Lse Middle East Centre Podcasts

Speaker: Thomas Pierret, University of Edinburgh Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE Over the last four years, the Syrian insurgency has witnessed the rise and consolidation of certain factions, particularly Islamist ones, but also the demise of once powerful groups of a more nationalist persuasion. Drawing on Paul Staniland's social-institutionalist conceptual framework, Thomas Pierret argues that groups that have relied on long-standing networks stemming from armed militancy or religious proselytism had a determining organisational advantage over counterparts that lacked such a background. Recorded on 2 May 2017. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.

Speakers: Danny Postel, Northwestern University; Madawi Al-Rasheed, LSE Middle East Centre; Nader Hashemi, University of Denver; Toby Matthiesen, University of Oxford; Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, University of Oxford As the Middle East descends ever deeper into violence and chaos, ‘sectarianism’ has become a catch-all explanation for the region’s troubles. The turmoil is attributed to ‘ancient sectarian differences’. In this talk, editors Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel join Madawi Al-Rasheed, Toby Matthiesen and Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi to challenge the use of ‘sectarianism’ as a magic-bullet explanation for the region’s ills, focusing on how various conflicts in the Middle East have morphed from non-sectarian (or cross-sectarian) and nonviolent movements into sectarian wars. Recorded on 8 May 2017.

Erbil-based Radio Al-Salam (https://soundcloud.com/radio-al-salam) interviewed LSE Middle East Centre Leverhulme Research Fellow Dr Filippo Dionigi about his current research project, which looks at host states' policies towards Syrian refugees. In this interview, he talks about his findings in Iraq, focusing on how the Kurdish Regional Government in particular is dealing with the presence of refugees in its territory. Radio Al-Salam is a station in the city of Erbil, serving displaced and refugee families from Iraq and Syria. Recorded on 4 May 2017.

Speaker: Rached Ghannouchi, Ennahdha Party On Thursday 20 April 2017, the MEC hosted a talk by Ennahdha (Renaissance) Party founder Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi, in which he reflected on the achievements of the 2011 Tunisian uprising, the challenges facing the region, as well as the evolution of his Party.

Speaker: Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, University of Manchester Chair: Ali Ansari, University of St Andrews Siavush Randjbar-Daemi discusses the origins and development of the presidential institution in the Islamic Republic from the 1979 Iranian Revolution to the present day. He provides an overview of both the possibilities and limitations that each president has faced whilst in power and reflects on whether the present-day Islamic Republic, now approaching its fourth decade of existence, can be defined according to the Western canons concerning state systems. Recorded on 31 January 2017.

Speakers: Nick Alton, FCO; Dania Akkad, Middle East Eye; Courtney Freer, LSE Middle East Centre; Mina Toksoz, University of Manchester and Chatham House; Representative of Oxfam UK Chair: Robert Lowe, LSE Middle East Centre BRISMES and LSE Middle East Centre jointly hosted this careers event for students interested in working in or with the Middle East. This panel discussion involves professionals from five different sectors – government, journalism, academia, business and not-for-profit. Recorded on 18 January 2017.

Speaker: Ambassador Lukman Faily, Senior Advisor to Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi Chair: Professor Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Lukman Faily argues that the lack of social harmony in Iraqi society represents a key factor of instability and that it is necessary to identify and mediate this problem by encouraging increased cooperation between citizens though state-supported social and religious programmes. Recorded on 30 November 2016. Image credit: Copyright: Thomas Koch, Shutterstock. Najaf, Iraq.

Speakers: Yoav Peled, Tel Aviv University; Horit Herman Peled, Tel Aviv University Chair: Amnon Aran, City, University of London Yoav Peled and Horit Herman Peled examine the growing saliency of the religious outlook in Jewish Israeli society, in order to test the argument that Israeli society is undergoing a process of religionisation. They also analyse the counter-argument, that secular–religious relations among Jews in Israel went into crisis in the 1980s and that the society had actually secularised during the 1990s. They seek to explain the causes and significance of these two processes and the seeming contradiction between them, as well as the variance in the trajectory of religionisation between different historical periods. Recorded on 16 November 2016. Image credit: Damir Janaev, Flickr. Jerusalem, 2015.

Speaker: Ali Ansari, University of St Andrews Chair: Pejman Abdolmohammadi, LSE Middle East Centre The election of Hassan Rouhani to the Presidency of the Islamic Republic in 2013 for many signalled a popular rejection of the politics of confrontation endorsed by his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and support for greater liberalism at home and internationalism abroad. With his first term coming to an end and an agreement reached on Iran's nuclear programme, this talk revisits the 2013 Presidential election campaign and argues that the process retained much of the intricate management of previous elections and a willingness to 'believe the rhetoric' of the campaign has resulted in a dangerous mismanagement of expectations. Recorded on 10 November 2016. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Hassan Rouhani during the 2013 Presidential elections.

Speakers: Ginny Hill, LSE Middle East Centre; Baraa Shiban, Reprieve Chair: Robert Lowe, LSE Middle East Centre Yemen is embroiled in multiple civil wars, triggered by a long-term decline in oil production, the failure of state-building, strong sub-national identities and internal competition between rival elite networks that comprised the regime of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Ginny Hill and Baraa Shiban present their paper for the Remote Control Project, examining the use of special forces, mercenaries and armed drones. They highlight the moral and political risks for Western governments training and arming regional protagonists, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to fight in Yemen. They argue that the implications of the Saudi-led intervention may extend far beyond Yemen’s borders to influence the conduct of future wars. Recorded on 9 November 2016. Image credit: Richard Messenger, Flickr. Sanaa, Yemen.

Speaker: John Chalcraft, LSE Chair: Aitemad Muhanna-Matar, LSE Middle East Centre John Chalcraft launches his book Popular Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East, which gives an account of popular protest that emphasizes the revolutionary modern history of the region. Challenging top-down views of Middle Eastern politics, Chalcraft looks at how commoners, subjects and citizens have long mobilised in defiance of authorities, taking examples from a wide variety of protest movements from Morocco to Iran. Recorded on 26 October 2016.

Speaker: Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi Chair: Professor Toby Dodge, LSE In his lecture, UAE based writer and art collector Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi will be discussing the political undertones of iconic artworks of the 20th century in the Arab world. From the Baathist regimes of Syria and Iraq to Egypt’s pan-Arabism under Gamal Abdel Nasser, paintings and sculptures in addition to film and performance have been employed by various governments as a tool of soft power to propagate their policies to the public not only in their respective states but throughout the region and beyond. Despite this government patronage of the arts, many artists have chosen to challenge their authorities through their art practices. This talk is an attempt to shed light on an often neglected dimension in the modern history of the Arab world. Recorded on 18 October 2016. This is an LSE Kuwait Programme event. Watch the video podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHpLbuvbROQ

Speaker: Amina Boubia, Sciences Po Centre for International Studies Discussant: Cristina Moreno Almeida, LSE Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE Amina Boubia presents her paper which studies the role new music genres such as rock and rap have played in the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring. She argues that music is a powerful form of collective action and should therefore be taken seriously by academics and stakeholders as it can either effectively strengthen contentious movements emerging in a specific context, thus challenging the established order, or, on the contrary, contribute to supporting the status quo. Recorded on 11 October 2016. This seminar forms part of the Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Network.

Speaker: Lahur Talabany, Zanyari Agency Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Since ISIS' occupation of Iraqi territory in June 2014, the Kurdish security forces have been on the frontline as one of the most effective forces in the international coalitions’ efforts to reclaim territory in both Iraq and Syria. Zanyari Intelligence Agency and Counter Terrorism Group Special Forces, under the leadership of Lahur Talabany, have played a key role in these efforts. Lahur Talabany will share with you his insights into how the struggle against ISIS is proceeding. Recorded on 6 October 2016.

Speaker: Nelida Fuccaro, SOAS; Ulrike Freitag, ZMO; Rasmus Christian Elling, University of Copenhagen Chair: Fran Tonkiss, LSE Nelida Fuccaro launches her edited book 'Violence and the City in the Modern Middle East', with two of the contributors to the volume, exploring violence in the public lives of modern Middle Eastern cities, approaching violence as an individual and collective experience, a historical event, and an urban process. In reconstructing the violent pasts of cities, new vistas on modern Middle Eastern history are opened, offering alternative and complementary perspectives to the making and unmaking of empires, nations, and states. Recorded on 5 October 2016.

Lebanon hosts the highest number of Syrian refugees relative to its local population. This poses many challenges to a state known for its fragility and instability. UNHCR Representative to Lebanon Mireille Girard discusses the impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon and the responses of international and local institutions. This event launches an MEC workshop on the long-term challenges of forced migration in the Middle East.

Speaker: Rebecca Steinfeld, Goldsmiths, University of London Chair: Avi Shlaim, University of Oxford Rebecca Steinfeld looks at the historical and contemporary struggles that have led to the gap between the restrictions on, and availability of, abortion in Israel. She attributes this gap to the compromise necessitated by conflicts amongst competing policymakers, motivated by opposing viewpoints and interests, over the objectives and substance of abortion policies. Recorded on 7 June 2016.

Speakers: Cengiz Çandar, Radikal; Zeynep Kaya, LSE Middle East Centre Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Turkey has traditionally favoured a policy of maintaining the status quo in its foreign relations in the Middle East and has placed limits on its own engagement with the region. Today however, it finds itself more deeply involved in Middle East politics than ever before. This event marks the launch of a collection of papers that were presented at a workshop aimed at untangling Turkey’s domestic politics and foreign policies in the Middle East under the current rule. Cengiz Çandar and Zeynep Kaya offer insights into significant changes now unfolding in Turkish, Syrian and Kurdish politics. Recorded on 18 April 2016.

Speaker: Filippo Dionigi, LSE Middle East Centre Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre In this event, Filippo Dionigi discusses how states such as Lebanon and Jordan have coped with the challenges of mass displacement within their borders. He poses questions and advances hypotheses on the current and future implications of forced mass displacement in the Middle East for states in the region. Recorded on 24 February 2016. Image credit: World Bank, Flickr. Line of refugees in front of the UNHCR registration center in Tripoli, Lebanon.

Speakers: Mandy Turner, Kenyon Institute (CBRL); Florian P. Kühn, Otto von Guericke University; Michael Pugh, University of Bradford; Caroline Hughes, University of Bradford; Christopher Phillips, QMUL; Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre In this book launch, the authors of ‘The Politics of International Intervention: the Tyranny of Peace’ critically explore the practices of peacebuilding, and the politics of the communities experiencing intervention. The contributions to this volume have a dual focus. First, they analyse the practices of western intervention and peacebuilding, and the prejudices and politics that drive them. Second, they explore how communities experience and deal with this intervention, as well as an understanding of how their political and economic priorities can often diverge markedly from those of the intervener. From Cambodia to Afghanistan, Iraq to Mali, interventions in the pursuit of peace have not achieved the results desired by the interveners. But, rather, they have created furthe