Mohamed Mahmoud Mohamedou

PhD, Political Science, City University of New York

Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou is Professor of International History and Politics and Chair of the International History and Politics Department. He is Visiting Professor at Sciences Po Paris. He is the author, notably of a trilogy on the post-11 September era; Contre-Croisade – Le 11 Septembre et le Retournement du Monde (2004), Understanding Al Qaeda – Changing War and Global Politics (2011) and A Theory of ISIS – Political Violence and the Transformation of the Global Order (2018). Professor Mohamedou holds a PhD in Political Science from the City University of New York. He was Scholar-in-Residence at the Harvard University Centre for Middle Eastern Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts before becoming a Research Associate at the Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations in New York. He was Director of Research at the Geneva-based International Council on Human Rights Policy, prior to returning to Harvard where he was Associate Director of the Programme on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. He subsequently served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mauritania before returning to Geneva at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) where he was Deputy Director and Academic Dean. His research focuses on political violence and transnational terrorism, the transformation of warfare, state-building, transitions to democracy and racism. Widely published, Professor Mohamedou is regularly quoted in the world’s media for his expertise and is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. He is the recipient of the 2020-2021 International Studies Association (ISA) Global South Distinguished Award.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

• Political violence
• State-building
• Transitions to democracy
• Racism
• Nationalism
• Foreign policy

GEOGRAPHICAL REGION OF EXPERTISE

• Middle East
• North Africa
• North America
• Europe
• Subsaharan Africa

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Books

• State-Building in the Middle East and North Africa - One Hundred Years of Nationalism, Politics, and Religion, London: IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2021
• A Theory of ISIS – Political Violence and the Transformation of the Global Order, London: Pluto Press, 2017, and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018.
• Democratization in the 21st Century – Reviving Transitology, ed., London and New York: Routledge, 2016.
• Understanding Al Qaeda — Changing War and Global Politics, London: Pluto Press and New York: MacMillan, 2011; revised and expanded edition of Understanding Al Qaeda – The Transformation of War, London: Pluto Press and Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2007.
• Contre-Croisade — Le 11 Septembre et le Retournement du Monde, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2011; revised and expanded edition of Contre-Croisade — Origines et Conséquences du 11 Septembre, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2004.
• Iraq and the Second Gulf War – Regime Security and State-Building, San Francisco: Austin and Winfield, 1998, second edition 2002

Book Chapters

• "Islamic State", in David Snow, ed., The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movement, 2022.
• "Al Qaida, l'Etat Islamique et la Transformation de la Violence Politique Postmoderne", dans François Burgat and Matthieu Rey, eds., Histoire des Mobilisations Islamistes, XIX-XXI Siècles, Paris: CNRS, 2022, pp. 377-390.
• "A Century of Elusive State-Building in the Middle East and North Africa", in Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, ed., State-Building in the Middle East and North Africa - One Hundred Years of Nationalism, Religion and Politics, London: IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, 2021, pp. 3-24.
• "In Search of the Non-Western State: Historicising and De-Westphalianising Statehood", in Bertrand Badie, Dirk Berg-Schlosser and Leonardo Morlino, eds., The SAGE Handbook of Political Science – A Global Perspective, London: Sage, 2020, pp. 1335-1348.
• “The Rise and Fall of Pan-Arabism” in Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Patricia Daley, eds., The Handbook of South-South Relations, London: Routledge, 2018, pp. 168-176. Download the PDF
• “Look, it’s Trying to Think: Le Néo-Orientalisme et l’Archéologie de la Soumission”, in Makram Abbès and Laurent Dartigues, eds., Orientalismes/Occidentalismes – À propos de Oeuvre d’Edward Said, Paris: Éditions Hermann, 2018, pp. 255-273. Download the PDF
• “Religious Extremism, Insurgent Violence, and the Transformation of the New African Security Landscape”, in Pamela Aall and Chester Crocker, eds., Minding the Gap – African Conflict Management in a Time of Change, Waterloo, Canada: Center for International Governance Innovation, 2016, pp. 65-76. Download the PDF
• “Le Sahel”, in Bertrand Badie and Dominique Vidal, eds., L’État du Monde 2016, Paris: La Découverte, 2015, pp. 214-219.
• “Le Nouveau ‘Grand Jeu’ des Puissances Occidentales au Sahel”, in Michel Galy, ed., préface by Bertrand Badie, La Guerre au Mali – Comprendre la Crise au Sahel et au Sahara, Paris: La Découverte, 2013, pp. 58-75. Download the PDF
• “Al Qaeda and the Reinvention of Terrorism: Social Sciences and the Challenge of Post-Globalization Transnational Political Violence,” in Jussi Hanhimäki and Bernard Blumenau, eds., International History of Terrorism – Western and Non-Western Experiences, London: Routledge, 2012.
• “A Forgotten Debt: Humanism and Education, from the Orient to the West”, in Nayef Al-Rodhan, ed., The Role of the Arab-Islamic World in the Rise of the West, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012.
• “From the Near to the Far Enemy and Back: The Metamorphosis of Al Qaeda, 1988-2008”, in Klejda Mulaj, ed., Violent Non-State Actors in Contemporary World Politics, New York: Columbia University Press, 2009, pp. 207-237.
• “Arab State Foreign Policy: The Promise of a State-Centered Approach”, in Jacqueline Anne Braveboy-Wagner, Rethinking the Foreign Policies of the Global South – Seeking Conceptual Frameworks, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Reinner, 2003, pp. 65-77.
• “The Rise and Fall of Democratization in the Maghreb”, in Paul J. Magnarella, ed., Human Rights, Governance, and Democratization in the Middle East, London: Avebury Press, 1998, pp. 209-240.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• "What is Contemporary Violence?", Violence - An International Journal, 2, 1, 2021, pp. 154-168.
• "Al Qaida et l'Etat Islamique : Histoires Croisées", Annuaire du Collège de France 2017-2018, 118, 2020, pp. 713-715.
• "D'Al Qaida a l’État Islamique : Acteurs Non-Étatiques Mondialises et Évolution de la Violence Politique Post-Moderne", Relations Internationales, 172, 4, 2017, pp. 3-14
• "Arab agency and the UN project: the League of Arab States between universality and regionalism", Third World Quarterly, 37, 7, July 2016, pp. 1219-1233
• Neo-Orientalism and the e-Revolutionary: Self-Representation and the Post-Arab Spring, Middle East Law and Governance journal, Spring 2015
• "La Genèse du Conflit au Sahel," Esprit - Revue Internationale, 392, February 2013, pp. 115-116.
• “The Iraqization of Libya”, Europe’s World, spring 2012, pp. 124-128.
• “La Démocratie Arabe au Regard du Néo-Orientalisme”, La Revue Internationale et Stratégique, Special issue on the Arab Spring, 83, autumn 2011, pp. 85-91.
• “The Militarization of Islamism”, The Muslim World, Special Issue on the Arabian Peninsula, 101, 2, Spring 2011, pp. 307-323.
• “Old and New Lines of Separation”, Harvard Human Rights Journal, Twentieth Anniversary Special Issue, 20, spring 2007, pp. 13-14.
• “Unpopular Discourse: How Rising Criminality Challenges Human Rights Defense in Transitional Societies”, with James Cavallaro, Harvard Human Rights Journal, 18, Spring 2005, pp. 139-165.
• “Responsibility, Injustice, and the American Dilemma”, The Buffalo Human Rights Law Review, 11, spring 2005, pp. 3-20.
• “Political Transformation and Democratization: New Patterns of Interaction between Public Administration and Civil Society”, International Review of Administrative Sciences 64, 1 (March 1998), pp. 73-82