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 Pale...

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 N...

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 un...

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-independen...

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...

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 t...

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 Kissinge...

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...

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 no...

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 face...

Speaker: Raphael Espinoza, IMF Chair: Danny Quah, LSE Raphael Espinoza analyses the challenges created by the changes the economies of the Gulf states have undergone in the last decade, spurred by high oil prices and ambitious diversification plans. Recorded on 15 May 2014. This is an LSE Kuwait Programme event.

Speakers: Ambassador John Limbert, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern (Iranian) Affairs; Chris Emery, University of Plymouth; Roham Alvandi, LSE Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre The historic September 2013 phone call between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and U.S. President Barack Obama represented the highest-level contact between Iran and the United States sin...

Speaker: Zaid Al-Ali, International IDEA Discussant: Toby Dodge, LSE In this lecture, launching Zaid al-Ali’s new book 'The Struggle for Iraq’s Future', the author provides a uniquely insightful interpretation of Iraq’s nation-building progress in the wake of the 2003 war. Al-Ali argues that the 2005 constitution is illegitimate and established a system of government so extreme that it could never...

Speaker: Maha Abdelrahman, University of Cambridge Discussant: Ahmad Shokr, New York University Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE In this seminar, Dr Abdelrahman raises questions about some of the general features of new social movements such as decentralised organisational structures, working outside formal politics and a decision not to capture the state, specifically during moments of revolutionary up...

Speaker: Jennifer Jenkins, University of Southampton Chair: Roham Alvandi, LSE The Nazi-Soviet Pact, a central topic in the scholarship on the Second World War, is generally studied in its political and European dimensions. In this talk, Professor Jenkins takes a new look at the Nazi-Soviet Pact by embedding it in German and Soviet economic policies toward the Near East, specifically with Iran, fr...

Speaker: Raymond Hinnebusch, University of St Andrews Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre In this talk, Professor Hinnebusch examines Iraq-Syria relations with the aim of using their changing relations as indicators of changes in the regional states and regional states system. Recorded on 19 March 2014.

Speakers: Yvan Guichaoua, University of East Anglia; Imad Mesdoua Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies The South of Algeria belongs to the widely integrated Saharan political economy also composed of large chunks of the Malian and Nigerian territories. As such, Algeria plays a key role in the livelihoods and geographical social and political mobility of Sahelian communities. In this talk...

Speaker: Steffen Hertog, LSE Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Gulf private sectors contribute the majority of national capital formation and employment, and have diversified into a wide range of manufacturing and service activities. National development strategies rely on private business as a primary driver of growth and development. At the same time, however, business contributes little...

Speakes: Adam Hanieh, SOAS Chair: Kamil Mehdi, LSE Middle East Centre In this talk, Dr Hanieh draws on his new book, 'Lineages of Revolt', as well as recent fieldwork in the West Bank, to examine the political economy of Palestinian neoliberalism in the most recent period. He discusses the essential contours of Palestinian Authority development strategy, its links to donor-led imperatives and the...

Speaker: Salwa Ismail, SOAS Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE In this seminar, Professor Ismail discusses dimensions of contention and oppositional action anchored in urban space. She addresses the following questions: How, in the context of the Arab Revolutions, did the urban-based mass protests link with existing patterns of urban political action? What forms of contentious action undergird and animate...

Speaker: Ahron Bregman Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre In this talk, Bregman argues that ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state could only be achieved if three elements come together: first, the arrival in the occupied territories of the Arab Spring in the shape of a third, non-violent Palestinian intifada against the occupation. Second, massive international...

Speaker: Sami Zubaida, SOAS Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre In this event, Professor Zubaida explores the question of changing identities. What constitutes authenticity in different spheres of culture is contested between political and religious groups and ideologies. Discourses of difference between Muslim/national cultures and ‘the West’, and the resistance to perceived cultural invasi...

Speaker: Florence Gaub, EUISS Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre In this talk, Dr Gaub covers post-2011 Libya and asks key questions related to post-conflict reconstruction, security sector reform and transitional justice. What can we learn for future cases of regime change? How can security be built without external security provision? What are the factors that facilitate or impede politic...

Speaker: Gilbert Achcar, SOAS Chair: John Chalcraft, LSE The euphoria that welcomed the Arab uprising in its initial stage tended to turn into gloom in later years. Away from impressionistic reactions, Gilbert Achcar assesses and discusses the latest developments in the Arab-speaking region on the occasion of the publication of his new book, 'The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Upri...

Speaker: Alice Wilson, University of Cambridge Chair: John King, Society for Algerian Studies The outbreak of the 2011 uprisings marked the 35th year of the conflict over Western Sahara, Africa’s last decolonization case. The international community has so far failed to produce a political climate conducive to the resolution of the conflict. In this talk, Alice Wilson analyses changes that have be...