Seventh conference in the Aula Árabe Universitaria program, with Professor Nida Alahmad (University of Edinburgh). It took place on November 18 at the Casa Árabe headquarters in Madrid and was streamed live at Casa Árabe Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Uo20fNge0 Over the past few decades, three themes—the state, oil, and war—have shaped both Iraqi politics and Iraqi studies. These themes emerge from Iraq’s modern history and its representation in academia. Academic work on Iraq witnessed a number of shifts that can be traced to two interrelated factors: access to primary source material, and the political context of the time. This lecture shows how the state, oil, and war are interrelated themes rather than definitively bound categories that determine certain effects on Iraq’s political economy. They are markers in historical processes that, since the late nineteenth century, involved the formation of social relations often organized by conceptual categories such as class, sect, nation, and gender. These social relations have constantly informed and constituted one another within particular material and historical contexts. Casa Árabe has organized this conference on “State, oil and war in the formation of Iraq,” given by Nida Alahmad, a professor of Middle East Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh, with the cooperation of the bachelor’s degree program in International Relations at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and the bachelor’s degree program in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). Presents: Isaías Barreñada, a professor and the coordinator of the UCM bachelor’s degree program in International Relations. Moderates: Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economics Coordinator. Nida Alahmad is a professor of Middle East Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to joining this university, she was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at Ghent University, a post-doctoral researcher at Georgetown University and a visiting researcher and associate at the European University Institute. She earned her PhD from the New School for Social Research (New York). Some of her most notable recent publications include the chapter titled State, Oil, and War in the Formation of Iraq, in "A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa," edited by Joel Beinin, Bassam Haddad and Sherene Seikaly (Stanford University Press, 2020). She is currently working on finalizing her book manuscript "State Matters: The State, its significance, its matters, and its experts in the case of Iraq." More information: https://en.casaarabe.es/event/state-oil-and-war-in-the-formation-of-iraq Photo: Iraq Tour 94 (Elliot Plack) on Flickr