Lse Middle East Centre Podcasts

Speaker: Marc Valeri, University of Exeter Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Oman’s foreign policy under Qaboos is usually considered to be pragmatic and independent – as illustrated by the sultanate’s role in facilitating the conclusion of the Iran-P5+1 nuclear deal in 2013 and its announcement that it would not join a hypothetical Gulf union. However such a widely accepted view should not obscure the fact that the price to pay for the perpetuation of this foreign policy has been an unquestioned political and economic dependence towards London and Washington. Recorded on 22 May 2014. This is an LSE Kuwait Programme event.

Speaker: Charles Anderson, Georgetown University Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE Charles Anderson discusses his paper, which is part of a broader argument for a history from below of Arab society under the Palestine Mandate. By reexamining the political economy of the countryside under the first 18 years of British rule and the responses of peasants and ex-peasants to the escalating pressures they faced, it contends that greater attention to the history of the rural majority has much to teach us. In tandem, it advances an analysis of the Mandatory regime as a liberal despotism, the policies of which consolidated the emergence of a “landless class” that ultimately rose against it during the multifaceted rebellion known as the Great Revolt (1936-39). Recorded on 20 May 2014. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.

Speaker: Raphael Espinoza, IMF Chair: Danny Quah, LSE Raphael Espinoza analyses the challenges created by the changes the economies of the Gulf states have undergone in the last decade, spurred by high oil prices and ambitious diversification plans. Recorded on 15 May 2014. This is an LSE Kuwait Programme event.

Speakers: Ambassador John Limbert, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern (Iranian) Affairs; Chris Emery, University of Plymouth; Roham Alvandi, LSE Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre The historic September 2013 phone call between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and U.S. President Barack Obama represented the highest-level contact between Iran and the United States since relations between the two countries were severed in 1980, in the midst of the Tehran hostage crisis. This roundtable examines the troubled history of US-Iran relations, past failed efforts at détente, and the prospects for a breakthrough in US-Iran relations in 2014. Recorded on 15 May 2014.

Speaker: Zaid Al-Ali, International IDEA Discussant: Toby Dodge, LSE In this lecture, launching Zaid al-Ali’s new book 'The Struggle for Iraq’s Future', the author provides a uniquely insightful interpretation of Iraq’s nation-building progress in the wake of the 2003 war. Al-Ali argues that the 2005 constitution is illegitimate and established a system of government so extreme that it could never be implemented, creating a void that the country has been struggling to fill since. Recorded on Wednesday 7 May.

Speaker: Maha Abdelrahman, University of Cambridge Discussant: Ahmad Shokr, New York University Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE In this seminar, Dr Abdelrahman raises questions about some of the general features of new social movements such as decentralised organisational structures, working outside formal politics and a decision not to capture the state, specifically during moments of revolutionary upheaval. She uses the case of the 25 January uprising in Egypt to examine these features in relation to the inability of revolutionary forces to harness the power of the mobilised masses and to provide a coherent alternative(s) against institutions of the counter-revolution. Recorded on 6 May 2014.

Speaker: Jennifer Jenkins, University of Southampton Chair: Roham Alvandi, LSE The Nazi-Soviet Pact, a central topic in the scholarship on the Second World War, is generally studied in its political and European dimensions. In this talk, Professor Jenkins takes a new look at the Nazi-Soviet Pact by embedding it in German and Soviet economic policies toward the Near East, specifically with Iran, from the early Weimar period forward. She also explores the history of German-Soviet-Persian economic cooperation in the interwar period, Iran's importance as a zone of cooperation between Germany and the USSR, and its place in the making of the Pact. Recorded on 30 April 2014.

Speaker: Raymond Hinnebusch, University of St Andrews Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre In this talk, Professor Hinnebusch examines Iraq-Syria relations with the aim of using their changing relations as indicators of changes in the regional states and regional states system. Recorded on 19 March 2014.

Speakers: Yvan Guichaoua, University of East Anglia; Imad Mesdoua Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies The South of Algeria belongs to the widely integrated Saharan political economy also composed of large chunks of the Malian and Nigerian territories. As such, Algeria plays a key role in the livelihoods and geographical social and political mobility of Sahelian communities. In this talk, Dr Guichaoua examines the role of Algeria in recent (Tuareg then Jihadist) insurgencies in Mali and Niger as portrayed by various actors of the political crises in the Sahel. In turn, Imad Mesdoua examines the rationales guiding Algerian foreign policy in light of growing instability throughout the Sahel and Maghreb regions. Recorded on 10 March 2014.

Speaker: Steffen Hertog, LSE Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Gulf private sectors contribute the majority of national capital formation and employment, and have diversified into a wide range of manufacturing and service activities. National development strategies rely on private business as a primary driver of growth and development. At the same time, however, business contributes little to economic policy-making and is isolated in national politics, regularly failing to be represented in elected bodies. This talk explains this passive and isolated role of business by looking at how, despite all diversification, it remains structurally dependent on state spending and subsidies, and how its interests are at odds with those of GCC citizens at large. Recorded on 5 March 2014. This is an LSE Kuwait Programme event.

Speakes: Adam Hanieh, SOAS Chair: Kamil Mehdi, LSE Middle East Centre In this talk, Dr Hanieh draws on his new book, 'Lineages of Revolt', as well as recent fieldwork in the West Bank, to examine the political economy of Palestinian neoliberalism in the most recent period. He discusses the essential contours of Palestinian Authority development strategy, its links to donor-led imperatives and the Israeli occupation, as well as the wider regional political economy. Recorded on 24 February 2014.

Speaker: Salwa Ismail, SOAS Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE In this seminar, Professor Ismail discusses dimensions of contention and oppositional action anchored in urban space. She addresses the following questions: How, in the context of the Arab Revolutions, did the urban-based mass protests link with existing patterns of urban political action? What forms of contentious action undergird and animate these protests? In answering these questions, she focuses on urban popular forces in Cairo, their modes of inhabiting the city, and on the politics of the urban everyday. Recorded on 12 February 2014. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.

Speaker: Ahron Bregman Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre In this talk, Bregman argues that ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state could only be achieved if three elements come together: first, the arrival in the occupied territories of the Arab Spring in the shape of a third, non-violent Palestinian intifada against the occupation. Second, massive international pressure particularly on Israel but also on the Palestinians to compromise. Third, the remaining in power of a right wing government in Israel. Recorded on 10 February 2014.

Speaker: Sami Zubaida, SOAS Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre In this event, Professor Zubaida explores the question of changing identities. What constitutes authenticity in different spheres of culture is contested between political and religious groups and ideologies. Discourses of difference between Muslim/national cultures and ‘the West’, and the resistance to perceived cultural invasion have featured prominently in these contests. These themes are explored in relation to religion, national culture, sexuality, music and food. Recorded on 5 February 2014.

Speaker: Florence Gaub, EUISS Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre In this talk, Dr Gaub covers post-2011 Libya and asks key questions related to post-conflict reconstruction, security sector reform and transitional justice. What can we learn for future cases of regime change? How can security be built without external security provision? What are the factors that facilitate or impede political transitions? Recorded on 3 February 2014.

Speaker: Gilbert Achcar, SOAS Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE The euphoria that welcomed the Arab uprising in its initial stage tended to turn into gloom in later years. Away from impressionistic reactions, Gilbert Achcar assesses and discusses the latest developments in the Arab-speaking region on the occasion of the publication of his new book, 'The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising'. Recorded on 27 January 2014.

Speaker: Alice Wilson, University of Cambridge Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies The outbreak of the 2011 uprisings marked the 35th year of the conflict over Western Sahara, Africa’s last decolonization case. The international community has so far failed to produce a political climate conducive to the resolution of the conflict. In this talk, Alice Wilson analyses changes that have been recently enacted on the ground by Sahrawis both in Western Sahara and in the refugee camps in Algeria where exiled Sahrawis live. Recorded on 22 January 2014.

Speaker: Aitemad Muhanna-Matar Chair: Sumi Madhok, LSE In this talk, Dr Muhanna-Matar discusses her new book, which explores how gender and gender relations of power in Gaza are renegotiated to develop material mechanisms of coping or resistance. The book provides empirical evidence of Gazan women’s capacity to actively exercise their agency. Recorded on 20 January 2014.

Speaker: Omar Nashabe In this talk, Dr Nashabe discusses the creation of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and addresses the tribunal's decision to indict five members of Hezbollah and in turn to try them in absentia. Recorded on 16 January 2014.

Speaker: Yezid Sayigh, Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Professor Sayigh explores the nature of Syria’s revolution, its armed rebellion, and its opposition. He reflects on the drivers and dynamics of armed struggle and its impacts, placing this in comparative perspective with other historical experiences and anticipating likely trajectories going forward. Recorded on 13 January 2014.