27. Dr Ghassan Jawad Kadhim - Still ‘The Last Optimist In Baghdad‘?

My guest today is Dr Ghassan Jawad Kadhim, who is a political advisor and analyst of politics of the Middle East. His expertise lies in his own homeland, Iraq, where he has spent nearly twenty years supporting dialogue and development. He has worked extensively with local as well as international actors on diverse projects seeking to promote national reconciliation, co-existence, and peacebuilding. He has served as an adviser on anti-corruption, security, and political stability.

Ghassan is one of those people who seems to know everyone and is never far from decision makers. His enthusiasm to get things done has been publicly recognised in a book written about his life and contribution to Iraq by Dr Brian Brivati, a British historian, in his 2016 book ‘The Last Optimist In Baghdad’.

Some of the topics we covered are:

• Becoming the ‘Key-maker’
• Ghassan’s personal experience of torture at the hands of his own countrymen
• The power of perspective in shaping narratives
• The complexity of Iraq
• The progressive destabilisation of Iraq over decades
• Issues with domestic leaders and why they are stifling progress
• Complexity of governance in Iraq
• The birth and impact of ISIS
• Interests of regional and global actors
• Possible ‘redrawing’ of maps of Iraq and the region
• Was the invasion of 2003 worth it?
• The ‘curse’ of oil
• What the future holds for Iraq