Khalid Medani of McGill University discusses his latest book, Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa, with Marc Lynch on this week's podcast. The book examines the political and socio-economic factors which give rise to youth recruitment into militant organizations. (Starts at 0:56). Kristen Kao of the University of Gothenburg and Mara Revkin of Georgetown University speak about their new article entitled, "To Punish or to Pardon? Reintegrating Rebel Collaborators After Conflict in Iraq," published in X. (Starts at 32:55). Jonathan Fulton of Zayed University talks about the factors that explain China's relations with the Gulf monarchies. (Starts at 55:33).

Music for this season's podcast was created by Bashir Saade (playing Ney) and Farah Kaddour (on Buzuq). You can find more of Bashir's work on his YouTube Channel.