LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts

As the threat of further foreign military intervention looms over Libya, this webinar will explore the complicated relationships and tensions that exist amongst European states as well as actors such as Egypt, Turkey and Russia. The panel will also discuss the most important next steps to be taken by domestic and international actors to ensure a meaningful political settlement for Libyans. Jalel Harchaoui is a Research Fellow in the Conflict Research Unit at the Clingendael Institute. His work focuses on Libya, covering aspects such as the country’s security landscape and political economy. Jalel holds a master’s degree in Geopolitics from Paris 8 University. His doctoral research has focused on the international dimension of the Libyan conflict. A frequent commentator on Libya in the international press, he has published widely, including in Foreign Affairs, Lawfare, Politique Étrangère, Middle East Eye, and Small Arms Survey. Elham Saudi is the co-founder and Director of Lawyers for Justice in Libya (LFJL). She is a solicitor with expertise in human rights and international humanitarian law. She has advised a number of Libyan, European and international bodies in relation to the Libyan conflict. She is Visiting Professor at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice and a former Associate Fellow in the International Law Programme at Chatham House. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSELibya

This is an online launch for Simon Mabon's latest book Houses Built on Sand: Violence, Sectarianism and Revolution in the Middle East. The events of the Arab Uprisings posed an existential challenge to sovereign power across the Middle East. Whilst popular movements resulted in the toppling of authoritarian rule in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, other regimes were able to withstand these pressures. This book questions why some regimes fell whilst others were able to survive. Drawing on the work of political theorists such as Agamben and Arendt, Mabon explores the ways in which sovereign power is contested, resulting in the fragmentation of political projects across the region. Combining an innovative theoretical approach with interviews with people across the region and beyond, Mabon paints a picture of Middle Eastern politics dominated by elites seeking to maintain power and wealth, seemingly at whatever cost. This, for Mabon, is a consequence of the emergence and development of particular visions of political projects that harness or marginalise identities, communities, ideologies and faiths as mechanisms designed to ensure their survival. This book is essential reading for those interested in understanding why the uprisings took place, their geopolitical consequences, and why they are likely to happen again. The book is available to download for free here: https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526126474/9781526126474.xml Simon Mabon is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Lancaster University where he is also the Director of the Richardson Institute and the Director of the Sectarianism, Proxies and De-Sectarianization project (SEPAD). He is the author of a range of books and articles on the Middle East and international politics, including Houses Built on Sand: Violence, Sectarianism and Revolution in the Middle East (Manchester University Press, 2019), Saudi Arabia and Iran: Power and Rivalry in the Middle East (I.B. Tauris, 2013), The Origins of ISIS: The Collapse of Order and Revolution in the Middle East (I.B. Tauris, 2017), and The Struggle For Supremacy: Saudi Arabia and Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2020). In 2016-7 he served as academic advisor to the House of Lords International Relations Committee. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEMiddleEast

This is an online launch for Ben Hubbard's book 'MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed Bin Salman'. MBS is the untold story of how a mysterious young prince emerged from Saudi Arabia’s sprawling royal family to overhaul the economy and society of the richest country in the Middle East—and gather as much power as possible into his own hands. Based on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, MBS reveals the machinations behind the kingdom’s catastrophic military intervention in Yemen, the bizarre detention of princes and businessmen in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton, and the shifting Saudi relationships with Israel and the United States. And finally, it sheds new light on the greatest scandal of the young autocrat’s rise: the brutal killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, a crime that shook Saudi Arabia’s relationship with Washington and left the world wondering whether MBS could get away with murder. The book is available to purchase here: https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780008340551/mbs-the-rise-to-power-of-mohammed-bin-salman/ Ben Hubbard is the Beirut bureau chief for The New York Times. An Arabic speaker with more than a decade in the Middle East, he has covered coups, civil wars, protests, jihadist groups, rotten fish as cuisine, religion and pop culture from more than a dozen countries, including Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Yemen. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEMiddleEast

This webinar will assess the current state of affairs in MENA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speakers will look at the effects of the virus in the context of a region already in need of reformed healthcare institutions that not only improve quality, but enable access for all. Speakers will also assess the economic impact of the virus, highlight country examples such as Yemen and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as specific concerns around the impact on migrant workers in the region. This session is part of a larger day-long event organised by the LSE Institute of Global Affairs and the School of Public Policy for the London launch of the Maryam Forum. This day-long event is an opportunity to bring the whole school together at a time of uncertainty and need for reflection and policy action. To register your interest for other sessions during the day please click here. Rothna Begum is a senior women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). She has focused on discrimination and violence against women and girls in the Middle East and North Africa region including leading the research and advocacy on the abuse and exploitation of migrant domestic workers in the Middle East, and domestic violence against women and girls. She also led the advocacy for Human Rights Watch on a new global International Labour Organization (ILO) treaty relating to violence and harassment at work, which was adopted in June 2019. Rothna is also, in her individual capacity, a member of the ILO Regional Office for Arab States’ Migration Advisory Group. Ahmed Galal is currently chair of the board of trustees of the Middle East and North Africa Health Policy Forum (MENA HPF). Ahmed was Egypt's finance minister (2013-14), the managing director of the Economic Research Forum (ERF) and the director of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES). Before that, he worked for 18 years for the World Bank, where he conducted research and provided policy advice to governments in several regions. Weeam Hammoudeh is currently an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University and formerly ACSS (Arab Council for the Social Sciences) Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Researcher at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Birzeit University. She is interested in understanding how political and social transformations impact health, psychosocial wellbeing, and population processes, particularly in conflict areas; as well as how health systems and social institutions develop and shift in relation to political, economic, and structural factors, particularly in developing countries and post-colonial settings. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEMaryamForum #LSEMiddleEast

This webinar will be the launch of Pejman Abdolmohammadi and Giampiero Cama's latest book Contemporary Domestic and Foreign Policies of Iran. Although Professor Abdolmohammadi will be leading the talk, Professor Cama will also be in attendance to answer any questions during the session. This book is a comprehensive analysis of the domestic and foreign politics of Iran, focusing on its complex nature from political, social and cultural perspectives. It has adopted a multidisciplinary approach, combining comparative politics and intellectual and modern history with international relations. It analyses the institutional structure of the Islamic Republic, the main political and social actors and alliances, as well as Iranian opposition forces both inside and outside the country. The book tries to simplify the seemingly intractable complexity of the Islamic Republic by demystifying it and using political science methods to prove that it is a peculiar hybrid regime. Pejman Abdolmohammadi is a Senior Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern Studies at the School of International Studies, University of Trento, Italy. He was a Resident Research Fellow at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE, UK) from 2015 to 2018. Ghoncheh Tazmini is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Formerly an Associate Member at the Centre for Iranian Studies at SOAS, where she was Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow, Ghoncheh conducts research on Iran-related themes as a British Academy grant-holder. She is currently researching Iranian-Russian alignment in the Middle East. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEIran

Urbanisation is one of the central forces shaping social life in the Arab region. As cities grow, disappear, and organise new realities, critical debate on urban policies, histories and everyday life becomes crucial. Arab Urbanism is a new online platform that gives space for urbanists to document, debate and disseminate knowledge on the past, present and future of cities in the region. This panel will discuss the launch of the bi-lingual magazine that aims to bridge academia and urban practice, and highlight critical knowledge from and on the region. Speakers will share their thoughts on the aim behind the platform, the editorial processes, the Arab Urbanism collective, and the state of urban research on and in the Arab World. Nadi Abusaada is a Ph.D. candidate in architecture at the University of Cambridge. He is a Cambridge Trust scholar and member of the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research. His research focuses on urban governance and architectural shifts in Levantine cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He holds an M.Phil. in architecture and urban studies from the University of Cambridge and an H.B.A. in architecture from the University of Toronto. Lana Judeh is an architect who teaches at Birzeit University. She previously worked on Riwaq's rehabilitation projects of historic centres in Palestinian villages, and on producing a manual for the rehabilitation of the old city of Ramallah. She holds an MA in architecture, cultural Identity and globalisation from the University of Westminster, UK, and a BSc in architectural engineering from Birzeit University. Noura Wahby is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge. Her doctoral research at Cambridge’s Centre of Development Studies focused on the political economy of urban development and urban waterscapes in Cairo, Egypt. She previously worked at the Cambridge Centre of Smart Infrastructure looking at citizen engagement, digital technologies, and local infrastructure in the UK. She has also worked in the Middle East in a diversity of international development projects, and her research interests include the urban commons, informality, water, and political geography. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEMiddleEast

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately we had some technical difficulties towards the end of the webinar which meant that the recording had to be cut off early. Since 2003, despite an abundance of resources and a more pluralistic political settlement, Iraq’s economic reform process has failed to take off. Alexander Hamilton's new paper explores the link between the evolution and consolidation of Iraq’s post-2003 political settlement and how this has impacted the incentives decision-makers face when implementing economic policy. Paradoxically, the fact that the settlement has accommodated more groups than its repressive predecessor has not resulted in more inclusive or long-term oriented economic decision-making. This is because the inclusion of more (elite) groups reflects the fact that more actors can now generate violence if they are not placated with state-generated rents. Transitioning away from policy-makers’ consequent short-termism will require patient economic reforms, slowly creating new pressures on political actors to support the delivery of public goods and a policy environment more conducive to private sector growth. Alexander Hamilton is an economic adviser for the UK Department for International Development (DFID) based in Baghdad and leading on DFID’s economic reform programme in Iraq. He completed his PhD in Political Economy at the University of Oxford and has previously worked for the World Bank. His area of expertise is the economics of fragile states. Specifically, he focuses on the application of political economy tools to better understand and support economic reforms in resource rich fragile state contexts.

With three inconclusive elections and a political stalemate eventually leading to the formation of a unity government, all under the spectre of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption charges, this event will analyse Israel's unprecedented political crisis. Speakers will discuss what to make of the deal between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz of the Blue and White Party, and what this means for Palestinians both inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories, particularly in the context of current annexation plans. Yara Hawari is the Senior Palestine Policy Fellow of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. She completed her PhD in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, where she taught various undergraduate courses and continues to be an honorary research fellow. In addition to her academic work which focused on indigenous studies and oral history, she is also a frequent political commentator writing for various media outlets including The Guardian, Foreign Policy and Al Jazeera English. Daniel Levy is President of the U.S./Middle East Project. From 2012 to 2016 he was Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to that, he was a Senior Fellow and Director of the New America Foundation’s Middle East Taskforce in Washington D.C. and a Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation. Levy was a Senior Advisor in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and to Justice Minister Yossi Beilin during the Government of Ehud Barak (1999-2001). He was a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Israel/Palestine peace talks at Taba under Ehud Barak and at Oslo B under Yitzhak Rabin (1994-95). Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEIsrael

This webinar was a discussion around Fanar Haddad's latest book Understanding 'Sectarianism': Sunni-Shi'a Relations in the Modern Arab World. This book seeks to move the study of modern sectarian dynamics beyond analytically paralysing dichotomies by shifting the focus away from the meaningless '-ism' towards the root: sectarian identity. How are Sunni and Shi'a identities imagined, experienced and negotiated and how do they relate to and interact with other identities? Looking at the modern history of the Arab world, Haddad seeks to understand sectarian identity not as a monochrome frame of identification but as a multi-layered concept that operates on several dimensions: religious, subnational, national and transnational. Far from a uniquely Middle Eastern, Arab, or Islamic phenomenon, a better understanding of sectarian identity reveals that the many facets of sectarian relations that are misleadingly labelled ‘sectarianism’ are echoed in intergroup relations worldwide. Fanar Haddad is a Senior Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute, Washington D.C. He has lectured in modern Middle Eastern politics at the University of Exeter, at Queen Mary, University of London and at the National University of Singapore. Prior to obtaining his PhD, Haddad was a Research Analyst at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he worked on radicalization and on North Africa. He has since published widely on issues relating to historic and contemporary Iraq. His main research interests are identity, historical memory, nationalism, communal conflict and minority politics. He is the author of Sectarianism in Iraq: Antagonistic Visions of Unity (2011). Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEMiddleEast

The United Nations Security Council endorsed the UN Secretary-General's call last month for warring parties in Yemen to immediately cease fighting and focus on reaching a peace agreement whilst countering the outbreak of the coronavirus. The coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, responded with a two week ceasefire which was renewed for another month. While the cross border hostilities de-escalated, the conflict fronts inside Yemen continued to boil. This event will reflect on the challenges and possibilities for a comprehensive and inclusive peace agreement in Yemen. The speakers will discuss lessons learned from previous peace talks and ceasefire initiatives. They will also shed light on the national and regional dynamics affecting the peace process in Yemen. This event is co-organised with the Peace Track Initiative, an organisation that works on localising and feminising the peace process by supporting inclusive peace processes. Their role in holding Track II consultations with women’s groups and the role of women peacemakers will also be explored. Fatima Al-Asrar is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute. Before joining the Institute, Al-Asrar was a Senior Analyst at the Arabia Foundation in Washington DC, MENA Director for Cure Violence, Research Associate at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a Mason Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, and an International Policy Fellow at the Open Society Foundation. From 2006-12, she worked as an advisor for the Embassy of Yemen in Washington, DC. Earlier in her career, Al-Asrar served as a program officer for the Department for International Development (DFID) in Yemen. Rasha Jarhum is Co-Founder and Director of the Peace Track Initiative hosted at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, at the University of Ottawa. Jarhum was invited by the UN Special Envoy to Yemen as one of seven women to support the peace talks held in Kuwait in 2016, and has briefed the UN Security Council on Yemen and Women’s Rights to push for peace. She is an affiliated scholar with the American University of Beirut. She has more than 15 years of experience working to advocate for women's, children's and refugee rights. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEYemen