The Middle East Research Institute (MERI) ( ku, ئینستیتیوتی رۆژهەڵاتی ناوەڕاست بۆ توێژینەوە; ar, مؤسسة الشرق الأوسط للبحوث) is an academic policy-research institute and think tank based in

Erbil Erbil, also called Hawler (, ar, أربيل, Arbīl; syr, ܐܲܪܒܹܝܠ, Arbel), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It lies in the Erbil Governorate. It has an estimated population of around 1,600,000. Hu ...

in the Kurdistan Region of

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. MERI carries out fundamental research in areas of peace, human rights, governance, security and economy. Founded in 2014, the organisation has grown rapidly and now occupies an important niche in the field of policy research in the Middle East. MERI has been ranked by

Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program The Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) was a non-profit program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that operated from 1989 to 2021. TTCSP was originally established at the Foreign Policy Research Institu ...

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

as Iraq's leading policy research organisation for the past three years in a run and No. 34 in the Middle East and North Africa.

Mission

MERI's mission is to contribute to the process of

nation-building Nation-building is constructing or structuring a national identity using the power of the state. Nation-building aims at the unification of the people within the state so that it remains politically stable and viable in the long run. According to ...

, state-building and democratisation in the Middle East and its objectives are to promote and develop human rights, democracy, good governance and economic prosperity MERI's remit includes a broad range of activities, including, international Politics, National Security, institutions of Democracy and Governance, Economics, Energy, Environment, Public Services, Civil Society and Cultural Development.

Research activities

MERI publishes its findings and conduct its policy debates in three languages, including English, Arabic and Kurdish. The Institute has conducted numerous research projects and published quality reports on ISIL, internally displaced persons (IDPs),

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

and minority rights, post-war reconciliation, governance system reforms, promoting human rights (protecting minority's rights, prevention of violence against women) and institutional reform (Judiciary system, public prosecution, interior ministry and Ministry of Peshmarga) MERI collaborates widely with universities and peace organisations in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

MERI Forum

MERI also organises high-profile annual conferences (MERI Forum) where political leaders and policy experts in Iraq and neighbouring countries attend. MERI held its inaugural Forum (MERI Forum 2014) between 4–6 November 2014. This was considered a first in the region, as it included open debates between Fuad Masum (President of Iraq),

Salim al-Jabouri Salim Abdullah al-Jabouri (Arabic: سليم عبدالله الجبوري) (born 12 August 1971) is an Iraqi politician who was elected as the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament on 15 July 2014 until 1 July 2018. Al-Jabouri now holds the position o ...

(Speaker of Iraqi Parliament),

Osama al-Nujaifi Osama Abdul Aziz al-Nujaifi or Najifi ( ar, أسامة النجيفي; born c. 1956 in Mosul) is an Iraqi politician and served as one of the three vice presidents of the country, from 2014 to 2015 and 2016 to 2018. As the speaker of the Council ...

(Vice President of Iraq), Nechirvan Barzani (former Prime Minister, now President of KRI), Barham Salih (former Prime Minister of KRG - later became President of Iraq),

Masrour Barzani Masrour Barzani () (born 2 March 1969) is a Kurdish politician and serving as prime minister of the Kurdistan Region, an autonomous region of Iraq, since June 2019. He is also the chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council and a member ...

(current Prime Minister of KRG),

Qubad Talabani Qubad Talabani ( ku, قوباد تاڵەبانی) (born 21 July 1977) is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who has been the Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region since 2014. Formerly serving as the representative of Kurdistan to the United Sta ...

(Deputy PM of KRG) as well as international policy makers, such as Foreign Ministers (e.g. Turkey), ambassadors and academic experts ().

Funding

MERI is entirely grant-funded, hence its financial and political independence. MERI's one-off seed capital ($3.5 million) was awarded in December 2013 by the Kurdistan Region's Oil and Gas Council (Capacity Building Funds). It has since competed successfully for research funds internationally. It has been awarded major grants from the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

under the

Horizon 2020 The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europea ...

program, including the EUNPACK and FEUTURE. It has also secured funding from the

United States Institute of Peace The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is an American Federal government of the United States, federal institution tasked with promoting conflict resolution and prevention worldwide. It provides research, analysis, and training to individual ...

Reception

MERI became operational on 18 May 2014. In 2015, only one year after its establishment, MERI was named among the top think tanks in the

and Northern Africa (MENA) Region, and the highest ranking in

. MERI consolidated its position for successive years (2015-2019) and ranked the first in Iraq and 34th in MENA countries (among 507 institutions, top 7%) according to the Global Go To Think Tank Index report issued by the

at the

’s

Lauder Institute The Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies (The Lauder Institute) offers a joint degree program at the University of Pennsylvania, combining an MA in international studies from the School of Arts & Sciences with an MBA ...

. MERI's publications or quotes from its scholars have been extensively cited in major news and media outlets, including

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, the

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

, the Australian RN-ABC,

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

Aljazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

and others

References

{{authority control Think tanks based in Iraq Political and economic think tanks based in Asia Erbil Polling companies