 
• Government Formation in Gridlock while Iraq Faces an Array of Challenges, LSE Middle East Centre Blog, February 2022.  
• Protests in the MENA: cultural narratives and social upward mobility, Università della Svizzera italiana, August 2022. 
• Iraqis go to the polls on October 10. What happens next? Euronews, October 2021. 
• Cultural reconstruction is critical after Islamic State occupation, SIPRI, November 2020.
• The resurgence of the Islamic State in Iraq: Political and military responses, SIPRI, June 2020. 
• Iraqi Kurdistan’s parliamentary elections: Inflection point or plateau?, Atlantic Council. October 2018.