A few months ago Democrats bragged that Americans were so supportive of President Biden's "unprecedented" Russia sanctions turning the ruble into rubble, that they couldn't wait to pay higher gas prices. But now that prices are higher with no end in sight, Americans are irate with high costs eating into their earnings, and Democrats and Republicans are pretending the sanctions they enacted have nothing to do with it. Meanwhile mainstream economists are warning of a possible r...
Jul 15, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast In his recent Harper's cover piece, “Empire Burlesque,” Daniel Bessner traced the evolution of the foreign policy vision that defined the so-called American century and how it has been reshaped by failures and a changing world order, including a new multipolarity and the rise of China. He draws a distinction between the liberal internationalists and the “restrainers,” the two dominant foreign policy camps in Washington, and he calls for planning a future beyond the American century. But can...
Jul 15, 2022•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast From his perch at the Chapo Trap House podcast, Felix Biederman has been an acerbic observer and commentator. He joined Dispatches with Rania Khalek for a wide-ranging discussion about America’s cultural and political decline. Listen to every episode of Dispatches with Rania Khalek anywhere you get podcasts. Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK TIME CODES: 0:00 Intro 1:18 Why does America have so many mass shootings? 6:44 America’s loneliness crisis 12:38 Cowboy fore...
Jul 12, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast On its face, nothing seems more benign and positive than “wildlife conservation.” But the Wildlife Conservation Society and the German and US governments have now been implicated in supporting organized violence against Congolese villagers, using mortars, RPGs, indisciminate fire, murder and rape. This is the finding of award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Robert Flummerfelt. Flummerfelt and his team uncovered a three-year campaign of violence by park authorities to e...
Jul 08, 2022•2 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast To understand why the European Union exists and how it is changing due to the financial crisis and the war in Ukraine, Rania Khalek was joined by Costas Lapavitsas, a professor of economics at SOAS, author of “The Left Case Against the EU” and a former Syriza MP. He also has a forthcoming book out in 2023 called “The State of Capitalism” published by Verso Books. Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts. Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.f...
Jul 05, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rania Khalek was joined by Arnaud Bertrand, a commentator on economics and geopolitics based in Shanghai, to discuss the sanctions blowback on the West, the narrative management surrounding it, and growing tensions between the US and China. Arnaud on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand TIME CODES: 0:00 Intro 1:32 Is the West isolating itself? 6:09 Russia & China can survive US sanctions 11:51 US-led West weaker today than in 1st cold war 14:59 How Arnaud ended up in China 17:56 Who’s ...
Jun 19, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast What’s cryptocurrency really? What are NFTs? Is it as revolutionary as its advocates claim or is it a libertarian fake money Ponzi scheme? Is this digital funny money really the future, and if so why is it tanking? To help break it all down, Rania Khalek was joined by Tom Redshaw, a sociologist and lecturer in digital society at the University of Salford. Tom’s articles on cryptocurrency mentioned in the episode: https://mronline.org/2021/12/28/cryptocurrencies-a-view-from-the-left/ https://mron...
Jun 07, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Europe has ceded its core decisions to the US warmongers flooding Ukraine with arms, expediting the global economy’s collapse and extending the war against their own interests. But Ukraine isn’t the only major event stressing the global order: the US flexing against China, global inflation, a possible victory for the left in Colombia, massive protests in Sri Lanka, and even the senseless school shootings in the US reverberate across the world. To help make sense of it all, Vijay Prashad, Executi...
Jun 03, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Iran nuclear deal negotiations appear frozen and the Biden administration is busy pouring fuel onto the Ukrainian fire and trying to encircle China. To help us understand why attempts to salvage an agreement with Iran have not succeeded, Rania Khalek was joined by Mohammad Marandi, professor of English literature and orientalism at the University of Tehran. Prof. Marandi also speaks about recent events in the region. TIME CODES 0:00 Intro 1:56 Why is there no agreement yet? Who’s at fault? 11:55...
May 27, 2022•2 hr 30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lebanon’s May 15 elections results were confusing, with contradictory claims of victory and defeat. Much of the mainstream media coverage further obfuscated the results, with journalists celebrating the few self-described independents and reformists as a sign that some kind of change might be coming, while also appearing to cheer the apparent defeat of Hezbollah and its allies. Except they weren’t defeated, and the independents are actually quite dependent, and the reforms they propose are likel...
May 25, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Africa’s Sahel region encompasses Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad and has been an arena of French colonialism, liberation struggles, ongoing imperialist interventions, the war on terror, and coups d’etat. To discuss this and more Rania Khalek, was joined by Hannah Rae Armstrong, a long-time researcher with years of experience living and working in Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and then covering the Sahel for the International Crisis Group from her base in Senegal. Hannah’s latest a...
May 20, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Libya seems to be trapped in endless conflict between rival militias and outside powers, with migrants trapped in neo-slavery and others drowning in the Mediteranean trying to flee to the European. Prior to the 2011 Arab uprisings and subsequent NATO regime change operation that destroyed the country, most outsiders knew little of Libya except for its caricature as a bizarre authoritarian country led by the idiosyncratic Gaddafi. But history did not start in 2011. To understand the Libya of toda...
May 19, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Palestinian rap group DAM put Palestinian rap on the map and inspired Arab rap in general with songs like Meen Irhabi (Who’s the terrorist?). DAM did not only address Arabs, however. As Palestinian citizens of Israel, they also had Hebrew lyrics, directly challenging their oppressor. Tamer Nafar, one of the group’s founding members, has since launched a solo career which includes writing and starring in a semi autobiographical film, Junction 48 as well as newly released music. He joined Rani...
May 16, 2022•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Following the 2019 uprising that deposed longtime leader Omar Bashir, Sudan is suffering from an economic disaster, another military coup, neoliberal rot and foreign interference from countries in the region and the West. To understand what’s happening and why, Rania Khalek was joined by Magdi El Gizouli, a Sudanese academic and fellow of the Rift Valley Institute, as well as frequent commentator and writer on Sudanese affairs on his blog Still Sudan. Time Codes: 0:00 Intro 2:02 2019 uprising: W...
May 10, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast When most people think of Sweden, or more broadly, the Scandinavian countries, they imagine a more egalitarian and advanced model to which we should aspire. Some assume without investigating that Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries, Denmark and Norway, have figured out how to be prosperous “socialist” countries. But this Swedish model is uglier than it might appear to be, with a brutal history and a dangerous present. To discuss the imperialism on which Scandinavian living standards are ...
May 05, 2022•2 hr 35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Whether or not there was a U.S.-backed coup against Pakistan’s deposed leader Imran Khan is a point of great debate. On a recent episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek spoke with Pakistani professor Taimur Rahman, who argued that it was not a coup: https://youtu.be/nA5UCTz4oys But judging by the crowds in the street, many Pakistanis believe that there was in fact a coup and that the US played a major role. To understand why so many Pakistanis are demonstrating in support of Imran Khan, Rania Khalek...
Apr 30, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two months into the war on Ukraine, why have Europeans allowed the US, which is of course not part of Europe, to dictate reckless policies against Russia over what are purely European issues? Is this a desperate last ditch effort to halt American and Western decline? To discuss the future of Europe and the Western-dominated order, Rania Khalek was joined by Wolfgang Streeck, a sociologist and emeritus director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. Listen to every episode of Ran...
Apr 28, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast One year after Zionist extremists in Jerusalem provoked a defiant response from Palestinians in occupied Gaza, the same scenario is now repeating. Israelis are attacking Palestinian worshippers at Al Aqsa mosque during Ramadan, executing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and once again bombing Gaza, but without any of the Western sympathy expressed for Ukrainian victims or condemnation against their aggressors. In fact, the very nations most zealously supporting the Ukrainains are the ones ...
Apr 23, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast While the world has been distracted by the war in Ukraine, Pakistan is in the middle of massive political upheaval. Imran Khan was removed as prime minister through a parliamentary vote of no confidence, which he blamed on a US-backed coup. Was it US interference? Or was this just local Pakistani politics? To understand what happened and how Pakistani politics came to be dominated by a right-wing and military elite, Rania Khalek was joined by Taimur Rahman, a Pakistani Marxist who is Secretary G...
Apr 21, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast The war in Ukraine has led to a closing of the ranks in the West, with media and politicians in lockstep united against Russia, and some self-described leftists have joined in. As with many recent conflicts the left has been riven by divisions over what is the correct position to take, with “Putinism” replacing “Assadism” as the new term used to excommunicate opponents of NATO and American intervention. To understand the history of the Western left and how wars over the last century have caused ...
Apr 11, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast For those who just discovered Ukraine two months ago, the fact that Ukrainian nationalism has been dangerously intertwined with fascism might sound like Russian propaganda. But is it? How powerful is the Ukrainian far right? Are they really linked to Nazis? Why is the corporate-owned media denying this? To place this war and the Ukrainian far right in its historical context, Rania Khalek was joined by Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany, who is currently associate professor of history at ...
Apr 07, 2022•2 hr 44 min•Transcript available on Metacast The war in Ukraine is turning geopolitics upside down, in a global order that already seemed brittle. We have an oil shock, a financial shock, a cold war, a hot war, an ongoing global pandemic all at the same time. Now global supply chains, upon which modern human life depends, have been severed. Supplies of food and fertilizer are threatened for those most dependent on it at a time when global warming curtails our agriculture. This makes urgent once again the so-called “agrarian question,” look...
Apr 02, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mainstream media are whipping up a frenzy against leftists who oppose US imperialism and NATO, smearing them as “Russian agents” for trying to analyze this conflict and its causes with nuance rather than emotion or jingoism. With Western media exclusively focused on Ukraine, simply reminding people that Afghanistan is being starved due to U.S. policies, that Yemen is still being bombed and besiged, and that Syria, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela are still being sanctioned leads to accusations of “whata...
Mar 29, 2022•2 hr 34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many experts on Russia and Ukraine are calling for de-escalation and genuine diplomacy but are being drowned out by a unanimous chorus led by the media and a cacophony of hawkish frauds demanding more war. To break through the war fervor, Rania Khalek spoke to Anatol Lieven, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of “Ukraine and Russia: A Fraternal Rivalry.” TIME CODES 0:00 Intro 5:38 The West could have prevented this war 13:00 US policy is prolon...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast The fighting in Ukraine might be a European war but its consequences are global, and it may even cause changes in geopolitical balances, relations and multipolarity. How can we understand this war as anti-imperialists? What will its global economic consequences be? And what will be the result of the unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia? To help make sense of it all, Rania Khalek was joined by Marxist economist Prahbat Patnaik, professor emeritus at JNU and author of “A Theory of Imperialism...
Mar 18, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mainstream media coverage of the war in Ukraine has sought to erase the U.S. and NATO role in setting the stage for the conflict, the Western history of attacking Russia, and Europe’s violent and racist past and present. Joseph Massad, Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, joins Dispatches with Rania Khalek to remind us of the hypocrisy and history the West has attempted to erase as it escalates the war against Russia in Ukraine....
Mar 16, 2022•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast The impacts of Russia’s war in Ukraine isn’t isolated to Europe. As the US and NATO pour weapons into a Ukrainian insurgency, the risk for confrontation between nuclear-armed power is rising. Does this mark the end of unipolarity and the beginning of a multipolar world? If so, what does that mean? How will support for a Ukrainian insurgency feed into the rise of the global far right? What will be the impact of the war and sanctions on Russia, which are already causing wheat, fertilizer and gas p...
Mar 14, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast BreakThrough coverage has emphasized the US and NATO role in instigating the violence in Ukraine, which is precisely what the Western media has tried to obscure in recent weeks. We've also hosted many voices from different segments of the left about the war. One of those voices joining Rania Khalek from the Russian left is Alexey Sakhnin, an anti-war activist, journalist and academic of the Soviet era.
Mar 11, 2022•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s not for nothing that the US has been called the “United States of Amnesia.” The same leaders who invaded Iraq and killed a million people, who are starving Yemenis and Afghans, who label Palestinians "terrorists" for throwing rocks, and who took every opportunity to escalate rather than de-escalate the conflict in Ukraine since 2014, have suddenly dusted off their international law books with regard to Russia and are celebrating and promising to arm the Ukranian resistance. To dis...
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast After weeks of sky-high tension, ambiguity and threats, the Russian military crossed into Ukraine and the country's eight year civil war became a war between two post-soviet armies. While the extent of Putin's goals in the war are unclear, Western countries have been supplying the Ukrainian military with weapons, launched a brutal economic war on Russia, and will support a NATO-backed insurgency against the Russian military. Once war starts, forces are unleashed which can’t easily be c...
Mar 01, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
