Kamaran Mohammad Palani is a Research Fellow at the Middle Eastern Research Institute (MERI). He has an MA in Global Security from Keele University in the UK. He has worked for various local and international NGOs and research centers, including Al Mesalla, Peace and Freedom Organization in Kurdistan, PAX, and the at Salahaddin University-Erbil. His research interests include de facto statehood in the international system, post-war security issues, state-building and democratization in Iraq and the Kurdistan region.