Davis Wight of the University of North Carolina joins Marc Lynch on this week's podcast to discuss his book, Oil Money: Middle East Petrodollars and the Transformation of US Empire, 1967-1988. The book is an expansive yet judicious investigation of the wide-ranging and contradictory effects of petrodollars on Middle East–US relations and the geopolitics of globalization. Although petrodollar ties often augmented the power of the United States and its Middle East allies, Wight argues they also fostered economic disruptions and state-sponsored violence that drove many Americans, Arabs, and Iranians to resist Middle East–US interdependence, most dramatically during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. (Starts at 00:50). Simon Mabon of XX discusses his new book, The Struggle for Supremacy in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Iran (Starts at 31:06). In this book, Mabon presents a more nuanced assessment of the rivalry [between Saudi Arabia and Iran], outlining its history and demonstrating its impact across the Middle East.

Music for this season’s podcast was created by Myyuh. You can find more of her work on SoundCloud and Instagram.