Order From Ashes

The question of universal rights in the Middle East is a delicate one. As pluralism and rights come under threat from communal violence, authoritarianism, and religious identity politics, the call for universal rights becomes even more necessary. Yet marginalized groups face unique challenges that set them apart from the wider population. Our guests discuss the basis of rights and how to create inclusive forms of citizenship. The biggest challenge they contemplate is how to push for universal rights without erasing difference.

This podcast is part of “Citizenship and Its Discontents: The Struggle for Rights, Pluralism, and Inclusion in the Middle East,” a TCF project supported by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Participants include:

• Karl Sharro, architect and critic

At the end of March, the last die-hard supporters of the Islamic State were driven out of the final remnant of a once-sprawling territorial caliphate encompassing vast swathes of Iraq and Syria. Associated Press reporter Sarah El Deeb covered the end of this phase of the Islamic State at the remote riverbank hamlet of Baghouz.

The group’s territory is gone, but the followers that El Deeb interviewed have not given up their allegiance to the violent group and its extreme, nihilistic ideology. El Deeb discusses the conundrum of what to do with thousands of captured Islamic State supporters—and her fear that it’s only a matter of time before the group returns in yet another incarnation.

Participants include:

• Sarah El Deeb, reporter, Associated Press

Technologies and methods of controlling civilian life developed and tested in the Middle East often migrate to the United States and other world markets, where they’re used on some of the most marginalized populations. In particular, the Israeli security industry plays a pivotal global role in developing policing tactics, weapons, and instruments, which are marketed around the world.

Shimrit Lee discusses the expanding Israeli security industry and how it promotes its products and security philosophy with a profound, if often unexamined, impact on global police tactics. Lee argues that the marketing tropes used by this growing security industry have contributed to further normalization of violence against civilians.

Participants include:

• Shimrit Lee, curator, writer, and educator, New York University

In a conflict as polarizing as Syria’s, journalists often struggle to decide how best to bring to their audiences the voices of their sources and subjects. In this episode, two journalists who have written extensively about the conflict in Syria discuss the complexity of opinions in the country and their experiences speaking to Syrians who are ambivalent about the conflict. They share the process they use to assess the credibility of their sources and their narratives about the conflict, and how they decide what to share with their readers.

Participants include:

• Loubna Mrie is a Syrian activist, journalist, and writer. She covered the Syrian war as a photojournalist for Reuters from 2012 to 2014 in rebel-held areas. She came to the United States in 2014 and earned a MA in Near Eastern Studies from New York University. Currently based in Oakland, she is a frequent commentator on Syrian and Middle Eastern affairs and has written for The Nation, Time Magazine, Vice, and The New Republic, to name a few. She is currently writing her first book.

There’s been an increasingly vigorous debate in the United States of America about what a progressive foreign policy would look like. There has been far less talk, however, about how much America should care about the world—about international ties and obligations, and about the inescapably global aspects of security, finance, and trade.

On this episode of TCF World, two journalists who have written extensively about the American and international left discuss the politics and risks of international progressive alliances, and the challenges of crafting a new foreign policy for the United States without retreating into isolationism.

Participants include:

• Atossa Araxia Abrahamian is a journalist, author, and currently a senior editor at The Nation. She has written for The New York Times, New York Magazine, and the London Review of Books, among others. Her topics of interest include Left internationalism, citizenship, global inequality, borders, and the proliferation of tax havens. Her first book was The Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen (2015).

Last year, the much-vaunted Iran nuclear deal fell apart when President Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement, imposed new sanctions, and pressured American allies to stop doing business with Iran. With Trump’s policy now seemingly settled, what is going to become of Iran’s relations with Europe and other major powers, such as Russia and China? On this episode, Dina Esfandiary examines the challenges Iran faces with regional and global powers following the United States’ withdrawal from the Iran deal.

Dina Esfandiary is a fellow at The Century Foundation. Her research focuses on Persian Gulf security, Iran’s foreign relations, and relations between states and non-proliferation in the Middle East. She is also an international security program research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and an adjunct fellow in the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Middle East Programme.

Participants:

• Dina Esfandiary, The Century Foundation

It’s always been a challenge to conduct independent research and journalism in Syria, where the government’s network of secret police and informants tightly monitor all conversations. Since the uprising and conflict that began in 2011, it’s only become harder to gather information in Assad’s Syria.

Nabih Bulos, a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, discusses the difficulties of reporting on the Syrian conflict from government-controlled areas. He recently travelled to the Syrian cities of Damascus, Mhardeh, and Quneitra, as well as to the Ghouta region. On this episode of TCF World, Nabih speaks about the challenges of entering the country; what Assad’s government hopes to gain from allowing foreign journalists to enter; and the regime’s ability to control the flow of information. He also discusses life in Syria for ordinary citizens, as well as the challenges Assad faces in constructing a post-civil war order.

Participants:

• Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times

Whenever policymakers have tried to place human rights at the center of American foreign policy, they frequently find themselves trading them away for other strategic goals—or facing accusations of hypocrisy. How can we make human rights take center stage?

Sarah Margon, the Washington director for Human Rights Watch, discusses the complicated relationship between American foreign policy and human rights. From the Cold War to the War on Terror, the United States has cultivated an ambiguous relationship to the issue of human rights. Since September 11, human rights discourse has been marginalized more than ever, despite the steady efforts of a small community of lawmakers, diplomats, and advocates. Values and rights still play a fundamental role in America’s self-image and, for a dwindling constituency, undergird our foreign policy. This podcast explores how to make the case for a human rights-based approach to U.S. foreign policy at our current, fraught historical moment.

Participants

• Sarah Margon, Washington director for Human Rights Watch

The Saudi-led coalition has led a brutal air campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015. The result has been a tremendous humanitarian catastrophe, with 50,000 dead, millions on the brink of starvation, and a deadly outbreak of cholera in 2016. The dire situation has also been exacerbated by the continuation and intensification of two overlapping wars—the U.S. war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State, and an intractable, multi-sided civil war. While the United States has demonstrated some desire to distance itself from the Yemen war, the Saudi-led coalition has intensified its battle over the port city of Hodeidah. Gregory Johnsen discusses the multiple overlapping conflicts in Yemen and the options for the United States to reduce the negative humanitarian and strategic consequences of the conflict there.

Gregory Johnsen is a Yemen expert who served on the Yemen Panel of Experts for the UN Security Council from 2016 to 2018. He was a Fulbright fellow in Yemen and resident scholar at the Arabia Foundation, and holds a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. Johnsen is also the author of The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al-Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia.

Participants

• Gregory Johnsen, author and Yemen scholar

Iraq is finally forming a new government after its elections in May, and faces a daunting crisis of governance and corruption. A frustrated electorate has high, perhaps unrealistic, expectations that the new government will transition from a system of redistribution based on sectarian identity to one rooted in accountability, institutions of oversight, and cross-ethnic and cross-sectarian alliances.

Maria Fantappie, a senior advisor for the International Crisis Group, discusses the long-standing stalemate within the Iraqi parliament and the deleterious impact of competition between the United States and Iran. She argues that the next four years are likely to bring a hybrid system of governance, including both pre-existing, sectarian alliances, and new, cross-sectarian coalitions over certain issues.

Meanwhile, next-door Syria is also entering a new political phase. President Bashar Al Assad is attempting to rebuild parts of the country, even as the war continues into what appears to be its final phase. The government’s enactment of the Urban Renewal Law and Decree 66 has made it possible to undertake urban development projects such as Marota City and Basilia City in the outskirts of Damascus.

Joseph Daher, a Swiss–Syrian activist and researcher at University of Lausanne in Switzerland, has tracked the dynamics of the first reconstruction efforts. Neighborhoods that were formerly home to lower-middle class citizens are being developed for wealthy Syrians, while areas that opposed the regime have yet to witness any reconstruction efforts. According to initial research, it appears that reconstruction is being used to reconstitute the Assad regime and reconfigure society in ways that might prevent future uprisings.

Participants

• Maria Fantappie, International Crisis Group