Iraq Inquiry Committee to hear views of experts

02 November 2009

Iraq Inquiry committee members will hear directly from a range of experts on Iraq in a series of forthcoming seminars. These seminars reflect the committee’s desire to hear a wide range of views on the UK’s involvement in Iraq 2001-2009 and to get to the heart of the complex issues involved. They will help inform the committee’s approach to its work ahead of the public hearings in late November.

The first seminar will cover The Evolution of International Policy towards Iraq 1990-2003, and Iraq and the Region on the Eve of the 2003 Invasion. The second seminar will examine The Causes and Consequences of Iraq’s Descent into Violence after the Initial Invasion.

Panel members for the seminar on November the 5th are; Professor Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute; Dr Toby Dodge, reader in international politics at Queen Mary University, London; Professor Charles Tripp, professor of politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies; and George Joffe, a lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University.

Dr Dodge is also on the panel for the seminar on the 10th of November. He will be joined by Patrick Cockburn, author and Iraq Correspondent for the Independent, and Professor Gareth Stansfield, professor of Middle East Politics in the Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies at Exeter University.