Rania Khalek Dispatches

The Middle East is drowning in anti-Iran propaganda emanating from Western, Gulf and oligarch-funded outlets that seek to turn the populations in the region against Iran and other institutions deemed to be “backed by Iran.” In Lebanon this plays out in a sectarian narrative that portrays Hezbollah as an Iranian proxy and depicts Shias as agents of an Iranian occupation of the country. This pattern has also been replicated in neighboring countries in an attempt to turn people against the regional forces that challenge U.S. imperialism. To understand the phenomenon, Rania Khalek was joined by Denijal Jegic, a professor of communication at Lebanese American University and author of a forthcoming research paper titled, “An Iranian Occupation of Lebanon: The imperialist media discourse on Western Asia.”You can listen to all episodes of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW 

Award-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh joined Rania Khalek on Dispatches to discuss his latest bombshell on how the Biden administration destroyed the Nord Stream pipeline using remotely triggered explosives with the help of the CIA, US Navy divers, and NATO member Norway. This means the US targeted the critical energy infrastructure of its most important European ally, a major violation of sovereignty in what essentially constitutes objectively an act of war against Germany. But Germany is looking the other way. Hersh’s article: https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-streamYou can listen to all episodes of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW 

Two years into his presidency, Biden’s foreign policy has been defined by the war in Ukraine and a weakening American hegemony, one that also characterized Trump’s time in office. Some argue the American empire is in decline no matter which party is in control. So where will U.S. foreign policy go from here as the new Cold War era drags on? Does it even matter which party is in charge anymore? How are anxieties of a U.S. decline playing out in the media and in popular culture? And where does that leave the left? To discuss this and more Rania Khalek joined by historian Daniel Bessner, an associate professor of international studies at the University of Washington, a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and co-host of the podcast American Prestige.You can listen to all episodes of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW 

With the United States hyper focused on Russia and China, it’s easy to forget that the empire is still up to its old tricks in the rest of the Global South. What does the insatiable U.S. imperialist appetite mean for the resource-rich countries of Latin America? After all, that copper, gold, zinc, silver, lead, iron, and natural gas in Peru, the lithium in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, and the oil in Venezuela isn’t gonna steal itself. How is the Cold War with Russia and China playing out throughout the region as the United States dusts off the so-called Monroe Doctrine? And how can this new multipolar era benefit the forces of independence and sovereignty?To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was joined by  Ben Norton, a Latin America-based journalist and founder of Geopolitical Economy Report. Articles discussed in this episode: https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/19/peru-resources-mining-gas-investment/ https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/29/latin-america-ukraine-weapons-brazil-colombia-argentina/ https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/01/23/china-military-spending-st-louis-fed-graph/ Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK

To understand how this new Cold War might play out, we have to understand the foundations of the original Cold War of the 20th century. What was NATO’s role? What did it mean for the Third World back then? What does it mean for the Third World today, particularly those countries that seek an independent, sovereign path? What is the danger of rising fascist movements? And what are the lessons for anti-imperialists who live and organize in the imperial core? To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was joined by Paweł Wargan, an organizer and researcher based in Berlin, the coordinator of the secretariat of the Progressive International and author of the recent Monthly Review article “NATO and the Long War on the Third World,” in which he looks to the past for lessons about the future, concluding that capitalism cannot be overcome until the arteries of imperial plunder are severed. 

It’s widely accepted that humans are driving climate change and environmentalism has become mainstream. But what if “humanity” in the abstract isn’t to blame? Is it true that humans are inherently bad for nature? What if the real culprit is the systems we’re forced to operate under — capitalism, imperialism, colonialism— perpetrated by particular sections of humanity over others? So who, or what is to blame is really to blame for climate change? What are the limitations of the mainstream environmental movements? What’s the actual solution? And where do indigenous communities and decolonization fit in? To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was  joined by Justin Podur, a Professor at York University in Toronto, author of many books including Extraordinary Threat, Haiti's New Dictatorship, America's Wars on Democracy in Rwanda and the DR Congo, and Siegebreakers and host of the Anti-Empire Project podcast.

Bitcoin, Stablecoin, Tether, Blockchain, Coinbase, Binance, Etherium, Luna, Celsius, Circle, FTX,  NFTs: What’s all this crypto jargon really about? What stage of capitalism does it mean we’re in? How has digital currency been impacted by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine? What are the geopolitical implications for the US cold war with China? And what’s the significance of the downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried? Could we see an even more dramatic unraveling in the crypto world in the future, one that spills over into the rest of the economy, or will it bounce back?To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was joined by economist Ramaa Vasudevan, an Associate Professor at Colorado State University and author of the recent Monthly Review piece Crypto Convulsions, Digital Delusions, and the Inexorable Logic of Finance Capitalism.Article discussed in the episode: https://monthlyreview.org/2022/12/01/crypto-convulsions-digital-delusions-and-the-inexorable-logic-of-finance-capitalism/ Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK

The year 2022 was defined by the war in Ukraine, the expansion of NATO, and continued encirclement of China as the U.S. prepares for “great power conflict.” But the US empire is so overstretched, that sanctions have become the favorite form of warfare— to disrupt and isolate many countries at once. Could they backfire in 2023? To discuss this and more Rania Khalek was  joined by Bikrum Gill, who teaches at the department of political science at Virginia Tech.Mentioned in the episode: https://developingeconomics.org/2022/09/01/sanctions-and-the-changing-world-order-some-views-from-the-global-south/ 

According to Western media, China can’t do anything right. First it was doing too little to address COVID, then it was doing too much and needed to reopen, and now it’s wrong to open up as it is. But if you look at things objectively, and take off the Western-colored glasses, is all the criticism really warranted? While the rest of the world rushed to fully reopen, it took three years to study and trace the virus, build medical infrastructure, train workers, and wait until a much less deadly strain emerged before the inevitable reopening. It also gained immense experience in future pandemic management.To understand how and why China’s policies toward COVID evolved, in an attempt to protect a country of 1.4 billion people, Rania Khalek was joined by Tings Chak, a researcher at the Tricontinental Institute and a member of Dongsheng news collective who has lived in China throughout these last three years.Article discussed in this episode: https://mronline.org/2023/01/01/a-look-back-on-three-years-of-chinas-anti-covid-19-fight/Past Dispatches episode with Tings on China’s poverty alleviation: https://youtu.be/ZuBCr_15BIk Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK

Why is the US willing to risk a nuclear apocalypse to weaken Russia and China? Our leaders say it’s about protecting the international rules based order from an authoritarian axis of evil. But this is just a guise. It’s actually about maintaining US unipolar hegemony over the world, which requires preventing or at the very least delaying the integration of Europe and Asia, an integration that is logical, both economically and geographically. To discuss this and more Rania Khalek was joined by Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research and author of many books including “Washington Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups, and Assassinations."Articles discussed in this episode: The United States wants to prevent a historical fact–Eurasian integration: The Twenty-Seventh Newsletter https://mronline.org/2022/07/08/the-united-states-wants-to-prevent-a-historical-fact-eurasian-integration/Mali’s Break with France Is a Symptom of Cracks in the Transatlantic Alliance: The Forty-Eighth Newsletter (2022) from Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research: https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/malis-break-with-france-is-a-symptom-of-cracks-in-the-transatlantic-alliance/ Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts.Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK