A Lecture by Joseph Sassoon
Moderated by Timothy Mitchell.

The Ba`th came to power in Iraq in 1968 and remained there for thirty-five years until the 2003 US-led invasion. Under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, who became president in 1979, a powerful authoritarian regime was created based on a system of violence and extra-ordinary surveillance network, as well as reward and incentives for supporters of the regime. This lecture will focus on recent access to Iraqi documents which allow us to understand how authoritarian regimes operate and how they control their population. 

Born in Iraq, Sassoon obtained his PhD at St Antony's College Oxford. He teaches at Georgetown University and this term he is a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Sassoon has published widely on Iraq and the Middle East. His previous book was on the Iraqi Refugees post the 2003 invasion and called : The Iraqi Refugees: The New Crisis in the Middle East.