LSE Middle East Centre Podcasts

Speaker: Christopher Schroeder Chair: Mark Schankerman, LSE Schroeder shares the stories of young Middle Eastern entrepreneurs and describes the broader economic and political challenges and opportunities facing them. He argues that the Middle East is a lens into a massive shift we should all be engaging in now. Recorded on 2 October 2013.

Speaker: Saleh Muslim Mohamed, Democratic Union Party (PYD) Chair: Robert Lowe, LSE MEC It is nine months since Kurds took control of towns in northern Syria, having established an unprecedented coalition of Kurdish parties. Saleh Muslim Mohamed, the co-President of the most prominent Syrian Kurdish party, assesses the progress of Kurdish politics and local government and the wider Syrian and regi...

Speakers: Karma Nabulsi, University of Oxford; Ilan Pappe, University of Exeter; Rosemary Hollis, City University London; Peter Kosminsky Chair: Jon Snow, Channel 4 News In this panel discussion, the speakers discuss aspects of the current situation in Palestine, including: Palestinian domestic politics, Israel’s position, the international dimension of the impasse and the insights into the confli...

Speaker: Roland Dannreuther, University of Westminster Chair: Fawaz Gerges, LSE When there are shifts in distribution of power in international politics, energy security emerges as a salient concern. Professor Dannreuther considers the implications of two shifts: first, the flow of energy from east to west (oil and gas) and the increasing links between Asia and energy-producing regions; and second...

Speaker: Hazem Kandil, Cambridge University Chair: Fawaz Gerges, LSE Hazem Kandil explains why Egypt's popular uprising has so far failed to overthrow the regime through exploring the positions of the main players in the revolt: the military, security, and the various political factions. Recorded on 4 March 2013.

Speaker: Fawwaz Traboulsi, American University of Beirut Chair: Fawaz Gerges, LSE With few comprehensive histories of Lebanon, Professor Fawwaz Traboulsi's 'A History of Modern Lebanon, which weaves together more than five centuries of the country's social, political, cultural and economic history, has become a go-to reference for anyone who wants to understand the country. In this lecture, Trabou...

Speaker: Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies Chair: Fawaz Gerges, LSE While US policy towards Israel remains unchanged, the long-standing assumption that most Americans – even most Jewish Americans – agree with that policy no longer holds. In the media, in popular culture, in universities and particularly within the Jewish community, there are signs of major shifts. In conversation with F...

Speakers: Lulu al-Sabah, Abolish Article 153; Hatoon al-Fassi, Qatar University Chair: Courtney Freer, LSE Kuwait Programme A great deal of misinformation exists about women's rights in the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In an effort to dispel outdated notions of women's places in such societies, top experts from the Gulf states will speak about the extent to which women today in th...

Speaker: Shafeeq Ghabra, Kuwait University Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Shafeeq Ghabra discusses some of the major political changes that the Arab world has undergone since 2011, focusing on power shifts, sectarianism, the role of youth groups and the challenges of reform in the region. He focuses in particular on the Gulf’s role in the Arab Spring and its aftermath, tracing GCC monar...

Speaker: Courtney Freer, LSE Kuwait Programme Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in the Gulf are greatly discussed yet little understood. This lecture, based on findings from extensive field work in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, examines the historical and current political role of the Ikhwan in states traditionally considered impenetrable to Islamist movements d...

Speaker: Michael Herb, Georgia State University Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Despite recent setbacks, Kuwait's parliament remains the strongest amongst the GCC states. Michael Herb delves into Gulf history to explain why Kuwait's political system differs from those of its neighbours. Recorded on 18 March 2015. This is an LSE Kuwait Programme event.

Speaker: Kristin Smith Diwan, American University Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE MEC In November 2014 Bahrain held parliamentary elections which took place under an election boycott by the political opposition. This talk will explore the implication of these elections for Bahrain's political development and stability. It will also draw upon Kuwait's own recent experience with an opposition boycott to refl...

Speaker: Anastasia Nosova, LSE Chair: Courtney Freer, LSE Kuwait Programme When applied to the Gulf region in general and Kuwait more specifically, rentier state theory stipulates that the political relations between state and business are determined by rents, and therefore that business ceases to represent a strong political force and withdraws from the formal political field in exchange for weal...

Speaker: Aisha Al-Sarihi, LSE Kuwait Programme Discussant: Michael Mason, LSE Chair: Dr Courtney Freer, LSE Kuwait Programme The entry of the Paris Agreement into force in November 2016 coincides with the Gulf states’ acceleration of economic diversification strategies driven by the pressure to adjust fiscal deficits as a result of low oil prices. Aisha Al-Sarihi explains how economic diversificat...

Speaker: Michael Stephens, RUSI Chair: Courtney Freer, LSE Kuwait Programme As the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen moves into its eighth month, the country shows little sign of returning to stability. GCC operations in the country have swung the tide against the Houthi militias and their backer Ali Abdullah Saleh, however there appears little ability to connect military action to political reconci...

Speakers: Nadje Al-Ali, SOAS; Latif Tas, SOAS Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE Horizontal organising within social movements is not necessarily sensitive to gender-based and other intersectional forms of inequalities and hierarchies. Nadje Al-Ali and Latif Tas present their paper on 'the Feminist Turn in the Kurdish Political Movement', in which they critically explore the attempts by political activist...

Kuwait Programme Seminar Speaker: Lolwah Alkhater, University of Oxford Chair: Courtney Freer, LSE Kuwait Programme Since the turn of the century, many GCC states have undertaken ambitious economic and social reforms, informed by international think tanks and consultancies. Lolwah Alkhater explores the role played by consultancies and think tanks in the GCC through the lens of "policy borrowing",...

Speaker: Karl Sharro aka Karl reMarks Chair: Dina Matar, SOAS The Middle East is the mysterious land of veils, minarets and Orientalist clichés. Karl Sharro, aka Karl reMarks, talks about his six year journey of satirising how his enchanted native land is represented in Western media and punditry. From the Arab Spring to the rise and decline of ISIS, Sharro discusses how his online alter ego tackl...

Speaker: Michael Willis, University of Oxford Chair: William Sinton, Society for Algerian Studies Algerian history has received a significant amount of scholarly attention but almost exclusively focused on its time under French colonial rule and especially the struggle to end this rule. Comparatively little attention has been drawn to Algeria’s independent postcolonial history despite its richness...

Speaker: Joost Jongerden, Wageningen University Chair: Robert Lowe, LSE Middle East Centre In its 1978 manifesto, the PKK declared the establishment of an independent state to be the most important political goal of any national liberation movement. Twenty years on, the party’s leader Abdullah Öcalan changed this when he developed an ideological framework based on the idea of self-governing, state...

Speaker: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Chair: Richard Saull, QMUL In this lecture, Toby Dodge examines the Trump administration’s approach to the Middle East, specifically its policy towards Iraq, the fight against the Islamic State, and the Gulf Cooperation Council. He also looks at the ideological and organisational divisions within the White House that have exacerbated President Trump’s ow...

Speakers: Toby Dodge, LSE; Nussaibah Younis, Chatham House; Christine van den Toorn, IRIS In this event, Toby Dodge, Nussaibah Younis and Christine van den Toorn discuss the final report of the Task Force on the Future of Iraq. The Task Force gathered the world's leading Iraq scholars under the chairmanship of Ambassador Ryan Crocker to develop a strategy for stabilizing Iraq in the long-term, bey...

Speaker: Mark Fitzpatrick, International Institute for Strategic Studies Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre With a framework agreement on the future shape of Iran's nuclear programme reached after marathon talks, the world powers and Iran now aim to draft a comprehensive accord by 30 June, resolving the Iranian nuclear crisis. However, the impending deal is still under heavy attack in both...

Speaker: Thomas Pierret, University of Edinburgh Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE Over the last four years, the Syrian insurgency has witnessed the rise and consolidation of certain factions, particularly Islamist ones, but also the demise of once powerful groups of a more nationalist persuasion. Drawing on Paul Staniland's social-institutionalist conceptual framework, Thomas Pierret argues that groups...

Speakers: Danny Postel, Northwestern University; Madawi Al-Rasheed, LSE Middle East Centre; Nader Hashemi, University of Denver; Toby Matthiesen, University of Oxford; Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, University of Oxford As the Middle East descends ever deeper into violence and chaos, ‘sectarianism’ has become a catch-all explanation for the region’s troubles. The turmoil is attributed to ‘ancient se...