LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts

With continuous protests ongoing across Lebanon for the last two weeks, this event will analyse this largest demonstration of public disobedience for the past decade. The situation will be contextualised against the backdrop of failing state services, a system that has gradually drifted apart from society, and also a society that has reached its consumerist limits. This event is part of a series being organised by the LSE Institute for Global Affairs responding to the Lebanese protests. For further information, please contact Dr. Bilal Malaeb. Jamil Mouawad is a lecturer in political studies and public administration at the American University of Beirut. His research interests in state-society relations span the subfields of comparative politics and political economy. He specializes in the politics of the Middle East, with a focus on governance and limited statehood. He was a Max Weber Fellow at the European Univesrity Institute, finalizing his book based on his PhD thesis. The book presents a critique to the concept of ‘weak’ states. The central argument of his book is that ‘weakness’ does not capture the nature of the Lebanese state and that the patterns of ‘presence’ and ‘absence’ are by no means incidental but central to the way politics works. He was awarded a PhD in politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in June 2015. Later, he joined the Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO) in Beirut, as a postdoctoral fellow, through a grant from the Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS). He also acted as a researcher coordinator of the Critical Security Studies in the Arab world and the Ethics in Social sciences project, both on-going projects launched by ACSS. Hicham Safieddine is Lecturer in the History of the Modern Middle East at King's College, London. He is author of Banking on the State: The financial Foundations of Lebanon (Stanford University Press). He holds a PhD in Middle East Studies from the University of Toronto, an MA in Political Science from York University, Canada, and an MA in Economics from The University of Rochester, New York. Sophie Chamas is a senior teaching fellow at the Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS. She is finishing up her PhD in Modern Middle East Studies at the University of Oxford, where she was also an Ertegun Scholar. Her work focuses on the study of social movements, counter-culture, and political theory and discourse rooted in, focused on or related to the Middle East. Broadly speaking, she is interested in thinking through the life, death and afterlife of the radical political imaginary in the Middle East and beyond. Sophie is also an essayist and writer of creative non-fiction. Her writing has appeared in Kohl: a journal for body and gender research, The State, Raseef 22, Mashallah News, Jadaliyya and The Towner, amongst other publications. Bilal Malaeb is a postdoctoral research officer at the Institute of Global Affairs (IGA) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He works primarily on the Responsible Deal project, an inter-regional collaboration of seven universities, coordinated by the LSE. His research focus is on the integration of Syrian refugees in frontier countries in the Middle East. Bilal’s expertise is in Microeconometrics and Development Economics, and his research interests are in migration, poverty, and labour market issues. Prior to joining the LSE, he worked as a research officer at the University of Oxford and a research fellow at the University of Southampton. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSELebanon

This event launched the paper “Response to and Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Iraq: The Case of Shi’a Turkmen Survivors in Tel Afar” published under the LSE Conflict Research Programme by Principal Investigator Güley Bor. During the most recent Islamic State conflict, thousands of Yazidi, and hundreds of Shi’a Turkmen and Christian women were kidnapped and subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). The situation of Shi’a Turkmen survivors of CRSV in Tel Afar in the Nineveh Governorate demonstrates how the Government of Iraq’s inaction, together with its discriminatory laws and practices, continue to fail women, and survivors in particular. Recent efforts to establish a reparations program are commendable, yet challenges remain. Iraq is in urgent need of wider reform in addressing sexual violence and ensuring its non-repetition. Given the emergency nature of CRSV, this paper explores the need for all survivors in Iraq to be provided with timely, comprehensive and survivor-centric medical, psychosocial, legal and economic responses. The paper itself includes recommendations for a complex reparation program designed and implemented through effective survivor consultation that should be established to address the psychological, physical and social harms arising from CRSV. Güley Bor is an international lawyer, researcher and consultant with a focus on transitional justice, human rights and gender in Iraq and Turkey. Previously, she managed the Yazidi Genocide Documentation Project of Yazda in Duhok, Kurdistan Region of Iraq as a Harvard Law School Satter Human Rights Fellow. She also authored Yazda’s second mass graves report entitled Working Against the Clock: Documenting Mass Graves of Yazidis Killed by the Islamic State. Dr Ali Akram al-Bayati is a neurologist and the founder and president of Turkmen Rescue Foundation, an NGO dedicated to defending human rights of minorities in Iraq, particularly the Turkmen. He is also a member of the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, Iraq's national human rights institution. Dr Jessica Watkins is a Research Officer at the Middle East Centre, currently working on a DFID-funded project looking at regional drivers of conflict in Iraq and Syria. Her PhD at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, was on policing and dispute management in Jordan. Join the conversation on Twitter using #LSEIraq

This is a recording of the Q&A section of LSE MEC's event screening Benedetta Argentieri's documentary I am the Revolution which focuses on feminist revolutions taking place in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. These countries has been torn apart by decades of war, and are, according to international indexes, among the worst places on earth to live as a woman. By following three women, Selay Ghaffar, Rojda Felat, and Yanar Mohammed, and the movements around them, the documentary explores how they are leading the way for a new future for women in their countries. Each country reflects the groundswell of feminist revolutions: political revolution in Afghanistan, armed in Syria, and grassroots activism in Iraq. Taking a journalistic approach, the film challenges the images of veiled, silent, and timid women in the Middle East and instead shows the strength of women rising up on the front lines, in remote villages, and in city streets, to claim their voice and their rights. Benedetta Argentieri is an independent journalist and director who has been covering the Iraqi and Syrian war since 2014. She produced “Capulcu-Voices from Gezi,” a documentary about the revolt that occurred in Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2016 she co-directed “Our War,” a documentary about foreigners joining the Kurds in Syria to fight the Islamic State. The film was selected at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, in the out of competition section. Elif Sarican is an activist in the Kurdish Women's Movement and former UK Coordinator of the Kurdistan Students Union. Elif is an anthropologist at the London School of Economics. Dr Michael Mason is Director of the Middle East Centre. He is also Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment and Associate of the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment.

This event launches The Kurds of Northern Syria: Governance, Diversity and Conflicts, written by Harriet Allsopp and Wladimir van Wilgenburg and published by Bloomsbury in July 2019. Based on unprecedented access to Kurdish-governed areas of Syria, including exclusive interviews with administration officials and civilian surveys, The Kurds of Northern Syria sheds light on the socio-political landscape of northern Syria. The first English-language book to capture the momentous transformations that have occurred since 2011, the authors move beyond idealized images of Rojava and the PYD to provide a nuanced assessment of the Kurdish autonomous experience and the prospects for self-rule in Syria. The book draws on unparalleled field research, as well as analysis of the literature on the evolution of Kurdish politics and the Syrian war. The event is the first in the LSE Middle East Centre Kurdish Studies Series programme for 2019–20. Wladimir van Wilgenburg is an analyst of Kurdish politics and a journalist living in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan. Robert Lowe is Deputy Director of the Middle East Centre. He joined the Centre when it opened in 2010. Robert is responsible for running the Centre's operations, research activities, fundraising and development. This event is part of the Kurdish Studies Series at the LSE Middle East Centre. Convened by Zeynep Kaya and Robert Lowe, the series will encourage dissemination and discussion of new research on Kurdish politics and society and provide a network for scholars and students with shared research interests. Public lectures and research seminars will be held regularly during term-time. If you wish to join the mailing list for the series, please contact Robert Lowe: r.lowe@lse.ac.uk

The Iraqi media landscape has been characterised by partisan ownership, in the main based on political and religious affiliations. Comparative ethnographic research has revealed highly irregular practices and the struggles of Iraqi journalists to adhere to the norms of professionalism, suggesting that these practices are contributing to and fuelling the on-going context of conflict and violence in Iraq. Within this challenging environment, there have been some attempts to develop media platforms that carve out spaces which can contribute to better journalism and, ultimately, better local and national governance. This report explores, in the context of this environment, the challenges that these media are facing. It examines a number of barriers to the development of independent media in Iraq, providing some recommendations to how these obstacles might be be tackled. Based on interviews with key media and political stakeholders that took place in Iraq in January and February 2019, it provides some insight into the complex interaction between political and social conditions, structure and agency in Iraq. Recorded on 11 June 2019. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Aida Al-Kaisy is a Media Reform Advisor and has worked extensively on media development projects across the MENA region including in Iraq, Palestine and Jordan. She is currently working on a number of projects, focusing on issues related to youth engagement in media, media in conflict, social cohesion and the media and the development of independent media platforms in MENA amongst other things. She is completing a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where she also teaches on a part-time basis, on the performance of the media in conflict, using Iraq as a case study. Aida is also programme consultant for the Ethical Journalism Network and a keen promoter of ethical values in journalistic practice and media governance. Jessica Watkins is Research Officer at the Middle East Centre, currently working on a DFID-funded project looking at regional drivers of conflict in Iraq and Syria. The project ties in with Jessica’s previous research at the Rand Corporation into Iraqi and regional security issues. Her PhD at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, was on policing and dispute management in Jordan. Image: March 30, 2017 - Mosul, Nineveh Province, Iraq - After the animals had been loaded onto the truck DR. AMIR KHALIL gives a media statement before the team evacuates from the zoo. Mosul, Iraq. (Credit Image: © Gabriel Romero via ZUMA Wire). Source: Alamy

Women have been at the forefront of many of the political and military struggles in the Kurdish Middle East, most visibly so since the outbreak of the ‘Rojava Revolution’ in 2012. But women have in fact since the foundation of the PKK in 1978 played an integral role in the ideological and political development of the Liberation Movement as a whole; as guerrillas, activists, politicians, mothers and prisoners. Isabel Käser will trace the complex history of the Kurdish Women’s Liberation Movement, discuss how women’s autonomous organisational structures have emerged and how they operate today between the mountains and the cities of the four different parts of Kurdistan. Her talk analyses the emancipatory power this movement holds but also unpacks some of the tensions that emerge from the interplay between militarism, the party’s body politics and the movement’s revolutionary quest for a more democratic Middle East. Recorded on 4 June. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Isabel Käser holds a PhD from SOAS where she worked on the Kurdish Women's Movement. Her work contributes to debates around gender and war, feminism and nationalism, as well as conflict and body politics. Zeynep Kaya is Research Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. She is part of the UK DFID-Funded Conflict Research Programme and is leading projects on gendered drivers of conflict in Iraq, the impact of genocide on the Yazidi community, responses to internal displacement in Iraqi Kurdistan, WPS and displacement in the Middle East, and women’s political participation in Kuwait. She is also a Lecturer at the Pembroke-King’s Programme, University of Cambridge. Image: 2016, Asos Mountains (Iraq). Two guerrillas during a tea break at the training camp. Image courtesy of Isabel Käser

Since free elections were introduced in Turkey, no other party has been able to retain its incumbency as much as the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Given incumbents’ tendency to lose support over time, what are the factors which explain the electoral durability of the party? In this event, Dr Luca will explore the rising consolidation of power by the AKP through the lens of distributive politics, aiming to assess how the ruling party has deployed the geographical distribution of public monies towards distinct political ends. Throughout the 2000s, Turkey was portrayed as a model of social and economic success for other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Yet, the incumbent government and its economic development model face increasing criticism for corrupt and discretionary practices and arbitrary decision-making. The talk will ultimately argue that the AKP has skilfully used public monies and abused state resources to cement its power and develop its populist, electoral authoritarian regime. Registered on 23 May. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Davide Luca is a Visiting Fellow at the Middle East Centre and a Research Associate at Cambridge University. His research combines Geography, Political Economy, and Public Economics to focus on the politics of policy delivery and development at the local level. Çağatay Bircan is a Senior Research Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. His current research is on the effects of international trade, private equity, and banking on innovation and productivity. Ece Kocabıçak is currently working as Fellow of Globalisation, Gender and Development in the Department of Gender Studies at London School of Economics and Political Science. Her teaching and research engage with the contemporary debates in international development, comparative political economy, political sociology, and social inequalities. Image: An AKP supporter. Source: Leonie Balci

There has been much discussion whether the 1953 should be understood in the context of the Cold War or that of economic conflicts between the industrial West and developing countires--in other words, as precursor of the rise of OPEC and oil nationalisation by emerging states in the 1960s and 1970s. In this talk, Professor Abrahamian will focus on how far the newly released State Department and CIA documents help answer this question. Recorded on 29 May 2019. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ervand Abrahamian is Professor Emeritus of History at Baruch College and the Graduate Center in the City University of New York. He is also the author of: Iran Between Two Revolutions (Princeton University Press, 1982); The Iranian Mojahedin (Yale University Press, 1989); Khomeinism (University of California Press, 1993); Tortured confessions: Prisons and Public Reactions in Iran (University of California Press, 2004); A History of Modern Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2008); and The Coup: 1953, The CIA and the Roots of Modern US-Iranian Relations (The New Press, 2013). Some of his books have been translated and published in Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Italian, and Polish.He is now writing a book on the 1979 revolution in Iran. In 2011, he was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Massoumeh Torfeh is a research associate at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at the School of Oriental and African Studies specialising in the politics of Iran and Afghanistan. She is a regular media commentator analysing developments in both countries. She was formerly the director of communications and spokesperson for the United Nations in Afghanistan, and a BBC World Service senior producer. She has published several papers about Iran in academic journals and co-authored two books on Iran. Her main focus of research has, however, been the causes of the repeated failure of democracy in Iran. Her PhD in Political Science is from LSE and on that subject. Image: Banner featuring Mohammad Mosaddeq during Iran's 1953 Coup. Source: Popularresistance.org

Since February 2019 and President Bouteflika’s announcement that he intended to stand for a fifth term, hundreds of thousands of protesters have descended upon Algeria’s streets to demand his resignation. In the face of pressure from the street and the army, Bouteflika, who suffered a debilitating stroke in 2013, finally stepped down after 20 years in power on 2 April. Hugh Roberts, expert in Algerian constitutional law and its political regime, will explore the implications of ‘L’Après-Bouteflika’: the prospects that now exist for Algeria's political and economic future. Recorded on 3 May 2019. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Hugh Roberts, a specialist on North African and particularly Algerian history and politics, founded the Society for Algerian Studies in 1992. He was its Secretary from 1992 to 2001 and has been its Vice President since 2002. He is currently the Edward Keller Professor of North African and Middle Eastern History at Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, having taken up this post in January 2012.

Stuart Hall once wrote that we mustn’t use Gramsci like ‘an Old Testament prophet who, at the correct moment, will offer us the consoling and appropriate quotation.’ Instead, we must ‘think’ our problems in a Gramscian way. What would it mean to ‘think’ some of the problems facing Egypt and the broader Middle East in such a way, and what are some of the challenges and productive encounters this might produce? This talk looks at how Gramsci has ‘travelled’ to the Middle East, and what made this travel possible. In particular, Sara Salem traces some of the ways in which Gramsci’s concepts have been thought with in contexts such as Egypt, and argues that the productive debates that have emerged around this suggest a continuing usefulness of Gramsci for scholars of the region. More importantly, Salem also argues that the particularities of capitalism in the colony and postcolony pose important challenges to prominent interpretations of Gramsci’s work. She suggests that thinking about Gramsci through ‘traveling theory’ allows for both productive conversations as well as challenges to Eurocentric accounts of Marxist theory, and sheds light on some of the afterlives of empire in the Middle East. Recorded on 2 May 2019. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sara Salem (@saramsalem) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at LSE. Her main research interests include political sociology, postcolonial studies, Marxist theory, feminist theory, and global histories of empire and imperialism. Salem is an editor at the journal Historical Materialism. John Chalcraft is Professor of Middle East History and Politics in the Department of Government at LSE and leads the Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Netwrok. Image: Antonio Gramsci by Gabriele Cancedda. Source: Gramscimania