Lse Middle East Centre Podcasts

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 to economic policy-making and is isolated in national politics, regularly failing to be represented in elected bodies. This talk explains this passive and isolated role of business by looking at how, despite all diversification, it remains structurally dependent on state spending and subsidies, and how its interests are at odds with those of GCC citizens at large. Recorded on 5 March 2014. This is an LSE Kuwait Programme event.

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 Israeli occupation, as well as the wider regional political economy. Recorded on 24 February 2014.

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 these protests? In answering these questions, she focuses on urban popular forces in Cairo, their modes of inhabiting the city, and on the politics of the urban everyday. Recorded on 12 February 2014. This seminar forms part of the 'Social Movements and Popular Mobilisation in the MENA Research Theme'.

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 pressure particularly on Israel but also on the Palestinians to compromise. Third, the remaining in power of a right wing government in Israel. Recorded on 10 February 2014.

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 invasion have featured prominently in these contests. These themes are explored in relation to religion, national culture, sexuality, music and food. Recorded on 5 February 2014.

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 political transitions? Recorded on 3 February 2014.

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 Uprising'. Recorded on 27 January 2014.

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 been recently enacted on the ground by Sahrawis both in Western Sahara and in the refugee camps in Algeria where exiled Sahrawis live. Recorded on 22 January 2014.

Speaker: Aitemad Muhanna-Matar Chair: Sumi Madhok, LSE In this talk, Dr Muhanna-Matar discusses her new book, which explores how gender and gender relations of power in Gaza are renegotiated to develop material mechanisms of coping or resistance. The book provides empirical evidence of Gazan women’s capacity to actively exercise their agency. Recorded on 20 January 2014.

Speaker: Omar Nashabe In this talk, Dr Nashabe discusses the creation of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and addresses the tribunal's decision to indict five members of Hezbollah and in turn to try them in absentia. Recorded on 16 January 2014.

Speaker: Yezid Sayigh, Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Professor Sayigh explores the nature of Syria’s revolution, its armed rebellion, and its opposition. He reflects on the drivers and dynamics of armed struggle and its impacts, placing this in comparative perspective with other historical experiences and anticipating likely trajectories going forward. Recorded on 13 January 2014.

Speaker: Anoush Ehteshami, Durham University Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre The victory of President Hassan Rouhani represents the defeat of the most peripheral groups in the Iranian political. In this talk, Professor Ehteshami asks what drives President Rouhani’s worldview and what does his election victory tell us about Iran and the where it might be heading? Recorded on 27 November 2013. This is an LSE Kuwait Programme event.

Speaker: Lina Sinjab, BBC Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE In this talk, Lina Sinjab focuses on the realities on the ground in Syria and the resilient civil society that is striving to continue amidst civil war. Recorded on 22 November 2013.

Speaker: Roger Owen, Harvard University Chair: Charles Tripp, LSE Roger Owen offers a personal history of the emergence of modern Middle Eastern Studies as a distinct multi-disciplinary field, focusing mainly on the creation of University Centres in London, Oxford, Harvard and others by a set of academic entrepreneurs beginning with Sir Hamilton Gibb.

Speaker: Madawi Al-Rasheed, LSE Middle East Centre Chair: Sumi Madhok, LSE Professor Al-Rasheed introduces her new book and discusses the ‘question of women’ in Saudi Arabia in the context of interconnection between state, religion and society. Recorded on 7 October 2013.

Speakers: Laila El-Haddad, Maggie Schmitt Chair: Helena Cobbin, Just World Books In this event, writer Laila El-Haddad and food documentarian Maggie Schmitt discuss their book 'The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey', which represent the first-ever codification of Gaza's rich culinary heritage. Recorded on 8 May 2013.

Speakers: Steffen Hertog, LSE; Giacomo Luciani, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies; Marc Valeri, University of Exeter; Khalid AlMezaini, Qatar University Chair: Jon Marks Although most Arab countries remain authoritarian, many have undergone a restructuring of state-society relations. This launch for 'Business Politics in the Middle East' (Hurst, 2013) covers the political role of regional capitalists during and after the Arab uprisings, prospects for the emergence of a more independent bourgeoisie, economic reform and new social contracts. Recorded on 21 March 2013.

Speaker: Ali Ansari, University of St Andrews Chair: Toby Dodge, LSE Middle East Centre Launching his latest book, 'The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran', Ali Ansari explores the idea of nationalism in the creation of modern Iran, considering the broader developments in national ideologies that took place following the emergence of the European Enlightenment and showing how these ideas were adopted by a non-European state. Recorded on 18 March 2013.

Speakers: Fawaz Gerges, LSE; Charles Tripp, SOAS Chair: Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, LSE What drives large-scale, popular mobilizations in the Middle East and North Africa? And what are the challenges and prospects for democratic transformation and consolidation in the region? This book launch for 'The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World' (CUP, 2013), explores these questions and more. Recorded on 21 February 2013.

Speaker: Valerie Bunce, Cornell University Chair: Fawaz Gerges, LSE Why do publics decide to challenge authoritarian rulers; why do they take different approaches to achieving these ends; and what explains the spread of such challenges across state boundaries? In this lecture, Valerie Bunce compares these three waves of popular challenges to authoritarian rulers providing insights into the MENA dynamic and important issues related to cross-national diffusion. Recorded on 4 February 2013.