LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts

Speaker: Fadi Bardawil, University of North Carolina Discussant: Fuad Musallam, LSE Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE Drawing on the theorisation of the Marxist group Socialist Lebanon, Fadi Bardawil looks at how Lebanon's simultaneous economic integration into the Arab area through its services-based mode of production, and its isolation from Arab political causes, was affected by the advent of the Palestinian Resistance on the national political scene. Bardawil pays particular attention to how the Left theorised the Lebanese State, class-formation, as well as the role of Palestinian Resistance as an external force that would transform the rules of the Lebanese sectarian political game by rallying the masses around the national question. Recorded 21 January 2015. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.

Speakers: Lina Khatib, Carnegie Middle East Center; Dina Matar, SOAS; Atef Alshaer, University of Westminster Chair: Filippo Dionigi, LSE Middle East Centre In this talk, Dr Lina Khatib, Dr Dina Matar, and Dr Atef Alshaer present their most recent book, 'The Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication'. The book addresses how Hizbullah uses image, language and its charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to legitimise its political aims and ideology and appeal to different target groups. Recorded on 2 December 2014.

Speaker: Ali Ansari, St Andrews University Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE In this talk, Professor Ansari looks at the Iranian proposal in 1977 to establish a joint British-Iranian nuclear company which would have entailed the construction of up to twenty nuclear reactors in Iran in return for significant Iranian investment in British Industry. Had the deal been followed through, it would have marked an unprecedented shift in British-Iranian relations. Professor Ansari charts the rise and fall of the negotiations and what they reveal about the nature of Iran’s relations with Britain. Recorded 19 November 2014.

Speaker: Natalya Vince, University of Portsmouth Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies As recent events in North Africa have demonstrated, the post-revolution is often accompanied by moral panic and a desire to 'reinstate' gendered order. This talk explores debates about the place of women in public space in Algeria in the 1960s. Seeking to go beyond commonly-held views of post-independence Algeria as locked in a binary struggle between, on the one hand, 'tradition' and ethno-cultural nationalism and, on the other hand 'modernity' and socialist development, Dr Vince considers how revolutionary progress could embrace puritanical single-mindedness and also how Algerian women in the 1960s responded to and contributed to these debates. Recorded on 12 November 2014.

Speaker: Aitemad Muhanna-Matar, LSE Chair: Lori Allen, SOAS Aitemad Muhanna-Matar presents the findings of field research conducted in five countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen and the occupied Palestinian territory) in 2013. The research focuses on the emergence of young female leaders who have shaped a new form of women’s activism that merges Islamism with feminism. It also reflects on the form of women's leadership that developed during and after the Arab Uprisings and how it could contribute to redefining women's activism and empowerment and its effect on social and gender transformation in Arab countries. Recorded on 6 November 2014.

Speaker: Joel Beinin , Stanford University Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE Since 2002, local Palestinian popular committees have led a grass roots struggle against the separation barrier Israel has constructed, mostly on Palestinian land inside the West Bank. Israelis and internationals have joined this social movement. Using Doug McAdam’s conception of “high-risk activism” (derived from his study of the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project of 1964) Joel Beinin explores the history of the struggle and the motivations of Israelis for participating in it. Recorded on 4 November 2014. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.

Speaker: Roham Alvandi, LSE Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, is often remembered as a pliant instrument of American power during the Cold War. In this lecture and book launch, Roham Alvandi offers a revisionist account of the Shah's relationship with the United States by examining the partnership he forged with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. Dr Alvandi will discuss how the Shah shaped US policy in the Persian Gulf under Nixon and Kissinger, including the CIA’s covert support for the Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq, and the US role in the origins of Iran’s nuclear program. Dr Alvandi will draw on the history of Iran’s Cold War partnership with the United States to examine the potential for Iranian-American cooperation in the Middle East today. Recorded on 16 October 2014.

Speakers: Toby Dodge, Faleh Jabar Chair: Sami Zubaida, Birkbeck, University of London The seizure of Mosul by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and their rapid move south towards Baghdad has thrown Iraq into another post-regime change crisis. This panel examines the identity and background of the fighters in northern Iraq, as well as the root causes behind the violence and explains why the Iraqi armed forces, comprising over a million men under arms, collapsed so quickly. It explains how the political and constitutional system, set up in the aftermath of regime change, has contributed to the current situation. The speakers also discuss the consequences of the current crisis and what it means for the future of Iraq. Recorded on 26 June 2014.

Speaker: Marc Valeri, University of Exeter Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Oman’s foreign policy under Qaboos is usually considered to be pragmatic and independent – as illustrated by the sultanate’s role in facilitating the conclusion of the Iran-P5+1 nuclear deal in 2013 and its announcement that it would not join a hypothetical Gulf union. However such a widely accepted view should not obscure the fact that the price to pay for the perpetuation of this foreign policy has been an unquestioned political and economic dependence towards London and Washington. Recorded on 22 May 2014. This is an LSE Kuwait Programme event.

Speaker: Charles Anderson, Georgetown University Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE Charles Anderson discusses his paper, which is part of a broader argument for a history from below of Arab society under the Palestine Mandate. By reexamining the political economy of the countryside under the first 18 years of British rule and the responses of peasants and ex-peasants to the escalating pressures they faced, it contends that greater attention to the history of the rural majority has much to teach us. In tandem, it advances an analysis of the Mandatory regime as a liberal despotism, the policies of which consolidated the emergence of a “landless class” that ultimately rose against it during the multifaceted rebellion known as the Great Revolt (1936-39). Recorded on 20 May 2014. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.