We are SEPAD High impact, international research from academics and policy makers working in the field

Saudi and Iran: how our two countries could make peace and bring stability to the Middle Eas Eyad Alrefai - 19th Jun 2019

Relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic o...

SWAR project featuring SEPAD fellows publishes special issue on Sectarianism and Regime Formation Morten Valbjørn - 19th Apr 2019

Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, vol. 19, 1 (2019) - Specia...

Iranian revolution: world’s reactions show that, four decades on, tensions remain as high as ever Dr. Simon Mabon - 4th Mar 2019

The 40th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic revolution in February 1...

What We Do

The Sectarianism, Proxies and De-sectarianisation (SEPAD) project based at Lancaster University’s Richardson Institute is a collaborative project aimed at understanding the conditions that give rise to sectarian violence and proxy conflicts.

Sepad Reports

The Yemen War: A Proxy Sectarian War?

The diffusion of protests against authoritarian regimes across the Arab world in 2011 reinvigorated Yemen’s marginalized social movements and united different geographical and political factions in Yemen, such as the northern Houthi movement and...

SWAR project featuring SEPAD fellows publishes special issue on Sectarianism and Regime Formation

Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, vol. 19, 1 (2019) - Special Issue on ‘Sectarianism and Regime Formation in a New Middle East’ Guest edited by Raymond Hinnebusch and Morten Valbjørn

This special issue of Studies i...

Religion and Geopolitics in Iranian Foreign Policy

Saudi Arabia and Iran, as key power brokers in the Middle East, continue to couch their bilateral relations in antagonistic terms as they chafe against each other in a battle for influence in the region. Characterising this rivalry in the purely s...

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Events

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Announcements

Oil in Saudi-Iranian Relations Sukru Cildir - 26th Aug 2019

Since the mid-1960s, oil has been the most popular energy resource of th...

De-Sectarianization: Some initial thoughts Dr. Simon Mabon - 19th Aug 2019

In recent months, a number of academics and commentators have begun to r...

Saudi-Iran Literature Dr. Simon Mabon - 15th Jul 2019

Below are resources looking at the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran...

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ProjectSEPAD

We’re trying to create fluid bibliographies for issues explored in SEPAD. Please do share anything that you think we’ve missed and we’ll get it added to the list.

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SEPAD is supported by the following organisations