CONFLICTED

By Message Heard

An ex-Al Qaeda jihadi turned MI6 spy and a former monk turned filmmaker, have been embedded at the heart of conflicts in the Middle East. Together Aimen Dean and Thomas Small unpack the realities of w... more

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FAQs about CONFLICTED:

How many episodes does CONFLICTED have?

The podcast currently has 171 episodes available.

CONFLICTED episodes:

February 05, 2026Why China’s Rise Cannot Be Stopped
In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to veteran Singaporean diplomat Prof. Kishore Mahbubani about his thesis that the 21st century will be remembered as ‘the Asian Century’, and how the West can prepare peacefully and optimistically for China's return as the fulcrum of world history.
Drawing on his books Living the Asian Century, Has China Won?, and Can Asians Think?, Prof. Mahbubani explains:
Why the 21st century will be the Asian century and why this need not require Western decline

How colonialism shaped Asian self-perception, and the need for intellectual decolonisation

How other countries can adopt Singapore’s model for success

His meeting with Fidel Castro, Hafez al-Assad, and Yasser Arafat

The hypocrisy of Western power and diplomacy

How the United States keeps the UN weak on purpose

Why Pres. Trump’s China realism has been a good thing

The threat of war in Asia
Follow Prof. Mahbubani on X: https://x.com/mahbubani_k

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.

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...more
1h 6min
February 03, 2026Trump vs Iran: The War That Wasn’t
In this semi-emergency episode, Aimen helps Thomas unpack the last eight months of escalating tension and threats between the US and Iran, and explains why it’s now unlikely the American ‘armada’ President Trump sent to the Gulf will be going to war with Iran anytime soon.
Thomas and Aimen discuss:
How the 12-Day War changed Iran

Why Israel’s Doha strike jolted the Gulf and accelerated a ceasefire

The Saudi–Pakistan defence pact and the Abraham Accords fallout

How the region became more militarized and less diplomatically aligned

Iran’s protest wave and the regime’s unspeakably brutal crackdown

How Trump’s promises were empty from the start

Why this may be Trump’s ‘Obama red line’ moment

What this latest example of TACO signals to China
Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictedYoutube
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
...more
1h 5min
January 29, 2026Paul Kenyon: 30 Years Under Fire as a BBC War Reporter
In this episode, Thomas talks to distinguished BBC journalist Paul Kenyon about his new podcast series Two Nottingham Lads. Paul recalls highlights from his remarkable career, which has taken him from Iran to Libya to Ukraine to Stockport —as he watched, in real time, America lose its grip on the international order.
Paul talks about:
How two Nottingham lads ended up on opposite sides of the Ukraine War

The time he was detained by Iranian secret police

Watching anti-Gaddafi tribesmen ride into Benghazi on horseback

Accompanying unarmed Ukrainian guards as they marched uphill toward Russian troops

Getting to know the notorious ISIS brides in the Midlands

Being the only BBC journalist in Liverpool who witnessed the outbreak of the riots there in summer 2004

Listen to Two Nottingham Lads here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ntm9

Follow Paul on X: https://x.com/paulkenyonTV
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulkenyontv/

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
...more
59min
January 27, 2026Mali: When Jihadists Win
As jihadist violence in Mali escalates, Thomas and Aimen trace the history and present-day power of JNIM (‘Support Group for Islam and Muslims’), an Al Qaeda affiliate that has been laying siege to the capital Bamako. Will Mali’s secular state survive? Or is a jihadist takeover of the whole country now inevitable?
**Including BONUS MATERIAL for subscribers to the Conflicted Community!**
Thomas and Aimen discuss:
The evolution of JNIM out of AQIM (‘Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’)

The jihadist ‘privateers’ who built the organisation

Slavery and racial hierarchy in the Sahel

Will JNIM’s leader Iyad ag-Ghali become the King of Mali?

Fuel blockades, economic warfare, and attacks on the capital, Bamako

Whether Mali can still exist as a sovereign state
Join the Conflicted Community here: ⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/⁠
Find us on X: ⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠
And Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠
And Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠
And YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictedYoutube⁠
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
...more
55min
January 22, 2026Syrian Blitzkrieg: How Damascus Crushed the SDF
In this episode, Aaron Zelin returns to Conflicted to unpack the extraordinary collapse of the Syrian Democratic Forces’ position in northeast Syria over the past week — and what the fallout could mean for Syria’s fragile post-Assad order.
Aaron explains:
Why the March 2025 framework agreement ultimately failed

Why Sunni Arab tribes abandoned the SDF — and how Damascus prepared the ground

How and why fighting erupted in Kurdish neighbourhoods of Aleppo

The rapid fall of SDF-held areas in Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Hasakah

What happened at ISIS prisons and detention camps during the collapse

Why claims of ‘Kurdish abandonment’ by the United States are misleading

The PKK factor — and the risk of a new insurgency or terrorism campaign

What Syria’s consolidation means for ISIS, regional stability, and the country’s future
Follow Aaron on X: https://x.com/azelin
This episode includes BONUS MATERIAL after the credits ONLY for subscribers to the Conflicted Community.

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
...more
56min
January 20, 2026Trump vs USAID: The Rise and Fall of America’s Aid Empire
On the first anniversary of the dismantling of USAID, the United States Agency for International Development, Thomas and Aimen trace the history of the organisation and ask whether USAID’s collapse represents a failure of liberal internationalism itself, or simply the end of one particular way of organizing American power in the world.
They discuss:
Trump’s 2025 executive order and the effective end of USAID

USAID, anti-communism, and the CIA

The Clinton-era debate over whether USAID should survive at all

USAID in the War on Terror: Iraq, Afghanistan, and counterinsurgency

The Arab Spring and the shift toward NGO-mediated governance

Corruption in USAID

What the end of USAID tells us about the end of the unipolar era

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/

Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictedYoutube
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
...more
55min
January 15, 2026How Yemen Broke the Saudi-UAE Alliance
In this episode, Yemeni researcher and political analyst Baraa Shiban (a great friend of the show) tells the thrilling behind-the-scenes story of how different visions for the future of Yemen led long-simmering tensions between the UAE and Saudi Arabia to explode into the open.
For further reference, here’s a helpful map of Yemen showing current areas of control: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/info/infographic/49654
Baraa explains:
How Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the war with different goals

The role Yemeni political parties and militias played in the conflict

Why southern Yemen has never been unified

The UAE’s obsessive fight against the Muslim Brotherhood

The emergence of parallel security structures and rival centres of power

How Saudi Arabia acted as a mediator between rival factions

The explosive gains, and rapid reversals, of Yemen’s renegade Southern Transition Council

Follow Baraa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baraashiban/
Follow Baraa on X: https://x.com/BShtwtr

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
...more
1h 26min
January 13, 2026Crisis in the Gulf: Saudi vs UAE
A rare public rupture has emerged between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Triggered by a dramatic escalation over Yemen in late December 2025, the dispute has exposed deeper ideological and strategic differences between the two Gulf powers.
In this episode, Thomas and Aimen step back from the battlefield to examine the historical roots of Saudi–Emirati rivalry and why Yemen became the arena where these differences finally collided in public.
They discuss:
The 30 December 2025 Saudi airstrikes and the ultimatum to UAE forces

Why Yemen is the arena, not the cause, of the Saudi–UAE dispute

Continental vs maritime power in the Arabian Peninsula

The British influence on the Emirati state

The Buraimi Oasis dispute

Tribal allegiance and ‘weird borders’ in Gulf geopolitics

Why the UAE tolerates breakaway regions and Saudi Arabia cannot

Whether this rupture will be patched up and what happens if it isn’t

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/

Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Alan Leer.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
...more
53min
January 08, 2026Re-Thinking Islam’s Global History
Islam is often treated as a civilisation apart — self-contained, resistant to modernity, and fundamentally at odds with the West. In this episode, Thomas speaks to Oxford professor James McDougall about why that framing is misleading, and how Islamic history is inseparable from the making of the modern world itself.
Drawing on his new book Worlds of Islam: A Global History, McDougall explains:
Why Islamic and Western histories are deeply intertwined rather than civilisationally opposed

The extent to which Islam is an imperial and political project

Islam’s role in shaping global modernity before European dominance

What made European power different in the nineteenth century

How the Mongol sack of Baghdad reshaped the geography of the Islamic world

The importance of Central Asia, Indonesia, and West Africa to Islamic history

The debate over early Islamic sources and why scholarly scepticism has softened

Whether today’s tensions reflect a clash of civilizations — or a clash of perspectives

Follow James on Instagram: www.instagram.com/jamesrobertmcdougall
Follow James on Substack: substack.com/@mcdougalljames
Follow James of Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamesrmcd.bsky.social

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
...more
1h
January 06, 2026The Crisis in Iran: The History Behind US-Iran Tensions
As mass protests sweep Iran and President Trump declares the U.S. is ‘locked and loaded’, Thomas and Aimen revisit the event that shaped U.S.–Iran relations for the next half-century: the Iran Hostage Crisis. Then, in real time, the conversation veers into a fast-moving geopolitical shock: Venezuela, Iran’s global networks, and what a new era of American ‘muscle’ might actually look like.
They discuss:
Iran’s 2026 protest wave: currency collapse, water crisis, and regime pressure points

Trump’s ‘locked and loaded’ warning

Why the embassy takeover began as ‘revolutionary entrepreneurship’

How and why Khomeini endorsed the hostage crisis

The shift to economic sanctions as America’s primary lever

U.S. back-channel diplomacy

Operation Eagle Claw: what the plan was and how it fell apart

Hostage diplomacy after 1979

The creation of the U.S. Special Operations Command

The Iran–Venezuela–Hezbollah nexus, and why Washington’s focus may be shifting

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/

Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted
And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted
And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
...more
57min

FAQs about CONFLICTED:

How many episodes does CONFLICTED have?

The podcast currently has 171 episodes available.

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