Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share #BattleFest2015: Shifting sands - understanding the Middle East today
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
#BattleFest2015: Shifting sands - understanding the Middle East today
Listen to this session from the International Battles strand of the recent Battle of Ideas festival
In the past few years, the Middle East has undergone serious
convulsions, from the collapse of Iraq to the Arab Spring, the Syrian
war and the Saudi-led bombardment of Yemen. The spread of Islamic State
has wiped out one hundred-year-old borders in a matter of months, with
large areas of Iraq and Syria now part of those countries only in name.
America’s interest and power in the region seems to waning while
regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are becoming more
assertive.
A bewildering number of alliances and counter-alliances seem to be in
play in which religious affiliations, local political grievances and
powerful external players meet in a maelstrom. The Gulf states intervene
against and for Sunni jihadists depending upon which state one looks
at; America supports Iranian-backed militias in Iraq while backing
Saudi-led airstrikes against Shia groups in Yemen; in Syria, America and
its Arab allies are supporting Islamist groups against Assad, who is
still supported by Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. The US and
Iran appear to have reached a historic agreement on Iran’s nuclear
energy programme, just as US-Israel relations turn increasingly
fractious; indeed, Israel is closer to Saudi Arabia when it comes to the
nuclear deal, albeit for very different reasons.
The Arab Spring was supposed to mean the end of tyranny and the rise
of democracies across the region. Instead, states are imploding. Was
this inevitable, or is there still hope for peace and democracy within
the existing borders of countries like Syria and Iraq? Would their
break-up mean anarchy or a new order based on more meaningful religious
and ethnic identities? And while the Western powers were long considered
the puppet masters of the Middle East, are the strings now in the hands
of regional powers? Does the West even have a sense of its strategic
interests in the region, or is it stuck in the past, supporting the
wrong allies and condemning the region to years of chaos? What do the
confusing alliances and counter-alliances tell us? And what future is
there for the people of the Middle East?
Speakers
Gilbert Achcar
professor of development studies and international relations; chair of Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS, University of London
Rosemary Hollis
professor of international politics and director of the Olive Tree Programme, City University London
Dr Tara McCormack
lecturer in international politics, University of Leicester; author,
Critique, Security and Power: the political limits to emancipatory
approaches
Karl Sharro
architect; writer; Middle East commentator; co-author, Manifesto: Towards a New Humanism in Architecture
Chair
Joel Cohen
judges co-ordinator, Debating Matters; freelance writer
View all episodes
By academyofideas
3.9
77 ratings
Listen to this session from the International Battles strand of the recent Battle of Ideas festival
In the past few years, the Middle East has undergone serious
convulsions, from the collapse of Iraq to the Arab Spring, the Syrian
war and the Saudi-led bombardment of Yemen. The spread of Islamic State
has wiped out one hundred-year-old borders in a matter of months, with
large areas of Iraq and Syria now part of those countries only in name.
America’s interest and power in the region seems to waning while
regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are becoming more
assertive.
A bewildering number of alliances and counter-alliances seem to be in
play in which religious affiliations, local political grievances and
powerful external players meet in a maelstrom. The Gulf states intervene
against and for Sunni jihadists depending upon which state one looks
at; America supports Iranian-backed militias in Iraq while backing
Saudi-led airstrikes against Shia groups in Yemen; in Syria, America and
its Arab allies are supporting Islamist groups against Assad, who is
still supported by Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. The US and
Iran appear to have reached a historic agreement on Iran’s nuclear
energy programme, just as US-Israel relations turn increasingly
fractious; indeed, Israel is closer to Saudi Arabia when it comes to the
nuclear deal, albeit for very different reasons.
The Arab Spring was supposed to mean the end of tyranny and the rise
of democracies across the region. Instead, states are imploding. Was
this inevitable, or is there still hope for peace and democracy within
the existing borders of countries like Syria and Iraq? Would their
break-up mean anarchy or a new order based on more meaningful religious
and ethnic identities? And while the Western powers were long considered
the puppet masters of the Middle East, are the strings now in the hands
of regional powers? Does the West even have a sense of its strategic
interests in the region, or is it stuck in the past, supporting the
wrong allies and condemning the region to years of chaos? What do the
confusing alliances and counter-alliances tell us? And what future is
there for the people of the Middle East?
Speakers
Gilbert Achcar
professor of development studies and international relations; chair of Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS, University of London
Rosemary Hollis
professor of international politics and director of the Olive Tree Programme, City University London
Dr Tara McCormack
lecturer in international politics, University of Leicester; author,
Critique, Security and Power: the political limits to emancipatory
approaches
Karl Sharro
architect; writer; Middle East commentator; co-author, Manifesto: Towards a New Humanism in Architecture
Chair
Joel Cohen
judges co-ordinator, Debating Matters; freelance writer
More shows like Academy of Ideas
View all
Making Sense with Sam Harris
26,335 Listeners
The spiked podcast
207 Listeners
Americano
266 Listeners
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
33,968 Listeners
Academy of Ideas
565 Listeners
TRIGGERnometry
1,838 Listeners
The Brendan O'Neill Show
367 Listeners
Last Orders - a spiked podcast
50 Listeners
Quillette Podcast
789 Listeners
Planet Normal
194 Listeners
heretics.
572 Listeners
The Rest Is History
13,048 Listeners
The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters
536 Listeners
The Current Thing
27 Listeners
Beyond Gender
36 Listeners