New book by Prof. Pejman Abdolmohammadi (University of Trento)

We are glad to announce the new book Contemporary Domestic and Foreign Policies of Iran by Prof. Pejman Abdolmohammadi (University of Trento), co-authored with Prof. Giampiero Cama (University of Genova). The book has been published by Palgrave-Mcmillan, as part of the Middle East Today book series.

New book by
Dr Pejman Abdolmohammadi

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the domestic and foreign politics of Iran, focusing on its complex nature from political, social and cultural perspectives. It has adopted a multidisciplinary approach, combining comparative politics and intellectual and modern history with international relations. It analyses the institutional structure of the Islamic Republic, the main political and social actors and alliances, as well as Iranian opposition forces both inside and outside the country. The book tries to simplify the seemingly intractable complexity of the Islamic Republic by demystifying it and using political science methods to prove that it is a peculiar hybrid regime.

Dr Pejman Abdolmohammadi is a Senior Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern Studies at the School of International Studies, leading the Causes of Conflict Pathway at the University of Trento.


IMSISS Students Launch New Virtual Think Tank

IMSISS students have spent the summer developing their own virtual Think Tank to complement and showcase their learning on the degree programme. The new Think Tank has been named The Security Distillery and is intended to be an initiative from young researchers for (young) researchers. The students work collectively to commission, write, peer review and edit the articles that are published on the Think Tank's website.

"WE AIM TO TURN COMPLEX ISSUES INTO SIMPLE MATTERS IN ORDER TO PROVIDE QUALITY, ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS AND RESEARCHERS".

The Security Distillery will be open to new students joining the programme in September 2018 and it is hoped that students from the different intakes will work together to further the initiative and build a dynamic, engaging and thought provoking contribution in the online security studies sector. As the students comment on the website "We aim to turn complex issues into simple matters in order to provide quality, accessible information for students and researchers". They go on to say, "In the dynamic field of security studies, we intend to distill the essence of complicated issues into digestible amounts of comprehensible information, without oversimplifying or losing nuance. Our content is structured regionally and thematically, ranging from cyber security to terrorism, and from Asian to Central American politics".

 

The Security Distillery is entirely independently edited by the students on the IMSISS programme and over the coming months the IMSISS programme hopes to support the students to showcase some of the research analysis and commentary at special events in Glasgow, Dublin and Prague, as well as via the IMSISS social media channels. The first articles published cover a range of thematic areas, including 'Drone Warfare', 'European Energy Security', 'the US Intelligence Community', and the 'Role and Security implications of Big Data in the modern world'. More articles and analysis will be published in the coming weeks and months.

You can view The Security Distillery website by visiting https://securitydistillery.org

The Security Distillery can also be found on facebook and twitter.

You can contact the Security Distillery's editorial team at Contact Us — The Security Distillery