Khaled Salih

Khaled Salih began his duties as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Kurdistan Hewler on 26th September, 2012. He holds a PhD in Political Science 1996 (Gothenburg, Sweden), an MSc in Science, (Gothenburg), a BA in Political Science 1989 (Gothenburg), and a BSc in Civil Engineering 1981 (Sulaimania). He was a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Middle East Studies, at the University of Southern Denmark (August 1997- January 2009).

He is the author of many publications, namely: - State-Making, Nation-Building and the Military: Iraq 1941-1958 (1996), The Kurdish Question (in Swedish 1999), The Kurdish Question in Turkey (in Swedish 1999), The EU's Turkish Dilemma and Turkey's Kurdish Problem (in Danish 2001), Iraq Between Fear and Freedom (in Swedish 2003) and co-editor together with Brendan O'Leary and John McGarry of The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq (2005), and several other academic articles on different Middle Eastern political issues.

From March-May 2003, Salih was a Member of a Pentagon-sponsored group, "Iraq Reconstruction and Development Council", focusing on reconciliation in a post-war political system. From June 2003 - February 2004 he was the advisor to the Kurdish negotiators and had personal involvement in the development of the Transitional Administrative Law (Iraq's post-war interim constitution). And from March 2004 - October 2005 he was the advisor to the Kurdish negotiators for and had personal involvement in the drafting of the permanent constitution of Iraq. Concurrently, he also had a personal involvement in the draft Kurdistan Constitution. From October 2005 - May 2006 Salih was the Political Advisor to the Prime Minister of the KRG Nechirvan Barzani on capacity building and the government's daily work. From October 2005 - May 2006 he was Directly involved in the KRG's negotiation and signing of over 30 PSC (Production Sharing Contracts) with the International Oil Companies as well as reviewing the 5 previous ones.

From May 2006-May 2007 he was the Official Spokesman of the KRG, responsible for government statements and press releases, as well as government representation in specific contexts. From February 2007-September 2010 he was the Senior Advisor to the KRG Minister of Natural Resources in the negotiation for the Federal Oil and Gas Law; had a key role in all preparations for various drafts of this law and in the preparation and approval of the Oil and Gas Law of the Kurdistan Region (passed in early August 2007). From June 2006 - September 2010 he was again the Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Iraq. From March - August 2011 he was a research fellow at Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia, USA.