Lse Middle East Centre Podcasts

Speaker: Steven Heydemann, United States Institute of Peace Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre How have the Arab Uprisings of 2011 affected authoritarian governance in the Arab world? How have Arab regimes responded to the distinctive challenges posed by the rapid emergence of oppositional forms of mass politics? What forms of authoritarian governance seem to be emerging in the wake of the Uprisings? Reflecting on the debate about the resilience of authoritarianism in the Middle East, Steven Heydemann analyses what regime responses to the rise of mass political movements tell us about the capacity of Arab regimes to adapt in the face of new challenges. Recorded on 12 February 2015. Image Credit: Hossam el-Hamalawy, Flickr.

Speaker: Steven Heydemann, United States Institute of Peace Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE As the Syrian conflict nears its fourth anniversary, it poses a growing threat to the stability of the state order in the Levant and Arab East. In this lecture, Steven Heydemann argues that the widespread violence now gripping the Levant and Arab East has a logic and structure that can shed light on its underlying dynamics, its drivers, and its possible effects. Recorded on 11 February 2015.

Speaker: Peter Neumann, King's College London Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Large numbers of foreigners, including many Europeans, have joined jihadist groups in the Syrian/Iraqi conflict. Who are these people, why do they go, and what - if any - threat will they pose upon their return? Drawing on a large database with hundreds of social media profiles of Western fighters, dozens of interviews, and fieldwork, Professor Peter Neumann of King's College London's International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation will talk about the fighters' motivations and consequences. Recorded on 27 January 2015.

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 Palestinian Resistance on the national political scene. Bardawil pays particular attention to how the Left theorised the Lebanese State, class-formation, as well as the role of Palestinian Resistance as an external force that would transform the rules of the Lebanese sectarian political game by rallying the masses around the national question. Recorded 21 January 2015. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.

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 Nasrallah, to legitimise its political aims and ideology and appeal to different target groups. Recorded on 2 December 2014.

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 unprecedented shift in British-Iranian relations. Professor Ansari charts the rise and fall of the negotiations and what they reveal about the nature of Iran’s relations with Britain. Recorded 19 November 2014.

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-independence Algeria as locked in a binary struggle between, on the one hand, 'tradition' and ethno-cultural nationalism and, on the other hand 'modernity' and socialist development, Dr Vince considers how revolutionary progress could embrace puritanical single-mindedness and also how Algerian women in the 1960s responded to and contributed to these debates. Recorded on 12 November 2014.

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 form of women's leadership that developed during and after the Arab Uprisings and how it could contribute to redefining women's activism and empowerment and its effect on social and gender transformation in Arab countries. Recorded on 6 November 2014.

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 the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project of 1964) Joel Beinin explores the history of the struggle and the motivations of Israelis for participating in it. Recorded on 4 November 2014. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.

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 Kissinger in the 1970s. Dr Alvandi will discuss how the Shah shaped US policy in the Persian Gulf under Nixon and Kissinger, including the CIA’s covert support for the Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq, and the US role in the origins of Iran’s nuclear program. Dr Alvandi will draw on the history of Iran’s Cold War partnership with the United States to examine the potential for Iranian-American cooperation in the Middle East today. Recorded on 16 October 2014.

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 Iraqi armed forces, comprising over a million men under arms, collapsed so quickly. It explains how the political and constitutional system, set up in the aftermath of regime change, has contributed to the current situation. The speakers also discuss the consequences of the current crisis and what it means for the future of Iraq. Recorded on 26 June 2014.

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 not obscure the fact that the price to pay for the perpetuation of this foreign policy has been an unquestioned political and economic dependence towards London and Washington. Recorded on 22 May 2014. This is an LSE Kuwait Programme event.

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 faced, it contends that greater attention to the history of the rural majority has much to teach us. In tandem, it advances an analysis of the Mandatory regime as a liberal despotism, the policies of which consolidated the emergence of a “landless class” that ultimately rose against it during the multifaceted rebellion known as the Great Revolt (1936-39). Recorded on 20 May 2014. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.

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 since relations between the two countries were severed in 1980, in the midst of the Tehran hostage crisis. This roundtable examines the troubled history of US-Iran relations, past failed efforts at détente, and the prospects for a breakthrough in US-Iran relations in 2014. Recorded on 15 May 2014.

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 be implemented, creating a void that the country has been struggling to fill since. Recorded on Wednesday 7 May.

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 upheaval. She uses the case of the 25 January uprising in Egypt to examine these features in relation to the inability of revolutionary forces to harness the power of the mobilised masses and to provide a coherent alternative(s) against institutions of the counter-revolution. Recorded on 6 May 2014.

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, from the early Weimar period forward. She also explores the history of German-Soviet-Persian economic cooperation in the interwar period, Iran's importance as a zone of cooperation between Germany and the USSR, and its place in the making of the Pact. Recorded on 30 April 2014.

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, Dr Guichaoua examines the role of Algeria in recent (Tuareg then Jihadist) insurgencies in Mali and Niger as portrayed by various actors of the political crises in the Sahel. In turn, Imad Mesdoua examines the rationales guiding Algerian foreign policy in light of growing instability throughout the Sahel and Maghreb regions. Recorded on 10 March 2014.