Contributor(s): Dr Weeam S Hammoudeh, Dr Omar Dewachi, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah | Regional politics in the Middle East continues to have a cumulative impact on health, affecting health systems capacity and delivery of services. Conflicts in the region are deeply influenced by historical, ethnic, cultural and political factors. This event will discuss the geopolitical barriers to strengthening health systems in the region, presenting a country case study comparison of Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. Panellists will also discuss how COVID-19 has exacerbated existing health insecurities and threats. Meet our speakers and chair Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a British-Palestinian Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon. In 2012 he became Head of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the AUBMC and in 2015 co-founded and became director of the Conflict Medicine Program at Global Health Institute at the American University of Beirut. Omar Dewachi (@Khanabat) is Associate Professor at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Trained in medicine and anthropology, Omar works at the intersections of global health, history of medicine and political anthropology. He focuses on the human and environmental manifestations of decades of conflict and military interventions in Iraq and the broader Middle East. Weeam S Hammoudeh (@Whammoudeh) is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Community and Public Health, and coordinator of the mental health unit. She holds a PhD and MA in Sociology from Brown University, and an MPH in Community and Public Health from Birzeit University. Tiziana Leone (@tizianaleone) is an Associate Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Tiziana’s research agenda is focused around maternal and reproductive health, including a lifecourse approach to women’s health. More about this event The Global Health Initiative (@LSEGlobalHealth) is a cross-departmental research platform set up to increase the coherence and visibility of Global Health research activity across the School, both internally and externally. It provides support for interdisciplinary engagement and showcases LSE’s ability to apply rigorous social science research to emerging global health challenges. The LSE Middle East Centre builds on LSE's long engagement with the Middle East and North Africa and provides a central hub for the wide range of research on the region carried out at LSE. The Middle East Centre works to enhance understanding and develop rigorous research on the societies, economies, politics and international relations of the region. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19