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by Message Heard
An ex-Al Qaeda jihadi turned MI6 spy and a former monk turned filmmaker, have been embedded at the heart of conflicts in the Middle East. Together Aimen Dean and Thomas Small unpack the realities of war, fundamentalism and their global implications through first-hand experience.
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- Yesterday57 min
The Middle East Braces for Escalation
The war is widening, diplomacy has stalled, and the Middle East is once again sliding towards escalation as the relationship between Israel and the Gulf states grows closer while pressure on Iran is mounting at sea, in the air, and across its network of regional allies. For mind-expanding Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Aimen and Thomas discuss: The failure of the latest US-Iran diplomacy at the UN and the growing risk of renewed escalation. Israeli claims of renewed Iranian nuclear activity at Pickaxe Mountain and the wider nuclear question. The secret Abu Dhabi meeting and the emerging Saudi-UAE-Israeli security alignment. The war in Yemen, the Houthi advance, and Saudi plans for a major counter-offensive. Pakistan’s growing military role in Saudi Arabia and the significance of the Mecca Pact. The widening regional front: Somaliland, al-Shabaab, Eritrea, Europe, and security around the Bab al-Mandab. Iraq after the US troop withdrawal and the future of Iran-backed militias across the region. The Strait of Hormuz, pressure on Iran’s economy and aviation, and the attempted FlyDubai terrorist attack. Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 4 days ago1h 4m
Carlos the Jackal: The World’s First Super-Terrorist
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joby Warrick tells Thomas all about his latest book The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist. For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm Joby explains: Carlos the Jackal: From Venezuelan Marxist to Global Terror Icon Wadi Haddad, the KGB and the Birth of International Terrorism Dawson’s Field and the Rise of Made-for-TV Terror How the Media Created the Myth of “Carlos the Jackal” OPEC 1975: Gaddafi, Ransom Millions and Carlos’s Biggest Coup Carlos Inc: How Dictators Turned Terrorism Into a Hired Service From Carlos to Bin Laden: The Shift From Marxism to Jihadism Joby Warrick Meets Carlos: Unrepentant After 30 Years in Prison Find Joby on X: https://x.com/JobyWarrick Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 1 weeks ago1h 9m
The Houthis Are Winning — Here’s Why
Aimen's away this week. But not to worry! Sitting in his seat is Mohammed al-Basha: a Yemeni-American analyst with over twenty years of experience. Basha is the perfect person to help us understand better the larger forces at work in the Yemen Civil War — with consequences for the entire world. For world-class Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Basha and Thomas discuss: How the Houthis Smashed Yemen’s Western Front in Just Seven Days Inside the Houthi Machine: From Mountain Rebels to a Revolutionary State Abdul-Malik al-Houthi: The Hidden Leader His Followers Treat Like a Sacred Authority How Gaza Supercharged Houthi Recruitment, Weapons and Global Ambition Why Yemen’s Anti-Houthi Forces Keep Falling Apart Tareq Saleh: The Warlord Who Embodies Yemen’s “Game of Thrones” Saleh Co-Opted the Tribes — the Houthis Are Trying to Crush Them Could the Houthis Take All of Yemen — and Would Yemen Survive It? Find Basha on X: https://x.com/BashaReport And on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bashareport Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 1 weeks ago1h 24m
1453: The Catastrophe That Ended Rome
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, historian Anthony Kaldellis of the University of Chicago discusses his new book 1453: The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople. For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm Anthony explains: Why the ‘Byzantines’ were really Romans The Roman state’s extraordinary longevity Constantinople’s strategic importance The rise of the Ottoman state Ottoman slavery, the devşirme, and the janissaries Romans, Italians and Turks living side by side Venice and Genoa’s role in the East Ottoman cannon and the myth of Orban Why the siege was not inevitable The enslavement and dispersal of the Romans How ‘Byzantium’ was reinvented after its fall Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 2 weeks ago1h 0m
Globalisation Made Global Jihad Possible
In this week’s Conflicted Conversation, UCL associate professor Philip Cunliffe makes a provocative case: far from being polar opposites, global Islamism and American unipolarity were born of the same globalised order. But what happens when that order starts to fall apart? And is today’s rising New Left inadvertently fighting to save the liberal-imperial system it says it wants to destroy? For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm Philip and Thomas discuss: How U.S. unipolarity and globalisation reshaped the world after the Cold War Why Cunliffe thinks ‘global Islam’ is a distinctly modern political phenomenon How early state-seeking Islamism gave way to transnational Islamism and jihadism Why neoliberal globalisation weakened state sovereignty and boosted Islamist networks The strange overlap between liberal humanitarianism and jihadist causes How the CIA, Afghanistan and Syria blurred the line between ally and enemy Why the new American Left could revive the logic of liberal interventionism over Israel What comes after the decline of American empire: sovereign nation-states or rival new blocs? Find Philip on X: https://x.com/thephilippics Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 2 weeks ago1h 3m
Saudi Arabia’s Yemen Disaster
Every region-watcher was stunned over past week as the anti-Houthi forces in Yemen suffered an extremely brutal reversal—with global consequences. Aimen lifts up the curtain of inter-Gulf politics to help Thomas understand better what went wrong, and why Saudi Arabia's confused foreign policy may deserve the lion's share of the blame. For mind-expanding Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Aimen and Thomas discuss: Did Iran dupe Saudi Arabia? How the Houthis humiliated their rivals Mocha falls: Bab al-Mandab exposed Saudi Arabia’s oil lifeline gets hit Why Yemen’s anti-Houthi coalition imploded The bitter Saudi-UAE divorce Has Qatar reshaped Saudi foreign policy? Why Trump refused MBS’s rescue call Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago1h 6m
Re-Interrogating 9/11: A 25th Anniversary Debate
To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Aimen and Thomas take a deeper, wider look at the historical, ideological, and geopolitical context on either side of that momentous world-changing event. They discuss: Was 9/11 an ending as well as a beginning? Al-Qaeda’s attacks as the culmination of decades of revolution, failed political projects and Cold War conflict. The myth of the peaceful 1990s: a decade remembered for Western optimism but experienced elsewhere through war, state collapse and economic upheaval. America inherited a geopolitical mess: the Soviet collapse created opportunities for US dominance—and left behind dependent regimes, armed movements and unresolved conflicts. America as a revolutionary power: how US opposition to European imperialism and willingness to work with radical movements complicate its image as the defender of established order. Could preserving Middle Eastern monarchies have prevented later disasters? Aimen’s provocative counterfactual about revolution, state-building and the road to 9/11. Al-Qaeda and liberal globalisation: enemies with something in common? Their very different challenges to national sovereignty and visions of a world transcending borders. Jihadism amid the wreckage of earlier promises: how disappointed hopes for national liberation, Arab unity and socialism shaped the world in which al-Qaeda emerged. Was the War on Terror a rupture or an acceleration? Older American objectives pursued with new urgency, alongside an expansion of surveillance and state power. Bin Laden’s selective use of history: how an analogy with medieval siege warfare became a justification for killing civilians on 9/11. History without a puppet master: why examining competing ambitions and unintended consequences can leave us less certain about who controls events—and what sensible policy requires. Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago1h 34m
The End of the Nation State?
Where did the nation-state come from—and what happens if the conditions that made it powerful are now disappearing? Thomas discusses these questions and much more in this wide-ranging Conflicted Conversation with award-winning novelist and essayist Rana Dasgupta, whose new book After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order sets out to explain where our world order came from and where it could be going. Rana explains: The origins of the modern nation-state and the decline of universal sacred empires Louis IX, the Crown of Thorns and the sacralisation of the French state How Enlightenment political theology transformed God, sovereignty and individual rights Industrialisation, mass democracy, welfare states and the political power of workers Liberalism, populism and the changing relationship between elites and mass democracy The origins of international law in empire, property rights and global capitalism Why the postwar rules-based international order is now weakening The East India Company, Silicon Valley and the rise of quasi-sovereign corporate power China as an alternative model of state power and control over private capital Climate change, mass migration and whether the nation-state can survive a new ‘nomad century’ Find Rana on X: x.com/byranadasgupta Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. Produced and edited by Thomas Small . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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About CONFLICTED
An ex-Al Qaeda jihadi turned MI6 spy and a former monk turned filmmaker, have been embedded at the heart of conflicts in the Middle East. Together Aimen Dean and Thomas Small unpack the realities of war, fundamentalism and their global implications through first-hand experience.
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