The Middle East in 2025: MEMO in Conversation with Nader Hashemi

How will the new year shape the ever changing Middle East? And will US President-elect Donald Trump give in to pressure from Israel and take military steps against Iran and widen the unrest in the region? 

2025 is finally here and as ever Middle East Monitor is keeping an eye out on trends, developments and issues impacting the MENA region. The year opens with Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza and expanding war in the occupied West Bank and with a ceasefire deal on the horizon - what can we expect for Palestinians going forward? As Donald Trump takes office as US president and Israel pushes for a tougher stance on Iran, will Trump get the US into a military confrontation with Tehran? Since December 2024 Syria has been free of the rule of the Assad family, but with the new Islamist government talking about forming committees to develop a new government, will the new Syria be inclusive of the country's diverse population? Lastly, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Bin Salman is five-years away from the completion of his 2030 social and economic reform vision, how will this impact Riyadh's politics this year? Joining us to help identify the trends and issues in the MENA region in 2025 is Professor Nader Hashemi. 

Hashemi is the Director of the Alwaleed Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He obtained his doctorate from the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and previously was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the UCLA Global Institute. Hashemi was previously the founding Director of the Centre for Middle East Studies at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
 
His intellectual and research interests lie at the intersection of comparative politics and political theory, in particular debates on the global rise of authoritarianism, religion and democracy, secularism and its discontents, Middle East and Islamic politics, democratic and human rights struggles in non-Western societies and Islam-West relations. He is the author of 'Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies' and co-editor of 'The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future', 'The Syria Dilemma' , 'Sectarianisation: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East'and a four-volume study on 'Islam and Human Rights: Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies' . His next book project is called 'The Global Divide Over Israel and Palestine'. He is frequently interviewed by PBS, NPR, CNN, Al Jazeera, Pacifica Radio and the BBC and his writings have appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, the Nation, Al Jazeera Online and CNN among other media outlets. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).