Kamaran Palani

Kamaran Palani serves as a Research Associate affiliated with Ulster University and holds the position of Lecturer in International Relations at Salahaddin University-Erbil. His research more broadly focuses on peace and conflict with a specialized focus on the prevention of violent extremism, statehood and sovereignty, and ethnic politics. Kamaran's research portfolio extends to topics such as internal displacement, youth and civil society, education, and the situation of ethno-religious minorities in Iraq. He has published his research in international peer-reviewed journals, including International Peacekeeping, Third World Quarterly, Ethnopolitics, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and International Migration. He is also the author of "Kurdistan's De Facto Statehood: A New Explanatory Framework" (Routledge, 2022).

Kamaran has also actively contributed written analyses on key security and political developments in Iraq and the Middle East, featured across a diverse array of local, regional, and international platforms. Additionally, he has presented and crafted research reports for international organizations, including IOM, World Bank, UNDP, and UNAMI.

He holds a BA in Political Science from Salahaddin University-Erbil in 2009, and an MA in Global Security from Keele University in 2014, and PhD in Governance and Global Affairs at Leiden University in 2021.