Dr Haian Dukhan is an Associate Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews/Centre for Syrian Studies. He also teaches Middle Eastern Politics at the University of Edinburgh. He previously taught at the University of Leicester and the University of St Andrews. His research focuses on tribal affiliations in the Middle East attempting to relate these local patterns to the wider political system in the region. Over the past two years, Haian Dukhan has been engaged in in a joint research project at the University of St Andrews and Aarhus University on the instrumentalization of sectarianism by regime, opposition, extremist groups and by competitive external powers in the Syrian conflict.
Dukhan is the author of State and Tribes in Syria: Informal Alliances and Conflict Patterns (Routledge, 2019). The main aim of the book is to explore the relationship between the state and the tribes in contemporary Syria. The book critiques traditional state-centric approaches to conflict. It also recognises the importance of local communities in the process of peace building following the conflict. The book has received many good reviews so far by different distinguished academics and journalists interested in the Syrian Conflict. He also published policy papers and op-ed pieces with leading research centres and think-tanks including Chatham House and Carnegie Middle East. He participated in several international conferences and gave lectures at different academic institutions such as LSE, University of Oxford, Uppsala University, Bergen University and others.