Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the London-based think tank Chatham House. Their conversation focusses on the political and business elites that are plundering Lebanon. Ordinary people are suffering huge deprivation, with 80% of the population now below the poverty line, as the economic crisis caused by the insatiable greed of the elites grows ever deeper. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the...
Sep 30, 2022•34 min
The Arab Digest podcast conversation this week takes a hard look at US foreign policy in the Middle East under President Joe Biden. Digest editor William Law's guest is Jon Hoffman, a geopolitical analyst and commentator. Hoffman sees Biden's approach as a continuation of decades of failed policies that have served neither the US nor the people of the region well. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Sep 23, 2022•27 min
After a tumultuous week which saw the death of Queen Elizabeth and the rout of the Russian army in Ukraine, the Middle East analyst and author Kristian Coates Ulrichsen returns to the podcast to discuss in detail his recent tweets with Arab Digest editor William Law. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Sep 16, 2022•27 min
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Yemen and Jihadist expert Dr Elisabeth Kendall. She assesses the enduring threat of AQAP - Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - and the extent to which the movement can exploit both the war and the current truce in an attempt to reassert its terror bona fides. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Sep 09, 2022•31 min
Kicking off a new podcast season, Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with the Palestinian academic Dr Dalal Iriqat. Their conversation examines both the current and the historic situation of the Palestinian people and their resilience in the struggle to secure human rights and end the Israeli occupation. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Sep 02, 2022•35 min
On 10 October 2021 we podcast Maged Mandour’s incisive assessment of the military industrial dictatorship President Sisi is building in Egypt. Maged is a political analyst who writes openDemocracy’s “Chronicles of the Arab Revolt” column, covering the affairs of the Arab world with a special focus on social change in the post-Arab Spring Middle East. He is also a Sada writer for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a contributor to Middle East Eye and a regular Arab Digest contributor...
Aug 26, 2022•35 min
At number 2 in the all-time top ten is Christopher Davidson’s podcast Putin’s war plays well with MENA authoritarians which aired 1 April, 2022. Chris is an academic and author of several books on the politics and foreign affairs of the Gulf states and a regular contributor to the Arab Digest newsletter. His latest book published by Hurst is titled From Sheikhs to Sultanism. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Aug 24, 2022•29 min
Number 3 in the top ten is a podcast that aired 28 May 2021. It featured Aslı Aydıntaşbaş and Cinzia Bianco. Aslı is a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and Cinzia is a Visiting Fellow at the Council. They co-authored the paper, “Useful Enemies – How the Turkey-UAE rivalry is remaking the Middle East”. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Aug 22, 2022•43 min
At number 4 in our all-time top ten podcasts is Francis Ghilès’ Algeria and Morocco: neighbours with issues released 23 July 2021. Francis is a specialist on security, energy and political trends in North Africa and the western Mediterranean, and associate senior researcher at the Barcelona Centre for international affairs. From 1981 to 1995 he was a North Africa correspondent for the Financial Times, and has written for numerous publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Le...
Aug 19, 2022•33 min
At number five in the top ten, Beyond the two-state solution was aired 22 October 2021. Jonathan Kuttab is co-founder of Nonviolence International and of the Palestinian human rights group, Al Haq. A well known international human rights attorney, he has practiced in the US, Palestine and Israel. He serves on the board of Bethlehem Bible College and is President of the Board of Holy Land Trust. He is the Executive Director for Friends of Sabeel North America. William Law spoke with Jonathan just...
Aug 15, 2022•27 min
Sitting at number six in the top ten countdown is Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula: down but not out with Elisabeth Kendall. Her conversation with William Law was podcast on 17 September, 2021. Dr Kendall is a Senior Research Fellow in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Oxford University's Pembroke College and an expert on Yemen and on Jihadist movements. In October she takes up her appointment as Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge. Her article, “The Jihadi threat and the Arabian Peninsula” on wh...
Aug 12, 2022•31 min
Our podcast Cairo and Ankara: a new axis? ranks number 7 in the Arab Digest top ten podcast list. It was released 18 June 2021 and features Ali Bakir, a research assistant professor at Ibn Khaldoon center for Humanities and Social Sciences in Doha. Ali is an analyst following geopolitical and security trends in the Middle East, and especially those between Turkey and the Arab world. His conversation with Digest editor William Law focussed on the thaw in relations between Cairo and Ankara. Sign u...
Aug 08, 2022•33 min
We spoke with Chris 11 June 2021. His new book From Sheikhs to Sultanism: Statecraft and Authority in Saudi Arabia and the UAE had just been published by Hurst. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Aug 05, 2022•32 min
Coming in at number nine in our all-time Arab Digest top ten is Annelle Sheline’s podcast The Weaponisation of Moderate Islam, first broadcast 30 July 2021. Annelle is a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an expert on religious and political authority in the Middle East and North Africa. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Aug 05, 2022•37 min
This podcast conversation aired 14 May 2021 as violence flared in the wake of Israeli security forces actions at Al Aqsa mosque and the attempted eviction of Palestinians from their homes in the East Jerusalem quarter of Sheikh Jarrah. Jordan’s Prince Hassan has long advocated on behalf of interfaith and humanitarian issues with particular stress on the human dimension of conflicts. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
Aug 05, 2022•37 min
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the European Council on Foreign Relations' Tarek Megerisi. Tarek considers the crisis that Putin's invasion has plunged the Middle East and North Africa into and he calls for fresh thinking and urgent action on the part of Europe, acting in concert with international bodies such as the IMF, to avert a human catastrophe on a scale that is unthinkable. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newslette...
Jul 29, 2022•36 min
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the editor in chief of The International Interest, Sami Hamdi. Sami looks beyond the headlines in the Western media about that fist bump. He argues instead that President Joe Biden's trip to Jeddah to meet with the Saudi crown prince had almost nothing to do with human rights and was much more about his own domestic political challenges, his efforts to reinforce relations with Israel and the attempt to keep alive his hopes for a deal with Iran....
Jul 22, 2022•29 min
Writer and journalist Elias Jahshan is Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week. Their conversation focus on the LGBTQ+ Arab community in the Middle East and the diaspora in a powerful new book of 18 essays, This Arab is Queer, which Elias edited. As he says in his introduction: "These writings assert our existence and agency as a community, and also celebrate our varied experiences.This is a space where the microphone is entirely the writer’s own." Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free...
Jul 15, 2022•34 min
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Egyptian political analyst and commentator Maged Mandour. Their conversation deals with Egypt's growing economic crisis and how President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is managing it. He may believe that with good friends in the neighbourhood, among them Israel, he has time to spend his way out of economic collapse. But the military-economic dictatorship he has assiduously built leaves him less and less room in which to manoeuvre. Sign up NOW at Ara...
Jul 08, 2022•33 min
Author and analyst Matthew Hedges is this week's podcast guest as he joins Arab Digest editor William Law to discuss his recently published book, an analysis of how Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, has assiduously built a military, digital and economic power base while remaining largely in the shadows. Matthew talks, too, about his detention and abuse at the hands of the UAE's State Security Department while he was in the country doing research for the book. Sign up NOW at Arab...
Jul 01, 2022•37 min
Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is Samuel Ramani. Their conversation focusses on how the Ukraine war is playing out for Vladimir Putin's ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. As Putin continues his war of attrition against a European nation, Middle Eastern countries are weighing up how a Russian drawdown of troops in Syria might serve to tilt the scales either away from or towards Iran. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsl...
Jun 24, 2022•34 min
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes top North Africa energy analyst Francis Ghilès to the podcast to talk about the potential energy alliance between Italy, Tunisia and Algeria as the war in Ukraine grinds on and sanctions on Russia begin to bite. Italy is determined to become Europe's energy hub while Tunisia has the geographic proximity to the continent and Algeria the resources for a nexus of interests to emerge, one that could prove a winner for all three. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org f...
Jun 17, 2022•31 min
Arab Digest editor William Law's podcast guest is Giorgio Cafiero, the CEO of Washington-based Gulf State Analytics. Their conversation focusses on US-Saudi relations and the awkward situation US president Joe Biden finds himself in needing to reach some sort of accommodation with the Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman as petrol prices rocket and America's domestic economic woes mount. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily ne...
Jun 10, 2022•32 min
Bahraini human rights activist Maryam Alkhawaja is Arab Digest editor William Law's guest. Her father Abdulhadi is serving a life sentence in Bahrain. His efforts on behalf of the struggle for rights in the Gulf kingdom, and his unjust incarceration, have been acknowledged with a 2022 Martin Ennals award honouring exceptional human rights defenders. For more than a decade Maryam has campaigned tirelessly for his release and that of all political prisoners held in Bahrain, other Gulf states and t...
Jun 03, 2022•34 min
The European Council on Foreign Relations' Cinzia Bianco joins Arab Digest editor William Law to talk about the partnership deal that the EU is proposing to the Gulf states. Large in ambition and sweeping in scope, it was released in Brussels in mid-May and titled 'Joint Communication to the European Parliament and Council: a strategic partnership with the Gulf.' So is the proposal a gamechanger or is it a dustcatcher? Will the Gulf play ball or are there red lines that will stop the initiative ...
May 27, 2022•32 min
Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with the Saudi human rights activist Areej al-Sadhan. Her brother Abdulrahman, a humanitarian aid worker, was forcibly disappeared in Saudi Arabia in 2018. She has been fighting ever since to secure his release and that of the many other prisoners of conscience sentenced to long terms by a politicised judiciary who then vanish into the kingdom's labrythine prison system. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving ...
May 20, 2022•30 min
Yemen expert and author Helen Lackner joins Arab Digest editor William Law to discuss a ceasefire that is largely holding as all sides begin to acknowledge that a protracted stalemate, rather than leading to further fighting, could prove the path to dialogue, negotiations and an end to a more than seven year war that has brought untold suffering to the people of Yemen. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & podcasts.
May 13, 2022•32 min
Newlines Institute senior analyst Caroline Rose joins Arab Digest editor William Law to discuss how Syria's Assad family runs a narco state built on captagon, the illicit drug of choice for the Levant, the Gulf states and the wider Middle East. Working with Hezbollah, the family oversees the manufacture, distribution and sale of a drug that is cheap and easy to produce and is generating billions for the family and their associates. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and star...
May 06, 2022•33 min
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes back Qatar University Gulf analyst Dr Ali Bakir to discuss what's at stake for the region and beyond as the JCPOA talks, which appeared close to reaching the finish line, now seem bogged down in Vienna. What the Iranians see as a weakened US administration may allow them to drag the negotiations out and ultimately doom the deal, a scenario that could trigger a MENA nuclear arms race. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receivi...
Apr 29, 2022•28 min
Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes back Andreas Krieg of the Defence Studies Department, King's College London and their conversation focusses on the battle that liberal democracy now finds itself engaged in as its MENA partners play the neutral card while quietly backing their ideological ally Putin in his war in Ukraine. It is an existential struggle, one encumbered with a stark hypocrisy. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter &am...
Apr 22, 2022•31 min
