Episodes

  • Zanzibar Was a Country (S. 13, Ep. 25)

    Zanzibar Was a Country (S. 13, Ep. 25)
    Apr 25 2024
    On this week's episode of the podcast, Nathaniel Mathews of Binghamton University joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Zanzibar Was a Country: Exile and Citizenship between East Africa and the Gulf. This book traces the history of a Swahili-speaking Arab diaspora from East Africa to Oman. The stories of postrevolution exiles and emigrés from Zanzibar provide a framework for the broader transregional entanglements of decolonization in Africa and the Arabian Gulf. Using both vernacular historiography and life histories of men and women from the community, Nathaniel Mathews argues that the traumatic memories of the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964 are important to nation-building on both sides of the Indian Ocean. Music for this season’s podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.
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    51 mins
  • Field Notes: The Making of Middle East Studies in the United States (S. 13, Ep. 24)

    Field Notes: The Making of Middle East Studies in the United States (S. 13, Ep. 24)
    Apr 18 2024
    On this week's episode of the podcast, Zachary Lockman of New York University joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Field Notes: The Making of Middle East Studies in the United States. This book reconstructs the origins and trajectory of area studies in the United States, focusing on Middle East studies from the 1920s to the 1980s. Lockman shows how the Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford foundations played key roles in conceiving, funding, and launching postwar area studies, expecting them to yield a new kind of interdisciplinary knowledge that would advance the social sciences while benefiting government agencies and the American people. Music for this season’s podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.
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    1 hr
  • The Resilience of Parliamentary Politics in Kuwait (S. 13, Ep. 23)

    The Resilience of Parliamentary Politics in Kuwait (S. 13, Ep. 23)
    Apr 11 2024
    On this week's episode of the podcast, Courtney Freer of Emory University joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, The Resilience of Parliamentary Politics in Kuwait: Parliament, Rentierism, and Society. This book provides an unprecedented holistic treatment of grassroots contemporary Kuwaiti politics in English in over two decades, incorporating the country's political dynamics into broader debates about the limits of authoritarianism and the practice of democracy in the Arab world, particularly in oil-wealthy states. Freer includes extensive fieldwork and the use of Arabic and English primary sources to assess and examine the institutional setting that Kuwait presents and traces the dominant ideological strands in the country, considering the comparative mobilizational potential of ascriptive identities like tribe and sect. Music for this season’s podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.
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    52 mins
  • My Brother, My Land (S. 13, Ep. 22)

    My Brother, My Land (S. 13, Ep. 22)
    Apr 4 2024
    On this week's episode of the podcast, Sami Hermez of Northwestern University and Sireen Sawalha join Marc Lynch to discuss their new book, My Brother, My Land: A Story from Palestine. This is the story of Palestinian resistance that follows Sireen's family after walking back to Palestine against the traffic of exile. Through the lives of the Sawalha family, and the story of Iyad's involvement with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hermez confronts readers with the politics and complexities of armed resistance and the ethical tensions and contradictions that arise, as well as with the dispossession and suffocation of people living under occupation and their ordinary lives in such times. Music for this season’s podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.
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    1 hr
  • The Political Science of the Middle East and The Uprisings of Gaza (S.13, Ep. 21)

    The Political Science of the Middle East and The Uprisings of Gaza (S.13, Ep. 21)
    Mar 21 2024
    On this week's episode of the podcast, Alexander Cooley of Barnard College joins Marc Lynch to discuss Cooley's review essay, The Uprisings of Gaza: How Geopolitical Crises Have Reshaped Academic Communities from Tahrir to Kyiv. This essay reflects upon the contributions of Marc Lynch's edited volume (The Political Science of the Middle East: Theory and Research Since the Arab Uprisings) to address three occurring central issues at the intersection of regional studies and political science that are affected by geopolitical shocks: how shocks highlight previously neglected topics and actors; how they subsequently discredit and privilege certain disciplines and methods; and how they recast the role of academic research within global communities of knowledge and policy-making. Together, Cooley and Lynch explore the comparisons between political sciences in the Middle East and political science in Eurasia. Music for this season’s podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.
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    55 mins
  • Redefining Ceasefires (S. 13, Ep. 20)

    Redefining Ceasefires (S. 13, Ep. 20)
    Mar 15 2024
    On this week's episode of the podcast, Marika Sosnowski of the University of Melbourne Law School joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Redefining Ceasefires: Wartime Order and Statebuilding in Syria. This book explores how ceasefires are not only military tactics but are also tools of wartime order and state-building. While ceasefires have been used in Syria to halt violence and facilitate peace agreements since 2012, Sosnowski demonstrates the diverse consequences of ceasefires and provides a fuller, more nuanced portrait of their role in conflict resolution. (Starts at 0:10). Music for this season’s podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.
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    49 mins
  • Smugglers and States (S. 13, Ep. 19)

    Smugglers and States (S. 13, Ep. 19)
    Feb 29 2024
    On this week's episode of the podcast, Max Gallien of Institute of Development Studies joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Smugglers and States: Negotiating the Maghreb at Its Margins. This book examines the rules and agreements that govern smuggling in North Africa, tracing the involvement of states in these practices and their consequences for borderland communities. Gallien demonstrates that, contrary to common assumptions about the effects of informal economies, smuggling can promote both state and social stability. Music for this season’s podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.
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    54 mins
  • The Gulf Monarchies After the Arab Spring (S.13, Ep. 18)

    The Gulf Monarchies After the Arab Spring (S.13, Ep. 18)
    Feb 22 2024
    On this week's episode of the podcast, Cinzia Bianco of the University of Exeter joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, The Gulf Monarchies After the Arab Spring: Threats and Security. This book applies an original theoretical framework to unpack the threat perceptions and strategic calculus driving the behavior of new impactful regional players in the Middle East and North Africa. Bianco looks at how the small monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) spent the decade between 2011 and 2022 trying to re-shape regional equilibria as protagonists to provide reading keys to the past, present, and future of policy-making in the Gulf monarchies, middle powers destined to play an oversized role in the new multipolar world. (Starts at 0:10).
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    51 mins