Dr Haian Dukhan is a Syrian-British political scientist specialising in the contemporary politics of Syria and the wider Middle East. A Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Teesside University and a Fellow of the Centre for Syrian Studies at the University of St Andrews, he completed his PhD in International Relations at St Andrews in 2017.
His research addresses state–society relations, tribal and kinship networks, sectarianism, and ethno-religious and minority communities in Syria, grounded in original Arabic-language fieldwork. He is the author of State and Tribes in Syria (Routledge, 2019) and co-editor of Spoils of War in the Arab East (Bloomsbury, 2024), and provides country-of-origin information on Syria to European refugee councils.
Contemporary Syrian politics and state–society relations; tribal, kinship and Bedouin communities and their cross-border ties; sectarianism and the dynamics between Sunni, Alawite, Druze, Kurdish and Christian communities; ethno-religious and minority groups; sub-state and armed actors (including tribal auxiliaries, Kurdish-led forces and jihadist groups such as ISIS); forced displacement, honour-based and family/blood-feud violence, and internal relocation. Expertise is grounded in original Arabic-language fieldwork.
Provides country-of-origin information (COI) on Syria to European refugee councils, including the Dutch, Austrian and Danish refugee councils, responding to queries on matters such as tribal and family structures, blood feuds and honour-based violence, sectarian dynamics, minority communities and internal relocation. Now available for formal expert instructions and to produce written expert reports.
Books:
• State and Tribes in Syria: Informal Alliances and Conflict Patterns (Routledge, 2019)
• Spoils of War in the Arab East: Reconditioning Society and Polity in Conflict (co-editor; Bloomsbury, 2024)
Selected articles and chapters:
• ‘Beyond Alawites and Sunnis’ (book chapter, 2025)
• Singh, D. & Dukhan, H. (2025) ‘From Libya to Syria: Assessing the Impact of the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine on Global Intervention Strategies’, Global Responsibility to Protect
• Dukhan, H. & Hawat, S. (2024) ‘Memory, Fear, and Manipulated Sectarianism: Christian Views and Intercommunal Dynamics in Al-Hasakah’, Digest of Middle East Studies, 33(3), 210–224
• Dukhan, H. & Hassan, M. (2024) ‘Explaining Sectarian Dynamics in the Syrian Governorate of Deir Ezzor’, Middle East Law and Governance
• Dukhan, H., Alhammad, A. & Shaar, K. (2021) ‘The Kin Who Count: Mapping Raqqa’s Tribal Topology’, Middle East Institute
• Dukhan, H. (2016) ‘From Reform to Revolt: Bashar al-Assad and the Arab Tribes in Syria’ (in Pastoralist Livelihoods in Asian Drylands, White Horse Press)
• Dukhan, H. (2014) ‘Tribes and Tribalism in the Syrian Uprising’, Syria Studies
• Dukhan, H. (2014) ‘Development-Induced Displacement among Syria’s Bedouin’, Nomadic Peoples