Dr. Myriam Benraad
Middle East politics, contemporary jihadism and political violence, sectarianism and identity politics, foreign intervention and post-conflict reconstruction, state formation and political authority, and digital violence in contemporary societies.
Myriam Benraad is a political scientist specializing in the Middle East, with particular expertise in Iraq, contemporary jihadism, and the political and social transformations of the Arab world. She is a researcher at the Institute for Research and Studies on the Arab and Muslim World (IREMAM, CNRS), an honorary professor at the University of Exeter, and a lecturer in political science and international relations.
She holds a degree from the Institut d’études politiques, where she graduated in 2002, and a PhD in political science, awarded in 2011. Her doctoral research examined the sociopolitical experiences of Sunni Arab communities in Iraq during the American occupation, providing a foundation for her subsequent work on the evolution of political authority, conflict, and state formation in the country.
An early scholar of the Islamic State, Benraad has extensively examined its emergence, consolidation of power, and role in reshaping Iraq’s political and security landscape. Her research addresses the dynamics of contemporary jihadism, foreign intervention, sectarian politics, post-conflict reconstruction, and the broader challenges facing societies across the Middle East. Her work also extends to emerging forms of digital violence, including cyberbullying and cyberstalking, and the implications of these developments for governance and society.
Benraad has held academic positions at Leiden University and has contributed to policy-oriented research and advisory work, including consultations for the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the French Ministry of Defense on issues relating to Iraq’s reconstruction. She has also undertaken professional and scholarly service through the French Political Science Association, the Middle East Studies Association, and the International Center for Counter-Terrorism.
Her publications include The Islamic State in Its Own Words (Armand Colin, 2017); Iraq: The Revenge of History. From Foreign Occupation to the Islamic State (Vendémiaire, 2015); and Iraq: From Babylon to the Islamic State. Received Ideas on a Complex Nation (Le Cavalier Bleu, 2015). Her work has received recognition in France, including finalist nominations for the Brienne Prize for Geopolitical Writing and the Worlds at War, Worlds at Peace Award in 2015.
Through her academic research, publications, and policy engagement, Benraad contributes to scholarly and public debates on Iraq, political violence, jihadism, and the evolving political dynamics of the Middle East.
