Tareq Ismael is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada and President of the International Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies at Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus. He is the author, co-author and editor of over twenty-five books on the Middle East, Iraq and the field of international studies. His most recent works include Middle East Politics Today: Government and Civil Society (2001), Turkey's Foreign Policy in the 21st Century (2003), and The Iraqi Predicament: People in the Quagmire of Power Politics (2004). Ismael is also the editor of the International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies and the Secretary General of the International Association of Middle Eastern Studies.