Order From Ashes

Iraq is the second-largest OPEC oil producer, believed to have huge unexploited reserves that will make the country increasingly rich as it modernizes its decrepit energy infrastructure.    Iraq holds a strategic position at the center of regional rivalries, and is perhaps the only country that maintains close security, political, and economic relations with Iran, the United States, Saudi Arabia,...

Nearly a decade after the Arab uprisings gripped the region, large-scale protests have broken out in Iraq and Egypt. In Iraq, arguably one of the most open political systems in the Arab world, authorities struck the protesters with surprising levels of violence. In Egypt, the surprise was that protests took place at all, given the historic levels of authoritarian repression. What do the protests r...

This podcast is part of an ongoing TCF series that explores progressive policy proposals for America’s most pressing international priorities. The United States is by far the most significant donor to the United Nations and has, for much of the UN’s history, been one of its primary boosters. American support for the United Nations has fluctuated, and, since President Trump took office, has plummet...

This podcast is part of an ongoing TCF series that explores progressive policy proposals for America’s most pressing international priorities. On this podcast, we learn about the shifting views of Israelis and Palestinians, and the different visions of the future that they are considering in addition to the two states envisioned in the Oslo Accords—including confederation, a single state, annexati...

This podcast is part of an ongoing TCF series that explores progressive policy proposals for America’s most pressing international priorities. America has had an inflated military presence since 9/11, especially in the Middle East. Defense budgets are historically bloated, and policymakers have avoided making choices about closing bases and reducing troop deployments.  Political support is waning...

This podcast is part of an ongoing TCF series that explores progressive policy proposals for America’s most pressing international priorities. As part of our running series exploring in detail what an alternative progressive U.S. foreign policy would look like, on this episode of TCF World we turn to Iran. We analyze what an effective foreign policy toward Iran should look like, taking into accoun...

Progressives still have to figure out how to translate into policy widely shared concerns with global inequality, authoritarianism, climate change, and reflexive militarism. In this episode, Thanassis Cambanis, Michael Wahid Hanna, and Daniel Benaim discuss the contours of a future progressive foreign policy in the Middle East, what’s missing from the current debates, and the limits of American po...

  For years, the United States has invested significant political capital in attempting to broker a peaceful resolution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. However, these attempts have largely failed. Israel’s occupation is more entrenched than most Americans realize, and Palestinian politics appear increasingly splintered. Many commentators and policymakers now believe a two-state solution is no...

Although it’s still widely used by analysts and policymakers, the term “sectarianism” has distorted efforts to explain political dynamics in Iraq. Since 2003, Iraqi society has undergone significant transformations as a result of social, political, and other forces. Fanar Haddad discusses the drivers of political instability in Iraq. Sectarian dynamics have evolved, along with Iraqi views of natio...

This podcast is in Arabic. From the Queen Boat incident in 2001 to the waves of arrests following Mashrou’ Leila’s concert in Cairo in 2017, Egypt’s LGBTQ community has always endured a precarious position. In recent years, Egyptian authorities have directed a brutal crackdown against its members. Ahmed El Hady discusses the recent intensification of repression and the crisis facing LGBTQ Egyptian...

Despite enjoying more autonomy than other parts of Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan is losing its position as the center of gravity for Kurdish nationalism. The unwillingness of Kurdish elites to relinquish their power, economic crisis, and regional instability have made political evolution all the more difficult. As a result, Kurdish society and young Kurds in particular are disengaging from the politi...

This podcast is in Arabic. The question of universal rights in the Middle East is a delicate one. As pluralism and rights come under threat from communal violence, authoritarianism, and religious identity politics, the call for universal rights becomes even more necessary. Yet marginalized groups face unique challenges that set them apart from the wider population. Our guests discuss the basis of...

The question of universal rights in the Middle East is a delicate one. As pluralism and rights come under threat from communal violence, authoritarianism, and religious identity politics, the call for universal rights becomes even more necessary. Yet marginalized groups face unique challenges that set them apart from the wider population. Our guests discuss the basis of rights and how to create in...

At the end of March, the last die-hard supporters of the Islamic State were driven out of the final remnant of a once-sprawling territorial caliphate encompassing vast swathes of Iraq and Syria. Associated Press reporter Sarah El Deeb covered the end of this phase of the Islamic State at the remote riverbank hamlet of Baghouz. The group’s territory is gone, but the followers that El Deeb interview...

Technologies and methods of controlling civilian life developed and tested in the Middle East often migrate to the United States and other world markets, where they’re used on some of the most marginalized populations. In particular, the Israeli security industry plays a pivotal global role in developing policing tactics, weapons, and instruments, which are marketed around the world. Shimrit Lee d...

In a conflict as polarizing as Syria’s, journalists often struggle to decide how best to bring to their audiences the voices of their sources and subjects. In this episode, two journalists who have written extensively about the conflict in Syria discuss the complexity of opinions in the country and their experiences speaking to Syrians who are ambivalent about the conflict. They share the process...

There’s been an increasingly vigorous debate in the United States of America about what a progressive foreign policy would look like. There has been far less talk, however, about how much America should care about the world—about international ties and obligations, and about the inescapably global aspects of security, finance, and trade. On this episode of TCF World, two journalists who have writt...

Last year, the much-vaunted Iran nuclear deal fell apart when President Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement, imposed new sanctions, and pressured American allies to stop doing business with Iran. With Trump’s policy now seemingly settled, what is going to become of Iran’s relations with Europe and other major powers, such as Russia and China? On this episode, Dina Esfandiary examin...

It’s always been a challenge to conduct independent research and journalism in Syria, where the government’s network of secret police and informants tightly monitor all conversations. Since the uprising and conflict that began in 2011, it’s only become harder to gather information in Assad’s Syria. Nabih Bulos, a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, discusses the difficulties of reporting on th...

Whenever policymakers have tried to place human rights at the center of American foreign policy, they frequently find themselves trading them away for other strategic goals—or facing accusations of hypocrisy. How can we make human rights take center stage? Sarah Margon, the Washington director for Human Rights Watch, discusses the complicated relationship between American foreign policy and human...

The Saudi-led coalition has led a brutal air campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015. The result has been a tremendous humanitarian catastrophe, with 50,000 dead, millions on the brink of starvation, and a deadly outbreak of cholera in 2016. The dire situation has also been exacerbated by the continuation and intensification of two overlapping wars—the U.S. war against Al-Qaeda in the A...

Iraq is finally forming a new government after its elections in May, and faces a daunting crisis of governance and corruption. A frustrated electorate has high, perhaps unrealistic, expectations that the new government will transition from a system of redistribution based on sectarian identity to one rooted in accountability, institutions of oversight, and cross-ethnic and cross-sectarian alliance...

September’s mass protests in Basra shook Iraq’s government all the way to the top—and perhaps mark a new phase in Iraq’s popular politics. In a brief wave of demonstrations, residents of Basra attacked government buildings, militia headquarters, and the Iranian consulate: symbols of the corruption that has kept their city poor, polluted, and starved of public services, despite the fact that it pro...

Germany is more than three years into a massive human and policy experiment, figuring out how best to integrate mor- e than one million Syrian asylum seekers. Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed Syrian refugees and others fleeing conflict zones—partly on humanitarian grounds, and partly as a bet that an influx of motivated young workers might rejuvenate the economy. Lily Hindy traveled to Germany an...

Liberal internationalists (from all over the American political spectrum) have responded with horror to President Trump’s broadsides against the very idea of alliances and international cooperation. But the president’s questioning of the principles of the United Nations and NATO have raised doubts within the internationalist foreign policy elite. How effective are international institutions, agree...