Assistant Lecturer Mohammed Daham Daddo, from the Department of Public Policy at our college, obtained a PhD in Political Science / Political Systems and Public Policy from Al-Nahrain University / College of Political Science / Department of Political Systems and Public Policy, on Sunday, April 26, 2026. This achievement followed the discussion and acceptance of his dissertation titled: “Political Parties and Their Impact on Political Performance: The Justice and Development Party in the Maghreb and Turkey (A Comparative Study),” held at the Hadharat Al-Nahrain Hall in the College of Political Science.

The dissertation examined the reasons behind the variation in the political performance of the Justice and Development parties in Morocco and Turkey, as two parties with an Islamic reference that emerged in political environments characterized by electoral competition and the presence of influential supra-party actors—represented by the military institution in Turkey and the monarchy in Morocco. The study demonstrates that the success of the Turkish party was linked to its ability to reorganize its relationship with the military institution, leveraging its electoral majority, which enhanced its position within the political system and allowed it to remain in power. In contrast, the Moroccan party remained constrained by the centrality of the monarchy, which limited its ability to expand its influence and implement its reform program despite leading the electoral results for two consecutive terms. The study concludes that the variation in political performance between the two parties was not merely a product of ideological reference or electoral legitimacy alone, but was rather connected to the nature of the institutional environment, the limits of the party’s independence, and its capacity to manage its relationship with the centers of power within the political system.

The examination committee consisted of the professors listed below:

1. Professor Dr. Yasser Ali Ibrahim (Chair)

2. Professor Dr. Saddam Abdul-Sattar Rashid (Member)

3. Professor Dr. Mustafa Farouk Majeed (Member)

4. Professor Dr. Bushra Hussein Saleh (Member)

5. Associate Professor Dr. Zaid Hussein Ali (Member)

6. Professor Dr. Ahmed Ghalib Muhi (Member and Supervisor)