Arab Digest podcasts

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is Dr Andreas Krieg, assistant professor at the Defence Studies Department, King's College London. With global turbulence and turmoil running high the Gulf remains an island of stability but faces challenges as the war in Ukraine plays out, relations with Washington fray and the UK, a longtime GCC ally, staggers from one political crisis to the next. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is Dr Renad Mansour, senior research fellow and head of the Iraq Initiative at London's Chatham House. He has just returned from Baghdad and this wide-ranging conversation explores Iraq's political impasse and the structure that is responsible for it, the culture of violence and the enigmatic and powerful populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Also on the table: Iran, Gulf neighbours, the JCPOA and climate change. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

As turmoil roils the ruling Conservative party, Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with the Middle East analyst Michael Stephens. They explore how political instability and economic uncertainty in the UK are accelerating the decline of Britain's status in the region. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the London-based think tank Chatham House. Their conversation focusses on the political and business elites that are plundering Lebanon. Ordinary people are suffering huge deprivation, with 80% of the population now below the poverty line, as the economic crisis caused by the insatiable greed of the elites grows ever deeper. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

The Arab Digest podcast conversation this week takes a hard look at US foreign policy in the Middle East under President Joe Biden. Digest editor William Law's guest is Jon Hoffman, a geopolitical analyst and commentator. Hoffman sees Biden's approach as a continuation of decades of failed policies that have served neither the US nor the people of the region well. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

After a tumultuous week which saw the death of Queen Elizabeth and the rout of the Russian army in Ukraine, the Middle East analyst and author Kristian Coates Ulrichsen returns to the podcast to discuss in detail his recent tweets with Arab Digest editor William Law. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Yemen and Jihadist expert Dr Elisabeth Kendall. She assesses the enduring threat of AQAP - Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - and the extent to which the movement can exploit both the war and the current truce in an attempt to reassert its terror bona fides. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Kicking off a new podcast season, Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with the Palestinian academic Dr Dalal Iriqat. Their conversation examines both the current and the historic situation of the Palestinian people and their resilience in the struggle to secure human rights and end the Israeli occupation. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

On 10 October 2021 we podcast Maged Mandour’s incisive assessment of the military industrial dictatorship President Sisi is building in Egypt. Maged is a political analyst who writes openDemocracy’s “Chronicles of the Arab Revolt” column, covering the affairs of the Arab world with a special focus on social change in the post-Arab Spring Middle East. He is also a Sada writer for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a contributor to Middle East Eye and a regular Arab Digest contributor. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

At number 2 in the all-time top ten is Christopher Davidson’s podcast Putin’s war plays well with MENA authoritarians which aired 1 April, 2022. Chris is an academic and author of several books on the politics and foreign affairs of the Gulf states and a regular contributor to the Arab Digest newsletter. His latest book published by Hurst is titled From Sheikhs to Sultanism. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.