Filip Sommer is the new PCMR director
Date of publication: September 1, 2024
Mgr. Filip Sommer is the new Director of the Centre for Middle East Relations (PCMR) at CEVRO University in Prague. Filip is currently completing his PhD in Regional and Political Geography at the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague. His research primarily focuses on Kurdish politics, security, and the economic and political landscape, particularly in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and the broader Middle East. Additionally, he explores non-state armed actors, their motivations, geographical differentiation, and their impact on the functioning of state institutions.
His dissertation aims to present the mechanisms of governance among various key actors in Iraq’s disputed territories and to analyze their perceptions by the local population. Filip has been conducting fieldwork in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Federal Iraq for the past five years, initially collecting data for his master’s thesis on the geopolitical position of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and now continuing his research in Iraq’s disputed territories. He is currently a lecturer at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS), focusing on political geography and contemporary conflict areas around the world. At AUIS, he also serves as a faculty advisor for the Model United Nations (MUN). Additionally, Filip is a research fellow at the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at AUIS, where he focuses on political, economic, and security issues within the Kurdish and Iraqi political landscapes.
Research Interests:
- Armed conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and the broader Middle East
- Kurdish issue
- Non-state armed actors in the Middle East
- Geopolitical relations in the Middle East
- Conflict areas in North and Sub-Saharan Africa
Key academic contributions:
- KAVÁLEK, T., SOMMER, F. (2019): Russia’s Imprint in Iraqi Kurdistan: Rosneft’s Ascendancy. Middle East Policy, 26(4), 91-101.
- SOMMER, F. (2020): Iraqi Kurdistan – the eternal desire for an independent state, Geographical Reviews, 29(3) 12-15.
- KAVÁLEK, T., SOMMER, F. (2020): RUSSIAN ENCROACHMENT IN ARAB COUNTRIES SINCE 2011, New Direction.
- SOMMER, F. (2022): Parliamentary elections in Iraq: no major changes, International Politics.
- SOMMER, F. (2022): Iraq’s 2021 parliamentary elections: an uncertain path in an unstable country?, Geographical Reviews, 31(3), 18-21.
- SOMMER, F. (2022): The war in Syria: 11 years of unabated conflict, International Politics.
- SOMMER, F. (2024): Islamic and sectarian or secular and nationalist? New classification of Iraqi Shi’a political actors based on ideological anchorage, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13530194.2024.2373066.