Arab Digest podcasts

Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by Dr Andreas Krieg, lecturer at the School of Security Studies, King's College London. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attack they examine what the West's 'war on terror' has really achieved in MENA: a reinforcement of authoritarian regimes, the fueling of brutal insurgencies, the silencing of protest and the crushing of civil society. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law launches the third season of the podcast with Sami Hamdi, editor in chief of The International Interest. In the wake of the Taliban rout of the US and its coalition allies we consider gains and losses, whether or not the Taliban victory will spark intensified jihadist insurgencies and who will ultimately determine the timing of when MENA states recognise the new regime in Kabul. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Annelle Sheline, a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute in Washington DC. The podcast focusses on the marketing of 'moderate Islam' as a propaganda weapon designed to convince the West and most importantly America that the authoritarian regimes that espouse it are bastions of tolerance and promulgators of shared values. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with the North Africa expert Francis Ghilès, an associate senior researcher at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB). Their economies, their governments, the repression of critics and journalists, relations with France and the Western Sahara affair all feature in a wide-ranging overview of the two senior Maghreb countries. And the Pegasus scandal gets a look-in too! Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. The focus is on President Biden and his administration's Middle East efforts. He inherited several challenges from the chaotic Trump years, not least to repair America's diplomatic standing in the region while seeking a return to the JCPOA. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Jim Krane, an energy research analyst at Rice University's Baker Institute in Houston.The podcast focusses on the Gulf's national oil companies and the challenges they and the MENA region share with the rest of the world as climate change ramps temperatures up. In the Middle East, unless temperature rise is slowed whole regions will become uninhabitable. The NOCs are potentially game changers but the ruling families that control them are moving too slowly and time is fast running out. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law speaks with Chatham House's Renad Mansour, a MENA Senior Research Fellow and Project Director of the Iraq Initiative. In the week that saw the death of Donald Rumsfeld, a key architect of the 2003 war, their conversation focusses on a governance structure built by the US but enabled and empowered by Iran. It is Rumsfeld's legacy, one that sustains a corrupt political elite and betrays the people of Iraq. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Helen Lackner. Her book "Yemen in Crisis: the Road to War", published by Verso in 2019, is a seminal study of the current war and what lies behind it. Today's podcast looks at the ongoing battle for Ma'rib, the failed efforts of the UN special envoy and the fragile hope that Oman's recent intervention in efforts to get effective peace talks underway may bear fruit as the conflict grinds on in its sixth year. 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 is Ali Bakir, a research assistant professor at Ibn Khaldun Center for Humanities and Social Sciences in Doha. His analysis focuses on Turkish relations with the MENA region. Today's podcast explores the warming relationship between Turkey and Egypt and how it is impacting on the regional power balance as Cairo seeks to chart a distinctive foreign policy while lessening its reliance on Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the author and academic Christopher Davidson. He's written several books on the Gulf, the latest, just published by Hurst, is titled From Sheikhs to Sultanism. Their conversation is about two crown princes and their transformation into regional power players. Mohammed bin Salman enjoys playing on the world stage while Mohammed bin Zayed takes a more quiet road but both have consolidated power in an unprecedented manner as they shift from sheikhs to sultans. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.