LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts

Speaker: Martin Chulov, The Guardian Chair: Ian Black, LSE Senior Visiting Fellow With the battle for Syrian soil near an end, the most brutal conflict of modern times is becoming a fight for who gets to shape what emerges from the ruins. Backed by his allies, Bashar al-Assad has all but won and – abandoned by theirs – the myriad forces who stood against him have lost. The battlefield is now now potently geopolitical. Iran and Russia, who saved Damascus, want a strategic return on their blood and treasure, but both have very different visions for post-war Syria. Turkey too is demanding an outcome that suits it's interests. As is Israel. A waning USA, Saudi Arabia and Qatar also want a say in how the regime is aligned in a fast changing and volatile region.The stakes have rarely been higher in the modern Middle East. The next few years will test the modern borders of the region, and further strain an ethnic sectarian balance that has neared breaking point from Tartous to Qom. Recorded on 27 November ------------------------------------ Martin Chulov (@martinchulov) who covers the Middle East for the Guardian, won the Orwell prize for journalism in 2015. He has reported from the region since 2005. Ian Black (@ian_black)is Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Ian is a former Middle East editor, diplomatic editor and European editor for the Guardian newspaper. Image: Return to Homs. Image Courtesy of Xinhua/Pan Chaoyue, Flickr.

Apologies for the abrupt ending of the podcast. The recording was cut short. You can watch the full lecture online on our facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/lsemiddleeastcentre/videos/363890584359536/ Speakers: Madawi Al-Rasheed, Ian Black and Steffen Hertog, LSE Middle East Centre Chair: Michael Mason, LSE Middle East Centre Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi embassy in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 to never leave. Having denied knowing his whereabouts, Saudi Arabia now admits that Khashoggi had been killed, but the leadership claims to have no knowledge of – or connection to – the murder. The death of the Saudi journalist has taken over international headlines; but what are the long-term implications of this event? This panel brings together LSE Middle East Centre experts to discuss internal, international and economic repercussions. Recorded on 22 November 2018. ------------------------------ Madawi Al-Rasheed (@MadawiDr)is Visiting Professor at the LSE Middle East Centre. Ian Black (@ian_black) is Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE Middle East Centre and a former Middle East editor, diplomatic editor and European editor for the Guardian newspaper. Steffen Hertog is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics in the LSE Department of Government and he is also PI on the Kuwait Programme project 'The Social Safety Net in Kuwait'. Michael Mason is Director of the Middle East Centre. Image: Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud Participates in the Counter-ISIL Ministerial Plenary Session - Flickr - U.S. Department of State.

Speakers: David McDowall and Zeynep Kaya, LSE Middle East Centre. David McDowall’s ground-breaking modern history of the Kurds was first published in 1996. It became a foundation text for the subsequent growth of scholarship on the Kurds and, revised and updated three times, remains an essential part of the literature. David is currently updating the book again and will share his thoughts on developments in the field and, in particular, on areas which have gained in importance and understanding over the last 25 years. David McDowall studied Islamic History under Albert Hourani for his first degree and wrote his post-graduate dissertation on the Druze revolt in Syria, 1925-27. He is a generalist, having worked for the British Council and UNRWA, before becoming a full-time writer, writing on Britain, Palestine, Lebanon and the Kurds. After 20 years writing and self-publishing a series of British landscape books, he has reverted to updating his history of the Kurds. The event marks the launch 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. Recorded on 23 October 2018. --------------------------- Image: Book Cover 'Modern History of the Arabs' courtesy of the author.

Speakers: Salman Sheikh, The Sheikh Group and Courtney Freer, LSE Middle East Centre Salman Shaikh is a negotiations specialist with eight years of experience in running Track II diplomacy with a wide spectrum of Syrian communities and constituencies. With Syria divided into zones of influence dominated by external players, he will address the question of what options remain for a political process – and what is at stake. At a time when world and regional powers are once again attempting to negotiate a political breakthrough that would serve their interests, he will argue that a path to an inclusive political process must – and can – be found. In this regard, he will also draw on years of engagement with key regional and international capitals, including Washington, Moscow, Ankara, Riyadh and London. Recorded on 13 November 2018. --------------------------------- Salman Shaikh (@Salman_Shaikh1) is the Founder and CEO of The Shaikh Group (TSG). Courtney Freer (@courtneyfreer) joined the Kuwait Programme, LSE Middle East Centre in 2015 as a Research Officer. Image: Salman Shaikh's TED talk 'Navigating the Arab Spring' in 2012. Source: YouTube.

Speakers: Hendrik Kraetzschmar, University of Leeds, Paola Rivetti, Dublin City University, Courtney Freer, LSE Middle East Centre, Craig Larkin, King’s College London. Chair: Katerina Dalacoura, LSE What are the consequences of the Arab uprisings for Islamist actors and organisations across the region? Have regime change, revolution, counter-revolution and reform worked to strengthen the power and influence of Islamists, or have they weakened them? Presenting the recently published volume Islamists and the Politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention (EUP, 2018), panellists will critically discuss the impact of the uprisings looking at how Islamists' political and ideological stances have shifted as a result of a dramatically changing social and political environment. Cross-regional dynamics will be explored and assessed, alongside discussions of the national specificities of Islamist trajectories in those countries of the Middle East and North Africa impacted by the waves of popular mobilisation since 2010". Recorded on 3 October 2018. ------------------------------------ Image: Islamists and the politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention Book Cover. Image Courtesy of Edinburgh University Press.

Speakers: Youssef Cherif, Deputy Director of Columbia Global Centers, Tunis, member in Carnegie's Civic Research Network. Youssef Cherif analyses how the Maghreb region is another theatre of the cold war raging between the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) members. By means of fake news, political pressures and transfer of weapons, the three leading protagonists of the GCC are influencing the political, security and economic situation in North Africa which in turn deepens their crises and risks destabilizing the region. Recorded on 10 October 2018. ---------------------------- Youssef Cherif (@Faiyla) is a political analyst who specializes in North African affairs. He is Deputy Director of Columbia Global Centers, Tunis, member in Carnegie's Civic Research Network and is contributing to a number of think-tanks. Courtney Freer (@courtneyfreer) is Research Officer at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Arab Gulf states, with a particular focus on Islamism and tribalism. Image: Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed speaks with King Mohammed VI at Sea Palace barza. Source: Rashed Al Mansoori / Crown Prince Court - Abu Dhabi

Speakers: Courtney Freer, Toby Doge, LSE Middle East Centre; Stéphane Lacroix, Sciences Po, Paris; John Jenkins, Policy Exchange, London. Scholars of Middle Eastern politics have long overlooked the role played by political Islam in domestic politics of the wealthy monarchical states of the Arabian Gulf, so-called 'rentier states'. While rentier state theory assumes that citizens of such states will form opposition blocs only when their stake in rent income is threatened, this book demonstrates that ideology, rather than rent, has motivated the formation of independent Islamist movements in the wealthiest states of the region, specifically, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The book therefore argues that Brotherhood movements have managed to use the links between the social (i.e. informal personal networks) and political (i.e. government institutions) to gain influence in policymaking in such states. Using contemporary history and original empirical research, Courtney Freer updates traditional rentier state theory and argues that political Islam serves as a prominent voice and tool to promote more strictly political, and often populist or reformist, views supported by many Gulf citizens. Recorded on 16 October. ----------------------------------------- Courtney Freer (@courtneyfreer) is Research Officer at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her work focuses on the domestic politics of the Arab Gulf states, with a particular focus on Islamism and tribalism. Sir John Jenkins is a British ex-diplomat, Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange in London and a Board Member of the LSE Middle East Centre and also of the American University of Iraq at Suleimaniya. Stéphane Lacroix is associate professor of political science at Sciences Po in Paris and a researcher at the Centre de Recherches Internationales (CERI). Toby Dodge (@ProfTobyDodge) is Kuwait Programme Director, Kuwait Professor and Professor in the International Relations Department. Image: Qatar's Abdulwahab Grand Mosque. Image Courtesy of Omar Chatriwala, Flickr.

Speakers: Toby Dodge, Zeynep Kaya and Jessica Watkins, LSE Middle East Centre; Renad Mansour; Chatham House. It has now been over a year since the liberation of Mosul by Iraqi government forces in July 2017. This victory marks a new stage in the violent conflict that has destabilised Iraq since at least regime change in 2003. In some ways, the breakthrough in July 2017 can be compared firstly to the initial aftermath of the invasion in April 2003 until the insurgency transformed itself into a civil war in 2005, and then secondly to the period following the US-led surge that started in February 2007 until the reconstitution of ISIS and the fall of Mosul in 2014. However, as all these examples indicate, if the underlying drivers of instability are not properly identified and mediated through accurately targeted policy interventions, then a return to the levels of organised violence that have dominated Iraq for the majority of the last fifteen years is likely. This event marks the launch of the Conflict Research Programme (CRP) Iraq. Funded by UK DFID, the Conflict Research Programme (CRP) is a three-year programme designed to address the drivers and dynamics of violent conflict in the Middle East and Africa and to inform the measures being used to tackle armed conflict and its impacts. Recorded on 30 October 2018 --------------------------------- Toby Dodge (@ProfTobyDodge) Toby is Kuwait Programme Director, Kuwait Professor and Professor in the International Relations Department. Zeynep Kaya (@zeynepn_kaya) is Research Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Renad Mansour (@renadmansour) is Research Fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. 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. Image: An Iraqi Bazaar. Photo: serkansenturk.

Speakers: Deniz Kandiyoti, SOAS; Renad Mansour, Chatham House; Charles Tripp, SOAS Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Director This memorial honoured the late Faleh A. Jabar and his notable contribution to the study of Iraq and the wider Middle East. This event also marked the launch of his MEC paper From Identity Politics to Issue Politics: The Iraqi Protest Movement, which he presented at the Middle East Centre in July 2016. Faleh A. Jabar was a political sociologist, the CEO of Iraq Studies Institute and a Visiting Fellow at the School of Politics and Sociology at the University of London’s Birkbeck College. His research interests and expertise spanned various fields, including the sociology of religion, sociology of nation-building and state formation, tribes and modern socio-economic formations, and cultural discourses in Iraq and the greater Middle East. Jabar authored many books, including The Shiite Movement in Iraq, Post-Marxism and the Middle East, Ayatollahs, Sufis and Ideologues: State, Religion and Social Movements in Iraq and (as co-editor) Tribes and Power: Nationalism and Ethnicity in the Middle East, all published by Saqi books. Recorded on 7 June 2018. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deniz Kandiyoti is Emeritus Professor in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London. Her research focuses on the fields of gender relations and developmental politics in the Middle East, specifically Turkey. Renad Mansour is Research Fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House. His research explores the situation of Iraq in transition and the dilemmas posed by state-building. Charles Tripp is Professor of Politics with reference to the Middle East at SOAS, University of London and Fellow of the British Academy. His research interests include the nature of autocracy, state and resistance in the Middle East, the politics of Islamic identity and the relationship between art and power. Image credit: LSE Middle East Centre

Speaker: Cristina Moreno-Almeida, King's College College Chair: Shakuntala Banaji, LSE This talk launches Cristina Moreno-Almeida’s book, ‘Rap Beyond Resistance: Staging Power in Contemporary Morocco’. In the book, Moreno-Almeida argues for a new way of looking at cultural resistance in the Arabic-speaking world that goes beyond secular liberal ideas of resistance. In doing, so, she provides an in-depth look at rap culture in Morocco, bringing light to a vibrant and varied rap scene, and uncovering the many ways in which young artists are being political beyond ‘radical lyrics’. Recorded on 21 June 2018. -------------------------- Cristina Moreno-Almeida is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at King’s College London, UK, and a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre. Shakuntala Banaji is is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE, where she also serves as Director of Graduate Studies and programme director for the MSc Media, Communication and Development. Image credit: Yoriyas Yassine Alaoui