Abdulkader Sinno's Academic Website

 

I am an Associate Professor of Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. I received my PhD from UCLA in 2002, was a CISAC Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University in 2002-03, a 2009 Carnegie Scholar, and a 2014-15 Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. My book Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond (Cornell University Press) develops an organizational theory to explain the evolution and outcomes of civil wars, ethnic strife and other territorial conflicts.  I am also editor of Muslims in Western Politics (Indiana University Press) and the author of articles and book chapters on Muslim minority political representation in Western liberal democracies, public attitudes towards Muslim immigration, the Arab Spring, conflict processes, and Islamist parties’ participation in elections. My articles are published in both qualitative (e.g. American Historical Review) and quantitative (e.g. Journal of Conflict Resolution) journals. I am also the recipient of a 2020 IU Trustees Teaching Award.

 

Some recent Publications:

• “Muslim, Christian Arab and Chaldean Paths to Political Integration: Representation, Participation and Activism in Metro Detroit,” in Uncertain Refuge: Vitality and Vulnerability in Arab Detroit, edited by Yasmeen Hanoosh, Sally Howell, and Andrew Shryock. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, forthcoming 2021 (13,500 words).
• “Islam in Afghan conflicts and politics,” in Religion and politics in South Asia (second edition), edited by Ali Riaz. New York: Routledge, 2020, 53-75.
• “Different Groups, Different Threats: Public Attitudes toward Immigrants,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43 (3), 2017:  339-358 (with Tim Hellwig).
• “Partisan Intervention and the Transformation of Afghanistan’s Civil War,” American Historical Review 120 (5), December 2015: 1811-1828.
• “Discourses on Muslims and Welfare across the Atlantic,” in An American Dilemma? Race, Ethnicity and the Welfare State in US and Europe, edited by Sonya Michel, Klaus Pedersen and Pauli Kettunen. Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar, 2015, pp 175-202. (with Eren Tatari, Scott Williamson, Antje Schwennicke and Hicham Bou Nassif).
• “Muslim Americans and the political system,” Chapter 19 in The Oxford Handbook of American Islam, edited by Yvonne Haddad and Jane I. Smith, 2014. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 325-339.

 

Public scholarship:

• “How ethnic and religious divides in Afghanistan are contributing to violence against minorities,” The Conversation, October 25, 2021.
• “Afghanistan’s Taliban-led future,” East Asia Forum, 16 October 2021.
• “Afghans’ lives and livelihoods upended even more as US occupation ends,” The Conversation, August 16, 2021.
• “What will come after a US withdrawal from Afghanistan?” The Conversation, March 5, 2019. Republished by multiple outlets, including salon.com.

 

Selected recent media interviews:

• August 17, 2021: Interviewed in the Passing Judgment podcast "Everything you need to know about Afghanistan (and were afraid to ask)"
• Nov 12, 2019: Interview with Washington Post about Trump's Executive Order defining Judaism as a nationality
• Sept 12, 2019: quoted on AJ Stream, a live discussion show on Al Jazeera English, on the US-Taliban negotiations
• Sept 9, 2019: interview with NPR/Public Radio International podcast program the Takeaway on US-Afghan negotiations.
• January 8, 2019: interview with the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) on US sanctions on Iran, the War in Afghanistan, and the likelihood of conflict between the US and Iran.
• September 15, 2018: quoted in the Economist on Muslim women candidates for Congress
• August 22, 2017: interviews with White House Watch and with Politifact about the Trump administration’s new strategy in Afghanistan.
• August 21, 2017: interview with Diario El Mercurio (Santiago, Chile) on the Trump administration’s new strategy in Afghanistan.
• July 27, 2017: Interview with al-Jazeerah on attacks on Muslim candidates
• Sept 15, 2016: Podcast with IU media school Dean Jim Shanahan on Muslims in the United States
• 2016: Multiple interviews with Voice of America on conflict in Syria and Libya.
• Dec 23, 2015: Interview with Sputnik international news agency on Taliban advances.
• Feb 1, 2015 interview with The Sankei Shimbun (Japan)
• December 16, 2014: interview with Tribune de Genève on Taliban.
• November 11, 2014: interviewed on ISIS by USA Today
• September 22, 2014: quoted in US News and World Report
• July 2, 2014: Interview with Radio VR (Voice of Russia)-- English World Service on the situation in Afghanistan
• March 17, 2014: interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on elections in Afghanistan