The Dodgy Dossier, the Iraq War, and Me | Ibrahim al-Marashi | TEDxIEMadrid

Ibrahim’s talk will deal with the trajectory that began with an article he had written for his doctoral thesis, and its role in the lead up to the Iraq War. On January 30, 2003, the British government released a dossier, titled, “Iraq – Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation.” British Prime Minister Tony Blair had handed Colin Powell, US secretary of state, what he thought was a dossier based on original intelligence material. It was not. What ensued was a series of one step back and two steps forward for the British and American governments and the speaker. Ibrahim Al-Marashi, a professor of history at Cal State University and visiting professor at IE University will discuss this journey. Ibrahim Al-Marashi is Associate Professor of Middle East history at California State University San Marcos and visiting professor at the IE University School of Global and Public Affairs in Madrid, Spain. He obtained his doctorate in Modern History at University of Oxford, completing a thesis on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. His research focuses on 20th century Iraqi history, and currently is focusing on the effects of climate change on the nation. He is co-author of Iraq’s Armed Forces: An Analytical History (Routledge, 2008), and The Modern History of Iraq, with Phebe Marr (Routledge 2017), and A Concise History of the Middle East (Routledge, 2018). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx