Podcast appearances and mentions of Marc Lynch

This is a recording of an NJN webinar on April 24th, 2025 Drs. Shibley Telhami and Marc Lynch, co-chairs of the Middle East Scholar Barometer, say that they have seen a “chilling effect" on the working atmosphere for Middle East scholars. Many US-based academics and scholars already felt an increasing need to self-censor when addressing the Israeli-Palestinian issue professionally. The Trump administration has put unprecedented pressure on higher education. Now, scholars face an environment in which the intensity and pace of campus protests have subsided, but the overall environment has remained oppressive and uncertain as political pressure from above has increased. Self-censorship remains rampant while actual censorship appears to be increasing. To talk about and make sense of this frightening scenario, Dr. Telhami sat down with our President and CEO Hadar Susskind for a conversation. Shibley Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, the Director of the University of Maryland's Critical Issues Poll, and a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to the University of Maryland, he taught at several universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in political science. He has authored and edited numerous books, including one forthcoming book: Peace Derailed: Obama, Trump, Biden, and the Decline of Diplomacy on Israel/Palestine, 2011-2022 (co-authored). His most recent book is a co-edited volume with contributions, The One State Reality: What is Israel/Palestine?, which was published in March 2023 with Cornell University Press. He has advised every U.S. administration from George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama. Washingtonian Magazine listed him as one of the “Most Influential People on Foreign Affairs” in both 2022 and 2023.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Yasmin Moll of the University of Michigan joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, The Revolution Within: Islamic Media and the Struggle for a New Egypt. This book challenges conventional accounts of the 2011 revolution and its aftermath as a struggle between secular and religious forces, reconsidering what makes a practice virtuous, a public Islamic, a way of life Godly. Yasmin Moll shows how Islamic media and the social life of theology mattered to contestations over the shape of a New Egypt. Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.   POMEPS, directed by Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Erik Skare of the University of Oslo joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Road to October 7: A Brief History of Palestinian Islamism. In this book, Erik Skare argues that Palestinian Islamism is far more complex and dynamic than generally assumed. The phenomenon has continuously developed through disputes between moderates and hardliners. Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.   POMEPS, directed by Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Kristen Kao and Ellen Lust of the University of Gothenburg join Marc Lynch to discuss their new book, Decentralization, Local Governance, and Inequality in the Middle East and North Africa. This book directs our attention toward the ways in which decentralization is “lived locally” by citizens of the MENA region, underscoring the simultaneous influences of individual-level factors (e.g. gender, education) and local context (e.g. development levels, electoral institutions) on governance processes and outcomes.  Mentioned in the podcast: Carnegie-funded Report on Decentralisation  Decentralization in the MENA: Representation, Gender, and Civic Engagement Decentralization and Recentralization: Governance Dynamics in the MENA Region Everyday Choices framework Supplemental Materials   Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Scott Williamson of the University of Oxford joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, The King Can Do No Wrong: Blame Games and Power Sharing in Authoritarian Regimes. This book stresses the importance of understanding autocratic blame games. Scott Williamson argues that how autocrats share power affects their ability to shift blame, so that they are less vulnerable to the public's grievances when they delegate decision-making powers to other political elites.  Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com. POMEPS, directed by Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Alissa Walter of Seattle Pacific University joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Contested City: Citizen Advocacy and Survival in Modern Baghdad. . The book offers a history of state-society relations in Baghdad, exploring how city residents managed through periods of economic growth, sanctions, and war, from the oil boom of the 1950s through the withdrawal of US troops in 2011.   Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Steven Heydemann of Smith College joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Making Sense of the Arab State. This book grapples with enduring questions such as the uneven development of state capacity, the failures of developmentalism and governance, the centrality of regime security and survival concerns, the excesses of surveillance and control, and the increasing personalization of power. Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com. POMEPS, directed by Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen of Rice University joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Centers of Power in the Arab Gulf States. This book offers a comparative analysis of military, political, economic and religious power in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as of the power of narrative. Ulrichsen sheds light on the varying concepts of power and authority, the different forms they take, the ways they are projected, and the practical constraints on their exercise. Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Austin J. Knuppe of Utah State University joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Surviving the Islamic State:Contention, Cooperation, and Neutrality in Wartime Iraq. This book offers an insightful account of how Iraqis in different areas of the country responded to the rise and fall of the Islamic State. Austin J. Knuppe argues that people adopt survival repertoires—a variety of social practices, tools, organized routines, symbols, and rhetorical strategies—to navigate wartime violence and detect threats. He traces how repertoires varied among different communities over the course of the conflict.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Bozena Welborne of Smith College joins Marc Lynch to discuss her book, Women, Money, and Political Participation in the Middle East. This book examines women, money, and political participation in the Middle East and North Africa focusing on women's capacity to engage local political systems. The research that Welborne presents here expands the discussion of women in rentier political economy and highlights their roles as participants and agents within regional templates for economic development. Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Diana Greenwald of  the City College of New York joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Mayors in the Middle: Indirect Rule and Local Government in Occupied Palestine. Diana B. Greenwald offers a new theory of local government under indirect rule through a historically informed, empirically nuanced analysis of towns and cities across the West Bank. The book demonstrates that both the indirect rule system itself—as embodied in local policing arrangements—and the political affiliation of Palestinian mayors shape how politicians will govern. This variation, Greenwald argues, depends in part on whether local Palestinian governments are perceived as intermediaries within or opponents of the regime. Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Afshon Ostovar of the Naval Postgraduate School joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Wars of Ambition: The United States, Iran, and the Struggle for the Middle East. This book offers a sweeping, comprehensive history of the post-9/11 wars in the Middle East and the politics that fueled them. Ostovar discusses both the decline of American influence in the Middle East post-9/11 and the rise of Iran, while deftly integrating the United States, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Russia, and Saudi Arabia into the narrative.  Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Elham Fakhro of the Harvard Kennedy School joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, The Abraham Accords: The Gulf States, Israel, and the Limits of Normalization. In this book, Elham Fakhro demonstrates how shared security concerns, economic interests, and regional political shockwaves led to a surprising strategic convergence between the Gulf states and Israel, setting the stage for covert relations to come out into the open. She examines the role of the Trump administration in negotiating the agreements and shows how the UAE and Bahrain have instrumentalized the accords to burnish their reputations in Western capitals.  Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

Welcome to Season 14 of the POMEPS Middle East Political Science Podcast! On this week's episode of the podcast, Jerome Drevon of International Crisis Group joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, From Jihad to Politics: How Syrian Jihadis Embraced Politics. In the book, Drevon offers an examination of the Syrian armed opposition, tracing the emergence of Jihadi groups in the conflict, their dominance, and their political transformation. Drawing upon field research and interviews with Syrian insurgents in northwestern Syria and Turkey, Drevon demonstrates how the context of a local conflict can shape armed groups' behavior in unexpected ways.  Music for this season's podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

This event was the launch of 'Making Sense of the Arab State' edited by Steven Heydemann & Marc Lynch, and published by University of Michigan Press. No region in the world has been more hostile to democracy, more dominated by military and security institutions, or weaker on economic development and inclusive governance than the Middle East. Why have Arab states been so oppressively strong in some areas but so devastatingly weak in others? How do those patterns affect politics, economics, and society across the region? The state stands at the centre of the analysis of politics in the Middle East, but has rarely been the primary focus of systematic theoretical analysis. 'Making Sense of the Arab State' brings together top scholars from diverse theoretical orientations to address some of the most critically important questions facing the region today. The authors grapple with enduring questions such as the uneven development of state capacity, the failures of developmentalism and governance, the centrality of regime security and survival concerns, the excesses of surveillance and control, and the increasing personalisation of power. Meet the speakers Lisa Anderson is Special Lecturer and James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations Emerita at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Anderson's scholarly research has included work on state formation in the Middle East and North Africa; on regime change and democratisation in developing countries; and on social science, academic research and public policy both in the United States and around the world. Steven Heydemann is Ketcham Chair in Middle East Studies, Professor of Government, and Director of the Middle East Studies Program at Smith College. Heydemann is a political scientist who specializes in the comparative politics and the political economy of the Middle East. His interests include authoritarian governance, economic development, social policy, political and economic reform, and civil society. Salwa Ismail is a Professor of Politics, with a focus on the Middle East, at SOAS University of London. She is a member of the London Middle East Institute and the Center for Palestine Studies. She has authored multiple books, including 'The Rule of Violence: Subjectivity, Memory and Government in Syria' (2018); 'Political Life in Cairo's New Quarters: Encountering the Everyday State' (2006) and 'Rethinking Islamist Politics: Culture, the State and Islamism' (2003). Marc Lynch is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs; Director of the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS); and Director of M.A. Middle East Studies. His recent books include 'The Political Science of the Middle East: Theory and Research After the Arab Uprisings' (edited with Sean Yom and Jillian Schwedler) and 'The New Arab Wars: Anarchy and Uprising in the Middle East'. This event will be chaired by Toby Dodge. Toby Dodge is a Professor in the Department of International Relations, LSE. He is also Kuwait Professor and Director of the Kuwait Programme, Middle East Centre. Toby's research concentrates on the evolution of the post-colonial state in the international system. The main focus of this work on the developing world is the state in the Middle East, specifically Iraq.

As the war in Gaza grinds on, Israel's endgame remains unclear. What does it mean to destroy Hamas? Who will provide security and govern Gaza when the fighting stops? How has this war changed Israel's relationship with its neighbors and the wider world? To discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the future of Gaza, Foreign Affairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan moderated a panel on August 1 that included Audrey Kurth Cronin, Marc Lynch, Dennis Ross, and Dana Stroul. Cronin is director of the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology and the author of How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns. Lynch is a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. Ross is a counselor at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a professor at Georgetown University, and a former U.S. envoy to the Middle East, serving in senior national security positions in the Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations. Stroul is director of research at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East. You can find transcripts and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.

Since we're reporting on the ground from Malmo, our regularly scheduled episode will come out at the end of the week to coincide with Eurovision 2024! Until then we'd love to share two previous episodes we think set this year's contest up well. This is our episode about Israel's participation in Eurovision.   Guests: Paul Jordan (Dr. Eurovision), Dave Keating (Brussels Based EU Reporter), and Elias Jahshan (This Arab is Queer) featured in the Deep Dive - 1:37 Zack Beauchamp (Senior Foreign Policy Correspondent, Vox.com) - 27:24 Professor Shibley Telhami (Brookings Institute, Council of Foreign Relations) - 45:47 This week, we're talking about the controversy surrounding Israel's participation in Eurovision. First we talk about the history of countries being sanctioned by Eurovision, and try to get at the fundamental questions of values that underlie the debate over whether Israel should participate. We turn to Eurovision expert Dr. Paul Jordan, EU expert Dave Keating, and editor of "This Arab is Queer," Elias Jahshan for context. Then, we turn to two experts for further context concerning the war in Gaza and where the conflict stands. Zack Beauchamp is a senior Foreign Policy Correspondent at Vox, and Shibley Telhami holds the Anwar Sadat Professorship for Peace and Development at University of Maryland, a senior non-resident fellow at Brookings, and has authored, co-authored and edited several books, including the One State Reality. He has advised every American president from George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama.   Deep Dive Videos:   Bashar Murad, Wild West, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Moqt2hnlEM   Eden Golan, Hurricane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJYn09tuPw4   Books by our Guests:   Zack Beauchamp, The Reactionary Spirit: How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/154170441X?tag=hacboogrosit-20   Shibley Telhami, Nathan Brown, Michael Barnett, Marc Lynch, The One State Reality, https://www.amazon.com/One-State-Reality-Israel-Palestine/dp/1501768409/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=   Elias Jahshan, This Arab is Queer, https://www.amazon.com/This-Arab-Queer-Anthology-Writers/dp/086356478X   Dr. Paul Jordan, The Modern Fairytale https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/33429        

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Guests:   Paul Jordan (Dr. Eurovision), Dave Keating (Brussels Based EU Reporter), and Elias Jahshan (This Arab is Queer) featured in the Deep Dive - 1:37 Zack Beauchamp (Senior Foreign Policy Correspondent, Vox.com) - 27:24 Professor Shibley Telhami (Brookings Institute, Council of Foreign Relations) - 45:47 This week, we're talking about the controversy surrounding Israel's participation in Eurovision. First we talk about the history of countries being sanctioned by Eurovision, and try to get at the fundamental questions of values that underlie the debate over whether Israel should participate. We turn to Eurovision expert Dr. Paul Jordan, EU expert Dave Keating, and editor of "This Arab is Queer," Elias Jahshan for context. Then, we turn to two experts for further context concerning the war in Gaza and where the conflict stands. Zack Beauchamp is a senior Foreign Policy Correspondent at Vox, and Shibley Telhami holds the Anwar Sadat Professorship for Peace and Development at University of Maryland, a senior non-resident fellow at Brookings, and has authored, co-authored and edited several books, including the One State Reality. He has advised every American president from George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama.   Deep Dive Videos:   Bashar Murad, Wild West, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Moqt2hnlEM   Eden Golan, Hurricane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJYn09tuPw4   Books by our Guests:   Zack Beauchamp, The Reactionary Spirit: How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/154170441X?tag=hacboogrosit-20   Shibley Telhami, Nathan Brown, Michael Barnett, Marc Lynch, The One State Reality, https://www.amazon.com/One-State-Reality-Israel-Palestine/dp/1501768409/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=   Elias Jahshan, This Arab is Queer, https://www.amazon.com/This-Arab-Queer-Anthology-Writers/dp/086356478X   Dr. Paul Jordan, The Modern Fairytale https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/33429        

Joe Biden's presidency has been dominated by two foreign policy crises: the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. The funding the United States has provided in those wars — billions to both Ukraine and Israel — has drawn backlash from both the right and the left. And now, as the conflicts move into new stages with no clear end game, Biden's policies are increasingly drawing dissent from the center.Richard Haass is an icon of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. He served as the president of the Council on Foreign Relations for 20 years and currently writes the newsletter Home & Away. He's recently been making the case that our foreign policy is insufficiently independent — that we've become captured by allies that have interests that diverge from our own. His view of this moment is a signal of larger shifts that could be coming in the U.S. foreign policy consensus.In this conversation, we discuss why he thinks America's current strategy on both Ukraine and Israel is untenable, what he thinks the north star for our strategy in both cases should be, the Republican Party's 180-degree turn from internationalism to isolationism, what America's biggest national security threat really is and more.Mentioned:“The Two-State Mirage” by Marc Lynch and Shibley TelhamiBook Recommendations:The World That Wasn't by Benn SteilSparks by Ian JohnsonDiplomats at War by Charles TrueheartThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing from Efim Shapiro. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Annie Galvin and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero.

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.

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).

On this week's episode of the podcast, Sharan Grewal of the College of William and Mary and the Middle East Initiative at Harvard University joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book Soldiers of Democracy? Military Legacies and the Arab Spring. The book argues that a military's behavior under democracy is shaped by how it had been treated under autocracy. This scholarly volume illustrates this theory through detailed case studies of Egypt and Tunisia and drawing on over 140 interviews with civilian and military leaders, and three surveys of military personnel.  Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

Regional Repercussions of the War is a public talk and discussion featuring Marc Lynch, faculty and director of the Project on Middle East Political Science at George Washington University. The event was held and recorded on Feb. 13, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. in Architecture Hall at the University of Washington in Seattle. This event is part of our Winter 2024 War in the Middle East Lecture Series on the aftermath of Oct. 7, the war in Gaza and responses worldwide. Moderator: Resat Kasaba, Jackson School Professor and Middle East expert Sponsored by Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, Social Sciences Division at the College of Arts & Sciences, University of Washington, in partnership with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Maged Mandour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Egypt under El-Sisi: A Nation on the Edge. His book follows President Sisi's regime in the aftermath of the coup that brought him to power, as a chronology of the devastating political, economic, and social consequences of direct military rule. Mandour explains exactly how Sisi operates and what makes his regime so different, and so dangerous, compared to those that came before. It shows, for the first time, how Egypt has been pushed to the brink of the abyss and why this will change the country for decades to come. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Brahim El Guabli of Williams College joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Moroccan Other-Archives: History and Citizenship After State Violence. The book shows how Moroccan cultural production has become an other-archive: a set of textual, sonic, embodied, and visual sites that recover real or reimagined voices of these formerly suppressed and silenced constituencies of Moroccan society. The book draws on cultural production concerning the “years of lead”—a period of authoritarianism and political violence between Morocco's independence in 1956 and the death of King Hassan II in 1999—to examine the transformative roles memory and trauma play in reconstructing stories of three historically marginalized groups in Moroccan history: Berbers/Imazighen, Jews, and political prisoners.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Adam Shatz of Bard College joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon.  In this searching biography, Adam Shatz tells the story of Frantz Fanon's journey as a prominent intellectual activist of the postcolonial era. Shatz offers a dramatic reconstruction of Fanon's extraordinary life—and a guide to the books that underlie today's most vital efforts to challenge white supremacy and racial capitalism. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Anita Gohdes of the Hertie School joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Repression in the Digital Age: Surveillance, Censorship, and the Dynamics of State Violence. Gohdes looks at how digital technology supports traditional, violent state repression. Her book draws on theory and evidence to examine the link between censorship, surveillance, and violent repression, with large-scale analyses of fine-grained data on the Syrian conflict, qualitative case evidence from Iran, and the first global comparative analysis of Internet outages and state repression. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland joins Marc Lynch to discuss the Middle East Scholar Barometer. The Middle East Scholar Barometer is a project of University of Maryland's Critical Issues Poll and George Washington University's Project on Middle East Political Science. It aims to probe the assessments of scholars of the Middle East, particularly members of the American Political Science Association specializing on the Middle East and North Africa and members of Middle East Studies Association, on critical issues of the day. Telhami discusses the origins of the Middle East Scholar Barometer, how it's run and what it measures. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Sarah Parkinson of Johns Hopkins University joins Marc Lynch to discuss some of her latest publications. Her article, The Ghosts of Lebanon: To See What Lies Ahead in Gaza, Look Back to Israel's 1982 Invasion, in the Foreign Affairs Journal,  looks at the lessons of Israel's disastrous 1982 invasion of southern Lebanon—and what they suggest about the outcome of Israel's current campaign in Gaza. (Starts at 0:09). The journal article, “It's Just How Things Are Done”: Social Ecologies of Sexual Violence in Humanitarian Aid, explores how patterns of sexual violence have come to light in crisis zones perpetrated by humanitarian aid workers. Finally, in her journal article, Unreported Realities: The Political Economy of Media-Sourced Data, Sarah Parkinson discusses the gap between scholars' expectations of media-sourced data and the realities those data actually represent. (Starts at 31:18). Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Anne Irfan of University of College London joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Refuge and Resistance: Palestinians and the International Refugee System (Starts at 0:33). This book is a groundbreaking international history of Palestinian refugee politics. Irfan traces the history and politics of UNRWA's interactions with Palestinian communities, particularly in the refugee camps where it functioned as a surrogate state. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

The day before Hamas's horrific attacks in Israel, the Arab Barometer, one of the leading polling operations in the Arab world, was finishing up a survey of public opinion in Gaza.The result is a remarkable snapshot of how Gazans felt about Hamas and hoped the conflict with Israel would end. And what Gazans were thinking on Oct. 6 matters, now that they're all living with the brutal consequences of what Hamas did on Oct. 7.So I invited on the show Amaney Jamal, the dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, and a co-founder and co-principal investigator of Arab Barometer, so she could walk me through the results.And, it's a complicated picture. The people of Gaza, like any other population, have diverse beliefs. But one thing is clear: Hamas was not very popular.As Jamal and her co-author write: “The Hamas-led government may be uninterested in peace, but it is empirically wrong for Israeli political leaders to accuse all Gazans of the same.”Mentioned:Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research Public Opinion PollWashington Institute PollBook Recommendations:The One State Reality edited by Michael Barnett, Nathan J. Brown, Marc Lynch and ShibleyArabs and Israelis by Abdel Monem Said Aly, Shai Feldman and Khalil ShikakiA History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Mark TesslerThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Emefa Agawu. Fact checking by Michelle Harris, with Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Rollin Hu and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Sonia Herrero.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Sumita Pahwa of Scripps College, joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Politics as Worship: Righteous Activism and the Egyptian Muslim Brothers. Sumita Pahwa explores the question of why leading Islamist movements like the Egyptian Muslim Brothers embrace electoral politics while insisting that their main goal is “working for God,” and how they reconcile political with spiritual goals. She examines the movement's internal debates on preaching, activism, and social reform from the 1980s through the 2000s. She explains how framing political work as ethical conduct, essential for building pious Muslim individuals as well as an Islamic political order, became central to the organization's functioning. Use the code 05PAW23 for 40% off through Nov 15 when purchaisng the book through the linked press site. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Sarah El Kazaz of SOAS, University of London, joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Politics in the Crevices: Urban Design and the Making of Property Markets in Cairo and Istanbul. In this transnational ethnography of neighborhoods undergoing contested rapid transformations, Sarah El Kazaz reveals how the battle for housing has shifted away from traditional political arenas onto private crevices of the city. She raises critical questions about the role of market reforms in redistributing resources and challenges readers to rethink neoliberalism and the fundamental ways it shapes cities and polities. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

Two weeks ago, there was reason to think that the Middle East was becoming more stable than it had been for years. Washington was pushing for normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia as one piece of a broader attempt to reduce the U.S. role in the region and focus on other priorities. Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7 shattered those hopes.  But there had long been signs that all was not well—that key assumptions underlying U.S. strategy were on shaky ground. In the months before the attacks, Suzanne Maloney and Marc Lynch saw the lights flashing red. Maloney is vice president of the Brookings Institution and director of its Foreign Policy program. Lynch is a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. As they watched the region over the past several months, both worried that another crisis was coming. You can find transcripts and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Sofia Fenner of Colorado College joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Shouting in a Cage: Political Life After Authoritarian Co-optation in North Africa. The book offers new ways to understand co-optation's power and its limits by examining two co-opted parties, the Wafd Party in Egypt and the Istiqlal Party in Morocco. Sofia Fenner argues that co-optation is less a corrupt bargain than a discursive contest—a clash of competing interpretations. (Starts at 0:35). Kristian Ulrichsen of the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University also joins Marc Lynch to discuss Saudi Arabia and the GCC. (Starts at 32:50). Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Dipali Mukhopadhyay of the University of Minnesota join Marc Lynch to discuss her new book (co-authored with Kimberly Howe of Tufts University), Good Rebel Governance: Revolutionary Politics and Western Intervention in Syria. This book moves the scholarship on insurgent rule forward by considering how governing authority arises and evolves during violent conflict, and whether particular institutions of insurgent rule can be cultivated through foreign intervention. Mukhopadhyay explains how United States and its allies embarked on an effort to encourage liberal, democratic politics amid the Syrian conflict. (Starts at 00:52). Imad Alsoos of Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology also joins Marc Lynch on a spotlight on Hamas and Gaza. (Starts at 33:00). Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Toby Matthiesen of the University of Bristol joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism. This book is an authoritative account of Islam's schism that for centuries has shaped events in the Middle East and the Islamic world. This dispute over who should guide Muslims, the Caliph or the Imam, marks the origin of the Sunni-Shii split in Islam, and Toby Matthiesen sheds light on the many ways that this division has shaped the Islamic world. Lisa Anderson and Rabab El Mahdi of Columbia University also join Marc Lynch to discuss the commission, Research Ethics in the Middle East and North Africa (REMENA). The Special Commission on Social Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa is dedicated to developing guidelines for the conduct of responsible, ethical and constructive social inquiry.  The two-year project will animate an interdisciplinary network of scholars to assess the landscape of social science research conducted in the Arab world, particularly some of the ethical, political and economic challenges to conducting such research responsibly. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Ora Szekely of Clark University joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Syria Divided: Patterns of Violence in a Complex Civil War. Szekely draws on sources including in-depth interviews, conflict data, and propaganda distributed through social media to examine how these competing narratives have shaped the course of the conflict. Szekely argues that the competition to control the narrative in the eyes of important audiences at home and abroad has not only influenced the choices of participants, it has also—shaped in part by the use of social media—led many to treat warfare as a kind of performance. Wendy Pearlman of Northwestern University also joins Marc Lynch to discuss the Perspectives on Politics journal, of which she serves as co-editor. The journal aims to foster dialogue and collaboration among political scientists with wide-ranging subfield specializations, epistemological perspectives, analytical approaches, and thematic interests.  The journal plays a role as an impactful conduit for political science's engagement beyond the academy. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Thomas Serres of the University of California, Santa Cruz joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, The Suspended Disaster. In his book, he examines the dynamics of the Algerian political system, offering new insights into the last years of Bouteflika's rule and the factors that shaped the emergence of an unexpected social movement. He argues that the Algerian ruling coalition developed a mode of government based on the management of a seemingly never-ending crisis, (Starts at 0:49). Lisel Hintz of Johns Hopkins SAIS also joins Marc Lynch in a conversation about the zoom group that she formed for Syrian and Turkish academics affected by the earthquake. They also discuss Hintz's own research on Turkish pop culture and how you can learn about politics by studying the media. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Alice Wilson of the University of Sussex joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Afterlives of Revolution. Alice Wilson considers the "social afterlives" of revolutionary values and networks, looking particularly at the legacies of officially silenced revolutionaries in Oman. Marsin Al-Shammary, Sajad Jiyad and Fanar Haddad Shia, contributors on Power Comes of Age: The Transformation of Islamist Politics in Iraq, 2003–2023, also join Marc Lynch to explore Shia Power. They discuss the radical transformation of Shia Islamist politics in Iraq over the last two decades, as well as the factors that explain politics and the pursuit of power. Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

In this week's episode, Robert Kubinec of NYU Abu Dhabi joins Marc Lynch to discuss his book,. Kubinec argues that businesses must respond to changes in how perks and privileges are distributed after political transitions, either by forming political coalitions or creating new informal connections to emerging politicians. Employing detailed case studies and original experiments, Making Democracy Safe for Business advances our empirical understanding of the study of the durability of corruption in general and the dismal results of the Arab Uprisings in particular. (Starts at 2:35). Also this week, due to the American Political Science Association (APSA) annual meeting disruption, Marc Lynch invites four junior scholars from the APSA MENA section panels to put together "virtual posters" describing their work and its significance to our podcast audience. (Starts at 37:18). The four scholars are: Ansar Jasim (Free University of Berlin), "Unmaking Homes: Urban Violence and its Afterlives in Baghdad"; Elizabeth Parker-Magyar (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), "Workplace, Networks and Social Movements: Evidence from Jordan"; Amir Mahdavi (University of Connecticut), "Iran's 2021 Election: A Turning Point from Electoral to Hegemonic Authoritarianism"; Ameni Mehrez (Central European University), "The Political Legacy of Secular Policies: Evidence from Tunisia." Music for this season's podcast was created by Malika Zarra. You can find more of her work on Instagram and Linktree.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Rabab El Mahdi of the American University in Cairo, Janine Clark of the University of Toronto, Laryssa Chomiak of Centre d'Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT),  and Rima Majed of the American University of Beirut join Marc Lynch to discuss the ethical challenges and positionally of research. (Starts at 1:41). Dahlia Scheindlin of Century International and Yael Berda of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to discuss their new article, "Israel's Annexation of the West Bank Has Already Begun," published in Foreign Affairs. (Starts at 36:37).  Thank you for listening to Season 12 of the POMEPS Middle East Political Science Podcast! Music for this season's podcast was created by Myyuh. You can find more of her work on SoundCloud and Instagram. You can listen to this week's podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or SoundCloud:

On this week's episode, Marc Lynch talks with members of the POMEPS Steering Committee and Advisory Board on a variety of topics at the POMEPS Annual Conference held at GWU in late May 2023.  Noora Lori of Boston University, Rima Majed of American University of Beirut, Wendy Pearlman of Northwestern University discuss migration and refugee studies. (Starts at 1:01). Curtis Ryan of Appalachian State University and Andre Bank of German Institute for Global and Area Studies take a look at what's happening in  Jordan. (Starts at 30:56). Nathan Brown of George Washington University and Steven Brooke of University of Wisconsin-Madison assess the state of political Islam in the region. (Starts at 50:24). Music for this season's podcast was created by Myyuh. You can find more of her work on SoundCloud and Instagram.

Is it time for the international community to stop talking about a ‘two-state solution' for Israel and the Palestinians, and begin instead to grapple with a ‘one-state reality'? That's the argument four leading political scientists recently made in a thought-provoking, and provocative, article that was published in Foreign Affairs. Two of the authors, Profs. Shibley Telhami and Marc Lynch, joined the Haaretz Weekly podcast to explain why they are calling on decision makers in Washington and elsewhere to ‘drop the façade' and recognize an ‘uncomfortable reality', and what could be the policy consequences of such a step. In their conversation with host Amir Tibon, they also discuss the prospect of violence and instability in the region, the impact of Netanyahu's new government, and the political crisis in the Palestinian national movement. Read more on the one-state reality and the two-state solution, on Haaretz.com: Israeli-Palestinian poll shows support for two-state solution at all-time low So You Don't Like the Two-state Solution? Meet the One-state Model CIA chief sees ‘unhappy resemblance' between current tensions and leadup to second IntifadaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.