Sheraz Ibrahim is a lecturer in the Law department at the College of Law and International Relations at Lebanese French University. Sheraz has a demonstrated history of working in higher education institutions. Sheraz is currently a PhD student at University of Lincoln, UK, focusing on Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and Non State actors. She has conducted research in legal status of R2P, military intervention and the special relationship of ICC and UN security Council. Further research interest has been on current developments in higher education and the application of new pedagogy in middle east and Iraq specifically.

AbdulIlah Al Mustafa is the Co- chair of Rojava University, and Lecturer in the faculty of education sciences- History department, and Furat University previously. He is a member of Al Furat Center for Studies. He is a candidate for membership of the Kurdistan National Congress.

He has some articles in the Al Furat Center like a “International developments and their impact on American policy in the Middle East and its reflection on Turkey, the Kurds and the Syrian crisis” and “Turkey .. From the dream of joining the European Union to the neo-Ottoman policy” and other articles. He is preparing a study about the Turkey- American relationships and about Kurds History.

Marianna Charountaki is Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Lincoln (School of Social and Political Sciences). She has acted as Director of the Kurdistan International Studies Unit (2016-2019) at the University of Leicester. She is a BRISMES trustee and convener of the BISA Foreign Policy Working Group. She is Research Fellow at Soran University (Erbil, Iraq) and trustee of the Greek Council for IR. She has worked as consultant at the Iraqi Embassy in Athens (Greece, 2011-2012). Marianna has been researching the Middle Eastern region, in light of IR discipline, but also through extensive field work research (2007 to present). Her research lies at the intersection of IR theories, foreign policy analysis and area studies with an emphasis on the interplay between state and non-state entities. She is the author of the books The Kurds and US Foreign Policy: International Relations in the Middle East since 1945, (Routledge, 2011) and Iran and Turkey: International and Regional Engagement in the Middle East (I.B. Tauris,2018). She has published articles in Harvard International Review, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Third World Quarterly, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies and others.

Dashne Sedeeq is a lecturer of English Language and Linguistics in the department of International Marketing and Languages at the Erbil Polytechnic University. I was awarded a PhD by the School of English at the University of Leicester, Leicester/ UK in 2018. I mostly teach modules like English language for non-native speakers, grammar and general linguistics. I, also, teach intensive modules of academic writing for Post-graduate and undergraduate students. My research ranges across variety of areas in linguistics, such as sociolinguistics, lexicography. I am, also interested in conducting research on education in the Kurdistan Region in general. Further, to my career as a teacher.

Dirwar Sadiq Zawity is an assistant lecturer at Duhok University (UoD) and an adjunct lecturer at the American University of Kurdistan-Duhok (AUK). He is also a PhD candidate at the University of Soran (UoS). His research is focused on the disputed territories and the role of non-state actors.