Lse Middle East Centre Podcasts

Speakers: Toby Dodge, Zeynep Kaya and Jessica Watkins, LSE Middle East Centre; Renad Mansour; Chatham House. It has now been over a year since the liberation of Mosul by Iraqi government forces in July 2017. This victory marks a new stage in the violent conflict that has destabilised Iraq since at least regime change in 2003. In some ways, the breakthrough in July 2017 can be compared firstly to the initial aftermath of the invasion in April 2003 until the insurgency transformed itself into a civil war in 2005, and then secondly to the period following the US-led surge that started in February 2007 until the reconstitution of ISIS and the fall of Mosul in 2014. However, as all these examples indicate, if the underlying drivers of instability are not properly identified and mediated through accurately targeted policy interventions, then a return to the levels of organised violence that have dominated Iraq for the majority of the last fifteen years is likely. This event marks the launch of the Conflict Resear

Speakers: Deniz Kandiyoti, SOAS; Renad Mansour, Chatham House; Charles Tripp, SOAS Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Director This memorial honoured the late Faleh A. Jabar and his notable contribution to the study of Iraq and the wider Middle East. This event also marked the launch of his MEC paper From Identity Politics to Issue Politics: The Iraqi Protest Movement, which he presented at the Middle East Centre in July 2016. Faleh A. Jabar was a political sociologist, the CEO of Iraq Studies Institute and a Visiting Fellow at the School of Politics and Sociology at the University of London’s Birkbeck College. His research interests and expertise spanned various fields, including the sociology of religion, sociology of nation-building and state formation, tribes and modern socio-economic formations, and cultural discourses in Iraq and the greater Middle East. Jabar authored many books, including The Shiite Movement in Iraq, Post-Marxism and the Middle East, Ayatollahs, Sufis and Ideologues: State, R

Speaker: Cristina Moreno-Almeida, King's College College Chair: Shakuntala Banaji, LSE This talk launches Cristina Moreno-Almeida’s book, ‘Rap Beyond Resistance: Staging Power in Contemporary Morocco’. In the book, Moreno-Almeida argues for a new way of looking at cultural resistance in the Arabic-speaking world that goes beyond secular liberal ideas of resistance. In doing, so, she provides an in-depth look at rap culture in Morocco, bringing light to a vibrant and varied rap scene, and uncovering the many ways in which young artists are being political beyond ‘radical lyrics’. Recorded on 21 June 2018. -------------------------- Cristina Moreno-Almeida is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at King’s College London, UK, and a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Shakuntala Banaji is is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE, where she also serves as Director of Graduate Studies and programme director for the MSc Media, Communication and Development. Image c

Speaker: Nasr al-Hariri, Syrian Negotiation Commission Chair: Ian Black, LSE Middle East Centre The war in Syria has entered its eighth year with a worsening humanitarian crisis and an ever increasing threat to global security. Despite the West’s recent military response to the use of chemical weapons, the Assad regime, backed by Russia and Iran, continues with its military strategy unabated. In a conversation with Ian Black, Dr Nasr al-Hariri, President of the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) discusses the latest developments from inside Syria, and suggests practical steps the UK and its allies should take to enforce a comprehensive plan that protects civilians from all indiscriminate attacks, hold war criminals to account, and revive a failing UN-led political process. Recorded on 10 May 2018. -------------------------- Dr Nasr al-Hariri is the President of the Syrian Negotiation Commission. Dr Ian Black is Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. He is a former Middle East editor, diplo

Speaker: Wendy Pearlman, Northwestern University Discussant: Malu Halasa Chair: Rahaf Aldoughli, University of Manchester This event launches Wendy Pearlman's book, “We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria”. Based on interviews with hundreds of displaced Syrians conducted over four years across the Middle East and Europe, the book features a collection of intimate wartime testimonies from a cross-section of Syrians whose lives have been transformed by revolution, war, and flight. Recorded on Wednesday 21 March.

Speaker: Andrew Noble, former British Ambassador to Algeria Andrew Noble spent more than three years in Algeria, which spanned spanned among other things the start of the oil price crisis, advances in the Libyan and Malian discussions and a significant strengthening of the UK’s bilateral relations with Algeria in many areas. Given the difficulty of access to reliable information about Algeria, this discussion offers an insight into the state of Algeria, domestically and internationally. Recorded on 14 March 2018. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Speakers: Madawi Al-Rasheed, LSE Middle East Centre; Steffen Hertog, LSE; Michael Farquhar, King's College London. Chair: Courtney Freer, LSE Middle East Centre King Salman of Saudi Arabia began his rule in 2015 confronted with a series of unprecedented challenges. The dilemmas he has faced are new and significant, from leadership shuffles and falling oil prices to regional and international upheaval. This talk launches the edited volume 'Salman’s Legacy', which interrogates this era and assesses its multiple social, political, regional and international challenges. Whether Salman’s policies have saved the kingdom from serious upheaval is yet to be seen, but no doubt a new kingdom is emerging. Recorded on 7 March 2018.

Speaker: Güneş Murat Tezcür, University of Central Florida Chair: Zeynep Kaya, LSE Middle East Centre Over the last three decades, tens of thousands of women have joined the ranks of the PKK and its affiliated organisations. What factors explain their violent mobilisation despite life-threatening risks? Building on a unique dataset of more than 9,000 militant bios and in-depth interviews with the families of militants, Güneş Murat Tezcür argues that gender inequality directly influences women's decisions to take up arms, believing that doing so provides them with a path out of patriarchal gender relations. Recorded on 7 February 2018. -------------------------- Güneş Murat Tezcür is the Jalal Talabani Chair of Kurdish Political Studies at the University of Central Florida. His research focuses on political violence, social movements, and the geopolitics of the Middle East with a focus on the Kurdish question. Image credit: Kurdishstruggle, Flickr.

Speakers: Silvia Quattrini, Minority Rights Group International; Austen Josephs, Alaco Limited; Alexandra Buccianti, BBC Media Action; Jessica Watkins and Robert Lowe, LSE Middle East Centre This talk, jointly hosted by BRISMES and the LSE Middle East Centre, is aimed at students interested in working in or on the Middle East. The panel discussion includes professionals from four different sectors – media, academia, business and not-for-profit. Recorded on 31 January 2018.

* We apologise for the abrupt ending of this podcast. The last few minutes of the recording were corrupted. Speaker: Adel Iskandar, Simon Fraser University Seven years since the popular uprising that shook Egypt, the relationships between state, society, social movements and corporate power have been reconfigured, perhaps even disfigured. On the eve of the anniversary of the January 25 revolution, Adel Iskandar reflects on these changes and asks how they have affected our understanding of social, cultural and political life in the country. He argues that Egypt today is a replica of various historic Egypts, each manifesting as an effigy built for either public scrutiny or glorification. Recorded on 24 January 2018. -------------------------- Adel Iskandar is Director of the Global Communication Program at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver. He is the author of several works on Egypt and Arab media, including "Egypt In Flux: Essays on an Unfinished Revolution" (IB Taurus, 2013) and "Mediating the Ar

Speaker: Soraya El Kahlaoui, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study In this talk, Soraya El Kahlaoui discusses the ongoing resistance to urban expansion in Rabat, focusing on the Guich Loudaya tribal lands. The Guich lands have today been entirely relinquished to private developers linked to Morocco’s ruling elite who have sought to erect in their place one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Rabat: Hay Ryad. Soraya analyses the forms of resistance used by the “urban subaltern” and argues that the rhetoric of modernity underpinning urban growth in Morocco represents a continuation of the colonial logic of land grabs and the privatisation of communal agricultural spaces. Recorded on 16 January 2018.

Speakers: Shereen El-Feki, Chatham House; Joey Ayoub, University of Edinburgh Chair: Courtney Freer, LSE Middle East Centre With shifts in the political and economic landscape across the MENA region, the pillars of patriarchy are under increasing pressure. How do men see their lives and the changing world around them, including the roles and rights of women and girls? In this event, Shereen El Feki, Joey Ayoub and Courtney Freer discuss IMAGES MENA, the first study of its kind to explore the private and public lives of almost 10,000 men and women across the Middle East and North Africa, and what these findings mean for the future of the region. Recorded on 10 January 2018. Image credit: World Bank, Flickr.

Speaker: Tom Woerner-Powell, University of Manchester Chair: Jonathan Hill, King's College London From his struggle against French colonialism in North Africa to his stand against religious sectarianism in Syria, the actions of Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri have been an inspiration to many. The symbolic father of modern Algeria has frequently been presented as both an exemplary Muslim and a bridge between East and West. In this talk, Tom Woerner-Powell launches his book ‘Another Road to Damascus: an integrative approach to Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri', in which he questions prevailing depictions of the historical figure in scholarly literature and beyond, and discusses his continued salience as a symbolic mediator between the supposedly conflicting zones of ‘Islam and Europe’, ‘East and West’. Recorded on 6 December 2017.

Speaker: Ian Black, LSE Middle East Centre Discussant: Tom Phillips, Royal College of Defence Studies Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre This talk launches Ian Black’s book Enemies and Neighbours: Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917–2017, in which he traces how, half a century after the watershed of the 1967 war, hopes for a two-state solution and an end to occupation have all but disappeared. Drawing on declassified documents, oral histories and his own on-the-ground reporting, Black recreates the major milestones in the most polarizing conflict of the modern age from both sides. Recorded on 29 November 2017.

Speaker: Madawi Al-Rasheed, LSE; John Chalcraft, LSE; Ewan Stein, University of Edinburgh Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Three years after the Arab uprisings started in Tunisia, a panel of academics reflect on the causes and drivers behind these seminal events, how they have transformed countries like Egypt; but also why they have had less impact in other countries, such as Saudi Arabia. Recorded on 4 December 2013.

Speaker: Christian Emery, University of Plymouth Chair: Roham Alvandi, LSE In this talk, Dr Emery discusses the main findings from his new book: 'US Foreign Policy and the Iranian Revolution: the Cold War Dynamics of Engagement and Strategic Alliance'. He focuses on how US policy objectives in Iran were refashioned in light of three major and converging crises: the Iran hostage crisis, the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, and the onset of the Iran-Iraq dynamic. Recorded on 2 December 2013. Image credit: U.S. Department of State, Flickr.

Speaker: Charles Shamas, MATTIN Group Chair: Federica Bicchi, LSE In July the European Commission published "guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards." This step has been variously described as a 'political earthquake', a sanction targeting Israeli settlements and settlement policies, and a confrontational move to save the two-State solution and the Middle East Peace Process from final collapse. But what precisely is taking place and how did we get here? What are the likely political consequences? This presentation outlines the processes that have driven the EU's production of these guidelines. In this light it will examine the role of the EU as a normative power striving to respect international law and comply with its own law while intensifying EU-Israel relations. Recorded on 11 November 2013. We apologise that the question and answer session

Speaker: Christopher Schroeder Chair: Mark Schankerman, LSE Schroeder shares the stories of young Middle Eastern entrepreneurs and describes the broader economic and political challenges and opportunities facing them. He argues that the Middle East is a lens into a massive shift we should all be engaging in now. Recorded on 2 October 2013.

Speaker: Saleh Muslim Mohamed, Democratic Union Party (PYD) Chair: Robert Lowe, LSE MEC It is nine months since Kurds took control of towns in northern Syria, having established an unprecedented coalition of Kurdish parties. Saleh Muslim Mohamed, the co-President of the most prominent Syrian Kurdish party, assesses the progress of Kurdish politics and local government and the wider Syrian and regional context. Recorded on 3 May 2013.

Speakers: Karma Nabulsi, University of Oxford; Ilan Pappe, University of Exeter; Rosemary Hollis, City University London; Peter Kosminsky Chair: Jon Snow, Channel 4 News In this panel discussion, the speakers discuss aspects of the current situation in Palestine, including: Palestinian domestic politics, Israel’s position, the international dimension of the impasse and the insights into the conflict provided by film-making. Recorded on 26 April 2013.