Arab Digest podcasts

Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes back the geopolitical analyst and commentator Samuel Ramani to discuss how, in the past decade, Russia has consistently played a strong hand in the Middle East, buttressing relations with MENA states and presenting itself as an honest disputes mediator while exploiting anxieties and uncertainties to advantage as America continues to pull away from its longst...

Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with the Newlines Institute's Caroline Rose on the consequences of the accelerating US withdrawal from MENA as the Biden administration continues its pivot away from a region where America had served as security guarantor for decades. In a power vacuum created by a US retreat, new players are emerging to stake a claim and new alliances are forming. Si...

Just a little over a year after they were signed, Arab Digest editor William Law talks with Gulf State Anaytics CEO Giorgio Cafiero about the impact and implications of the Abraham Accords, the Trump-engineered deal that saw Israel triple the number of Arab states with whom it has diplomatic relations at no cost to itself but at a very great cost to the cause of Palestinian statehood. Sign up NOW...

Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with Dr Ali Bakir, a MENA region geopolitical and security analyst at Qatar University's Ibn Khaldoon Center for Humanities and Social Sciences. On the table is a discussion about the UAE's diplomatic initiative in Syria as 'Little Sparta' curbs its military adventures in favour of soft power approaches aimed at relationship building with, amongst...

Newlines Institute senior analyst Rasha Al Aqeedi joins Arab Digest editor William Law to discuss the assassination attempt on the Iraqi prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. After an election that was a serious setback for parties that back armed militias will the attempt to kill the prime minister usher in a new wave of violence or will his efforts at de-escalation prevail? Sign up NOW at Arabdiges...

Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Libya expert Tarek Megerisi. With a presidential vote slated for 24 December they discuss whether or not it will happen, who is likely to win if it does and what's at stake for Libya if an election that lacks basic principles of fairness and transparency goes ahead. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for f...

Arab Digest editor William Law talks with Michael Stephens, Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute about the UK's role in the Middle East after Brexit. They discuss the need for fresh thinking among policy makers and explore challenges and opportunities in a region where Britain has historical, political and economic ties. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the...

Palestinian author, activist and human rights attorney Jonathan Kuttab joins Arab Digest editor William Law for a conversation that focuses on a radical rethink of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Kuttab has abandoned any hope for two states and is now calling for a single entity that recognises the rights and obligations of both sides. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and sta...

In the wake of elections in Qatar and Iraq, Kais Saied's increasingly autocratic moves in Tunisia and Joe Biden's apparent indifference to human rights abuses, Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with Amy Hawthorne deputy director of research at the Washington-based Project on Middle East Democracy. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily...

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest is Airwars' Emily Tripp. Her organisation tracks civilian casualties in conflict zones. Airwars has just released a report on civilian harm caused by Russian airstrikes in the Syrian conflict, a war that is receiving little coverage even as the death toll of civilians steadily mounts, with the Russians escaping scrutiny and dodging accountability for actions...

Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the Egyptian writer and analyst Maged Mandour. Their conversation focusses on the repressive dictatorship that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his generals are building in Egypt. His is a regime rooted in a fascistic, militarist nationalism that continues to hold strong appeal, even as more and more Egyptians fall ever deeper into poverty. Sign up NOW...

The Baker Institute for Public Policy's Kristian Coates Ulrichsen joins Arab Digest editor William Law in a conversation about how Qatar is renewing independent foreign policy initiatives that are gaining pace as the small Gulf state plays a pivotal role, assisting Washington in smoothing out the rough edges from Joe Biden's abrupt and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest...

Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Dr Elisabeth Kendall, Senior Research Fellow in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Oxford University's Pembroke College. Though drone strikes have seen AQAP severely degraded, the ongoing war and the Taliban victory in Afghanistan reinforce the lethal threat jihadist terrorism continues to pose to the region and to the West from its base in Yemen. Sig...

Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by Dr Andreas Krieg, lecturer at the School of Security Studies, King's College London. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attack they examine what the West's 'war on terror' has really achieved in MENA: a reinforcement of authoritarian regimes, the fueling of brutal insurgencies, the silencing of protest and the crushing of civil society....

Arab Digest editor William Law launches the third season of the podcast with Sami Hamdi, editor in chief of The International Interest. In the wake of the Taliban rout of the US and its coalition allies we consider gains and losses, whether or not the Taliban victory will spark intensified jihadist insurgencies and who will ultimately determine the timing of when MENA states recognise the new regi...

Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Annelle Sheline, a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute in Washington DC. The podcast focusses on the marketing of 'moderate Islam' as a propaganda weapon designed to convince the West and most importantly America that the authoritarian regimes that espouse it are bastions of tolerance and promulgators of shared valu...

Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with the North Africa expert Francis Ghilès, an associate senior researcher at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB). Their economies, their governments, the repression of critics and journalists, relations with France and the Western Sahara affair all feature in a wide-ranging overview of the two senior Maghreb countries. And the...

Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. The focus is on President Biden and his administration's Middle East efforts. He inherited several challenges from the chaotic Trump years, not least to repair America's diplomatic standing in the region while seeking a return to the JCPOA. Si...

Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Jim Krane, an energy research analyst at Rice University's Baker Institute in Houston. The podcast focusses on the Gulf's national oil companies and the challenges they and the MENA region share with the rest of the world as climate change ramps temperatures up. In the Middle East, unless temperature rise is slowed whole regions will become uninh...

Arab Digest editor William Law speaks with Chatham House's Renad Mansour, a MENA Senior Research Fellow and Project Director of the Iraq Initiative. In the week that saw the death of Donald Rumsfeld, a key architect of the 2003 war, their conversation focusses on a governance structure built by the US but enabled and empowered by Iran. It is Rumsfeld's legacy, one that sustains a corrupt political...

Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Helen Lackner. Her book "Yemen in Crisis: the Road to War", published by Verso in 2019, is a seminal study of the current war and what lies behind it. Today's podcast looks at the ongoing battle for Ma'rib, the failed efforts of the UN special envoy and the fragile hope that Oman's recent intervention in efforts to get effective peace talks under...

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest is Ali Bakir, a research assistant professor at Ibn Khaldun Center for Humanities and Social Sciences in Doha. His analysis focuses on Turkish relations with the MENA region. Today's podcast explores the warming relationship between Turkey and Egypt and how it is impacting on the regional power balance as Cairo seeks to chart a distinctive foreign policy whil...

Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the author and academic Christopher Davidson. He's written several books on the Gulf, the latest, just published by Hurst, is titled From Sheikhs to Sultanism. Their conversation is about two crown princes and their transformation into regional power players. Mohammed bin Salman enjoys playing on the world stage while Mohammed bin Zayed takes a more quie...

Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Samuel Ramani, a geopolitical analyst and non-resident fellow at Gulf International Forum. Their conversation explores the extraordinary gains Russia has made in positioning itself as a player of consequence in the Middle East. Showing a deft hand and adroit manouevring Vladimir Putin, in a few short years, has realised the dream of Catherine the...

Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with the European Council on Foreign Relations' Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Cinzia Bianco. As Turkey's president and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi vie to grasp the mantle of regional leadership, the Biden administration has caused them to place a temporary pause on their competition for ascendancy. Meanwhile, their dispute is proving useful to each of them b...