In 1981, Makiya left the practice of architecture to become an academic and author. He wrote under the pseudonym Samir al-Khalil to avoid endangering his family. In "Republic of Fear" (1989), which became a best-seller after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, he argues that Iraq had become a full-fledged totalitarian state, worse than despotic states such as Jordan or Saudi Arabia. His next book, "The Monument" (1991), is an essay on the aesthetics of power and kitsch.