LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts

This is the English recording of Panel 3 from the 28th September Conflict Research Programme-Iraq Conference 'Iraq on the Eve of Elections: A new era or return to the status quo?'. Since the beginning of mass protests in Iraq in October 2019, the country has seen a sharp increase in the use of violent coercion against government critics. A coordinated campaign of violence, including the use of live bullets, military grade tear gas canisters, targeted assassinations, snipers and enforced disappearances resulted in the extrajudicial killing of over 700 protesters and the injury of at least 25,000 others. While this eventually forced protesters to go home, the campaign led by militias from the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) has continued unabated targeting political activists and forcing many to flee Iraq. In Kurdistan, the government has also launched a crackdown on activists and journalists known to be outspoken government critics, with at least five sentenced to jail terms following flawed trials. This closing up of civic space comes against the backdrop of the increasing power and influence of the PMF with Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi unable to hold them to account despite several attempts to do so. In light of these events, this panel will discuss the role of the PMF in Iraq, the systemic use of violence against government critics and prospects for accountability. Chair: • Jessica Watkins – LSE Middle East Centre Speakers: • Belkis Wille – Human Rights Watch • Renad Mansour – Chatham House • Inna Rudolf – International Centre for the Study of Radicalization

This is the English recording of Panel 2 from the 28th September Conflict Research Programme-Iraq Conference 'Iraq on the Eve of Elections: A new era or return to the status quo?'. Iraq has long been on the verge of economic collapse. This was expounded in April 2020, when the fall in oil prices in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic meant that the government struggled to pay public sector workers for several months. In response, Finance Minister Ali Allawi published a White Paper meant as a road map for the country’s economic recovery and later, in January of this year, devalued the dinar by 20% as a means of stimulating internal markets. Yet, 90% of all government revenues continue to come from oil sales leaving Iraq’s economy vulnerable to the volatility of global oil markets and state sanctioned corruption sees up to 30% of public funds lost every year. What is more, while the public payroll has more than tripled since 2003, the development of the private sector continues to be hampered by poor infrastructure and limited access to capital. As a consequence, youth unemployment in Iraq stands at 25.2% and the World Bank estimates that 5.5 million Iraqis are at risk of being pushed into poverty. This panel examines the success of reforms undertaken by Mustafa Al Kadhimi’s government and opportunities for further reforms, as well as the socio-political consequences of economic complacency. Chair: •Chloe Cornish – Financial Times Speakers: • Ahmed Tabaqchali – Institute of Regional and International Studies • Ali Al Mawlawi – Independent Consultant • Alia Moubayed – Jefferies International

يمكنكم الاستماع الى التسجيل الصوتي باللغة العربية للجلسة الأولى في يوم 28 سبتمبر/أيلول من مؤتمر مركز الشرق الأوسط "العراق عشية الإنتحابات:بداية عهد جديد أم استمرار للوضع الراهن؟ إخلاء مسؤولية: هذه التسجيلات للترجمة العربية الفورية المباشرة لذلك من الممكن أن تحتوي على بعض الأخطاء أو على فجوات في الترجمة يدير الجلسة: توبي دودج - مركز الشرق األوسط مارسين الشمري - معهد الدراسات اإلقليمية والدولية سجاد جياد – باحث مستقل لهيب هيجل - مجموعة األزمات الدولية

This is the English recording of Panel 1 from the 28th September Conflict Research Programme-Iraq Conference 'Iraq on the Eve of Elections: A new era or return to the status quo?'. In October Iraqis will go to the polls for the sixth time since regime change to vote in early elections, held as a key concession to the demands of the Tishreen protest movement. The elections will be the first to be based on the new Elections Law passed in December 2019. This divides Iraq into 83 electoral districts in a bid to make it easier for smaller parties and independent candidates to run in elections. Despite this, the elections have been marred in controversy, with political activists often becoming the targets of threats and assassinations. This has resulted in widespread calls to boycott elections in protest against the inequitable electoral environment. In this session, panellists will discuss the likely outcome of elections and what they could mean for reform of Iraq’s political system. Chair: • Toby Dodge – LSE Middle East Centre Speakers: • Marsin Al Shamary – Institute of Regional and International Studies • Sajad Jiyad – Independent Researcher • Lahib Higel – International Crisis Group

This webinar, co-organised with the Society for Algerian Studies, was a launch for Dr. Natalya Vince's latest book 'The Algerian War, The Algerian Revolution'. This book provides a new analysis of the contested history of one of the most violent wars of decolonisation of the twentieth century – the Algerian War/the Algerian Revolution between 1954 and 1962. It brings together an engaging account of its origins, course and legacies with an incisive examination of how interpretations of the conflict have shifted and why it continues to provoke intense debate. Locating the war in a century-long timeframe stretching from 1914 to the present, it multiplies the perspectives from which events can be seen. The pronouncements of politicians are explored alongside the testimony of rural women who provided logistical support for guerrillas in the National Liberation Front. The broader context of decolonisation and the Cold War is considered alongside the experiences of colonised men serving in the French army. Unpacking the historiography of the end of a colonial empire, the rise of anti-colonial nationalism and their post-colonial aftermaths, it provides an accessible insight into how history is written. Natalya Vince is a historian of modern and contemporary Algeria and France and reader in North African and French studies at the University of Portsmouth. She is interested in oral history, decolonisation, gender studies and state- and nation-building in Algeria and France, but also more broadly in Europe and Africa. Her works include Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012 (Manchester University Press, 2015), The Algerian War, The Algerian Revolution (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and the ongoing documentary project Generation Independence: a People’s History.

This webinar, as part of the LSE Middle East Centre's Kurdish Studies Series, was a discussion around the new and revised edition of David McDowall's book 'A Modern History of the Kurds'. In this latest edition, McDowall analyses the momentous transformations affecting Kurdish socio-politics in the last 20 years. This fourth edition includes new analysis of the Kurdish experience in Syria; the role of political Islam in Kurdish society and Kurds' involvement in Islamist Jihad; and issues surrounding women and gender that were previously overlooked, from the impact of the women's equality movement to how patriarchal practices within the Kurdish community still limit its progress. The foundation text for Kurdish Studies, this book highlights in detail the changing situation of the Kurds across the Middle East. The division of the Kurdish people among the modern nation states of Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran and their struggle for national rights continues to influence the politics of the Middle East. David McDowall's ground-breaking history of the Kurds from the 19th century to the present day documents the underlying dynamics of the Kurdish question. Drawing extensively on primary sources - including documents from The National Archive and interviews with prominent Kurds - the book examines the interplay of old and new aspects of the struggle, the importance of local rivalries and leadership within Kurdish society, and the failure of modern states to respond to the challenge of Kurdish nationalism. David McDowall turned to full time writing in 1984 and has written on Lebanon, Palestine, the Kurds and also on Britain and the British landscape since then. The first edition of A Modern History of the Kurds appeared in 1996. The new edition is the first major revision since. McDowall studied Islamic History with Arabic, followed by postgraduate studies in Modern Middle East History. His working life has been varied, with almost seven years in the army, followed by five years with the British Council in India and Iraq, and two years spent with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Lebanon and Austria. He was also an NGO relief worker in Lebanon during Israel’s invasion in 1982. Zeynep Kaya is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sheffield. Kaya previously worked at SOAS and the LSE. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the LSE. Her main research areas involve borderlands, territoriality, conflict, peace, political legitimacy and gender. She has recently published a monograph entitled Mapping Kurdistan: Territory, Self-Determination and Nationalism with Cambridge University Press. Zeynep is co-editor of I.B. Tauris-Bloomsbury’s book series on Kurdish studies and co-convenor of Kurdish Studies Series with the LSE Middle East Centre. She is also an Academic Associate at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge.

Instant Coffee is back! And on season 2, we’re exploring our favourite topic, food. We are going beyond the plate to understand how the complexities of food, farming and cuisine in the region are shaping people’s writing, thinking and organising. We’ll be speaking with inspiring individuals who are grappling with culinary appropriation, access to food and food sovereignty, archiving the region’s recipes and more. To listen to the rest of our interview with Fadi Kattan and to get access to all past and upcoming episodes of Instant Coffee, just search for ‘Instant Coffee’ on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play or wherever you get your podcast. We also have a brand new Instagram account where we post our latest episodes as well as beautiful illustrations created by Rawand Issa for each one of them. Find us on @instantcoffee.pod.

This webinar, co-organised with Boston University School of Law's International Human Rights Clinic, explored research outputs from their project on the challenges of statelessness in the region. To find out more about the project click here: https://www.bu.edu/law/current-students/jd-student-resources/experiential-learning/clinics/international-human-rights-clinic/ The understanding and regulation of who is and who is not a member of each state, and why communities have been rendered stateless, has long been a regional challenge and touches on some of the most fundamental concepts regarding nationality in the Middle East and North Africa. The webinar will explore trends such as the link between statelessness and displacement, children's rights, civil documentation and discrimination, highlighting region-wide advocacy initiatives that can fill in knowledge gaps on this issue and address statelessness challenges. Susan Akram directs the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University's School of Law, in which she supervises students engaged in international advocacy in domestic, international, regional, and UN fora. Her research and publications focus on immigration, asylum, refugee, forced migration and human and civil rights issues, with an interest in the Middle East, the Arab, and Muslim world. Zahra Albarazi is a human rights lawyer and activist working in the field of statelessness. Zahra is co-director of the Syrian Legal Development Programme. Her particular interests are statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa and the impacts of statelessness and discriminatory nationality laws on women. Maysa Ayoub is the Associate Director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo. She has over 15 years of research and teaching experiences in the field of migration and refugee studies. She researched and published in the field on issues related to asylum policies, livelihoods of refugees, and public opinion and media attitude towards refugees and immigrants. Lina Abou Habib is the Interim Director of the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut. . Lina Abou-Habib was previously the Executive Director of Women’s Learning Partnership. She has worked extensively with the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and with several international and regional organisations in designing and managing programmes in the Middle East and North Africa region on issues related to gender and citizenship, economy, trade and gender and leadership. Bronwen Manby is a leading authority on nationality law and statelessness in Africa. She has written on a wide range of human rights issues in Africa, with particular interests in South Africa and Nigeria (especially the oil industry in the Niger Delta), and in continental developments in human rights law.

This event was a book launch for 'Civilization and the Making of the State in Lebanon and Syria' by Dr. Andrew Delatolla. The book argues that the modern state, from the nineteenth century to the contemporary period, has consistently been used as a means to measure civilizational engagement and attainment. This volume historicizes this dynamic, examining how it impacted state-making in Lebanon and Syria. By putting social, political, and economic pressure on the Ottoman Empire to replicate the modern state in Europe, the book examines processes of racialization, nationalist development, continued imperial expansion, and resistance that became embedded in the state as it was assembled. By historicizing post-imperial and post-colonial state formation in Lebanon and Syria, it is possible to engage in a conceptual separation from the modern state, abandoning the ongoing reproduction of the state as a standard, or benchmark, of civilization and progress. Andrew Delatolla is a Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Leeds, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre. His research interests centre on issues of race, gender, and sexuality in relation to statehood and state formation. His research tends to focus on issues of violence and exclusion from an international historical political sociological lens, examining the international relations of the Middle East and North Africa (Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and the Ottoman Empire). Shourideh C. Molavi is a writer and scholar specializing in critical state theory, migration and border studies, and trained with a background in International Humanitarian Law. She has over 15 years of academic and fieldwork experience in the Middle East—focusing on Israel/Palestine—on the topics of border practices, citizenship and statelessness, and human and minority rights, with an emphasis on the relationship between the law, violence and power. Since 2014, she has worked as a Lead Researcher on Israel-Palestine and fieldworker with Forensic Architecture, an interdisciplinary research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London. Mai Taha is a Lecturer in Law at Goldsmiths, University of London. Grounded in anti-racist socialist-feminism, her research focuses on how the organization of race, class and gender is a fundamental way of forming social hierarchies through law. She has written on international law and empire, labour movements, gender relations, care work and social reproduction in the interwar and postcolonial Middle East. She is also interested in the areas of law and literature, and law and film, exploring alternative archives, artefacts and literary narratives. She is currently working on the legal politics of refusal in Mandate Palestine, focusing on labour and gender relations during the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt.

The PowerPoint presentations from the event can be viewed here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/events/2021/kuwaits-urbanisation This Kuwait Programme event was a discussion about two research projects - 'Public Space in Kuwait: From User Behaviour to Policy-making' led by Alexandra Gomes and Asseel Al-Ragam, and 'Towards an Equitable Transport System in Kuwait' led by Adeel Muhammad. This webinar will explore how Kuwait’s urbanisation trends and car-centric development have shaped planning, urban design, and individual behaviour with consequences for public health and the environment. The webinar included two presentations. The first from Alexandra Gomes and Asseel Al-Ragam on ‘Public space in Kuwait’ looked at some of the challenges and opportunities facing Kuwait’s residential neighbourhoods and everyday use of public space. The second from Reem Alfahad on ‘Social justice, transport and accessibility’ explored transport spatial inequalities at the city scale. Alexandra Gomes is a Research Officer at LSE Cities, where she is responsible for coordinating the Centre’s socio-spatial analysis across a range of projects. Focusing on urban studies, comparative analysis, urban inequalities, public space and urban walkability. She also teaches at UCL’s The Bartlett School of Planning, where she is finishing her PhD. Asseel Al-Ragam is Associate Professor of Architecture, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, Research, and Graduate Studies and Director of the Architecture Graduate Program at Kuwait University’s College of Architecture. She is an award-winning author with published research on Kuwait’s built environment. She was a research fellow and lecturer at École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture, Paris. She works as an architecture and planning consultant and is a member of the Technical Advisory Committee at Kuwait’s Private University Council. Sharifa Alshalfan is an architect, urban researcher and educator. She is part of a team of experts developing housing and urban policy recommendations at the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. She also works as a consultant on urban development at the World Bank and teaches periodically at Kuwait University at the College of Architecture. Her work has been published by CITY, LSE Kuwait Programme, LSE Cities and the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs. Adeel Muhammad is a visiting post doctoral researcher at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. Previously, Adeel worked as a Research Officer at LSE Cities, on projects related to mapping and analysing the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban expansion and transport mobility across Asia and Africa. Reem Alfahad holds an MSc in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Public Policy Studies from Duke University. She is most interested in the cultural and social dynamics of inclusion, particularly as they relate to urban spaces. Most recently, through the LSE Kuwait Programme, she has focused on mobility access in Kuwait and the different sociocultural dimensions that include or exclude different groups from being able to move freely. Previously, she worked with Kantar Public in London, UK, and the Cultural Secretariat of Medellin, Colombia, among others. Outside of academic research, she is working on an audio documentary series focusing on globalized gentrification. Dr Courtney Freer is an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre. Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Gulf states, particularly the roles played by Islamism and tribalism. Her book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies, based on her DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford and published by Oxford University Press in 2018, examines the socio-political role played by Muslim Brotherhood groups in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE.