Yahia Said is a research officer with the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the LSE. He escaped Iraq with his family in 1979. He was an active member of the Iraqi students' movement in exile.

Recent articles

As politicians squabble in Baghdad, does a gathering of Iraqis in Cairo more truly represent the country’s interests?

Will war or politics prevail in Iraq? Two months before the planned elections, Iraqi civil society scholar Yahia Said tells openDemocracy’s Caspar Henderson that he can glimpse “a small window of opportunity amidst this cycle of occupation, alienation and violence”.

Six months after their first trip to post-Saddam Iraq, Mary Kaldor and Yahia Said return to find that trust in the coalition has collapsed. They assess the nature of the violence and the likelihood of overcoming it. A catastrophe is possible but not necessary, is the conclusion to their report, from which we publish this extract.

The arrest of the Iraqi dictator presents a huge opportunity to the country’s new political figures. Can they seize it?

Yahia Said, responding to Mazin Ezzat, reaffirms his belief that the reactions of Iraq's people to the violence around them will decide the country's future.