Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by Dr Andreas Krieg, lecturer at the School of Security Studies, King's College London. On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attack they examine what the West's 'war on terror' has really achieved in MENA: a reinforcement of authoritarian regimes, the fueling of brutal insurgencies, the silencing of protest and the crushing of civil society. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter &am...
Sep 10, 2021•33 min
Arab Digest editor William Law launches the third season of the podcast with Sami Hamdi, editor in chief of The International Interest. In the wake of the Taliban rout of the US and its coalition allies we consider gains and losses, whether or not the Taliban victory will spark intensified jihadist insurgencies and who will ultimately determine the timing of when MENA states recognise the new regime in Kabul. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily n...
Sep 03, 2021•35 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Annelle Sheline, a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute in Washington DC. The podcast focusses on the marketing of 'moderate Islam' as a propaganda weapon designed to convince the West and most importantly America that the authoritarian regimes that espouse it are bastions of tolerance and promulgators of shared values. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter...
Jul 30, 2021•31 min
Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with the North Africa expert Francis Ghilès, an associate senior researcher at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB). Their economies, their governments, the repression of critics and journalists, relations with France and the Western Sahara affair all feature in a wide-ranging overview of the two senior Maghreb countries. And the Pegasus scandal gets a look-in too! Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and star...
Jul 23, 2021•33 min
Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies. The focus is on President Biden and his administration's Middle East efforts. He inherited several challenges from the chaotic Trump years, not least to repair America's diplomatic standing in the region while seeking a return to the JCPOA. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter &...
Jul 16, 2021•37 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Jim Krane, an energy research analyst at Rice University's Baker Institute in Houston.The podcast focusses on the Gulf's national oil companies and the challenges they and the MENA region share with the rest of the world as climate change ramps temperatures up. In the Middle East, unless temperature rise is slowed whole regions will become uninhabitable. The NOCs are potentially game changers but the ruling families that control them are moving...
Jul 09, 2021•32 min
Arab Digest editor William Law speaks with Chatham House's Renad Mansour, a MENA Senior Research Fellow and Project Director of the Iraq Initiative. In the week that saw the death of Donald Rumsfeld, a key architect of the 2003 war, their conversation focusses on a governance structure built by the US but enabled and empowered by Iran. It is Rumsfeld's legacy, one that sustains a corrupt political elite and betrays the people of Iraq. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and s...
Jul 02, 2021•34 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Helen Lackner. Her book "Yemen in Crisis: the Road to War", published by Verso in 2019, is a seminal study of the current war and what lies behind it. Today's podcast looks at the ongoing battle for Ma'rib, the failed efforts of the UN special envoy and the fragile hope that Oman's recent intervention in efforts to get effective peace talks underway may bear fruit as the conflict grinds on in its sixth year. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for fr...
Jun 25, 2021•34 min
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest is Ali Bakir, a research assistant professor at Ibn Khaldun Center for Humanities and Social Sciences in Doha. His analysis focuses on Turkish relations with the MENA region. Today's podcast explores the warming relationship between Turkey and Egypt and how it is impacting on the regional power balance as Cairo seeks to chart a distinctive foreign policy while lessening its reliance on Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join...
Jun 17, 2021•33 min
Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the author and academic Christopher Davidson. He's written several books on the Gulf, the latest, just published by Hurst, is titled From Sheikhs to Sultanism. Their conversation is about two crown princes and their transformation into regional power players. Mohammed bin Salman enjoys playing on the world stage while Mohammed bin Zayed takes a more quiet road but both have consolidated power in an unprecedented manner as they shift from sheikhs to sul...
Jun 11, 2021•32 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Samuel Ramani, a geopolitical analyst and non-resident fellow at Gulf International Forum. Their conversation explores the extraordinary gains Russia has made in positioning itself as a player of consequence in the Middle East. Showing a deft hand and adroit manouevring Vladimir Putin, in a few short years, has realised the dream of Catherine the Great to establish Russia in the Middle East and North Africa as a Mediterranean power to be reckon...
Jun 04, 2021•37 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with the European Council on Foreign Relations' Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Cinzia Bianco. As Turkey's president and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi vie to grasp the mantle of regional leadership, the Biden administration has caused them to place a temporary pause on their competition for ascendancy. Meanwhile, their dispute is proving useful to each of them but for different reasons. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receivin...
May 28, 2021•43 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Dr Andreas Krieg, lecturer at King's College London's School of Security Studies. As the Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed continues to forge new directions for the country, the podcast explores his relations with Israel in light of the Gaza war, how enmity with Qatar drives his strategy of promoting counter-revolution, and how he is pivoting to China while moving the UAE away from its traditional relationship with the US. Sign up NOW a...
May 21, 2021•33 min
As violence escalates Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan. Prince Hassan calls for an end to confiscations and expropriations in East Jerusalem: "Jerusalem is a shared gift, not the exclusive property of one government or one people." And he warns that creeping annexation in the West Bank will end the possibility of the two state solution with disastrous consequences for all. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and s...
May 14, 2021•37 min
William Law, Arab Digest editor is in conversation with Tarek Megerisi, a policy fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations. Libya has a new government and a new prime minister but has the situation there improved as dramatically as some would like to think? Tarek takes a long hard look at the new regime and sees old patterns, old faces and the same old set of outside players. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcas...
May 07, 2021•33 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with the Syrian Kurdish journalist Sirwan Kajjo. In northeast Syria,in the midst of civil war, the SDF has carved out an autonomous region and the Kurdish Region of Iraq has long asserted its autonomy from Baghdad but Kurds in both countries face significant challenges and the dream of a Kurdish homeland seems as elusive as ever. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Apr 30, 2021•33 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Mosul native Rasha al-Aqeedi. Rasha is a Senior Analyst at the Newlines Institute in Washington. Her work focuses on non-state armed groups and political Islam. She grew up in Mosul under the Saddam dictatorship, experienced the occupation and then, like many others, left Mosul and Iraq. But her passion for her hometown remains defiantly strong. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter &am...
Apr 23, 2021•29 min
Arab Digest Editor William Law in conversation with Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Middle East fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and author of ‘Qatar and the Gulf Feud’. Since the Al Ula accord in January that ended the feud the mood music between the Qataris and the Saudis is all about reconciliation. The Emiratis, however, are not about to get their dancing shoes on, at least not yet. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our dail...
Apr 16, 2021•30 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at London's Chatham House.Their subject is the brutal and complex war in Syria, as they explore how the conflict could come to an end. Questions abound, among them the extent to which America will re-engage and how much compromise Russia, Iran and Turkey are willing to show. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & p...
Apr 09, 2021•27 min
Arab Digest editor William Law's podcast guest is Caroline Rose, Senior Analyst and programme head in the Human Security Unit at the Newlines Institute. Caroline recently authored a report for the institute titled In the wake of drawdown: addressing blindspots in Iraq. Their conversation looks at the blindspots and the blunders, the road travelled thus far and what America needs to do on the road ahead to extricate itself from Iraq. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and sta...
Apr 01, 2021•33 min
Arab Digest Editor William Law in conversation with Sanam Vakil deputy director of the MENA Programme at London's Chatham House. Sanam’s research focuses on Gulf geopolitics, security issues and future trends in Iran’s domestic and foreign policy. AD got an early look at a paper she and her Chatham House colleague Neil Quilliam are publishing in mid-April that examines pathways to de-escalating conflict, building trust and moving to regional security in the Middle East. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest...
Mar 25, 2021•28 min
William Law, the Arab Digest editor is in conversation with Sami Hamdi, editor in chief of The International Interest. And their conversation is all about Sami's tweets. He is an incisive MENA twitterati with thoughts and opinions that are sometimes controversial but never dull. So rather than limiting @SALHACHIMI to 280 characters AD decided to let him rip. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Mar 19, 2021•31 min
Arab Digest editor William Law talks with Giorgio Cafiero. Giorgio is the founder and CEO of Gulf State Analytics, based in Washington. Their conversation focusses on how internal and external pressures are shaping the Gulf states and driving forward fresh regional initiatives that signal the era of America as the Gulf's big brother is well and truly over. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Mar 12, 2021•27 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with investigative sports journalist Karim Zidan. Their conversation focusses on Abu Dhabi's Fight Island where the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the UFC, has landed. Karim looks at how a sport that mixes martial arts with boxing and features men and women fighters is a fit for a conservative Gulf emirate. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Mar 05, 2021•25 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Samuel Ramani, a non-resident fellow at Gulf International Forum and a doctoral candidate in International Relations at the University of Oxford. Their conversation focusses on the United Arab Emirates and the challenges the country's rulers face as Joe Biden settles into the White House with new agendas on Iran, human rights in the Middle East and relations with America's Gulf allies. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and...
Feb 26, 2021•28 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Jon B Alterman director of the Middle East Program and senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. With Joe Biden in the White House American diplomacy is back in fashion but is diplomacy enough to solve the MENA region's myriad challenges? Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Feb 19, 2021•31 min
Arab Digest editor William Law, in conversation with Francis Ghilès, an associate senior researcher at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB). A former North Africa correspondent for the Financial Times, he is a specialist on security, energy, and political trends in North Africa and the Western Mediterranean. Francis Ghilès argues that after exploiting the Maghreb in colonial times and largely ignoring it since, Europe now is in urgent need of strategies that treat the region as...
Feb 12, 2021•33 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Helen Lackner, one of the world's foremost experts on Yemen and a conflict now entering its seventh year. Their talk ranges from the abandoned oil tanker that threatens an environmental disaster to outside forces and leaders of the Yemeni factions who profit from a war that leaves the people destitute and desperate. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Feb 05, 2021•33 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Tarek Megerisi, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, on the role Europe could play in the Libya conflict. There are elites within the country and outside forces that want to keep the war going. It is in Europe's interest to work towards ending it.
Jan 29, 2021•32 min
Arab Digest editor William Law in conversation with Lina al-Hathloul, the sister of the jailed Saudi womens' rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul (https://www.loujainalhathloul.org/.) Loujain was detained and tortured in a secret prison and in December of last year given a six year prison sentence. Her sister tells Loujain's story and the family's fight for justice. Sign up NOW at Arabdigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Jan 22, 2021•30 min
