Dr Shiraz Maher
Dr Shiraz Maher is a lecturer in non-state actors within the Department of War Studies and also serves as Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), an academic research centre within the department. He is a historian by training and is primarily interested in the development of Islamic political thought, particularly the use of theology by reactionary and militant movements. Dr Maher also works on the Syrian Civil War, the internationalising of the conflict, and the foreign fighter phenomenon. More recently, he has been looking at how non-state actors provide alternative administration in newly ungoverned spaces across the Middle East and North Africa. He is also interested in Saudi Arabia and its plans for reform under Vision 2030.
On the 9 year anniversary of the Westgate attack, this Perspective takes stock of recent political developments and the evolution of the threat from al-Shabaab within both Somalia and Kenya.
This perspective analyses the recent ECtHR ruling and explains its impact on the policy of European countries to repatriate children that are still in the Northeast Syria camps.
This Perspective will assess five common predictions of the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan when they took over a year ago and consider whether things turned out as badly as many believed.