On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir: Recent Episodes
Alon Ben-Meir
Today’s guest is Dr. Benafsha Yaqoobi, an attorney and civic society and human rights activist. Before the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, she worked as an attorney for the elimination of violence against women and as a Commissioner at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. She currently serves as a prosecutor on the team bringing Afghanistan’s case before the People’s Tribunal for the Women of Afghanistan.In this episode, Alon and Benafsha discuss the plight of people with disabilities in Afghanistan, particularly women and girls, the work that the Rahyab Initiative does in support of people with disabilities in Afghanistan, and the impact of the Taliban’s takeover on Afghanistan as well as its impact on receiving external support.Full bioDr. Benafsha Yaqoobi is a civic society and human rights activist, and currently serves as a prosecutor on the team bringing Afghanistan’s case before the People’s Tribunal for the Women of Afghanistan in 2025. She is the founder and director of The Rahyab Initiative in the UK and previously established the Organization of Rahyab for Rehabilitation Services for the Blind (ORRSB) in Afghanistan.Before the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, Dr. Yaqoobi worked as an attorney for the elimination of violence against women and later as a Commissioner at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. She has consistently used national and international platforms to advocate for the inclusion of Afghan women in peacebuilding processes, with particular focus on women with disabilities.Dr. Yaqoobi holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Lovely Professional University in India, with her dissertation examining democratic governance and women’s political rights in Afghanistan (2001–2021). She also earned two master’s degrees in Political Science and International Relations from Kabul-based universities. She is currently pursuing doctoral research in sociology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.Her contributions have been recognized internationally. In 2024, she was awarded the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award, and in 2022 she received the Marca Bristo Fellowship from Human Rights Watch. In 2021, she was named among the BBC’s 100 most influential women.Dr. Yaqoobi’s work is guided by a commitment to equality, justice, and the full participation of Afghan women in shaping their country’s future.
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, a blogger and activist who has written extensively since 2006 on environmental and human rights issues in Vietnam. She has been arrested twice for her activism, and received a 10-year prison sentence. She was released after two years, on the condition of exile from Vietnam.In this episode, Alon and Quynh discuss the current political status inside Vietnam and its status in the region, Quynh’s experience of activism and persecution, including her arrests and imprisonment, environmental and human rights issues in Vietnam, and what role the US has and can play in supporting democracy and freedom in the country.Full bioNguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh is a blogger and activist who has blogged extensively since 2006 on environmental and human rights issues in Vietnam, publishing principled arguments to inspire change and greater transparency. Ms. Quynh co-founded the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers, an independent writers’ association that encourages members to “protect people’s rights and freedoms from restrictions and censorship.” She was arrested on October 10, 2016 under the charge of “conducting propaganda against the state” and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was released from prison on October 17, 2018, and sent into exile in the United States.In 2014, she received a Human Rights Defender award from the Stockholm-based NGO Civil Rights Defenders, and was awarded the 2017 International Women of Courage Award by the US Department of State.
Today’s guest is Ambassador Frederic C. Hof, Bard College’s Diplomat-in-Residence, who served as ambassador and special adviser for transition in Syria under President Obama, and as special coordinator for regional affairs in the US Department of State’s Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace. A US Army Vietnam veteran, Ambassador Hof served two tours of duty in the US Department of State.In this episode, Alon and Ambassador Hof discuss his recent Track II diplomacy work in Lebanon regarding the prospects of a future Israeli-Lebanese agreement and the elements of the consensus document developed from this work, and the impact of the war on Iran on this delicate diplomacy work.Full bioFrederic C. Hof, Bard College’s Diplomat-in-Residence, has had a distinguished career with the U.S. Army, Department of State, and the international consulting firm AALC, specializing in the Mideast region. He served as ambassador and special adviser for transition in Syria under President Obama and as special coordinator for regional affairs in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, where he conducted a backchannel peace mediation between Israel and Syria. A Vietnam veteran and graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Naval Postgraduate School, Hof also served as president and CEO of AALC (formerly Armitage Associates LC); as a U.S. Army Middle East Foreign Area Officer; as the U.S. Army attaché in Beirut; and as an officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In 2001, he directed the Jerusalem field operations of the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee, headed by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, and was lead drafter of the committee’s report. As an Army officer, he helped draft the Long Commission report investigating the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine headquarters at the Beirut airport. Both reports drew international praise for their fairness and integrity. Hof has written extensively on Lebanon, Syria, and Arab-Israeli issues. Publications include Galilee Divided: The Israel-Lebanon Frontier, 1916–1984 (1985); Line of Battle, Border of Peace? The Line of June 4, 1967 (1999); Beyond the Boundary: Lebanon, Israel, and the Challenge of Change (2000); Reaching for the Heights: The Inside Story of a Secret Attempt to Reach a Syrian-Israeli Peace (2022); opinion pieces in Foreign Policy and The Atlantic; and numerous articles on Jordan Valley water issues. Awards and honors include the Purple Heart, Department of State Superior Honor Award, Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, and the Defense Superior Service Medal. He has been teaching at Bard since 2018.
Today’s guest is Michael Bedenbaugh, a political analyst and author, whose latest book, Reviving Our Republic: 95 Theses for the Future of America, argues the need for political renewal in the United States and presents recommendations for such reforms in a historical context. Mike’s diverse background includes five years of service in the US Navy, as well as previously serving as president and executive director of Preservation South Carolina, working to protect and preserve the state’s historic places.In this episode, Alon and Mike discuss American politics – the impact of the ill-fated war on Iran on the United States and the damage it has done to the country’s alliances, what we can expect to see in a post-Donald Trump country, the current divisions within the US, and how we can heal this great divide.Full bioAmerican author and political thinker Mike Bedenbaugh is a respected voice in constitutional principles and American governance, historic preservation, and community development. Born with a reverence for history, he served as the former president and executive director of Preservation South Carolina, where he led numerous initiatives that demonstrated the economic and cultural value of historic preservation.Mike’s diverse background includes five years of service in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS South Carolina, studies in international studies and history at the University of South Carolina and Columbia University, and leadership roles in both nonprofit and for-profit sectors. He was CEO of Post No Bills, Inc., a product marketing firm that collaborated with corporate powerhouses like Phillip Morris USA, RCA Records, DreamWorks, Universal Pictures, and MGM. He has also served on his hometown’s city council while his efforts in community revitalization and historic preservation earned him the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor. As a member of Preservation Action in Washington, D.C., he continues to advocate for policies that strengthen local communities and honor America’s heritage.A native of Prosperity, South Carolina, Michael remains deeply involved in his home state’s development while contributing to national discussions on governance and civic engagement. His work exemplifies the principle that understanding the past is crucial to shaping a better future. His book, Reviving Our Republic: 95 Theses for the Future of America, is an outcome of his lifelong passion for his community, state, and nation, and was inspired by America’s founding fathers and the principles that birthed a nation. Mike firmly believes the American South has had a profound impact on shaping the political culture of the USA, asserting that one cannot truly understand America without understanding South Carolina. His perspective as a descendant of twelve generations of white Southern landowners provides a grassroots understanding of the unique traditions that define Southern culture. He aims to share the real lived experience of the South, reflecting the complexity and richness of Southern history and its impact on the broader American story.Driven by a mission to revitalize America’s founding ideals, Mike hosts the podcast Reviving Our Republic with Mike Bedenbaugh, where he explores the intersection of history, politics, and community development. His unique approach combines grassroots activism with a deep understanding of constitutional intent, offering fresh insights into modern political challenges within the United States.
Today’s guest is Jason Pack, Senior Analyst for Emerging Challenges at the NATO Defense College Foundation and Associate Fellow at RUSI. He is the Host of the Disorder Podcast, and author of Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder.In this episode, Alon and Jason discuss the end of the post-WWII global order and the prevailing disorder since 2011, the loss of American leadership, the Memorandum of Understanding between Iran and the United States, particularly in comparison to the 2015 JCPOA, and the broader regional fallout from the war with Iran.Full bioJason Pack is the Founder of Libya-Analysis LLC, and the host of Disorder, a geopolitics podcast co-produced with Goalhanger Podcasts. He is an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and the Senior Analyst for Emerging Challenges at the NATO Defence College Foundation in Rome.His most recent book, Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder (Hurst 2021 / Oxford University Press 2022) is a ‘cross-over’ academic book that explores what Libya’s dysfunctional economic structures and its ongoing civil war reveal about our era of 21st-century geopolitics. Jason’s ‘Enduring Disorder’ concept – that we no longer inhabit the post-Cold War World, but have entered a new era – the ‘Enduring Disorder’ – was conceived to describe the collective action failures that have come to define international politics.Jason has lived in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Oman, Qadhafi-era Libya, and Trump-era Washington, DC. Proficient in Arabic, French, and Hebrew, he has been kidnapped twice, and served as the Executive Director of a K St-based Trade Association. He is open for media appearances about US foreign policy, conspiracy theories, the state of the global system, neopopulism, and especially the Middle East.When not podcasting or consulting on the Middle East, Jason plays backgammon semi-professionally. He was the 2018 World Champion of Doubles Backgammon, came 2nd place in the 2024 World Championship of Speedgammon, and has achieved the rank of Grandmaster – placing him in the top 100 players in the world. He also writes about gambling’s connections to geopolitics.
Today’s guest is Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal, Professor Emeritus at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University. Dr. Bar-Tal is a noted psychologist, who since the early eighties has focused on political psychology and the study of the socio-psychological foundations of intractable conflicts and peacebuilding, including reconciliation. In this episode, Alon and Daniel discuss differing narratives between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs and how to bridge that gap, the decline of the Israeli peace movement, and changing public opinion toward Israel abroad.Full bioDr. Daniel Bar-Tal is Professor Emeritus at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University.Dr. Bar-Tal received his graduate training in social psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and completed his doctoral thesis in 1974. He previously served as a Director of the Walter Lebach Research Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education, Tel Aviv University and as President of the International Society of Political Psychology, and was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Israel Journal. He has won numerous awards, including the Alexander George Award of the International Society of Political Psychology, and Morton Deutsch Conflict Resolution Award of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence. He was awarded the Golestan Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2000-2001, and in 2013 received honorary membership in the Polish Society of Social Psychology.Since the early eighties his interest has shifted to political psychology and the study of the socio-psychological foundations of intractable conflicts and peace building, including reconciliation. In the latter area, he studied the evolvement of the socio-psychological infrastructure in times of intractable conflict that consists of shared societal beliefs of ethos of conflict, collective memory, and emotional collective orientations. He also studied socio-psychological barriers to peacemaking and ways to overcome them, and acquisition of the conflict repertoire by children and adolescents.Within this scope of studies he developed with his collaborators theoretical frameworks for concepts like siege mentality, intractable conflict, delegitimization, collective victimhood, socio-psychological infrastructure, culture of conflict, effects of lasting occupation, barriers to peace making, construction and struggle over conflict supporting narratives, acquisition of intergroup psychological repertoire, early development of the ethos of conflict, transitional context, collective identity, and peace education, among many others.The work in these areas has resulted in books, Group Beliefs (1990), Stereotypes and Prejudice in Conflict: Representations of Arabs in Israeli Jewish Society (2005), and Intractable conflicts: Socio-psychological foundations and dynamics (2013). He co-edited a wide variety of volumes, and in addition has published over two hundred articles and chapters in major journals, books and encyclopedias.Through the years he has lectured widely on his work, and worked as Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University, Brandeis University, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, University of Muenster, University of Maryland College Park, Polish Academy of Science, University of Palermo, and Australian National University.He retired in 2015 and decided to devote his second career to political activism. He founded a peace movement Save Israel-Stop the Occupation with the goal to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and establish the Palestinian state.
Today’s guest is Elizabeth Hoffman, Executive Director, North America at ONE, a global, nonpartisan organization advocating for the investments needed to create economic opportunities and healthier lives in Africa. In this episode, Alon and Elizabeth discuss the background to the current civil war in Sudan, Elizabeth’s on-the-ground observations from her journey to the country earlier this year, the atrocities being committed against the people of Sudan, and what the international community, particularly the US, can do to help end this conflict.Full bioElizabeth Hoffman is Executive Director, North America at ONE, a global, nonpartisan organization advocating for the investments needed to create economic opportunities and healthier lives in Africa.She has extensive experience in government relations and international policy. Before joining ONE, she held positions at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and as a senior staff member in the House of Representatives focused on foreign policy, national security, and human rights. She also worked at the George W. Bush Institute, where she developed and executed a leadership program for Burmese political leaders.Elizabeth is a nonresident senior associate at CSIS and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. She has published articles and analysis for a variety of organizations and outlets and is a frequent media commentator on foreign policy and defense.She holds an M.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University and a B.A. in Political Science from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
Today’s guest is Ambassador Patrick Theros, Strategic Advisor and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Gulf International Forum. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the State of Qatar from 1995-1998, and from 1991-1993, served as the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of Central Command (CENTCOM).In this episode, Alon and Ambassador Theros discuss the US-Israel-Iran war and the pending peace agreement between the US and Iran, the impacts of the war on the region, and how this conflict has affected the political prospects of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.Full bioAmbassador Patrick Nickolas Theros is a Strategic Advisor and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Gulf International Forum. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the State of Qatar from 1995-1998. Prior to his appointment, he served as Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, responsible for the coordination of all U.S. Government counterterrorism activities outside the United States. From 1991-1993, Ambassador Theros served as the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of Central Command (CENTCOM).Ambassador Theros joined the Foreign Service in 1963, and served in a variety of positions in Washington D.C., Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Nicaragua and Syria, including charge d’affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassies in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.In 1999, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah Al-Thani awarded Ambassador Theros the Qatar Order of Merit for his efforts in service of the U.S.-Qatar bilateral relationship. His commitment to national service also earned him the President’s Meritorious Service Award and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service (1992). Ambassador Theros has also earned four Superior Honor Awards, the highest awards for distinguished service given by the Foreign Service.After his retirement from the Foreign Service Ambassador Theros assumed the office of President of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council in March 2000 until his retirement in 2017.Ambassador Theros’ personal commitment to community and public service earned him the rank of Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem (1999), as well as the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom (2005).In addition to his duties as President of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council, Ambassador Theros is also active in the following organizations: The Middle East Policy Council, Board of Directors; The Council of Foreign Relations, Member; The Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, Member; and The American Academy of Diplomacy, Member.Ambassador Theros graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 1963. He has done advanced studies at the American University in Washington, D.C., the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua, the Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia, and the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He is married to Aspasia (nee Pahigiannis) and has three children. He speaks and reads Spanish, Arabic and Greek professionally.
Today’s guest is Dimitris Eleas, a political scientist, writer, and independent researcher. His work explores the role of personality in the social-historical, philosophy, global politics, antisemitism, and modern history, with a particular focus on the Holocaust.In this episode, Alon and Dimitris discuss the repercussions of the October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliation, the rise of antisemitism, and the Israel-Iran war.Full bioDimitris Eleas is a New York City–based political scientist, writer, and independent researcher. His work explores the role of personality in the social-historical, philosophy, global politics, antisemitism, and modern history, with a particular focus on the Holocaust.He has written a plethora of articles, and his writing has appeared several times in the letters sections of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.Dimitris Eleas supports the democratic ideals of Israel and the Jewish people. He believes in civil liberties, and that all people deserve a decent income, quality food, clean water and air, and equal human rights. He strongly opposes wars, because in the end it is always the poor, their children, and the workers who pay the price of every war.He has published several books in Athens, and is the author of the novel-essay When Shakespeare Was Lost, 1585–1592, published in 2025 by Govostis Publishers (Est. 1926).He is currently developing his long-term project, the novel-essay The Black Birds of Warsaw.
Today’s guest is Lulzim Peci, principal founder and Executive Director of the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED), and a member of the Board of the Council of Kosovo Ambassadors.In this episode, Alon and Lulzim discuss political instability in Kosovo, particularly as the country is set to return to the polls for the third time in less than 18 months. They discuss what led to the series of elections and what we may be able to expect out of this upcoming election, as well as how this impacts Kosovo’s ongoing efforts toward EU candidacy.Full bioMr. Lulzim Peci holds a PhD in Political Science from the South East European University in North Macedonia, an M.A. in International Relations from the University Institute Ortega y Gasset in Spain, and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Prishtina in Kosovo. He is the principal founder and Executive Director of the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development (KIPRED), and a member of the Board of the Council of Kosovo Ambassadors (CKA).In the past, Mr. Peci served as Ambassador of Kosovo in Stockholm (2009-2013). He also was Chair of the Board of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (2019 – 2023), Member of the Board of the Kosovo American Education Fund (2021 – 2023), Member of the Board of the American University in Kosovo (2007 – 2009), Executive Director of the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (1999 – 2003), and as a Researcher at the Kosovo Center for International Studies (KCIS)/Foreign Policy Team of the late Kosovo’s President, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova (1995-1998). Mr. Peci’s research interests primarily focus on foreign and security policies, inter-ethnic relations, and political parties.
Today’s guest is Jane Olson, a noted humanitarian who has worked many decades as a volunteer promoting international peace and justice and humanitarian work. She has chaired the International Board of Trustees of Human Rights Watch, from 2004 to 2010, and chaired the board of Survivor Corps for 12 years since its founding as Landmine Survivors Network.In this episode, Alon and Jane discuss the current rise in human rights abuses globally, what roles international organizations have played in combatting human rights abuses, and the importance of educating people about their basic universal human rights, including starting in schools.Full bioJane Olson has worked many decades as a volunteer promoting international peace and justice and humanitarian work. She chaired the International Board of Trustees of Human Rights Watch, the largest US-based international human rights organization, from 2004 to 2010, having worked on behalf of HRW since 1988. She also chaired the board of Survivor Corps for 12 years since its founding as Landmine Survivors Network. LSN and HRW were among the five organizations to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997for the International Landmine Ban Treaty.Jane is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science and a board member of both the National World War II Museum in New Orleans and Direct Relief, based in Santa Barbara, CA. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Pacific Council on International Policy. She served as co-chair of the Women’s Refugee Commission in New York and continues to support the WRC as a commissioner.Jane has received numerous awards, including the 2010 inaugural Alison Des Forges Award from Human Rights Watch, and the inaugural Eleanor Roosevelt Award from Feminist Majority in 2005. California Senator Barbara Boxer presented the “Women Making History” Award to Jane in 2010. She received Public Counsel’s Community Achievement Award and the Silver Achievement Award from the Los Angeles YWCA.
Today’s guest is Katrina Fotovat, the former Principal Deputy Director in the Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, where she led a team of experts promoting women, peace, and security, countering violent extremism, promoting women’s economic empowerment, and combatting gender-based violence.In this episode, Alon and Kat discuss the critical work that has been done by the Office of Global Women’s Issues under three different presidential administrations, local outreach programs facilitated by the US overseas to support women’s issues and combat gender-based violence, including working with men and boys, and the global impacts of the current Trump administration’s drastic cuts to foreign aid.Full bioKatrina “Kat” Fotovat is the former Principal Deputy Director in the Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI), where she led a team of experts promoting women, peace, and security, countering violent extremism, promoting women’s economic empowerment, and combatting gender-based violence. Ms. Fotovat has over 20 years of experience advocating gender and human rights globally, specifically in conflict and post-conflict settings. Before joining the office she served as Director for the Office of Communications, Policy, and Partnerships, in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations where she oversaw an expert team that provided policy and strategy guidance to respond to atrocities, fragility, increase global stability and peacebuilding, and integrating women, peace, and security efforts in areas of conflict. Ms. Fotovat was also the Deputy Director for the Global Programs Office in the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor where she oversaw over a billion dollars in active programs geared toward supporting civil society and human rights in the most sensitive and fragile spaces, including internet freedom, transitional justice, and marginalized populations. Other positions in the US Government included as a Political Officer in the US Embassy in Moldova, and as the Senior Grants Officer in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Senior Human Rights Advisor in the Office of the Procurement Executive, and Interagency Liaison at USAID.Before joining the U.S. government, Ms. Fotovat’s experience includes transitional justice and peace negotiations efforts with the Nobel Prize-nominated, Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG). This work included drafting post-conflict constitutions in Iraq and Kosovo, and international crisis aid negotiations in Sri Lanka. Additionally, she has done extensive gender and human rights work supporting the efforts of UNHCR, CEDAW, American Bar Association, and other organizations. Ms. Fotovat previously worked as a part of legal counsel at the International Human Rights Legal Clinic, focusing on trafficking in persons and asylum cases, with a special focus on Burma. Ms. Fotovat also helped to found an anti-trafficking in persons organization in Moldova, where she was also a Peace Corps Volunteer. She holds a Juris Doctor in International Human Rights Law and a master’s degree in Foreign Policy from American University. She is married and has a son.
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is Asaf Romirowsky, a Middle East historian and Executive Director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. In this episode, Alon and Asaf discuss Israeli and American interests behind the war in Iran and Iran’s role in regional instability, the war in Gaza, and how to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while addressing Israel’s security concerns.Full bioAsaf Romirowsky PhD is the Executive Director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME). Trained as a Middle East historian, he holds a PhD in Middle East and Mediterranean Studies from King’s College London, UK and has published widely on various aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict and American foreign policy in the Middle East, as well as on Israeli and Zionist history. Romirowsky is co-author of October 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds.
Today’s guest is Samer Sinijlawi, a Palestinian political activist who calls for democracy and Palestinian political reforms, and the founding chairman of the Jerusalem Development Fund.In this episode, Alon and Samer discuss the future of the Palestinians in light of the current state of affairs, the need for new Palestinian leadership, and what Palestinians can do to build bridges and create dialogue with Israelis.
Today’s guest is Evaggelos Vallianatos, a historian, environmental strategist, and writer who has served as a visiting professor on environmental history and environmental regulation and politics at a number of universities. He worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency for 25 years, where he studied US agriculture and pest management practices and policies.In this episode, Alon and Evaggelos discuss the current political juncture of the climate change discussion in the United States, what countries are doing globally to combat climate change, the societal, health, and human rights impacts of climate change, and what actions everyday people can do to help combat climate change.Full bioEvaggelos Vallianatos is a historian, environmental strategist, and writer. He has served as a visiting professor on environmental history and environmental regulation and politics at a number of universities, including Humboldt State University, the University of New Orleans, Bard College, American University, George Washington University, the University of Maryland, Pitzer College, and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Vallianatos worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency for 25 years, where he studied US agriculture and pest management practices and policies. His experience led him to write the book Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA (2014, co-authored with McKay Jenkins), which highlights how the environmental watchdog agency became a “polluter’s protection agency.”Vallianatos is the author of hundreds of articles on Greek history and the environment, and six books, including Poison Spring. He has a BA in Zoology and MA in medieval Greek history from the University of Illinois, and received a PhD in European and Greek history from the University of Wisconsin.
Today’s guest is Eric Margolis, an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. He appears as an expert on foreign affairs on CNN, BBC, France 2, France 24, Fox News, CTV, and CBC.In this episode, Alon and Eric discuss the ongoing war on Iran, including the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and ongoing negotiations to resolve the conflict, Trump’s and Netanyahu’s motivations behind the war, US-Canada relations under Trump, and the impact of the ongoing conflict on the US midterm elections.Full bioEric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation – Pakistan, Hurriyet, – Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and other news sites in Asia.He is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, Lew Rockwell. He appears as an expert on foreign affairs on CNN, BBC, France 2, France 24, Fox News, CTV and CBC.His internet column www.ericmargolis.com reaches global readers on a daily basis.As a war correspondent Margolis has covered conflicts in Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Sinai, Afghanistan, Kashmir, India, Pakistan, El Salvador and Nicaragua. He was among the first journalists to ever interview Libya’s Muammar Khadaffi and was among the first to be allowed access to KGB headquarters in Moscow.A veteran of many conflicts in the Middle East, Margolis recently was featured in a special appearance on Britain’s Sky News TV as “the man who got it right” in his predictions about the dangerous risks and entanglements the US would face in Iraq.A native New Yorker, he maintains residences in Toronto and New York, with frequent visits to Paris.
Today’s guest is Yossef Ben-Meir, co-founder and president of the High Atlas Foundation, a Moroccan-US nongovernment organization dedicated to sustainable development. In this episode, Alon and Yossef discuss sustainable development in Morocco and the role the High Atlas Foundation has played in development. Particularly, they discuss the importance of water infrastructure in uplifting everyday Moroccans, the environmental and societal implications of planting millions of trees across Morocco, and the critical importance of community participation in establishing development projects which will benefit local communities.Full bioYossef Ben-Meir is co-founder and president of the High Atlas Foundation, a Moroccan-U.S. nongovernment organization dedicated to sustainable development. In Morocco, he was also a Peace Corps Volunteer (1993-95), Associate Peace Corps Director (1998-99), Research Fellow at the American Institute of Maghreb Studies (2003-4), and Assistant Professor at Al Akhawayn University at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities (2009-2010). Dr. Ben-Meir holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of New Mexico (2009) where he also taught, an MA in international development from Clark University (1997), and a BA in economics from New York University (1991).
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian journalist and former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. In this episode, Alon and Daoud discuss the deterioration of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process since the 1993 Oslo Accords, the failures of Israeli and Palestinian leaderships in the intervening years, and what steps can be taken now to revive the peace process and work toward realizing a Palestinian state.Full bioDaoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He is author of State of Palestine NOW: practical and logical arguments for the best way to bring peace to the Middle East.
Today’s guest is David Rabinowitz, a retired academic psychiatrist, previously working as Director of Ambulatory Mental Health services in the Division of Psychiatry Rambam Medical Campus, Haifa Israel. Outside of the mental health field, his main interest is the political psychology of the Israel-Palestine Conflict.In this episode, Alon and David discuss the Israeli perspective toward the current war with Iran, including the peoples’ fears and anxieties, how Netanyahu has over the past 20 years shaped the Israeli public mindset and worldview, and the political psychology of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Full bioDavid Rabinowitz MD is a psychiatrist with an abiding interest in the psychological dimensions of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. He is South African born and has lived in Israel since 1987. Aside from clinical work his interests have included medical education, clinical ethics, sexology and transgender health. He has worked for most of his career in a senior capacity in a major teaching hospital in Israel and had a short sabbatical in the field of the political psychology of the Palestine-Israel conflict. He is now retired from clinical practice but remains active in his fields of interest.
Today’s guest is Marwan Muasher, vice president for studies at Carnegie, and former foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Jordan. In this episode, Alon and Marwan discuss Jordan’s reaction to the war against Iran, the impacts of Israel’s actions in the West Bank on Jordan, and what the future of Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace may look like.Full bioMarwan Muasher is vice president for studies at Carnegie, where he oversees research in Washington and Beirut on the Middle East. Muasher served as foreign minister (2002–2004) and deputy prime minister (2004–2005) of Jordan, and his career has spanned the areas of diplomacy, development, civil society, and communications.Muasher began his career as a journalist for the Jordan Times. He then served at the Ministry of Planning, at the prime minister’s office as press adviser, and as director of the Jordan Information Bureau in Washington.In 1995, Muasher opened Jordan’s first embassy in Israel, and in 1996 he became minister of information and the government spokesperson. From 1997 to 2002, he served in Washington again as ambassador, negotiating the first free-trade agreement between the United States and an Arab nation. He then returned to Jordan to serve as foreign minister, where he played a central role in developing the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East roadmap.In 2004, he became deputy prime minister responsible for reform and government performance and led the effort to produce a ten-year plan for political, economic, and social reform. From 2006 to 2007, he was a member of the Jordanian Senate.From 2007 to 2010, he was senior vice president of external affairs at the World Bank.He is the author of The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation (Yale University Press, 2008) and The Second Arab Awakening and the Battle for Pluralism (Yale University Press, 2014).
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is Abdülhamit Bilici, a veteran journalist, editor, commentator, and media executive with over 25 years of experience in journalism, editorial leadership, and international affairs. He served as CEO of Zaman Media Group until its seizure by the Turkish government in March 2016, after which he went into exile in the United States.In this episode, Alon and Hamit discuss the current war on Iran’s impact on Turkey, what role Turkey may play in trying to find an end to the current conflict, and how this and other regional conflicts impact Turkish domestic issues, particularly in relation to the Kurds.Full bioAbdülhamit Bilici is a veteran journalist, editor, commentator, and media executive with over 25 years of experience in journalism, editorial leadership, and international affairs. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of Zaman, formerly Turkey’s highest-circulating newspaper, and later as CEO of Zaman Media Group, which included Today’s Zaman (English-language daily), Cihan News Agency, and Aksiyon weekly news magazine. From 2008 to 2015, he was General Manager of Cihan News Agency, known for its extensive video news coverage and trusted election reporting across the country.As a columnist for Zaman and Today’s Zaman, Bilici wrote on Turkish foreign policy, domestic politics, and broader international developments. He also hosted a political affairs TV program, Democracy Watch, and participated in many national and international news broadcasts.Following the government seizure and closure of Zaman and its affiliated outlets in March 2016, Bilici went into exile in the United States. Since then, he has continued to write, speak, and provide analysis on press freedom, democratic backsliding, and human rights in Turkey.He recently testified before the U.S. Congress, sharing firsthand experience of media repression and institutional erosion under the current Turkish government. He has also spoken at prominent platforms such as the Middle East Institute, Center for American Progress, World Affairs Councils of America, and Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. As part of his outreach, he has addressed more than 20 World Affairs Councils across the U.S. and delivered lectures at Niagara University, Clemson University, University of Central Oklahoma, Elizabethtown College, and others.In addition to his writing in the Miami Herald, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and other publications, Bilici regularly appears in international media including CBS News, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sky News Arabic, and Voice of America. He has been interviewed on a wide range of topics including press freedom, political polarization, and Turkey’s role in global affairs.Since 2021, he has co-hosted the weekly YouTube program Kum Saati, where he and his guests explore political, intellectual, and historical topics relevant to Turkey and the wider region. The show provides in-depth discussions on democratic values, identity, power, and public memory, drawing a growing audience of Turkish-speaking viewers around the world.Throughout his career, Bilici has conducted interviews with high-level political leaders, including former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, Israeli President Shimon Peres, and Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine Othmani.He holds a BA in Political Science and International Affairs from Boğaziçi University, an MA in International Relations from Istanbul University, and an MBA from Fatih University. He is currently completing a PhD in International Relations, with research focusing on the intersection of media, power, and democratic institutions.Drawing on his firsthand experience as a journalist, editor, and political exile, Hamit Bilici continues to engage in public dialogue on freedom of expression, democratic resilience, and the risks posed by authoritarian governance.
Today’s guest is Dr. Wiola Rebecka, a Doctor of Psychology and human rights activist whose work focuses on the long-term consequences of conflict-related sexual violence. In this episode, Alon and Wiola discuss the issue of abducted Ukrainian children in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which now marks its 4th year. They discuss the magnitude of this crisis in terms of number of children abducted, the various abuses taking place against abducted children, including forced Russianization and in some cases torture and sexual violence, and the support systems needed to care for these children in the aftermath.Full bioDr. Wioletta (Wiola) Rebecka is a Doctor of Psychology and human rights activist whose work focuses on the long-term consequences of conflict-related sexual violence. She is the author of the War Rape Survivors Syndrome (WRSS) framework, the heuristic model of the Social Political Nervous System (SPNS), and the SERS method (Stabilization, Education, Redirection, Self-awareness), developed for therapeutic work with survivors of sexual violence.
Today’s guest is Hafza Girdap, Spokesperson for Advocates of Silenced Turkey and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Criminology and Anthropology at Hofstra University. In this episode, Alon and Hafza discuss the ten years since the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016, the countless human rights violations committed by the Erdogan government since then, and the status of women’s rights and minority rights in Turkey.Full bioHafza Girdap is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Criminology and Anthropology at Hofstra University and the Spokesperson for Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST). She holds a Ph.D. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Stony Brook University, New York. Her research focuses on gender, race, immigration, racialization and identity, human and women’s rights in Muslim-majority contexts, and the integration and adaptation of Muslim immigrant women, with particular attention to the redefinition of their cultural identities. Beyond her academic work, Girdap is the director of the Gender Program at the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS) and the co-founder of Set Them Free, a gender-based advocacy initiative. She is also the first elected Chair of the Muslim+ Feminists Caucus within the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), where she currently serves as Co-Chair, and a member of the Sister-to-Sister Committee of Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS). In her research, Girdap actively incorporates the voices of female survivors of conflict, examining the coping mechanisms they employ to navigate challenges such as social discrimination, oppression, and violations of basic rights across various contexts—including their home countries, refugee camps, and new settlements. By framing reidentification as a form of agency, her work not only highlights the complexities of identity negotiation but also challenges epistemic dominance by contributing to alternative modes of knowledge production. Girdap has also expanded her work in women’s rights advocacy. Over the past seven years, she has organized and spoken at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW) panels, focusing on the experiences and needs of women. She also mentors youth, encouraging their engagement as researchers and speakers in these global forums.
Today’s guest is Kiran Nazish, an award-winning journalist, professor, and founding director of the Coalition for Women in Journalism and Women Press Freedom. In this episode, Alon and Kiran discuss the state of press freedom in the United States and the transgressions that the Trump administration has committed against them; how the United States relates to other countries known as violators of press freedom; and how to protect journalists by strengthening democratic institutions.Full bioKiran Nazish is an award winning journalist, professor and founding director of the Coalition For Women In Journalism and Women Press Freedom.Kiran Nazish spent two decades as a journalist and foreign correspondent covering Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Mexico and many other places in a post 9/11 world for the New York Times, LA Times, MSNBC, ABC News, USA Today and many others. Witnessing the inequality and discrimination women journalists faced in newsrooms around the world, she founded the Coalition For Women In Journalism. An organization that is closing the gender gap in the industry.The CFWIJ is New York based and works globally with much of its work focused on support and advocacy for women, LGBTQ and non binary journalists. In 2019 Kiran Launched the Press Freedom Newsroom to bring awareness to how women journalists in particular are targeted by repressive regimes. This newsroom started with monitoring 12 countries and now (within 2 years) covers violations from 145 countries around the world. Kiran’s career spans two decades, and many regions including the Middle East, South Asia and Mexico, where she covered stories from the frontline of conflict, democracy and human rights. She was also selected as the Stanley Knowles Distinguished Professor in 2019 and 2020. And a senior fellow at New America Foundation in Washington D.C. in 2016, where she shared her expertise in the International Security Program.Before Kiran’s initiative, launching the Press Freedom Newsroom, there was no systematic data for women targeted for their work.
Since Trump reassumed the presidency, the rank and file of the Democrats have been busy criticizing, for good reason, Trump’s unhinged exercise of power. Given Trump’s onslaught on just about every norm of America’s political, cultural, and economic way of life, the Democrats cannot possibly exhaust the range of criticism they can level at Trump and the Republican Party that has enabled him. As they gear up for the midterm elections, it would be natural for the Democrats to continue exhibiting disgust about Trump’s outrageous transgressions and engage in acrimonious narratives against the Republicans and threaten to impeach Trump should they win the House in the midterm election.That would be the wrong and absolutely counterproductive strategy.Continue reading at: https://alonben-meir.com/writing/the-democrats-need-a-concrete-governing-agenda/
appears regularly on CNN and BBC as an Israel analyst. Yaakov’s newest book (co-authored with Amir Bohbot) “While Israel Slept – How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East” is a national bestseller in the US. His previous three books are “Shadow Strike – Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”, “Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” and “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War”. Prior to taking up the role of editor-in-chief, Yaakov served for two years as a senior policy adviser to Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Israel’s Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs. Originally from Chicago, Yaakov has a law degree from Bar Ilan University and spent a year as a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Chaya and their four children.
Today’s guest is Michael Bedenbaugh, a political analyst and author, whose latest book, Reviving Our Republic: 95 Theses for the Future of America, argues the need for political renewal in the United States and presents recommendations for such reforms in a historical context. Mike’s diverse background includes five years of service in the US Navy, as well as previously serving as president and executive director of Preservation South Carolina, working to protect and preserve the state’s historic places.In this episode, we discuss the current Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Minneapolis, Minnesota, including the deaths of two civilians, the Trump administration’s strategy in conducting these operations and the general atmosphere that has been created since Trump’s return to power, and how the United States as a whole can put a stop to these actions and the general pervasive divide in the country.Full bioAmerican author and political thinker Mike Bedenbaugh is a respected voice in constitutional principles and American governance, historic preservation, and community development. Born with a reverence for history, he served as the former president and executive director of Preservation South Carolina, where he led numerous initiatives that demonstrated the economic and cultural value of historic preservation.Mike’s diverse background includes five years of service in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS South Carolina, studies in international studies and history at the University of South Carolina and Columbia University, and leadership roles in both nonprofit and for-profit sectors. He was CEO of Post No Bills, Inc., a product marketing firm that collaborated with corporate powerhouses like Phillip Morris USA, RCA Records, DreamWorks, Universal Pictures, and MGM. He has also served on his hometown’s city council while his efforts in community revitalization and historic preservation earned him the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor. As a member of Preservation Action in Washington, D.C., he continues to advocate for policies that strengthen local communities and honor America’s heritage.A native of Prosperity, South Carolina, Michael remains deeply involved in his home state’s development while contributing to national discussions on governance and civic engagement. His work exemplifies the principle that understanding the past is crucial to shaping a better future. His book, Reviving Our Republic: 95 Theses for the Future of America, is an outcome of his lifelong passion for his community, state, and nation, and was inspired by America’s founding fathers and the principles that birthed a nation. Mike firmly believes the American South has had a profound impact on shaping the political culture of the USA, asserting that one cannot truly understand America without understanding South Carolina. His perspective as a descendant of twelve generations of white Southern landowners provides a grassroots understanding of the unique traditions that define Southern culture. He aims to share the real lived experience of the South, reflecting the complexity and richness of Southern history and its impact on the broader American story.Driven by a mission to revitalize America’s founding ideals, Mike hosts the podcast Reviving Our Republic with Mike Bedenbaugh, where he explores the intersection of history, politics, and community development. His unique approach combines grassroots activism with a deep understanding of constitutional intent, offering fresh insights into modern political challenges within the United States.
Today's guest is Tsvi Bisk, an independent futurist, social researcher, and strategy planning consultant. In this episode, Alon and Tsvi discuss Israeli reactions toward October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza, how geopolitics in relation to Israel has changed since that day, and whether or not there is still a prospect of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Full bioTsvi Bisk is an independent futurist, social researcher, and strategy planning consultant. He is the director of the Center for Strategic Futuristic Thinking and the founder and director of the Strategic Educational Planning Institute. For more than 20 years, he was a senior associate of the Beit Berl Institute (the research and education arm of the Israel Labor Movement). Bisk is the author of five books, and has published more than one hundred essays and articles in English and Hebrew in a variety of publications. His latest book is titled Cosmodeism: A Worldview for the Space-Age: How an Evolutionary Cosmos is Creating God.
We are happy to welcome back to the podcast Moshe Ma’oz, Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a previous Director of the university’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. In this episode, Alon and Moshe discuss Israeli perspectives of the last two years of conflict with the Palestinians, global perspectives towards a Palestinian state and a two-state solution, and the still-indispensable role of the United States in finding a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.BioMoshe Ma’oz is Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a previous Director of the university’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. Professor Ma’oz is renowned for his expertise in Arab and Middle East affairs, and has published extensively on Islam and on the history and politics of the Middle East. He is a leading expert on Syria. Professor Ma’oz has been a visiting professor, scholar, and fellow at many leading universities and institutions around the world. He has served as an advisor on Arab Affairs for Israel’s Knesset, and was a member of official advisory committees that counseled the late Prime Ministers Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.
Today’s guest is David L. Phillips, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and previously Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights.In this episode, Alon and David have an in-depth discussion on Syria, including Trump’s removal of sanctions on the country, issues of governance in Syria, especially considering the country’s numerous ethnic and religious minorities, and what can be expected of Ahmed al-Sharaa as an interim leader of Syria.Full bioDavid L. Phillips is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He was previously Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Phillips has served as Foreign Affairs Expert and as Senior Adviser to the U.S. Department of State and as Senior Adviser to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Phillips has worked at academic institutions as Executive Director of Columbia University’s International Conflict Resolution Program, Director of American University’s Program on Conflict Prevention and Peace-building, Fellow at Harvard University’s Future of Diplomacy Project Fellow, Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Middle East Studies, and Professor of Preventive Diplomacy at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. He was Deputy Director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations, Senior Fellow at the Preventive Diplomacy Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, and Project Director at the International Peace Research Institute of Oslo. Phillips has also been a foundation executive, serving as President of the Congressional Human Rights Foundation and Executive Director of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. Phillips has been an analyst and commentator for NBC News. He has written 10 books on public affairs and hundreds of articles in leading publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, and Foreign Affairs.
Today’s guest is Ziad AbuZayyad, co-founder and editor of Palestine-Israel Journal, a former Palestinian Authority minister, former Chair of Law and Constitution in the Palestinian Parliament, and a negotiator in the post-Oslo Accords Cairo negotiations which led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority.In this episode, Alon and Ziad discuss the war on Gaza and its devastating impacts, the current situation in the West Bank and the interconnectedness of the two scenarios in the West Bank and Gaza, and the various prospects of moving forward toward a solution that respects Palestinian and Israeli sovereignties, and how to address those challenges. Full BioZIAD ABUZAYYAD is the Co-Founder and Editor of Palestine Israel Journal (www.pij.org). He is a former PA minister (1998 – 2002), former legislator and Chair of Law and Constitution in the Palestinian Parliament (1996 – 2006). AbuZayyad was the Head of the Palestinian Delegation to the multilateral talks on Arms Control and Regional Security (ACRS), and a negotiator in post Oslo Accords Cairo negotiations which led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority.AbuZayyad was the first representative of the Palestinian Parliament to the Council of Europe, participated in numerous conferences on the Middle East, and is frequently interviewed by local and international media on the political situation. He is a weekly columnist of al-Quds Arabic Daily. He is a lawyer graduate of Damascus University, and Member of the Palestinian Bar Association.
Today’s guest is Michael Bedenbaugh, a political analyst and author, whose latest book, Reviving Our Republic: 95 Theses for the Future of America, argues the need for political renewal in the United States and presents recommendations for such reforms in a historical context. Mike’s diverse background includes five years of service in the US Navy, as well as previously serving as president and executive director of Preservation South Carolina, working to protect and preserve the state’s historic places.In this episode, Alon and Mike discuss the ceding of congressional power to the president over the years, and how that power shift looks under Trump, the crisis of leadership in the United States, and the possibility of going, as Mike describes, back to the country’s foundational goal of neutrality.Full bioAmerican author and political thinker Mike Bedenbaugh is a respected voice in constitutional principles and American governance, historic preservation, and community development. Born with a reverence for history, he served as the former president and executive director of Preservation South Carolina, where he led numerous initiatives that demonstrated the economic and cultural value of historic preservation.Mike’s diverse background includes five years of service in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS South Carolina, studies in international studies and history at the University of South Carolina and Columbia University, and leadership roles in both nonprofit and for-profit sectors. He was CEO of Post No Bills, Inc., a product marketing firm that collaborated with corporate powerhouses like Phillip Morris USA, RCA Records, DreamWorks, Universal Pictures, and MGM. He has also served on his hometown’s city council while his efforts in community revitalization and historic preservation earned him the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor. As a member of Preservation Action in Washington, D.C., he continues to advocate for policies that strengthen local communities and honor America’s heritage.A native of Prosperity, South Carolina, Michael remains deeply involved in his home state’s development while contributing to national discussions on governance and civic engagement. His work exemplifies the principle that understanding the past is crucial to shaping a better future. His book, Reviving Our Republic: 95 Theses for the Future of America, is an outcome of his lifelong passion for his community, state, and nation, and was inspired by America’s founding fathers and the principles that birthed a nation. Mike firmly believes the American South has had a profound impact on shaping the political culture of the USA, asserting that one cannot truly understand America without understanding South Carolina. His perspective as a descendant of twelve generations of white Southern landowners provides a grassroots understanding of the unique traditions that define Southern culture. He aims to share the real lived experience of the South, reflecting the complexity and richness of Southern history and its impact on the broader American story.Driven by a mission to revitalize America’s founding ideals, Mike hosts the podcast Reviving Our Republic with Mike Bedenbaugh, where he explores the intersection of history, politics, and community development. His unique approach combines grassroots activism with a deep understanding of constitutional intent, offering fresh insights into modern political challenges within the United States.
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is Carlein Boers, a political scientist focusing on the national political process in Israel as well as proposals toward a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. She also served seventeen years as a civilian officer in the field of military international cooperation and special air operations. In this episode, Alon and Carlein discuss the seemingly thorniest issue discussed in negotiations over a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine – the status of Jerusalem. They discuss previous negotiations involving Jerusalem, as well as propose novel ideas for its status and relation to future Israeli and Palestinian states. Full bioMs. Carlein Boers is a political scientist and an alumnus from the Diplomatic Studies Program at Clingendael Institute. In 2018, she participated in the U.S. State Department 'International Visitor Leadership Program', focusing on rebuilding Iraq and Syria post-Da'esh/ISIS. Her academic specializations are in the fields of the national political processes in both Jordan and Israel as well as the various proposals towards a Two-State Solution for Israel and Palestine. Carlein served seventeen years as a civilian officer in the field of military international cooperation and special (air) operations. She speaks several languages to various degrees, including Levantine Arabic and Hebrew.
Today’s guest is Mark D. Friedman, an independent scholar working in the field of political theory and ethics. His latest book, Come Now, Let us Reason Together: Uncovering the Torah’s Liberal Values, discusses what he describes as the fundamental misconception about Judaism, that because the ultra-Orthodox follow ancient traditions and strictly adhere to halakhah, that the rigid practices that characterize their communities represent authentic Judaism. In this episode, Mark and Alon dive into this discussion on understanding Judaism, and discuss how this relates to current events and policies in Israel, and perceptions of Judaism in the here and now.Full bioAfter retiring from the successful practice of corporate law, Mark D. Friedman returned to his first love, the study of philosophy. He is currently an independent scholar working in the field of political theory and ethics. He has written three books: Nozick’s Libertarian Project: An Elaboration and Defense (2011), Libertarian Philosophy in the Real World: The Politics of Natural Rights (2014), and his most recent book, Come Now, Let us Reason Together: Uncovering the Torah’s Liberal Values (2024).Friedman received a J.D. from Georgetown Law School, USA, with honors, and holds an MBA from Columbia University, USA. He lives in a small town outside of Seattle, with his family of four, and is very active in his local synagogue. His interests include attending his children’s activities and family travel.
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is Hillel Schenker, co-editor of the Palestine-Israel Journal, a Jerusalem-based independent, joint Israeli-Palestinian English-language quarterly. In this episode, Alon and Hillel discuss the current growing protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and release of the hostages, Netanyahu’s current strategy in Gaza, and the role of the international community in reaching an end to the war.Full bioHillel Schenker is co-editor of the Palestine-Israel Journal, a Jerusalem-based independent English-language quarterly, initiated and maintained by a group of prominent Israeli and Palestinian academics and journalists. It aims to shed light on, and analyze freely and critically, the complex issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians. Schenker served for 13 years as editor of New Outlook, the Israeli peace monthly founded in the spirit of Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue, that served as a vehicle for understanding Israeli-Arab affairs and as a catalyst for dialogue and initiatives for peace. He has written for The Nation, Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly, Tikkun, Israel Horizons, In These Times, the Israeli-Hebrew-language press and many other print and electronic outlets. He was an activist and co-founder of the Peace Now movement and has served for many years as spokesperson for the Israeli branch of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. He is an International Advisory Board member of the Global Majority center for non-violent conflict resolution based at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
I am happy to welcome back to the podcast Moshe Ma’oz, Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a previous Director of the university’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. In this episode, we discuss Netanyahu’s latest decision to escalate Israel’s offensive and fully conquer all of Gaza, the current mood in Israel over the war and toward the Palestinians in general, and what role the international community, especially the United States, can play in resolving the conflict and working toward a two-state solution.BioMoshe Ma’oz is Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a previous Director of the university’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. Professor Ma’oz is renowned for his expertise in Arab and Middle East affairs, and has published extensively on Islam and on the history and politics of the Middle East. He is a leading expert on Syria. Professor Ma’oz has been a visiting professor, scholar, and fellow at many leading universities and institutions around the world. He has served as an advisor on Arab Affairs for Israel’s Knesset, and was a member of official advisory committees that counseled the late Prime Ministers Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.
Today’s guest is Larry Luxner, a veteran journalist and photographer who has reported from more than 100 countries across the world. In this episode, we discuss the tragedy of October 7, 2023 and Israel’s conduct for years leading up to that date, Israelis’ shift in attitude since the attack and their current views on the events in Gaza, and whether or not the prospect still exists for a two-state solution. Full BioMiami native Larry Luxner, a veteran journalist and photographer, has reported from more than 100 countries in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia for a variety of news outlets. He lived for many years in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the Washington, D.C., area before relocating to Israel in January 2017.
Today’s guest is Milica Javdan, a political scientist and activist in the Iranian opposition’s women’s movement. In this episode, Alon and Milica discuss what work the Iranian opposition is undertaking, both inside and outside Iran, the impact of Israeli and US attacks on Iran and how that impacts the relationship of the Iranian people with the regime, and the prospect of regime change in Iran.Full bioMilica Javdan is a political scientist focusing on political theory regarding Shia Islam’s understanding of just governance. She has been active in the Iranian opposition’s women’s movement for over 22 years, and serves as the Chairwoman of the Norwegian Iranian Women’s Network, Norway’s branch of Women’s Human Rights International Association (WHRIA), a global umbrella organization. In this capacity, she has participated in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for more than 12 years, promoting the rights of women and ethnic and religious minorities in Iran.She frequently appears in Norwegian media and political podcasts as an analyst commenting on issues concerning human rights in Iran.
Today’s guest is Anne Speckhard, Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. She previously served for over two decades as Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine. She has interviewed over 800 terrorists, their family members and supporters in various parts of the world including in Western Europe, the Balkans, Central Asia, the Former Soviet Union and the Middle East, and has also been training key stakeholders in law enforcement, intelligence, educators, and other countering violent extremism professionals on the use of counter-narrative messaging materials both locally and internationally.In this episode, Alon and Anne discuss the rise in violent extremism and the causes behind it, the prospects of political violence in the US, the role of social media in promoting violent extremism and terrorism, and how violent extremist movements in the Middle East may evolve in relation to current events. Full bioAnne Speckhard, Ph.D., is Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) and served for over two decades as Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine and also served as an Affiliate in the Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University. She has interviewed over 800 terrorists, violent extremists, their family members and supporters around the world, including in Western Europe, the Balkans, Central Asia, the Former Soviet Union and the Middle East. Over the past five years, she has conducted in-depth psychological interviews with 275 ISIS defectors, returnees and prisoners, as well as 16 al Shabaab cadres (as well as their family members and leaders,) studying their trajectories into and out of terrorism, and their experiences inside ISIS and al Shabaab. Speckhard developed the ICSVE Breaking the ISIS Brand Counter Narrative Project from these interviews, which includes over 250 short counter narrative videos that mimic ISIS recruitment videos but contain actual terrorists strongly denouncing ISIS as un-Islamic, corrupt and brutal. These videos have been utilized in over 200 Facebook and Instagram campaigns globally. Beginning in 2020, she launched the ICSVE Escape Hate Counter Narrative Project, interviewing 54 white supremacists and members of hate groups, developing counternarratives from their interviews, and creating anti-recruitment videos. She has also conducted rare interviews with five Antifa activists. Dr. Speckhard is also an expert in rehabilitation and repatriation of terrorists and their families. In 2007, she designed the psychological and Islamic aspects of the Detainee Rehabilitation Program in Iraq to be applied to 20,000+ detainees and 800 juveniles. This work led to consulting with foreign governments on issues of terrorist prevention, interventions and repatriation; and the rehabilitation and reintegration of ISIS foreign fighters, wives and children. She has worked individually with former terrorists from Belgium, Australia, Sweden and elsewhere. She has also worked on these issues with NATO, OSCE, UN Women, UNCTED, UNODC, the EU Commission and EU Parliament, and to the US Senate & House, Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, and the FBI.Dr. Speckhard actively trains key stakeholders in law enforcement, intelligence, elite hostage negotiation teams, educators, and other professionals in countering violent extremism, locally and internationally. Her focus is on the psychology of terrorism, the effective use of counter-narrative messaging materials produced by ICSVE, as well as studying the use of children as violent actors by groups such as ISIS. Her consultations and trainings include U.S., Australian, Canadian, German, British, Dutch, Austrian, Swiss, Belgian, Danish, Iraqi, Syrian, Jordanian and Thai national police and security officials, among others.
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is Edita Tahiri, former Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Chief Negotiator of Kosovo. She is a key founder and leader of the movement for Kosovo’s independence, and as Chief Negotiator of Kosovo, she is the signatory of the first-ever agreement reached between Kosovo and Serbia, after 20 years of peace talks.In this episode, we discuss the recent election in Kosovo, what the possibilities are for forming a new government, the current status of talks between Kosovo and Serbia, and what effect the new US administration may have on the peace process. Full BioEdita Tahiri is former Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Dialogue, Minister of Public Administration, Peace Negotiator and Member of Parliament for five terms. She is a key founder and leader of the movement for independence of Kosovo. She is the President of reformist party Democratic Alternative of Kosovo (ADK).She was one of the founders and key leaders of the movement for Kosovo’s independence, the Democratic League of Kosovo, in the years 1991-1999. She is known as one of key protagonists of political changes in Kosovo and the Balkans since the end of the Cold War.She is a distinguished peace negotiator and chief negotiator in times of war and peace for Kosovo and the Balkan region with about 30 years’ experience. She is recognized as the only woman peace negotiator in the Balkans participating in the international peace processes such as the Rambouillet International Peace Conference on Kosovo (1999), Pre-Rambouillet Peace Negotiation (1998), London Conference on Disintegration of Former Yugoslavia (1992) and the EU facilitated Dialogue on normalization of neighborly relations between Kosovo and Serbia (2011-2017). As the Chief Negotiator of Kosovo in the EU mediated peace talks with Serbia, she is the signatory of the first ever-reached agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, after 20 years of peace talks. Dedicated to empowerment of women and WPS agenda, she serves as the Chair of the Regional Women’s Lobby in South East Europe for over 12 years. She was participant at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. She is a member of the Women Waging Peace Network and the Mediterranean Network of Women Mediators.She graduated from Harvard University and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She holds a doctoral degree in political sciences from Prishtina University in cooperation with Johns Hopkins University –SAIS, in 2011.
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” We have an unusual situation for today’s episode, where our guest is appearing via a pseudonym, “Joseph.” Joseph is a Turkish university professor, now living in exile in the United States after serving six years in prison on charges of being a member of the Hizmet movement. Although he and his immediate family are now in the US, Joseph is using a pseudonym due to Erdogan’s tyranny and overreach, to protect friends and family still living in Turkey, as many others in his situation have done. We hope you will enjoy this unique episode, and find Joseph’s story illuminating.Full Bio“Joseph” (a pseudonym) is a former Turkish university professor. He obtained his PhD in the United States, after which he began teaching in Turkey in his field of study, where he also developed two research and development startups. Joseph was arrested in August 2016 on allegations of being affiliated with, or a member of, the Hizmet movement. He served six years in prison, after which he came to the United States, where he still resides.
Today’s guest is Xhemajl Rexha, a Kosovar journalist and Chairperson of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, an organization with some 700 members of all ethnic communities in Kosovo. Xhemajl is currently on a two-month fellowship with the World Press Institute, based in St. Paul/Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this episode, Alon and Xhemajl discuss the state of media freedom and journalist safety in Kosovo, government interference in the media’s workings, and Kosovo’s upcoming election in February 2025. Full bioXhemajl Rexha is a journalist from Kosovo, working with main broadcasters there since 2005. He worked as a journalist, host, and editor-in-chief for KTV, part of Koha Group, Kosovo’s biggest media company. He covered main political and social events in the country and region, including status talks with Serbia, declaration of independence, and a series of election cycles. He created and hosted “Interaktiv”, a nightly current affairs show, interviewing and holding accountable Prime Ministers, Presidents and MPs. He was re-elected this summer for a second three-year term as Chairperson of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, a body of some 700 members of all ethnic communities in Kosovo. AJK promotes media freedoms and freedom of expression in Kosovo, and works on safety of journalists, gender sensitive reporting, and programs including combating disinformation. AJK works with international partners including the US Embassy and the National Democratic Institute in Kosovo. Mr. Rexha is in US on a two-month fellowship with the World Press Institute, with 9 other journalists from across the globe. He joins us now from the twin cities of St. Paul/Minneapolis Minnesota, to talk about the current state of media and journalists’ work in Kosovo.
Today’s guest is Jeta Abazi Gashi, an award-winning journalist from Kosovo and a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication at the George Washington University. In this episode, Alon and Jeta discuss the question of identity and belonging among Kosovar youth, especially given Kosovo’s status as the youngest state in Europe, their views on nationalism and secularism, and Kosovo’s relations with Europe and the United States. Full bioAn award-winning journalist from Kosovo, Jeta Abazi Gashi has a background in three disciplines, journalism, political science, and history. She is completing her Ph.D. at the University of Leipzig (15 of October) and has also held various visiting fellowships at the University of Vienna, the University of Trento, and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Prior to her academic career, she worked as an investigative journalist and for various international organizations in Kosovo. She joins the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication at the George Washington University as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar from Kosovo. She will explore questions related to discourse, identity, and political communication between Kosovo and the United States. Her Ph.D. focused on religion and secularity in Albania and Kosovo. Her other works focused on national identity, democratization, and media framing of terrorism.
Today’s guest is Agather Atuhaire, a Ugandan lawyer, journalist, and digital activist. She is the host of Agora Discourse, a digital public square, and has been involved in social media campaigns that have sparked national conversations and policy changes on the poor state of roads, healthcare, and security. Agather is the 2023 recipient of the EU Human Rights Defenders Award and a 2024 recipient of the US State Department’s International Women of Courage Award.In this episode, Alon and Agather discuss freedom of the press and the situation for journalists in Uganda, including intimidation of journalists, the current political situation in the country, and what steps can be taken, both within the country and by foreign powers, to improve the political and human rights situation for Ugandans. Full bioAgather Atuhaire is a Ugandan lawyer, journalist and digital activist. Her investigations have exposed high-profile public corruption scandals, such as the Ugandan parliament’s overspending of public funds in the purchase of luxury cars. She is the host of Agora Discourse, a digital public square, and has been involved in social media campaigns that have sparked national conversations and policy changes on the poor state of roads, healthcare, and security. Her work has appeared in news outlets such as the BBC and National Geographic Magazine, and she has worked as a television news commentator and host. She is the 2023 laureate of the EU Human Rights Defenders Award and the 2024 laureate of the International Women of Courage Award.
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is Fatou Baldeh, a survivor of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and a Gender Justice specialist with an extensive experience in gender, health and development. Over the past decade she has been a leading advocate and contributor to knowledge on women’s rights and the eradication of entrenched gender norms and practices, including eradication of FGM in The Gambia and the UK. In this episode, Alon and Fatou discuss the challenges from local communities in combatting female genital mutilation, the proposed repeal of The Gambia’s FGM ban and its consequences, and how to break the culture of silence around FGM and educate women about the effects that female genital mutilation has on their bodies. Full bioFatou Baldeh is a survivor of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and a Gender Justice specialist with an extensive experience in gender, health and development. Over the past decade she has been a leading advocate and contributor to knowledge on women’s rights and the eradication of entrenched gender norms and practices, including eradication of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia and the UK.To further empower and advance the agenda for gender equality, women empowerment, and rights of children, Fatou founded a Civil Society Organization (CSO) called Women In Liberation and Leadership (WILL) in 2018. Using WILL as a platform for advocacy and awareness raising, Fatou leads a group of 8 women who engage communities to raise awareness on the harm that FGM causes to women, girls, and communities at large. The organization uses initiatives such as community dialogues, women only safe spaces, and positive masculinity to raise awareness at the community level. In recognition of her work, Fatou was honored by The Late Queen Elizabeth as a Member of The Most Excellent Order of The British Empire (MBE) in 2019. In March 2024, Fatou was awarded the prestigious Women of Courage Award by the First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in recognition of her dedication and lifetime service to women and girls in The Gambia.
Today’s guest is Lamar Zala Gran, an Afghan activist and founder of the nonprofit organization Empowering Afghan Women, which provides online courses for high school girls in Afghanistan. She is currently a student at Berea College in Kentucky, continuing her educational journey from the American University of Afghanistan after escaping the country in 2022. In this episode, Alon and Lamar discuss her firsthand experience of the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, the status of women and young Afghans currently under Taliban rule, and what role the international community can play in alleviating the terrible human rights situation in the country.Full bioLamar Zala Gran is the founder and president of the nonprofit organization, Empowering Afghan Women, which she led for a year in Kabul, Afghanistan. The organization offers online courses, and formerly offered in-person classes for high school girls in Afghanistan for three years. Empowering Afghan Women has also developed internet campaigns to raise awareness of women's rights issues, and conducted workshops on various topics. Over the past four years, she has actively advocated for women's rights, sharing her voice and experiences on various global platforms, including BBC News, Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera English, La Repubblica, and Tagesspiegel. She has been featured on global media outlets, including an interview with Secretary Hillary Clinton on BBC World News, discussing the challenges faced by Afghan women. Gran was also a columnist for the German daily Tagesspiegel, where she contributed 20 weekly diaries from Kabul over the course of six months. Her activism extends to speaking with German Parliament members and EU Parliament members. Previously, Gran participated as a delegate in the UN Least Developed Countries conference in Doha and spoke at the UN on the refugee forum in 2022, and at the 2023 UN International Youth Conference about the human rights and women’s rights situation in Afghanistan. She is a youth advocate for Silatech and Education Above All foundation in Doha, and has participated in an advocacy video group with the HÁWAR.help organization in Berlin regarding the situation of Afghan women. She also spoke with Ambassador of US for Afghanistan in Doha and US special envoy for Afghanistan in Doha about the situation of Afghan women, and on an Australian embassy panel discussion about Afghan women, together with international donor and its ambassador as well. Despite facing challenges and mental health struggles, she recently moved to the US from Doha after escaping Afghanistan in 2022. She is currently a student at Berea College in Kentucky, following her educational journey from the American University of Afghanistan in Doha, a summer school program at the American University of Central Asia, and Bard College in New York. She is determined to continue her activism, using her voice to bring about positive changes in her country.
Today’s guest is Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists. She is a journalist and press freedom advocate, and at CPJ, she has conducted several missions to Europe and Central Asia, and advocated for greater press freedom and the release of jailed journalists. In this episode, we discuss the state of press freedom across the world in 2023, what work CPJ does to protect journalists and advocate for press freedom, and the impact that global conflicts such as in Ukraine and Gaza have had on journalists operating on the ground.Full bioGulnoza Said, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, is a journalist and press freedom advocate with over 20 years of experience in New York, Prague, Bratislava, and Tashkent. At CPJ, she has conducted several missions to countries in Europe and Central Asia, and advocated for greater press freedom and the release of jailed journalists at forums including the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, and the OSCE. Before joining CPJ in 2016, she was a journalist and covered issues including elections, politics, media, religion, and human rights with a focus on Central Asia, Russia, and Turkey. She also worked in communications for the United Nations Secretariat and the UNDP. Her op-eds, reports, and comments have appeared in CNN, the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, PBS, NBC, Voice of America, RFE/RL, Fergana, Eurasianet, and other outlets, and she authored the Uzbekistan chapter in a book on the study of social entrepreneurship.
Today’s guest is Ray Takeyh, senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former senior advisor on Iran at the State Department. In this episode, we discuss the mindset of the Iranian regime and what the US’ understanding of it may be, the so-called ‘axis of resistance’ and Iran’s use of proxies in various regional conflicts, and how that regional involvement is impacting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the current war in Gaza.Full bioRay Takeyh is Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His area of specialization are Iran, U.S. foreign policy, and modern Middle East.Takeyh is, most recently, the author of The Last Shah: America, Iran and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty. He is the coauthor of The Pragmatic Superpower: Winning the Cold War in the Middle East and Revolution & Aftermath: Forging a New Strategy toward Iran. He is author of three previous books, Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs, Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic, and The Origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine: The US, Britain and Nasser’s Egypt, 1952-1957. He has written more than three hundred articles and opinion pieces in many news outlets including Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Foreign Affairs. Takeyh has testified more than twenty times in various Congressional committees.Prior to joining CFR he has served as a senior advisor on Iran at the State Department, fellow at the Yale University, Washington Institute of Near East Policy and Middle East Center at University of California, Berkeley. Takeyh has a doctorate in modern history from Oxford University.
Today’s guest is Marwan Muasher, vice president for studies at Carnegie and former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan. In this episode, Alon and Marwan discuss the Israel-Hamas war – what exit strategy that can be envisioned at this time and what parameters will need to be established, what changes are needed among the Israeli, Palestinian, and American governments to enable a conducive negotiating process, and the current conflagration’s impact on Jordan. Full bioMarwan Muasher is vice president for studies at Carnegie, where he oversees research in Washington and Beirut on the Middle East. Muasher served as foreign minister (2002–2004) and deputy prime minister (2004–2005) of Jordan, and his career has spanned the areas of diplomacy, development, civil society, and communications.Muasher began his career as a journalist for the Jordan Times. He then served at the Ministry of Planning, at the prime minister’s office as press adviser, and as director of the Jordan Information Bureau in Washington.In 1995, Muasher opened Jordan’s first embassy in Israel, and in 1996 he became minister of information and the government spokesperson. From 1997 to 2002, he served in Washington again as ambassador, negotiating the first free-trade agreement between the United States and an Arab nation. He then returned to Jordan to serve as foreign minister, where he played a central role in developing the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East roadmap.In 2004, he became deputy prime minister responsible for reform and government performance and led the effort to produce a ten-year plan for political, economic, and social reform. From 2006 to 2007, he was a member of the Jordanian Senate.From 2007 to 2010, he was senior vice president of external affairs at the World Bank.He is the author of The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation (Yale University Press, 2008) and The Second Arab Awakening and the Battle for Pluralism (Yale University Press, 2014).
Today’s guest is Dov Waxman, a professor of political science and the director of the Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies at UCLA. This special episode was recorded in two parts; the second part was recorded in late September, just a week and a half before Hamas’ attack on Israel, and the first part was recorded in October, two weeks after the outbreak of war and just before Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza began. In this episode, Alon and Dov begin with an analysis of Hamas’ attack on Israel, the divide among Palestinian leadership between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and what steps all parties, including the international community, can take from here to ultimately usher in a sustainable peace plan. In the second part of the episode, Alon and Dov discuss Alon’s proposal for an Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian confederation, addressing issues such as Israeli settlements in the West Bank, security arrangements, Jerusalem, the right of return, and the demographics of the region, particularly the interspersed populations of Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel proper; and what role the international community can play in bringing about a sustainable peace for the region.Full bioDov Waxman is the director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. He is a Professor of Political Science and The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair of Israel Studies at UCLA.An award-winning teacher, he previously was professor of political science, international affairs, and Israel studies, and the Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies at Northeastern University. He also co-directed the university’s Middle East Center. In addition, he taught at the City University of New York and Bowdoin College. He has also been a visiting fellow at Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Oxford University. Professor Waxman received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and his B.A. degree from Oxford University.Professor Waxman's research focuses on the conflict over Israel-Palestine, Israeli politics and foreign policy, U.S.-Israel relations, American Jewry’s relationship with Israel, Jewish politics, and anti-Semitism. He is the author of dozens of scholarly articles and four books: The Pursuit of Peace and The Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending / Defining the Nation (Palgrave, 2006), Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (Cambridge University Press, 2011), Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel (Princeton University Press, 2016), and most recently, The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2019).He has also been published in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Atlantic Monthly, Salon, Foreign Policy, The Forward, and Ha’aretz, and he is a frequent commentator on television and radio.
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is Yossi Alpher, a consultant and writer on Israel-related strategic issues. He is a former intelligence officer, and served as Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel in July 2000, during the Camp David talks, concentrating on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In this episode, we discuss Israel’s current response to Hamas’ attacks against Israel on October 7, various scenarios of how the response will proceed from here, an analysis of the various players in the broader conflict, including Hezbollah, and whether or not Israel can fully eliminate Hamas from Gaza, and the long-term prospects in Gaza. Full bioYossi Alpher is a consultant and writer on Israel-related strategic issues. He is the author of the prize-winning Periphery: Israel's search for Middle East allies and No End of Conflict: Rethinking Israel-Palestine (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015 and 2016, respectively). His latest book is Winners and Losers in the ‘Arab Spring’: Profiles in Chaos (Routledge, 2020), which won the Chaikin Prize in 2021.Alpher served in the Israel Defense Forces as an intelligence officer, followed by service in the Mossad in operational and analytical roles. From 1981 to 1995 he was associated with the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, ultimately serving as director of center. From 1995 to 2000 he served as director of the American Jewish Committee's Israel/Middle East Office in Jerusalem. In July 2000 (during the Camp David talks) he served as Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel, concentrating on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. From 2001 to 2012 he was coeditor, with Ghassan Khatib (until recently vice-president of Bir Zeit University in Ramallah, Palestinian Authority) of the bitterlemons family of internet publications.
Today’s guest is Avi Shlaim, Professor Emeritus of International Relations at St. Antony’s College at the University of Oxford. His most recent book, Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew, discusses his childhood in Baghdad and his family’s flight to Israel, interwoven with the history of the Jews in Iraq in the early 20th century. In this episode, we discuss this book, including Arab-Jewish harmony in Iraq until 1948 and both of their personal experiences of childhoods in Baghdad, the relationship between Ashkenazi and Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in Israel in history until today, and current prospects, if any, for an Israeli-Palestinian peace.Full bioAvi Shlaim is an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College and a former Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford. He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2006.His main research interest is the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is author of Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine (1988); The Politics of Partition (1990 and 1998); War and Peace in the Middle East: A Concise History (1995); The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (2000, second edition 2014); Lion of Jordan: King Hussein’s Life in War and Peace (2007); and Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations (2009). He is co-editor of The Cold War and the Middle East (1997); The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 (2001, second edition 2007); and The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Origins and Consequences (2012). Professor Shlaim is a frequent contributor to the newspapers and commentator on radio and television on Middle Eastern affairs.
Today’s guests are the Honorable Paul Johnson, former mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, and Dr. Emily Bashah, a clinical psychologist. Paul and Emily are the authors of the book Addictive Ideologies, where they discuss the psychology that leads to terrorism and strategies to combat extremism. In this episode, Alon, Paul, and Emily use the experience of the Jewish population of Iraq to discuss radicalized ideologies in society and how they develop and spread on an individual and societal basis, the growing polarization in the United States and around the world, and what steps can be taken to resolve the increasing divide.
Their book, Addictive Ideologies, can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Addictive-Ideologies-Finding-Meaning-Politics/dp/195695547X
Full bios Hon. Paul E. Johnson Jr. is the host of The Optimistic American podcast, whose goal is to create space in the news media for a positive and hopeful view of America. He has a significant background in business, politics and government, and became the youngest mayor of Phoenix, Arizona at 30 years old. He has managed several state campaigns for presidential candidates and is the CEO and co-founder of Redirect Health.
Dr. Emily Bashah is an author and licensed psychologist with a private practice in Scottsdale, Arizona. An expert witness in criminal, immigration and civil courts, she has worked on high-profile cases covering issues of domestic terrorism and capital offenses, as well as first-degree murder. Dr. Bashah was awarded the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Policy Fellowship and served within the American Psychological Association's Public Interest Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C. A frequent expert guest in media, Dr. Bashah clinically specializes in mental illness, personal and collective trauma, addiction and grief and loss, as well as family and relationship dynamics.
Today’s guest is Koby Huberman, co-founder of the Israeli Peace Initiative, which works with Israeli leaders and decision makers in order to promote a new regional alliance with Israel and key Arab states. In this episode, Alon and Koby discuss Alon’s proposal for an Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian confederation, alongside Koby’s work on a Regional Framework for all states, leveraging past discussions and agreements toward a future resolution.
This discussion was held on July 22 as part of a new discussion series on Alon’s proposal for an Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian confederation, the full video of which is posted on YouTube. You can find future events in this series at alonben-meir.com.
Full bio Koby Huberman is a high-tech veteran, business strategist, and a leader of civil society initiatives. In 2011, he co-founded "Yisrael Yozemet," a non-partisan Impact Group which has more than 1,800 signatories. The group works with Israeli leaders and decision makers in order to promote and validate a new strategic paradigm that includes building Israel as a regional superpower through a Regional Alliance with the key Arab states. Huberman is an experienced high-tech executive with 30 years in global technology corporations, as a strategic visionary, and business development executive.
In 2007, he founded Strategic Landscapes Ltd., a consulting firm helping leading companies develop and implement transformational growth strategies, which he owns and leads today. Huberman has a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management, and a master’s degree in Philosophy.
Today’s guest is Azadeh Nikzadeh, an Iranian writer, director, producer, and women’s rights activist. Azadeh’s current project is a short film, inspired by the true story of Sarina Esmailzadeh, a young teenager who was brutally murdered by security forces during a women's rights protest in September 2022, that aims to shed light on the struggles of Iranian women and their fight against state-led violence.
In this episode, Alon and Azadeh discuss the current status of women’s rights in Iran, the current protests in Iran against mandatory hijab, and what role the international community can play in the fight for democracy and freedom in Iran.
Full bio Azadeh Nikzadeh is a Middle Eastern writer, director, producer, and women’s rights activist. Her brand is rarely-heard human rights and women empowerment stories and the misuse of religion to justify violence against women. Her films raise awareness of the plight of women's rights in the MENA region and Iran in particular. She speaks and advocates projects on systematic and state-led violence against women and the importance of storytelling and disseminating the real-life stories of women advocates to create global solidarity. She has been a speaker at various events including the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 67th Session, the International Religious Freedom Summit for MENA region at Washington DC, and Women Creating Change Stand Up With Her Gala at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
She wrote and directed award-winning short films such as The Girl Sitting Here, Vida, and X, and produced feature documentaries including The Left Bank and The Credible Fear. She has won multiple fellowships and awards including Women Empowerment Fellowship, Asian Film Academy Fellowship from the Busan International Film Festival, Athena Film Festival Writing Lab, and Honorable Mention at the Charlotte Film Festival Social Justice Films. Her feature script DANDELION is a Sundance Writing Lab and Austin Film Festival Second Rounder.
Azadeh is the founder of Burnt Generation Studios, an intellectual property development, and production company that develops and produces independent films with the mission to create and promote authentic narratives to build grounds for mutual understanding and shifts in the collective perspective of the audiences.
Today’s guest is Berat Buzhala, a Kosovar journalist and former Member of Parliament for the Democratic Party of Kosovo. Buzhala is the founder of the media group Nacionale, and was a co-founder of Gazeta Express. In this episode, Alon and Berat discuss the recent turmoil in northern Kosovo over the election of four Albanian mayors in Serb-majority municipalities after the election was boycotted by ethnic Serbs, the mistakes that Prime Minister Albin Kurti has taken during this crisis and beyond, and how this has impacted relations between Kosovo and the US.
Full bio Berat Buzhala belongs to the Kosovo journalist generation that established post-war media platforms. He initially worked as an economics journalist for the two largest daily newspapers, Zeri and Koha Ditore. In 2005 he established the newspaper Express that soon became one of the most influential online media outlets in the Balkan. Buzhala currently runs the Nacionale media group and is among the most influential public figures in the Balkan. Buzhala is also a former Member of Parliament for the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), returning to journalism after serving a single term.
Today’s guest is Cemre Ulker, the UN Representative and US Director of the Journalists and Writers Foundation. Cemre is a human rights expert dedicated to the gender-sensitive implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and focuses on civil and political rights violations and issues related to violence against women and sexual violence in conflict. In this episode focusing on the upcoming elections in Turkey on May 14, Alon and Cemre discuss the social dynamics in Turkey, the Turkish peoples’ distrust of Erdogan and his one-man authoritarian rule, the current status of the opposition, and women’s rights issues in Turkey.Full bioCemre Ulker is the UN Representative and US Director of the Journalists and Writers Foundation (JWF), an international civil society organization affiliated with the UN Department of Global Communications. Ms. Ulker leads JWFs global initiatives to promote the culture of peace, human rights, and sustainable development. She is a human rights expert dedicated to the gender-sensitive implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals with a particular focus on peaceful, just institutions, and global partnerships. Ms. Ulker also provides workshops and capacity-building programs working on innovative and inclusive policy suggestions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by facilitating participation platforms for civil society organizations in 24 different countries.Ms. Ulker works on JWFs civil society inputs to CEDAW, Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Office of the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, and NGO CSW on a variety of topics including womens leadership for the UNSCR 1325 Women, Peace and Security Agenda, protection of women refugees, combatting violations against women human rights defenders, political prisoners and highlights the role of civil society contribution for the gender-mainstreaming of the Global Goals 2030.Cemre Ulker is also the Co-Founder of Set Them Free, a civil initiative promoting womens rights, monitoring violations against women human rights defenders in Turkey. She is passionate to facilitate Set Them Frees socio-economic empowerment programs for the enforced women and children migrants.Ms. Ulker is a freelance contributor at the Kronos News covering Turkeys human rights agenda and foreign policy projections. She is also a faculty member of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)s Global Diplomacy Initiative giving lectures on the “Intersectionality of Press Freedom and Human Rights: Violence Against Women Human Rights Defenders”. Cemre Ulker has a BA in Economics from the University of Maryland and completed her Masters Degree in Human Rights at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Today’s guest is Naim Rashiti, Executive Director of the Balkans Group, a think tank dedicated to regional cooperation and peace in the Balkans. In this episode, which was recorded prior to the agreement reached between Kosovo and Serbia on March 18, Alon and Naim discuss Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Kosovo’s challenges with corruption and other domestic issues, and the impact of Turkish and Russian influences in the Balkans.Full bioNaim Rashiti is the Executive Director of the Balkans Group and has almost two decades of experience in political and international affairs. His expertise spans from conflict resolution and inter-ethnic relations to EU integration and institution building. He has provided analysis and consulted for a number of international and non-governmental organisations, including the International Crisis Group (2003-2013), the UNHCR, the Local Government Initiative (LGI), the Canadian Embassy and the International Development Agency (CIDA). He holds degrees from the University of Priština (in Computers and Electronics) and University of Lausanne (in Political Science).
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is John J. Nance, a decorated Air Force veteran, aviation safety expert, and New York Times bestselling author, whose latest book, “The Nine Lives of Cristal Global,” discusses the need of Saudi Arabia to modify its economic approach to succeed in the future. In this episode, Alon and John discuss human rights in Saudi Arabia and how the US should approach that issue, Saudi Arabia’s role in the oil market, and Israel’s desire to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia and how the Saudis can utilize that for peace.Full bioOne of the key thought leaders to emerge in American Healthcare in the past decade, John J. Nance brings a rich and varied professional background to the task of helping doctors, administrators, boards, and front-line staff alike survive and prosper during the most profoundly challenging upheaval in the history of modern medicine.As a native Texan, John grew up in Dallas, where he earned his Bachelor's Degree and a Juris Doctor Degree from SMU and is still a licensed Texas attorney. Named Distinguished Alumni of SMU for 2002 and distinguish Alumni for Public Service of the SMU Dedman School of Law in 2010.John is a decorated Air Force pilot, veteran of Vietnam and Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield, and a Lt. Colonel in the USAF Reserve. He is well known for his pioneering development of Air Force human factors flight safety education, and one of the civilian pioneers of Crew Resource Management (CRM).John has piloted a wide variety of jet aircraft, including 727s, 737s, 747s, and Air Force C-141s, and has logged over 15,000 hours of flight time since earning his first pilot license in 1965 and is still a current pilot. He was a flight officer for Braniff International Airlines and a Boeing 737 Captain for Alaska Airlines and is an internationally recognized air safety advocate, best known to North American television audiences as Aviation Analyst for ABC World News and Aviation Editor for Good Morning America. He is also an internationally recognized analyst on matters of seismic safety.
Today’s guest is Dr. Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian-American critical care specialist and president of MedGlobal, an organization that provides medical care in disaster regions, and the founder of the American Relief Coalition for Syria and Syria Faith Initiative. Dr. Sahloul is considered one of the world’s experts on the humanitarian crisis in his homeland of Syria and applying lessons learned to other disaster responses, including COVID-19. In this episode, we discuss the Syrian Civil War and his work in providing healthcare in Syria during the war, what is currently happening on the ground in Syria, and what role the international community can play in ending the conflict.Full bioDr. Mohammed Zaher Sahloul is a medical doctor, Chicagoan, humanitarian, faith, immigrant and civic leader, and influencer. Professionally, he is a Critical Care specialist at Advocate Christ Medical Center and Saint Anthony’s hospital and Associate Professor in Clinical Medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Dr. Sahloul is considered one of the world’s experts on the humanitarian crisis in his homeland Syria and applying lessons learned to other disaster responses, including COVID-19. He led the Syrian American Medical Society from 2011-2015 to play a crucial role in providing humanitarian medical aid and organizing the Syrian American diaspora. He founded the American Relief Coalition for Syria, ARCS, and Syria Faith Initiative. He has published extensively on the Syrian crisis, refugees and immigration, disaster management, and COVID-19 impact on disadvantaged communities in Chicago, and has many media appearances locally, nationally, and internationally. He was instrumental in providing medical relief to help the civilian population in his homeland of Syria and testified to the U.S. Congress and the United Nations Security Council multiple times on defending medical neutrality, the use of siege and chemical weapons, and the siege of Aleppo. He was awarded Chicagoan of the Year in 2016 for risking his life with two other American doctors to provide healthcare to the civilians in Aleppo under siege and bombardment. Dr. Sahloul sits on the advisory board of the Syrian Community Network and the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was a member of the Illinois Board of Health from 2009-2016. In 2020 , Dr. Sahloul was awarded the Gandhi Award for Peace for his humanitarian work in Syria and at the global level. He has also received many other awards including the “Heroes Among Us” award by American Red Cross, Dr. Robert Kirschner’s Award for Global Activism by Heartland Alliance Kovler Center 2017, the Commitment to Change Award by the National Immigration Justice Center for his commitment to human rights, and the Shine a Light on Global Refugee Crisis and annual humanitarian award by UNICEF Chicago 2017.
Today I am happy to welcome back to the podcast David Rundell. David is a former American diplomat who served for thirty years in the Foreign Service, including fifteen in Saudi Arabia, and is widely regarded as one of America’s leading experts on Saudi Arabia. In this episode, we continue our discussion on the US-Saudi relationship, including an analysis of Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the decision of OPEC Plus to reduce oil production by 2 million barrels, and the changing dynamics within the US-Saudi relationship.
Full bio David Rundell served as an American diplomat for thirty years in Washington, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. He is the author of VISION OR MIRAGE: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads (I.B. Tauris, September 17, 2020).
Widely regarded as one America's leading experts on Saudi Arabia, he spent fifteen years in the country where he worked at the Embassy in Riyadh as well as the Consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran. His assignments in Saudi Arabia included the Chief of Mission, Charge d'Affaires, Deputy Chief of Mission, Political Counselor, Economic Counselor, Commercial Counselor, and Commercial Attaché. He has numerous awards for his analytical reporting and participated in Operation Desert Storm, Saudi accession to the World Trade Organization and the defeat of Al Qaida's terror campaign. After retiring from the Foreign Service he spent three years at the Boston-based consultancy Monitor Group before joining Arabia Analytica as a partner. He lives in Dubai and travels regularly to Saudi Arabia.
Today’s guest is Fadia Thabet, a Yemeni conflict analysis and peacebuilding practitioner. Fadia worked on countering violent extremism, or CVE, programs in the MENA region, focusing on Al Qaeda and ISIS movements, and gender-based violence prevention. In this episode, Alon and Fadia discuss child soldiers and child recruitment in the war in Yemen, the roles of both Saudi Arabia and Iran in the war, and the April ceasefire, which recently ended.
Full bio Fadia Thabet is a conflict analysis and peacebuilding practitioner focused on conflict transformation initiatives design and training. Fadia worked on countering violent extremism programs (CVE) in the MENA region focusing on Al Qaeda and ISIS movements and gender-based violence prevention. Her focus is on settling Afghan refugees and asylees in the United States. In 2019, Fadia graduated with a master’s degree in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation. She is the co-founder of Transformation Collaborative (Tcollab). She has been the keynote speaker for Harvard University, the Women’s Refugee Commission, the Nobel Women's Initiative and the University of North Carolina. She is the 2017 Women of Courage award recipient. Fadia was recognized for her work in peacebuilding by 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Forum where she shared the stage as a panelist with the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize winner, The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet. She has appeared as a conflict analysis specialist on CNN and CBS news.
Today’s guest is Veton Surroi, a Kosovar publicist, politician, and former journalist who currently serves as a consultant to the government on negotiation issues. In this episode, we discuss the current status of Kosovo-Serbia normalization efforts, the process of reconciliation, and the role of the EU and NATO in the region.
Full bio Veton Surroi is a Kosovar publicist, politician, and former journalist. The founder and former leader of the ORA political party, Surroi served as a member of the Kosovo Assembly from 2004-2008. In 1997, Surroi established one of the biggest Kosovo Albanian daily newspapers, Koha Ditore, and was the editor-in-chief for a number of years before deciding to enter politics in Kosovo.
He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and worked as a journalist at the Albanian language daily "Rilindja". He was the founder of the first opposition group in Kosovo, the local chapter of the UJDI (Association of a Yugoslav Democratic Initiative) in 1989, founder of the first Independent Trade Unions of Kosova in 1989, founder and editor in chief of the independent weekly KOHA (1990) and later of the daily KOHA Ditore (1997), president of the second strongest political party in Kosova (PPK) in the period 1991-1992, and was one of the leading members of the Kosovar Albanian negotiating groups, including at the Rambouillet and Paris talks (1999).
He received the IFJ Annual Award for Journalism in 2000, the NED Award for Democracy, and the Geunzen Award for Freedom of Holland.
Today’s guest is David Rundell, a former American diplomat who served for thirty years in the Foreign Service, including fifteen in Saudi Arabia, and is widely regarded as one of America’s leading experts on Saudi Arabia. In this episode, we discuss Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, efforts to mend the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the death of Jamal Khashoggi, and the current state of the global oil market.
Full bio David Rundell served as an American diplomat for thirty years in Washington, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. He is the author of VISION OR MIRAGE: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads (I.B. Tauris, September 17, 2020).
Widely regarded as one America's leading experts on Saudi Arabia, he spent fifteen years in the country where he worked at the Embassy in Riyadh as well as the Consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran. His assignments in Saudi Arabia included the Chief of Mission, Charge d'Affaires, Deputy Chief of Mission, Political Counselor, Economic Counselor, Commercial Counselor, and Commercial Attaché. He has numerous awards for his analytical reporting and participated in Operation Desert Storm, Saudi accession to the World Trade Organization and the defeat of Al Qaida's terror campaign. After retiring from the Foreign Service he spent three years at the Boston-based consultancy Monitor Group before joining Arabia Analytica as a partner. He lives in Dubai and travels regularly to Saudi Arabia.
Today’s guest is Suzan Khairi Khedher, a Yazidi lawyer and activist supporting girls’ development. In this episode, Alon and Suzan discuss the genocide of the Yazidi people and their ongoing plight, relations between the Yazidis and the central government in Iraq, and the ongoing need for support from the international community.
Full bio Suzan Khairi Khedher is a Yazidi lawyer and activist in the supporting and development of girls. Born in 1998 in Khanasor village-Sinjar. She graduated with a BA in Political Science and Law from University of Duhok in 2018. She was the first among her classmates for four consecutive years. After graduating from college, she started working as a lawyer in Duhok Court. She is the founder and Deputy Head of Uranus NGO for Humanitarian Assistance located in Duhok.
Today’s guest is Helen Lee Bouygues, a world-renowned misinformation and critical thinking expert and President of the Reboot Foundation, which is devoted to elevating critical thinking. In this episode, we discuss the rise in misinformation and the role of social media in that regard, media literacy and the importance of teaching it in schools, and how to encourage the general public to be better consumers of information.
Full bio Helen Lee Bouygues is one of the most successful women in business transformation. She has served as interim CEO, CFO, or COO for more than a dozen companies. She is the founder of the Reboot Foundation, a columnist at Forbes, and working on a book on critical thinking.
The Reboot Foundation is devoted to elevating critical thinking. In a time of vast technological change, the Foundation aims to promote richer, more reflective forms of thought in schools, homes, and businesses.
A former partner at McKinsey & Company, Bouygues has helped transform more than 25 firms. Over the course of a twenty-year career, she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in capital, renegotiated billions of dollars in debt, and brought dozens of companies into the black.
Bouygues has lectured around the world. She sits on multiple boards, including those of companies in the retail, manufacturing, oil and gas, renewable energy, and automotive-parts sectors.
She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University and earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
My guest today is Teuta Sahatqija, former Consul General of the Republic of Kosovo in New York and parliamentarian in Kosovo’s Assembly. An electronic engineer by training, she now works in Digital Transformation and is Smart City Advisor for the Municipality of Pristina. In this episode, we discuss the Kurti government’s performance, the status of various domestic issues in Kosovo, and the ongoing dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.
Full bio Teuta Sahatqija is the former Consul General of the Republic of Kosovo in New York, and currently serves as Digital Transformation and Smart City Advisor for the Municipality of Pristina.
She is a well-known political activist and a former Member of Kosovo’s Parliament. She was also the President of the Cross-Party Women Parliamentary Caucus and Vice President of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Development. She was an advisor to the former President Fatmir Sejdiu, chairwoman of the Reformist Party ORA, and a member of the Parliamentary Committees for International Affairs and Development. She was also a Founding Member of KUSA – Kosovo US Alumni.
Mrs. Sahatqija is an electrical engineer, and she has worked as a manager of a computer center in a food production company, as well as being the owner and director of a private telecommunication company in Gjakova.
Today’s guest is Stanislav Puzdriak, a cinematographer and filmmaker originally from Ukraine. In this episode, we discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine’s needs from the international community, and what could be in store for Ukraine’s future after the war.
Full bio Stanislav Puzdriak was born on August 2nd, 1993 in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. At the age 19, he co-founded a video production studio "Boroda Cinema" and at 23, started his own company "Rebel Monkey Production". The first movie he directed "Immigraniada" on the problem of immigration was shown in more than 10 countries all over the world. His second movie "Project Alpha or Short Instruction on Self-Realization" is a half-documentary, half-feature film, which is unique in its structure and genre. Stanislav is currently working on a documentary, "Tale of the American Dream", which examines the concept of the American dream and attempts to answer he question, does it still exist, and did it exist at all?
Today’s guest is Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University and a historian and commentator on fascism, authoritarian leaders, and propaganda, and the threats these present to democracies. In this episode, we discuss her latest book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, Trump’s authoritarian behavior here in the United States, and what steps can be taken to reverse authoritarian trends around the world.
Full bio: Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a historian and commentator on fascism, authoritarian leaders, and propaganda — and the threats these present to democracies. As author or editor of six books, with over 100 op-eds and essays in CNN, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post, she brings historical perspective to her analyses of current events. Her insight into the authoritarian playbook has made her an expert source for television, radio, podcasts, and online events around the globe.
Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University and an Advisor to Protect Democracy. She is also a historical consultant for film and television productions. She is a big fan of electronic music, which is her preferred soundtrack while writing. She practices yoga several times a week.
Ben-Ghiat’s work has been supported by Fulbright, Guggenheim, and other fellowships. Her books Fascist Modernities and Italian Fascism’s Empire Cinema detail what happens to societies when authoritarian governments take hold, and explore the appeal of strongmen to collaborators and followers. Growing up in Pacific Palisades, California, where many intellectuals who fled Nazism resettled, sparked her interest in the subject.
Her latest book, the #1 Amazon bestseller Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present (Norton, 2020), examines how illiberal leaders use corruption, violence, propaganda, and machismo to stay in power, and how resistance to them has unfolded over a century.
Today’s guest is Stuart Gottlieb, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs and Public Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. In this episode, we discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including the effectiveness of sanctions, international reliance on Russian oil and gas, and what Putin’s broader interests may be.
Full bio:Stuart Gottlieb is Adjunct Professor of International Affairs and Public Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he teaches courses on American foreign policy, counterterrorism, and international security. He also serves as Faculty Director for SIPA’s certificate program in International Relations, and is a member of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. In addition, he teaches courses for New York University’s graduate program in International Relations.
Prior to joining SIPA in 2003, Gottlieb worked for five years in the United States Senate, first as senior foreign policy adviser to Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, and subsequently as policy adviser and chief speechwriter for Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut. He has also worked on several political campaigns, including New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's reelection campaign in 1997 and presidential campaign in 2008.
Gottlieb continues to consult with political and business leaders, and regularly publishes op-eds and other policy-related articles. A second edition of his book, Debating Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Conflicting Perspectives on Causes, Contexts, and Responses (CQ Press), was published in 2014, and he is currently working on two books on U.S. foreign policy, titled Experimental Power: The Rise and Role of America in World Affairs (Yale University Press), and Founding Tensions: The Age-Old Struggles that Shape America’s Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press).
Gottlieb holds a BA in political science and journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a PhD in international relations from Columbia University.
My guest today is Tarek Heggy, an Egyptian liberal author, political thinker and international petroleum strategist. Heggy is one of Egypt’s more prominent authors on the subject of Egypt’s need for political reform. His extensive writings advocate the values of modernity, democracy, tolerance, and women's rights in the Middle East – advancing them as universal values essential to the region's progress. He has lectured at universities throughout the world and various international institutions and think tanks, such as the Heritage Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
In today’s episode, we discuss the impacts of Islamic extremism within the Muslim world itself, Islamophobia and Muslim immigration in the West, and what can be done in the Arab and Muslim worlds to combat terrorism and extremist thought.
Today’s guest is Wiola Rębecka, a psychoanalyst, human rights activist, founder of “Rape: A History of Shame” project, and author of the book Rape: A History of Shame: Diary of the Survivors. A credentialed psychoanalyst, she has over 23 years’ clinical experience working with trauma, PTSD, War Rape Survivors Syndrome, and transgenerational trauma, and has conducted field work on the consequences of sexual violence during war in Rwanda, Congo, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
In this episode, we discuss transgenerational trauma, particularly in relation to sexual violence, societal reactions to rape and rape victims, the difficulties of sharing experiences on a personal and cultural level, and her family’s personal experience with sexual violence and transgenerational trauma stemming from her grandmother’s experience during the Holocaust.
Today's guest is Qendrim Gashi, former Ambassador of Kosovo to France. Prior to his posting in Paris, Ambassador Gashi served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of Kosovo, and Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Prishtina, a position he has resumed since ending his diplomatic service.
In today’s episode, we discuss the dialogue process between Kosovo and Serbia, and what progress, if any, has been made over the past few years. In addition, we discuss the EU’s role in the dialogue, as well as the EU’s relationship with the broader Western Balkans region.
My guest today is Nicholas Sambanis, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Director of the Identity & Conflict Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. He writes on conflict processes with a focus on civil wars and other forms of inter-group conflict. Published work in these research areas has appeared in several journals, including the American Political Science Review, International Organization, American Journal of Political Science, World Politics, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
With Michael Doyle, he co-authored Making War and Building Peace (Princeton University Press, 2006), the first book to analyze the impact of United Nations peace operations in post-conflict transitions; with Paul Collier and other colleagues, he co-authored Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy, one of the first quantitative studies of the causes of civil war around the world. In a two-volume book project, Understanding Civil War: Evidence and Analysis, he developed a nested, mixed-methods research design for the analysis of causes of civil war onset in a systematic comparative analysis of over 20 cases of civil war.
Sambanis has taught at Yale and Penn. At Penn, he founded the Identity & Conflict Lab (PIC Lab), an inter-disciplinary lab working on a broad range of topics related to inter-group conflict. PIC Lab covers topics ranging from violent to non-violent forms of conflict in different regions of the world. Topics of current interest are the effects of external intervention on peace-building after ethnic war; the analysis of violent escalation of separatist movements; conflict between native and immigrant populations; and strategies to mitigate bias and discrimination against minority groups. He studies these questions with a focus on the connection between identity politics and conflict processes drawing on social psychology, behavioral economics, and the comparative politics and international relations literatures in political science. Ongoing projects include research on the long-term legacies of violence exposure; the sources of ethnic and national identification among minority groups; the effects of integrative institutions in overcoming ethnic conflict; and on strategies to reduce bias and discrimination toward immigrants and refugees.
In today’s episode, we discuss his latest book which will be published later this year, coauthored with Danny Choi and Mathias Poertner, examining bias and discrimination against immigrants, using Germany as a case study.
Welcome to another episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir.” Today’s guest is Igballe Rogova, an internationally renowned women’s rights advocate and co-founder and Executive Director of the Kosovo Women’s Network. She was also behind the founding of the Women’s Peace Coalition and the Regional Women’s Lobby for Peace, Security and Justice in South East Europe, bringing women’s priorities and political preferences into the regional peace-making process. Igo was also a member of the High-level Advisory Group on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, and served on the NATO Civil Society Advisory Panel on Women, Peace and Security.
In today’s episode, we discuss her work as a women’s rights advocate, the UN and NATO’s interference in this work in the post-war period, the progress (or lack thereof) that has been made in Kosovo and across the Balkans in regards to women’s rights, and what the future looks like in this regard.
Today’s guest is Hanna Siniora, former co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information and publisher of the Jerusalem Times. He has been a member of the Palestinian National Council since 1990, and has officially represented the PLO in several negotiations. A Palestinian Christian living in East Jerusalem, he served as editor-in-chief of the Arabic-language daily Al Fajr for 20 years, and was the founding editor of its English-language weekly publication. He has served as chairman of both the European Palestinian and Palestinian American Chambers of Commerce. In 2007 he was awarded the Peace Prize of Honor from the Order of the Knights of Malta in recognition of his commitment to Palestinian-Israeli peace. He was also awarded the Papal Silver Olive Branch for Peace.
In this episode, we discuss the concept of an Israeli-Palestinian confederation from a Palestinian perspective, including the aspects of security, both Israeli and Palestinian and the status of Palestinian refugees. We also discuss the Palestinian political environment, including the Palestinian people’s loss of confidence in Abbas and who could emerge among younger Palestinians as a trustworthy leader.
Today's guest is Moshe Ma’oz, Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a previous Director of the university’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. Professor Ma’oz is renowned for his expertise in Arab and Middle East affairs, and has published extensively on Islam and on the history and politics of the Middle East. He is a leading expert on Syria. Professor Ma’oz has been a visiting professor, scholar, and fellow at many leading universities and institutions around the world. He has served as an advisor on Arab Affairs for Israel’s Knesset, and was a member of official advisory committees that counseled the late Prime Ministers Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.
In today's episode, Alon and Moshe discuss the new Israeli government and the prospects for any advancement of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations under this coalition, as well as what role the Biden administration can play, if any, in such a process. In addition, they discuss the concept of a confederation as a potential solution to the conflict, including the issue of settlements, Jerusalem, national security, and the role of Jordan in such a solution.
I am happy to have back on the podcast Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal, Professor Emeritus at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University. Dr. Bar-Tal is a noted psychologist, who since the early eighties has focused on political psychology and the study of the socio-psychological foundations of intractable conflicts and peacebuilding, including reconciliation. In this episode, we discuss the concept of an Israeli-Palestinian confederation, including the current status quo, mitigating the entrenched psychological perspectives among both Israelis and Palestinians, the ongoing occupation and its effects, and what forces or political changes would need to be seen on every side in order to create an environment where peace is possible.
Full bio: Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal is Professor Emeritus at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Bar-Tal received his graduate training in social psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and completed his doctoral thesis in 1974. He previously served as a Director of the Walter Lebach Research Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education, Tel Aviv University and as President of the International Society of Political Psychology, and was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Israel Journal. He has won numerous awards, including the Alexander George Award of the International Society of Political Psychology, Nevitt Sanford Award of the International Society of Political Psychology, and Morton Deutsch Conflict Resolution Award of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence. He was awarded the Golestan Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2000-2001, and in 2013 received honorary membership in the Polish Society of Social Psychology.
Since the early eighties his interest has shifted to political psychology and the study of the socio-psychological foundations of intractable conflicts and peace building, including reconciliation. In the latter area, he studied the evolvement of the socio-psychological infrastructure in times of intractable conflict that consists of shared societal beliefs of ethos of conflict, collective memory, and emotional collective orientations. He also studied socio-psychological barriers to peacemaking and ways to overcome them, and acquisition of the conflict repertoire by children and adolescents.
Within this scope of studies he developed with his collaborators theoretical frameworks for concepts like siege mentality, intractable conflict, delegitimization, collective victimhood, socio-psychological infrastructure, culture of conflict, effects of lasting occupation, barriers to peace making, construction and struggle over conflict supporting narratives, acquisition of intergroup psychological repertoire, early development of the ethos of conflict, transitional context, collective identity, and peace education, among many others.
He has published a number of books on the subject, and has co-edited a wide variety of volumes, and in addition has published over two hundred articles and chapters in major journals, books and encyclopedias.
Through the years he has lectured widely on his work, and worked as Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University, Brandeis University, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, University of Muenster, University of Maryland College Park, Polish Academy of Science, University of Palermo, and Australian National University.
He retired in 2015 and decided to devote his second career to political activism. He founded a peace movement Save Israel-Stop the Occupation with the goal to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and establish the Palestinian state. SISO's website can be found here: www.siso.org.il/
Today’s guest is Donika Emini, Executive Director of the Civikos Platform, a cooperative of over 250 civil society organizations in Kosovo. In this episode, we discuss the relatively new administration of Albin Kurti, including his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Kosovo and his campaign pledges of reform. In addition, we discuss the status of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, international support for Kosovo, and the role of civil society in resolving these many issues.
Full bio Donika Emini serves as Executive Director of the Civikos Platform. Mrs. Emini is PhD candidate at the University of Westmisnter in London. She completed her Masters studies at the University of Erfurt – Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, with a specialization in Public and Non-Profit Management and International Relations. Mrs. Emini has been an active member of civil society for the past ten years. From 2013 – 2019 she worked as researcher at the Kosovar Center for Security Studies (KCSS). Her previous experience includes working as research fellow at the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) in Paris, Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin, Balkan Policy Institute (IPOL), and the General Consulate of the Republic of Kosovo in New York. Mrs. Emini is a member of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advocacy Group (BiEPAG), and member of the SEEThinkNet platform which converse the Berlin Process of the Western Balkans. She has actively covered the EU integration process of the Western Balkans, Regional Cooperation in the Western Balkans, the EU-facilitated Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, and the Berlin Process.
Welcome back to a new episode of “On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir”. Today’s guest is Niloofar Rahmani. Niloofar is the first female fixed-wing pilot in the Afghani Air Force, earning her wings in 2012, and the first female pilot in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. In 2015, she was awarded the US Department of State’s International Women of Courage award for her dedication to her career and commitment to encouraging other young women to join the Air Force, all in the face of death threats against herself and her family. Her book, “Open Skies: My Life as Afghanistan’s First Female Pilot”, was just published in early July.
In this episode, Alon and Niloofar discuss her journey to become a pilot in Afghanistan, the challenges she faced as a woman fighting for her dreams in her home country, the death threats she and her family faced due to her career, and her quest for asylum in the United States. They also discuss the changes to her career since moving to the US, and what the US withdrawal from Afghanistan will mean for her family and for all Afghanis.
Today’s guest is Erwan Fouéré, Associate Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies, where he focuses on the EU’s role in the Balkans, with a specific focus on Macedonia. Prior to joining CEPS, Erwan served for 38 years with the EU institutions in various capacities, including at Headquarters and the European External Action Service. His most recent appointment was as Special Representative for the Irish 2012 Chairmanship of the OSCE.
In this episode, Alon and Erwan discuss a multitude of issues surrounding the European Union and the Western Balkans region, including the enlargement of the EU, particularly in relation to the Western Balkans, and the lack of consistency within EU foreign policy regarding enlargement. In addition, they examine the impediments to progress within the EU itself: the unanimity rule and what steps can be taken to mitigate its negative impacts, and what can be done about member states such as Poland and Hungary, which are departing from democratic governance and the values of the EU itself.
A full transcript of the episode can be found here: http://alonben-meir.com/audio/on-the-issues-episode-76-erwan-fouere/
Full Bio: After having pursued a career spanning 38 years with the EU institutions, during which he assumed various responsibilities both at Headquarters and more particularly in the EU’s External Service, Erwan Fouéré has joined CEPS as an Associate Senior Research Fellow.
His area of research is on the EU’s role in the Balkans, seen from various angles (security & stability, enlargement, domestic politics), with a specific focus on Macedonia. More generally, he will also assess the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the EU’s performance, with specific reference to the role of EU Special Representatives.
Prior to joining CEPS, Erwan Fouéré’s most recent appointment was as Special Representative for the Irish 2012 Chairmanship of the OSCE, with special responsibility for the Transdniestrian settlement process. He was the first to assume joint responsibilities of EU Special Representative and Head of Delegation in the EU External Service when he was appointed in this double capacity in Macedonia (2005), where he served for five years up to his retirement from the EU Institutions. Before that, he was Head of Delegation in Slovenia leading to accession, the first Head of Delegation in South Africa (1994) and the first Head of EC Delegations in Mexico and Cuba (1989). He was also Deputy Head of the Delegation for Relations with Latin America based in Caracas (1984). At headquarters, he worked successively on the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and relations with East European Countries, on international relations in the field of the environment, and on EU relations with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
He was a post graduate research assistant at the Max Kohnstamm Institute for European Affairs (1970-72), and a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution (1983). He has lectured at several European universities on EU Foreign and Security Policy, and was a regular contributor to EU Masters Course of Human Rights (2000-2010).
Introduction Today’s guest is Artan Grubi, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Political System and Relations Between Communities in North Macedonia. In today’s episode, they discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on North Macedonia, youth engagement, and the country’s accession process with the European Union.
Full bio Artan Grubi was born in Skopje on June 7, 1977. He completed his primary and secondary education in Skopje, while he completed his higher education at the Faculty of Law "Justinian I" where he received the title of Journalist. He completed his postgraduate studies in Media and Communications at the Faculty of Law at the University "Cyril and Methodius" on the topic "The role of new media in societies in transition."
Grubi is a doctoral student at the State University in Tirana, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and is defending a paper on the topic: "The role of the media in civic participation in socio-political change." At the State University of Tetova, Grubi teaches at the Faculty of Journalism in Theory and Communication, Media and Conflict, Interpersonal Communication and Public Relations. In the Parliamentary Elections in 2014, Grubi was elected a Member of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. Grubi was re-elected Member of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia in the 2016 Parliamentary Elections.
Previously, Artan Grubi has four years of experience with international organizations in Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, the Netherlands and Kosovo, at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Skopje, NATO, The Hague Tribunal and US Assistance Agencies with various operational obligations. Artan Grubi has excellent knowledge of English, Macedonian, knowledge of French and elementary knowledge of Dutch, as well as the languages of the countries of the region.
Today’s guest is Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where she teaches in the Program in International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and is Faculty Director of the Initiative on Religion, Law, and Diplomacy. In this episode, Alon and Elizabeth discuss Turkey’s efforts to expand its influence in the Middle East and the Balkans, Turkey’s relationship with NATO and the West, and increasing authoritarianism in Turkey under Erdogan’s leadership.
Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou is a faculty member at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where directs the Initiative on Religion, Law, and Diplomacy. She is non-resident Senior Fellow and Co-Chair of the Working Group on Christians and Religious Pluralism in the Middle East, at the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, and was non-resident Senior Fellow in National Security and the Middle East, at the Center for American Progress. She is a Co-President of Religions for Peace. Prodromou served as Vice Chair and Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (2004-2012) and was a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Religion & Foreign Policy Working Group (2011-2015).
Her research interests focus on geopolitics and religion, with particular focus on the Middle East, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Southeastern Europe. Her current research projects concentrate on cultural heritage and institutional religious freedom in Turkey and comparative context, as well as Eastern Orthodox Christianity and global public engagement. She is the faculty director for Fletcher’s executive education program for faith-based leadership. The author of multiple edited volumes and many publications in scholarly and policy journals, Prodromou is a frequent commentator and contributor in US and international media.
She holds a Ph.D. and an S.M. in political science from MIT, an M.A.L.D. in international relations from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), and a B.A. in history and international relations from Tufts University.
My guest today is Anna Di Lellio, a sociologist and policy analyst with a broad range of interests and experience, from American politics and culture to nationalism, security and state building in the Balkans.
Her research and publications focus on Kosovo, where she worked for years, as spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Program during the 1999 NATO intervention; Media Commissioner under the aegis of the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); research analyst and advisor on the Kosovo Liberation Army program of reintegration for the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo; and political adviser to the Prime Minister. She is also the co-founder of the Kosovo Oral History Initiative (KOHI) in cooperation with the Kosova Women’s Network and she coordinates the project. KOHI is a multi- lingual and multi-media virtual archive of Kosovo history that is easily accessible to the public. It focuses on individual life stories that, since Kosovo’s history has either been unrecorded or trapped in ideological narratives, provide the micro-knowledge that maps and demystifies the construction of mythologizing identities that support those narratives. In January 2015, KOHI has been awarded a grant by the National Endowment for Democracy in support of the Initiative’s work on strengthening inter-ethnic understanding and cooperation, as well as promoting human rights education.
Professor Di Lellio teaches in New York at the Graduate Program in International Relations, The New School for Public Engagement, and at the International Relations Program of New York University. She is the editor of The Case for Kosova: Passage to Independence (Anthem, 2006), and the author of The Battle of Kosovo 1389: An Albanian Epic (I.B. Tauris, 2009). In 2015 she was awarded the Kosovo Presidential Medal of Merit by President Atifete Jahjaga for her contributions to the nation in the field of culture.
In this episode, we discuss the Kosovo-Serbia conflict: what the background of the conflict is, what could potentially come out of the US-brokered negotiations scheduled for later this week, and the prospect of both countries for joining the European Union.
Today's guest is Visar Duriqi, an investigative journalist from Kosovo. He has been working as a journalist since January of 2009.
As part of Kosovo Center for Investigative Journalism, which is a project of Çohu!, an anticorruption NGO, he investigated public procurement, corruption going on in the energy sector, relations between donors to political campaigns and the public budget as well as reporting about the radicalization of Islam at a time when other media were not reporting on this topic.
At BIRN and Pristina Insight, he published articles related to the economy and health system as well as organized crime and corruption, which involves groups and individuals related to politics. He also wrote articles related to religion, not necessary about radicalization but also covering some issues inside the Islamic community of Kosovo, such as the elections and the manipulation of this institution by a handful of people surrounding the Mufti of Kosovo, Mr. Naim Tërnava.
From March of 2015 to February of 2016, he was a guest of the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted People in Germany. During this time he also got a degree from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in Security Governance and Conflict Resolution.
Since 2018 he has hosted a show called InDoks. In this show, he has investigated mostly organized crime and groups who on trial, but also has uncovered cases way before the justice system began any investigation against them, such as the case of Ismet Osmani (known as Curri, the guy with a half ear). Almost a year after InDoks broadcast a documentary about him, he was arrested for usury and InDoks produced another more detailed documentary about “Curri”, named “The Albanian Mob”.
Many of the shows broadcast by InDoks contain also information to expose corruption within the Kosovo Police and its relation to corruption and organized crime, as well as the involvement of some police officers in morbid crimes such as raping children, killing, and abuse of power.
The almost 100 shows broadcast by InDoks include documentaries about war crimes, misuses of trust by religious people through practicing exorcism, as well as investigating cases of people who were put in prison without evidence, or in some cases where evidence shows that they are completely innocent.
InDoks has aired profiles of politicians, including a profile of Albin Kurti, the current Prime Minister of Kosovo, to show how much he has changed from an Idealist to a Machiavellist.
Lately, InDoks has focused on covering the pandemic situation in Kosovo caused by COVID19, where some of the shows have brought to the public’s attention the public budget being misused to make people rich in the name of buying medical supplies.
In this episode, we discuss religious radicalization and those Kosovars who have joined ISIS, Turkey’s ever-growing influence in Kosovo, and Kosovo-Serbia relations and the EU role in that regard.
Melissa J. Wilde is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her first book, Vatican II, won the Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Although most of Wilde’s research has focused on religious change, her most recent research—which she describes as the study of “complex religion”—focuses on what has not changed within American religion, in particular, the enduring ways that it intersects with race, class, and gender today. Her latest book is Birth Control Battles: How Race and Class Divided American Religion.
In this episode, we discuss gender inequality and women’s rights in religion, and particularly the issue of birth control and reproductive rights among Christian denominations.
This week's guest is Dr. Ahmet S. Yayla, Assistant Professor and Director of the Center for Homeland Security at DeSales University, where he teaches courses in cybercrime, homeland security, and terrorism and counterterrorism. He formerly served as a full professor and the chair of the Department of Sociology at Harran University in Turkey. He is a 20-year veteran of the counterterrorism and operations department in the Turkish National Police and served as the chief of counterterrorism in Sanliurfa, Turkey between 2010 and 2013. He has an MS in criminal justice and a Ph.D. in information science and criminal justice from the University of North Texas. Dr. Yayla's unique position in counterterrorism rests upon his demonstrated mastery of policy, field operations and academic theory. He is an experienced practitioner in law enforcement and has advised senior government officials around the world during his career in counterterrorism and academia. Dr. Yayla has published both scholarly works and written or co-written numerous articles on mainstream news platforms related to counterterrorism and homeland security.
In this episode, we discuss corruption under Erdogan, Turkey’s role in Syria and the broader region, and Turkey’s prospects for the future.
Today’s guest is Sean Yom, Associate Professor of Political Science at Temple University and Senior Fellow in the Middle East Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is a specialist on regimes and governance in the Middle East, especially in Arab monarchies like Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco. In this episode, they discuss the advantages and disadvantages of monarchies versus liberal democracies, American foreign policy in the Middle East, and the United States’ relationship with Israel.
Sean Yom is Associate Professor of Political Science at Temple University and Senior Fellow in the Middle East Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is a specialist on regimes and governance in the Middle East, especially in Arab monarchies like Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco. His research engages topics of authoritarian politics, democratic reforms, institutional stability, and economic development in these countries, as well as their implications for US foreign policy. His publications include the books From Resilience to Revolution: How Foreign Interventions Destabilize the Middle East (Columbia University Press, 2016), as well as Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa, 9th edition (Routledge, 2020); articles in print journals like Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of International Relations, Studies in Comparative International Development, and Journal of Democracy; and contributions in online venues like Foreign Affairs, Middle East Eye, and the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage. He also advises country-level work with international NGOs, law firms, and sovereign clients. Education: A.B., Brown University (2003); PhD., Harvard University (2009).
Today's guest is Sıtkı Özcan, a Turkish journalist based in the United States, where he writes for Kronos Haber. He is the former US Bureau Chief of Zaman Amerika, which was unable to remain open after the seizure of its sister publication Zaman in Turkey.
In this episode, we discuss the bilateral relations between the United States and Turkey, Turkey’s relations with its regional neighbors, and Turkish President Erdogan – his politics, his standing in Turkey, and his relations with other foreign leaders.
Today's guest is Aaron David Miller, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and former State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator in Republican and Democratic administrations. In this episode, we discuss Gulliver’s Troubles—the assassination of Iranian General Qassim Soleimani, US involvement in Iraq and the broader Middle East, and the American role in Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Full Bio Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, focusing on U.S. foreign policy. He has written five books, including his most recent, The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President (Palgrave, 2014) and The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (Bantam, 2008). He received his PhD in Middle East and U.S. diplomatic history from the University of Michigan in 1977.
Between 1978 and 2003, Miller served at the State Department as an historian, analyst, negotiator, and advisor to Republican and Democratic secretaries of state, where he helped formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East and the Arab-Israel peace process, most recently as the senior advisor for Arab-Israeli negotiations. He also served as the deputy special Middle East coordinator for Arab-Israeli negotiations, senior member of the State Department’s policy planning staff, in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and in the office of the historian. He has received the department’s Distinguished, Superior, and Meritorious Honor Awards.
Miller is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and formerly served as resident scholar at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has been a featured presenter at the World Economic Forum and leading U.S. universities. Between 2003 and 2006 he served as president of Seeds of Peace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence. From 2006 to 2019, Miller was a public policy scholar; vice president for new initiatives, and director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Miller is a global affairs analyst for CNN. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, Foreign Policy, USAToday, and CNN.com. He is a frequent commentator on NPR, BBC, and Sirius XM radio.
Today's guest is Abdülhamit Bilici, a journalist and editor-in-chief of the Zaman newspaper until its seizure in 2016 by the Turkish government. In this episode, we discuss Erdogan’s initial rise to power and his current political prospects, the direction of Turkey under Erdogan, and what Turkey’s political future could look like.
My guest today is Mehnaz Afridi, Director of the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College. In this episode, we discuss the misperception of the relationship between Jews and Muslims, what approaches can be taken to create reconciliation between Israelis and Arabs, the rise of antisemitism in the United States, and the future of religious coexistence.
Mehnaz M. Afridi is the director of Manhattan College Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center. The goal of the center is to "help eradicate human suffering, prejudice, and racism through education." She is also an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College where she teaches Islam and the Holocaust. Her research primarily focuses on Islam and contemporary literature. She is also works on the intersections of Judaism and Islam. Her recent work has been on the Holocaust and the role of Muslims, antisemitism and Islamophobia. Mehnaz has taught at Antioch University, National University, American Intercontinental University and Loyola Marymount University. She received her PhD in Islam and Religious Studies from the University of South Africa and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Syracuse University.3 In 2006, she taught in Rome and participated in a seminar sponsored by the National Endowment of Humanities on how Muslims and Jews influenced and Italian Culture in Venice, Italy. She has been invited by the University of Munich to present her work on Egypt: A Nexus of Anti-Semitism and has published an article entitled Sacred Tropes: The Qur’an Cruel or Compassionate, published by Brill. And she is the author of The Shoah Through Muslim Eyes.
Today's guest is David Makovsky, the Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Project on Arab-Israel Relations. He is also an adjunct professor in Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). In 2013-2014, he worked in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of State, serving as a senior advisor to the Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations.
Author of numerous Washington Institute monographs and essays on issues related to the Middle East Peace Process and the Arab-Israeli conflict, he is also coauthor, with Dennis Ross, of the 2019 book Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel's Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny (PublicAffairs) and the 2009 Washington Post bestseller Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East (Viking/Penguin). His 2017 interactive mapping project, "Settlements and Solutions," is designed to help users discover for themselves whether a two-state solution is still viable. His 2011 maps on alternative territorial solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were reprinted by the New York Times in the paper's first interactive treatment of an op-ed. His widely acclaimed September 2012 New Yorker essay, "The Silent Strike," focused on the U.S.-Israel dynamics leading up to the 2007 Israeli attack on Syrian nuclear facilities. He is also the host of the podcast Decision Points: The U.S.-Israel Relationship.
Mr. Makovsky is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. His commentary on the peace process and the Arab-Israeli conflict has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and National Interest. He appears frequently in the media to comment on Arab-Israeli affairs, including PBS NewsHour.
He has testified before the full U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the full U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, and on multiple occasions before the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Middle East Subcommittee.
In last several years, he has made over 120 visits to American college campuses to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has done a TEDx talk on this issue for the college audience.
Before joining The Washington Institute, Mr. Makovsky was an award-winning journalist who covered the peace process from 1989 to 2000. He is the former executive editor of the Jerusalem Post, was diplomatic correspondent for Israel's leading daily, Haaretz, and is a former contributing editor to U.S. News and World Report. He served for eleven years as that magazine's special Jerusalem correspondent. He was awarded the National Press Club's 1994 Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence for a cover story on PLO finances that he cowrote for the magazine.
In July 1994, as a result of personal intervention by then Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Mr. Makovsky became the first journalist writing for an Israeli publication to visit Damascus. In total, he has made five trips to Syria, the most recent in December 1999 when he accompanied then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In March 1995, with assistance from U.S. officials, Mr. Makovsky was given unprecedented permission to file reports from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for an Israeli publication.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Mr. Makovsky received a bachelor's degree from Columbia University and a master's degree in Middle East studies from Harvard University.
In this episode, we discuss the US-Israel relationship, especially where the bilateral relationship is going, what the future of Israel looks like in relation to the Palestinians, and the relationship between Israel and the Arab states.
Dr. Elie Friedman is Director of the Center for Strategic Dialogue at Netanya Academic College and a researcher of communications and discourse with an emphasis on conflict studies and public diplomacy. Through his various roles at the center, he has a wealth of experience managing the various projects, including grant writing, reporting, budget management, and coordination with strategic partners and international participants in our events. Dr. Friedman completed his doctorate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Communications department and a post-doctorate at Lancaster University. He has published widely in numerous academic journals and recently published his first monograph at Routledge Academic Press, along with Prof. Dalia Gavriely-Nuri, entitled Israeli Discourse and the West Bank: Dialectics of Normalization and Estrangement.
In today’s episode, we discuss the upcoming Israeli elections and the potential for progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Today's guest is Govind Dwivedi. Major General G G Dwivedi retired as an Assistant Chief Integrated Defence Staff (strategic) in 2009, after 38 years of distinguished service in the Indian Army (Infantry). A Veteran of the Bangladesh War in 1971, he later commanded unit/formations in intense operational environment; as well as held important staff, instructional and foreign assignments.
A graduate of National Defence Academy Kharkvasla, he holds M Sc, MBA, M.Phil (double) in Defence & Strategic Studies from Madras University and a Ph.D. in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Besides Interpretership in Chinese from the School of Foreign Languages, he obtained ‘Art & Practice of Leadership Development’ and Senior Executives Programme in National/International Security from Harvard Kennedy School, USA. An alumnus of National Defence College, he has been faculty at Indian Military Academy Dehradun and Defence Services Staff College Wellington; served as Defence Attaché in China, Mongolia, and North Korea. He was instrumental in the formulation of numerous concept papers and doctrines as the Head of Doctrine/Strategic Branches.
From 2013-17, he was a Professor of International Relations at Aligarh University, a central university, and was instrumental in establishing the new Faculty of International Studies. Currently he is a Visiting Faculty at Foreign Services Institute Delhi, Panjab University Chandigarh and North Cap University, Gurgaon, and is a resource person for UGC HRD Centers of Leading Central Universities.
He has authored/edited five books; published over 50 articles including book chapters on Geo Strategy, National Security and Leadership, and over 70 short pieces in the leading professional journals and national dailies. A member of renowned think tanks, he regularly guest speaks at premier ‘Centers of Excellence’ both in India and abroad and appears frequently on national television as a panelist.
In today’s episode, we discuss relations between India and China, Kashmir, and the conflict between India and Pakistan over that region.
In this episode, I go in-depth with Marc Pierini on Turkey, Erdogan’s political future, Turkey’s relations with Europe and the West, and the future of Turkey within NATO.
Marc Pierini is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, where his research focuses on developments in the Middle East and Turkey from a European perspective.
Pierini was a career EU diplomat from December 1976 to April 2012. He was EU ambassador and head of delegation to Turkey (2006–2011) and ambassador to Tunisia and Libya (2002–2006), Syria (1998–2002), and Morocco (1991–1995). He also served as the first coordinator for the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, or the Barcelona Process, from 1995 to 1998 and was the main negotiator for the release of the Bulgarian hostages from Libya from 2004 to 2007.
Pierini served as counselor in the cabinet of two European commissioners: Claude Cheysson, from 1979 to 1981, and Abel Matutes, from 1989 to 1991. He has published three essays in French: “Le prix de la liberté,” “Télégrammes diplomatiques,” and “Où va la Turquie?.”
Pierini is a member of the International Council of the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations in Marseille.
Uk Lushi is an Albanian-American author and investor. He has worked for several global corporations and investment companies such as General Electric, Dynamic Credit Partners and IntTra Group.
His articles and opinions have been published in the US, Germany, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania. Lushi holds a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Columbia University in New York City.
In this episode, we discuss corruption in Kosovo and how to battle it.
Dr Maha Hosain Aziz is an NYU professor (MA IR Program), blogger and consultant focused on global risk & prediction. She has been called a "global thinker to watch" by Dr Nouriel Roubini for her first book Future World Order; Dr Ian Bremmer and Kishore Mahbubani call her book a "must-read." Dr Aziz is also a visiting fellow at the LSE's Institute of Global Affairs and a cartoonist who created the award-winning 2016 political comic book, The Global Kid (all sales to education nonprofits), which is being adapted into a political graphic novel. She is a Jordanian-born Pakistani who grew up in the Middle East (Jordan, Saudi Arabia), Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia), Europe (UK, Greece) and the US. And she is a social scientist trained at Brown (BA), Columbia (MA) and the LSE (MSc, PhD).
In this episode, we discuss the global rise of nationalism, citizen-led movements, and the changing nature of global leadership.
William L. Rosenberg, PhD, is a Professor of Political Science at Drexel University.
Rosenberg is the author of over 80 articles, papers and technical reports. He is a co-author of two books related to public opinion and public policy, "News Verdicts, the Debates and Presidential Campaigns" and "The Politics of Disenchantment: Bush, Clinton, Perot and the Press.” He is a well known expert in the presidential election process as well public opinion and media related to the campaigns.
In addition, Rosenberg has served as Principal Investigator on a number of large-scale multi-year evaluation studies for various government agencies at both the state and national level. He has also served on a variety of National Advisory Panels for the Department of HHS. In addition to his evaluation research, he has been active in conducting opinion research on immigration related issues. He is an expert in conducting both quantitative and qualitative studies using telephone, web, mail, intercept, and in-person surveys as well as focus group techniques. Rosenberg was the Founder and Director of the Drexel University Survey Research Center for 20 years.
He has taught applied research methods techniques at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. As a member of Mid-West Association of Public Opinion Researchers (MAPOR) for over 20 years, he has been a regular presenter and chair at the annual conferences as well as a member of its Executive Board. He has also served as President of MAPOR. He has also served on the Ethics and Standards Committee of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).
Rosenberg has been a research consultant for a variety of public and private organizations within the city, region and nation. He is also a regular analyst for television, radio, and newspapers. He served as a campaign analyst for CNN and the BBC during the 2008 Presidential election. In addition to these appearances, Rosenberg served as the debate analyst for POTUS XM Channel 130 after the Democratic and Republican debates in 2008 and 2012, as well as through the presidential elections. He continues to serve there as well other media outlets as a political analyst.
Most recently, Dr. Rosenberg served as an International Expert for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). His work, conducted in Albania, was designed to assist their government in the training of public administrators in the area of anti-corruption.
In this episode, we discuss corruption in the Balkans and processes for combating that behavior.
Dr. Ian Lustick teaches courses at the University of Pennsylvania on Middle Eastern politics, comparative politics, political identities and institutions, techniques of hegemonic analysis, the expansion and contraction of states, and on relationships among complexity, evolution, and politics. He is a recipient of awards from the Carnegie Corporation, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Sciences Research Council, the Middle East Peace Foundation, and the United States Institute of Peace. Before coming to Penn, Professor Lustick holds the Bess W. Heyman Chair. Before coming to Penn he taught for fifteen years at Dartmouth College and worked for one year in the Department of State. His present research focuses on the demise of states and the implications of the disappearance of the option of a negotiated “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, He is a past president of the Politics and History Section of the American Political Science Association and of the Association for Israel Studies, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
In this episode, we discuss differing prospects for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Brendan O'Leary is an Irish, European Union, and US citizen, and since 2003 has been the Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author, co-author, and co-editor of 26 books; and the author or co-author of hundreds of articles or chapters in peer-reviewed journals and university presses, encyclopedia articles, and numerous other forms of publication.
Professor O’Leary was the inaugural winner of the Juan Linz prize of the International Political Science Association for contributions to the study of multinational societies, federalism and power-sharing, and in 2016 he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy, principally because of his contributions to the field of power-sharing. In addition to his scholarly work, O’Leary has been a political and constitutional advisor to the United Nations, the European Union, the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, the Governments of the UK and Ireland, and to the British Labour Party (before and during the Irish peace process).
Between 1983 and 2003, O’Leary was on the faculty of the London School of Economics & Political Science, where he was successively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Professor of Political Science; the first elected head of the LSE Government Department (1998-2001); and an elected Academic Governor (2000-1). He has been a visiting professor of political science at Uppsala University, the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and at Queen's University Belfast, and a Moore fellow at the National University of Ireland-Galway.
Brendan O’Leary was a political advisor to the British Labour Shadow Cabinet on Northern Ireland between 1987-8 and 1996-7, advising the late Kevin McNamara and the late Marjorie (“Mo”) Mowlam, shadow Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland. He advised Irish, British, and American ministers and officials, and the Irish-American Morrison delegation during the Northern Ireland peace process, appeared as an expert witness before the US Congress, and was a guest at the White House in 1994, 1995 and 1998. His work with John McGarry on police reform was singled out in the press for influencing the independent commission on police reform which reported in 1999.
O’Leary has been a constitutional advisor for the European Union and the United Nations in the promotion of the confederal and federal re-building of Somalia, and for the United Kingdom’s Department of International Development in consultancies on power-sharing in coalition governments in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, and in Nepal.
For the United Nations O’Leary was a contributing consultant to its 2004 United Nations Human Development Report on Culture and Liberty, co-edited by Amartya Sen. In 2009-2010 he was seconded to the UN as the Senior Advisor on Power-Sharing in the Standby Team of the Mediation Support Unit of the Department of Political Affairs. In that capacity he had field experience in numerous conflict-sites, including in Sudan, South Sudan, Nepal and Kyrgyzstan.
Since 2003 O’Leary has regularly been an international constitutional advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, assisting in the negotiation of the Transitional Administrative Law (2004); electoral systems design (2004-5); the Constitution of Iraq (2005); the draft Constitution of the Kurdistan Region (2005-); and in monitoring violations of the Constitution of Iraq by its federal government. He has also been an expert witness on Iraq and Kurdistan to branches of the US Government, and to the United Kingdom's Iraq Commission.
Artan Haraqija is an investigative journalist with 20 years’ experience covering organized crime, corruption, radical religious groups and the European Union Integration in the Balkans, and international media organizations. He has a Master’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Westminster in London, UK.
In this episode, we discuss radicalization in Kosovo, the increased religious influence from Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the lack of protection for journalists, corruption, and what hope the people of Kosovo can have towards their future.
Thanassis Cambanis is an author, journalist and fellow at The Century Foundation, who specializes in the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy. He is co-director of TCF’s “Arab Politics beyond the Uprisings.” His most recent book, Once Upon A Revolution: An Egyptian Story (Simon and Schuster: 2015), chronicles Egyptian efforts to create a new political order. His first book, A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah’s Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel, was published in 2010. He writes “The Internationalist” column for The Boston Globe Ideas, and regularly contributes to The Atlantic, Foreign Policy and The New York Times.
He has taught at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and as a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He lives in Beirut. See more of his writing at thanassiscambanis.com.
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Mary Beth Altier about statebuilding and political violence, using the example of Northern Ireland as a way to examine conflicts and political violence in the Middle East, particularly by way of ISIS and al-Qaeda.
Dr. Mary Beth Altier is a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. She received her Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University in 2011 and then worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Pennsylvania State University on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.K. government funded project on terrorist disengagement, re-engagement, and recidivism. She also worked as a postdoctoral researcher on a project on civil war and democratization based at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Dr. Altier’s research interests are in international security, foreign policy, political violence, and political behavior. Her recent work centers on the reasons why individuals support the use of political violence in developed and developing democracies as well as why they participate in acts of political violence, especially terrorism. She is also interested in the disengagement and rehabilitation of ex-combatants and identifying empirically based methods for assessing risk of re-engagement. Dr. Altier is preparing a book manuscript based upon her dissertation, which won the 2013 American Political Science Association’s Ernst B. Haas award, and she is also the 2015 recipient of the American Political Science Association’s Organized Section on European Politics and Society’s Best Paper Award. Her research has been featured in the Journal of Peace Research, Security Studies, Terrorism and Political Violence, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, and Journal of Strategic Security and she serves on the editorial board of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression.
Professor Altier teaches courses on Transnational Security, Transnational Terrorism, Security Sector Governance and the Rule of Law, and Analytic Skills. In 2017, she received the NYU SPS Excellence in Teaching Award.
You can follow Professor Altier on Twitter @marybethaltier and NYU CGA’s Initiative for the Study of Emerging Threats @ISETNYU.
Adrian Shtuni is a Washington, D.C.-based foreign policy and security analyst with a regional focus on the Western Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. He consults on countering violent extremism (CVE), counterterrorism, political risk, irregular migration, and other transnational threats. He also designs and implements CVE trainings and programs, and regularly presents at national and international conferences, summits, and symposiums. He holds a M.Sc. in Foreign Service with a concentration in International Relations and Security from Georgetown University.
I am honored to have a special guest for today’s episode, Pierre Vimont. During his thirty-eight-year diplomatic career with the French foreign service, he served as the first executive secretary-general of the European External Action Service, ambassador to the United States, and ambassador to the European Union. Mr. Vimont was appointed as the chief of staff to three former French foreign ministers. He holds the title, Ambassador of France, a dignity bestowed for life to only a few French career diplomats. More recently he served as the Special Envoy for the French initiative for a Middle East Peace Conference, and is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe.
In this extra-long episode, we discuss a variety of issues concerning the United States and the European Union, the possibility of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the ending of the civil war in Syria, the war in Yemen, and the withdrawal of the US from the Iran deal and its implications.
In today's episode, I talk with Nathan J. Brown, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, about Israel, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority, and the challenges of coming to a peace agreement.
Nathan J. Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, is a distinguished scholar and author of six well-received books on Arab politics. Brown brings his special expertise on Islamist movements, Egyptian politics, Palestinian politics, and Arab law and constitutionalism to Carnegie. Brown’s latest book, Arguing Islam After the Revival of Arab Politics, was published by Oxford University Press in 2016, and his previous book, When Victory Is Not an Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics, was published by Cornell University Press in early 2012. His current work focuses on religion, law, and politics in the Arab world.
In 2013, Brown was named a Guggenheim Fellow; four years earlier, he was named a Carnegie scholar by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. For the 2009–2010 academic year, he was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. In addition to his academic work, Brown serves on the Middle East and North Africa advisory committee for Human Rights Watch and the board of trustees at the American University in Cairo. He has previously served as an advisor for the committee drafting the Palestinian constitution, USAID, the United Nations Development Program, and several NGOs. For 2013-2015 he is president of the Middle East Studies Association, the academic association for scholars studying the region.
Brown is the author of Between Religion and Politics (with Amr Hamzawy, Carnegie 2010); Resuming Arab Palestine (University of California Press, 2003); Constitutions in a Non-Constitutional World: Arab Basic Laws and Prospects for Accountable Government(SUNY Press, 2001); and The Rule of Law in the Arab World: Courts in Egypt and the Arab States of the Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 1997). He also edited The Dynamics of Democratization (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012).
Professor Daniel Serwer (Ph.D., Princeton) directs the Conflict Management Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is also a Senior Fellow at its Center for Transatlantic Relations and affiliated as a Scholar with the Middle East Institute. His current interests focus on the civilian instruments needed to protect U.S. national security as well as transition and state-building in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans. His book, Righting the Balance: How You Can Help Protect America, was published in November 2013 by Potomac Books.
Formerly vice president for centers of peacebuilding innovation at the United States Institute of Peace, he led teams there working on rule of law, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance, and gender. He was also vice president for peace and stability operations at USIP, where he led its peacebuilding work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and the Balkans and served as Executive Director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group. Serwer has worked on preventing inter-ethnic and sectarian conflict in Iraq and has facilitated dialogue between Serbs and Albanians in the Balkans.
As a minister-counselor at the U.S. Department of State, Serwer directed the European office of intelligence and research and served as U.S. special envoy and coordinator for the Bosnian Federation, mediating between Croats and Muslims and negotiating the first agreement reached at the Dayton peace talks. From 1990 to 1993, he was deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, leading a major diplomatic mission through the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War.
Michele Dunne is the director and a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Middle East Program, where her research focuses on political and economic change in Arab countries, particularly Egypt, as well as U.S. policy in the Middle East. She was the founding director of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council from 2011 to 2013 and was a senior associate and editor of the Arab Reform Bulletin at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 2006 to 2011.
Dunne was a Middle East specialist at the U.S. Department of State from 1986 to 2003, where she served in assignments that included the National Security Council, the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff, the U.S. embassy in Cairo, the U.S. consulate general in Jerusalem, and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. She also served as a visiting professor of Arabic language and Arab studies at Georgetown from 2003 to 2006.
Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization, which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. Additionally, Dr. Zogby is Managing Director of Zogby Research Services, LLC (ZRS), specializing in research and communications.
During his four decade long career, Zogby also co-founded and directed the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Save Lebanon, Inc. In 1993, he was asked by Vice President Al Gore to lead Builders for Peace, a private sector committee to promote U.S. business investment in the West Bank and Gaza. In this capacity, Zogby worked with a number of U.S. agencies to promote and support Palestinian economic development, including AID, OPIC, USTDA, and the Departments of State and Commerce.
Dr. Zogby has been personally active in U.S. politics for many years, he currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and is Co-Chair of the DNC’s Resolutions Committee.
A lecturer and scholar on Middle East issues, U.S.-Arab relations, and the history of the Arab American community, he has an extensive media profile in the United States and across the Arab World. Since 1992, Dr. Zogby has written Washington Watch, a weekly column on U.S. politics that is currently published in 14 Arab and South Asian countries.
In addition to Arab Voices, he has authored a number of other books including What Ethnic Americans Really Think and What Arabs Think: Values, Beliefs and Concerns, based on polling he conducted together with his brother John Zogby.
In 1975, Dr. Zogby received his doctorate from Temple University’s Department of Religion, where he studied under the Islamic scholar Dr. Ismail al-Faruqi. He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellow at Princeton University. He is the recipient of a number of honorary degrees and teaching fellowships.
Arbana Xharra is an investigative journalist from Kosovo. She authored a series of investigative reports on religious extremists and Turkey’s Islamic agenda operating in the Balkans. She has won numerous awards for her reporting, and was a 2015 recipient of the International Women of Courage Award from the US State Department.
My guest today is Robert Lapiner, Professor of Humanities and Dean Emeritus of the School for Professional Studies at New York University.
From 2011-2013, Robert Lapiner served as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Global Continuing Education at New York University, which would eventually become the School of Professional Studies. Prior to that, Lapiner was the Dean of the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies, where he remains a member of the faculty.
Lapiner joined NYU after serving as the Dean of Continuing Education and UCLA Extension, and faculty associate at the UCLA Center for International Development Education. Before his position at the University of California, Los Angeles, he was based in Paris and New York, as Deputy Executive Director/Director for Europe for the Council on International Educational Exchange. His international experience began with his appointment as a career diplomat in cultural and educational affairs with the US Foreign Service.
Lapiner earned his B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned both his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Lapiner is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. While at Harvard he was named a Graduate Prize Fellow.
While on assignment to the Democratic Republic of Congo with the U.S. Foreign Service, Lapiner earned the Meritorious Honor Award for special achievement. He has also earned commendations for exceptional educational public service, by the City and the County of Los Angeles.
Additionally, Lapiner earned the Award of Excellence for Innovative Programming from UPCEA.
Alexander Cooley is the Claire Tow Professor of Political Science at Barnard College and Director of Columbia University's Harriman Institute (2016-18).
Professor Cooley’s research examines how external actors have shaped the development and sovereignty of the former Soviet states, with a focus on Central Asia and the Caucasus. He is author and/or editor of six academic books. His most recent book Dictators without Borders explores the rise of "extraterriorial authoritarianism" and how Western professionals support the transnational networks of Central Asian elites.
In addition to his academic research, Professor Cooley serves on several international advisory boards and has testified for the United States Congress and the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Cooley's opinion pieces have appeared in New York Times, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs and his research has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Open Society Foundations, Carnegie Corporation, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States, among others. Cooley earned both his MA and Ph.D. from Columbia University.
My guest today is Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, president of operations for the High Atlas Foundation, which he co-founded in 2000.
He originally came to Morocco as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1993. From 1998 to 1999, he served as an Associate Peace Corps Director there, managing the agriculture and environment program in Morocco. He was also a professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane from 2009 to 2010.
Dr. Ben-Meir holds a PhD in sociology from the University of New Mexico (2009) where he also taught. In addition, he has an MA in international development from Clark University (1997) and a BA in economics from New York University (1991).
My guest today is Ahmed Zohny, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Coppin State University. Zohny served as a Senior Adviser to the United States Department of State/ USAID project of technical assistance to the government of Egypt (2005-2007). He advised the World Bank Institute on a wide variety of issues, including quality of graduate and professional programs worldwide. He served as an adviser and leadership trainer on issues of Public Policy Development, Implementation & Evaluation, Governance, Human Capital Management and Development for Senior Government Managers from the Middle East at the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank.
Zohny is also an international development and transactional lawyer whose practice focuses on International Marketing, International Trade, Intellectual Property, Trademark, Patent, Trade Secret / Unfair Completion, Anti-Piracy, Copyright, Right of Publicity / Right of Privacy, Agency, Franchising, Distributorship and International Arbitration with Egypt and the Arab countries.
Dr. Zohny is fluent in both Arabic and English with extensive knowledge of Islamic Banking and Finance and experience in identifying, investigating and deterring fraud and corrupt practices in international banking in the Arab countries' setting; structuring complex financial transactions, including security arrangements, developing risk mitigation strategies, formation of Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances.
My guest today is Anthony Oberschall, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has written on social movements, collective action, ethnic conflicts, genocide and mass violence, counterinsurgency, peacemaking in civil strife, and other related topics. You can find Anthony's book, which we discuss in the episode, at this link: https://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Peace-Building-Divided-Societies/dp/0415411610.
On this episode, I speak with William Morris, Secretary General of the Next Century Foundation, about the role of the UN in global humanitarian crises, the Syrian civil war, and the broader situation in the Middle East.
Bio: William Morris is Secretary General of the Next Century Foundation, as well as being a broadcaster. He has worked as a farmer, miner and publisher, and for the past 20 years has worked extensively within the area of conflict resolution, principally in the Middle East. William was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by the Earl of St Andrews, Chancellor of the University of Bolton, in 2017 for his services to peace.
As a student, William travelled extensively in the Middle East with his father, a Cornish journalist with a strong interest in the region. As a direct result of this unique experience, in 1991 William was invited to be special advisor to the deputy Prime Minister of the Sultanate of Oman and set up a publishing and printing unit at Sultan Qaboos University.
In 1996 William returned to his home in the West Country with his family. Shortly after his return to Cornwall he was appointed Secretary General of The Next Century Foundation, an organization whose founders included the Lord Weinstock and Andrew Cavendish, the 11th Duke of Devonshire. The then-Crown Prince, now Emir, of Qatar was also particularly supportive. In this role, at the behest of Derek Fatchett MP (then-Minister at the Foreign Office), William Morris produced an important report on Kashmir in consultation with the Mirpuri community in Britain. In October 2000, he helped set up a war avoidance team to carry messages between the then-Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Peter Hain, and Iraqi Minister Mr Tariq Aziz. In May 2003, William was appointed Chairman of the International Media Council (now a part of the International Council for Press and Broadcasting) based in London. In this capacity he has led press delegations to Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Egypt and Syria. The goal of the Media Council is to counter xenophobia and disinformation in the press of the Middle East and the West. William is a trustee of Sanghata Global, a charity for transformational change that designs and implements breakthrough conceptual models focused on serving humanity. He is also a core member of the personal development charity, Initiatives of Change.
I sit down with Chuck Freilich, former Israeli deputy national security adviser and senior fellow at the Belfer Center, to discuss Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israel's national security. Chuck’s latest book is available now from Oxford University Press; as a courtesy to my listeners, use the discount code ‘asflyq6’ for 30 percent off, only on Oxford’s website: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/israeli-national-security-9780190602932?cc=us⟨=en&
Bio: Chuck Freilich, a former deputy national security adviser in Israel, is a senior fellow at the Belfer Center and the author of Zion's Dilemmas: How Israel Makes National Security Policy (Cornell University Press, November 2012), Israeli National Security: A New Strategy for an Era of Change (Oxford University Press, 2018), and Israel and the Cyber-Threat (forthcoming late 2018).
Chuck's primary areas of expertise are the Middle East, U.S.-Middle East policy, and Israeli national security strategy and decision-making. He has taught political science at Harvard, NYU, and Columbia in the United States, and at Tel Aviv University and IDC Herzliya in Israel.
Chuck has appeared as a commentator for NBC, ABC, CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera, and various U.S. and Israeli radio and TV stations. He has published numerous academic articles and op-eds, including in the New York Times, Haaretz, and other leading newspapers. Chuck was a senior analyst at the Israel Ministry of Defense, focusing on strategic affairs, policy adviser to a cabinet minister, and a delegate at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations. He was the executive director of two nonprofit organizations and served in the Israel Defense Forces for five years. Chuck earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University. Born in New York, he immigrated to Israel in his teens.
I sit down with Harry Verhoeven, professor at the School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Georgetown University, to discuss the current geopolitical situation in the Gulf, and Qatar's role in the region and beyond.
Bio: Professor Harry Verhoeven teaches at the School of Foreign Service in Qatar, Georgetown University. He is also editor of the Cambridge University Press series on Intelligence and National Security in Africa & the Middle East and an Associate Member of the Department of Politics and International Relations of the University of Oxford. His research focuses on elite politics, ideology and international relations. He was founder of the the Oxford University China-Africa Network (OUCAN) in 2008-2009 and remains a Co-Convenor of OUCAN. In 2016-2017, he served as a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University.
Harry Verhoeven completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford, where he was a postdoctoral fellow from 2012 to 2014 and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College from 2013 to 2014. He was a founder of the Oxford Central Africa Forum (OCAF). Outside academia, he has worked in Northern Uganda, Sudan, India and Democratic Republic of Congo. He has provided consultancy services to and collaborated with the World Bank, UNDP Sudan, Chatham House, Small Arms Survey and several governments. His work has been funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Qatar National Research Fund and the Volkswagen Foundation.
I recently sat down with Hillel Schenker, co-editor of the Palestine-Israel Journal, to discuss recent events in Gaza.
Hillel Schenker is co-editor of the Palestine-Israel Journal, a Jerusalem-based independent English-language quarterly, initiated and maintained by a group of prominent Israeli and Palestinian academics and journalists. It aims to shed light on, and analyze freely and critically, the complex issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians. Schenker served for 13 years as editor of New Outlook, the Israeli peace monthly founded in the spirit of Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue, that served as a vehicle for understanding Israeli-Arab affairs and as a catalyst for dialogue and initiatives for peace. He has written for The Nation, Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly, Tikkun, Israel Horizons, In These Times, the Israeli-Hebrew-language press and many other print and electronic outlets. He was an activist and co-founder of the Peace Now movement and has served for many years as spokesperson for the Israeli branch of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. He is an International Advisory Board member of the Global Majority center for non-violent conflict resolution based at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Robert Wexler is the President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace in Washington, DC. He served as a Democratic member of Congress from 1997 to 2010, representing Florida’s 19th district in the House of Representatives before retiring to lead the Center. Wexler was named one of the “50 Most Effective Legislators in Congress” by the influential magazine Congressional Quarterly and was named to the Forward 50 list as one of the most influential leaders in the American Jewish community.
In 2008, Congressman Wexler served as an advisor on Middle East and Israel issues to President Barack Obama during his presidential campaign. In 2012, he served on the President’s reelection Steering Committee and addressed the Democratic National Convention outlining the President’s policies related to Israel.
Throughout his tenure in Congress, Wexler was an outspoken advocate for the unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel and a leading proponent of Israel’s right to self-defense and the need for a just and comprehensive resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. He traveled on numerous congressional delegations to the Middle East and met with the leaders of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait, Turkey, Syria, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, and the Palestinian Authority. At President Clinton’s invitation, he was the only member of the House of Representatives present during the signing of the Wye River Peace Agreement. In addition, Wexler was one of two Congressmen to travel to the International Court of Justice at The Hague to oppose the Palestinian case against Israel’s construction of a security barrier.
Congressman Wexler served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe, a senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the Middle East Subcommittee. Wexler worked to strengthen the transatlantic alliance, build security and economic bonds with the European Union and the nations of Europe, and help guide the economic and political development of the former Soviet States. Wexler served as an American representative to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and was the co-founder of the Caucus on U.S.-Turkish Relations, the Taiwan Caucus and the Indonesia Caucus. He was also an active member of the India Caucus. In addition, Wexler served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property.
Born in New York, Congressman Wexler moved to South Florida with his family at age 10. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida and law degree from George Washington University. Before serving in Congress, he served in the Florida Senate for six years. Congressman Wexler and his wife, Laurie, have three children.
For a full transcript of this episode, click here: http://alonben-meir.com/audio/issues-episode-35-congressman-robert-wexler/
David Mack is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs (1990-1993) and US Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (1986-1989). Mack's US diplomatic assignments included Iraq, Jordan, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia. Mack has extensive experience and knowledge on Iraq, Libya and UAE. He also comments on US Middle East policy and the security of the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf region.
Ambassador (ret.) Warren Clark is the former Executive Director of Churches for Middle East Peace. Clark began his career in the Foreign Service in Aleppo, Syria and has served in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Canada, and at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. Following his retirement from the State Department he worked as a private consultant and received a Master of Theological Studies degree from Virginia Theological Seminary. Clark speaks French and eastern Arabic.
Radwan Ziadeh is the founder and director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies in Syria, and co-founder and executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington, DC. He is also Senior Middle East Fellow at Arab Center Washington, where he deals chiefly with issues pertaining to Syria. He has been documenting the ongoing human rights violations since the onset of the Syrian crisis and has testified before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the US Congress. He served as a visiting fellow and scholar at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Institute for Middle East Studies of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University, Chatham House, the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University, and the United States Institute of Peace. He was also a Prins Global Fellow at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University and a Reagan–Fascell Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. Dr. Ziadeh is the author of more than 20 books in English and Arabic including Power and Policy in Syria: Intelligence Services, Foreign Relations and Democracy in the Modern Middle East (2010), and Syria’s Role in a Changing Middle East: The Syrian-Israeli Peace Talks (2016). He holds a DDS in Dentistry from Damascus University, a Diploma in International Human Rights Law from American University, an MA in Democracy and Governance from Georgetown University, and a Diploma in Peace Negotiations and Conflict Studies from the University of Cyprus.
Erdoan A. Shipoli has a PhD in Political Science and International Relations and is a visiting researcher at the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the E. Walsh School of Foreign Affairs, Georgetown University. He is working on his new book “Islam, Securitization, and US Foreign Policy” focusing on Islam in US foreign policy and security, emphasizing on democracy promotion, how Islam became a security issue for the US, and the consequences.
He has served as a co-founder and leader of multiple internationally-recognized organizations and institutes, such as the Istanbul Leadership Institute, Lobbying School, and North American Professionals and Entrepreneurs Network (recognized by FORBES). He is also the Program Director of FEBA, an organization that works with Balkan American youth to overcome challenges they might be facing.
He published a book on the “International Securitization: the case of Kosovo”, countless articles, and presented in numerous international conferences. Currently he contributes for Huffington Post (in English) and sbunker (in Albanian).
Erdoan is fluent in: Albanian, English, Bulgarian, Turkish, and Serbo-Croatian-Bosnian.
Mark Whitlock is an adjunct lecturer in Columbia University's Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program where he teaches in the Capstone Thesis seminars. Whitlock’s research and practice examines identity-based political violence and decision-making, emphasizing operational early warning and response (EWR).
His research has specifically analyzed the theory to practice nexus, forecasting writ-large, and the prevention of mass atrocities/mass killing. He has conducted research and consulted on regional early warning architectures primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Europe with organizations including The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) and The Visegrad Group. He recently coordinated research for the Africa Task Force on the Prevention of Mass Atrocities (ATF), and contributed to the development of an internal handbook on conflict prevention and decision making for UNOWAS political staff while based in Dakar, Senegal. At Columbia (SIPA and SPS) he has contributed to developing online simulations for graduate students that explore the aforementioned themes highlighting conflict analysis, communication, and decision-making.
Whitlock holds a graduate degree in International Affairs from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), concentrating in international security policy and conflict resolution with focus in Africa and the Middle East. Whitlock has lived, worked and traveled throughout Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, serving first as a biology teacher at Nkonya Secondary School with Peace Corps Ghana, teaching in Tunis, Tunisia, and researching political violence in Ethiopia, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Indonesia, Israel, Rwanda, Burundi, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire.
Tsvi Bisk is an independent futurist, social researcher, and strategy planning consultant He is the director of the Center for Strategic Futuristic Thinking and the founder and director of the Strategic Educational Planning Institute. For more than 20 years, he was a senior associate of the Beit Berl Institute (the research and education arm of the Israel Labor Movement). Bisk is the author of five books, and has published more than one hundred essays and articles in English and Hebrew in a variety of publications.
A transcript of this episode (lightly edited for clarity) is available here:
My guest today is Alon Liel.
Alon Liel has served the Israeli Foreign Ministry in various positions: the head of the Israeli mission in Turkey (1981-1983), the Foreign Ministry spokesman and the member of the Israeli negotiating team at the Taba talks with Egypt (1985–1987), Ambassador to South Africa in (1992-1994), Director General of the Ministry of Economy and Planning (1994-1996), Foreign Policy Advisor to Ehud Barak (1997-1999), Director General of the Foreign Ministry (2000-2001).
Liel is the author of several books, namely Turkey in the Middle East – Oil, Islam and Politics (1993), Black Justice – The South African Upheaval (1999), Turkey – The Military, Islam and Politics (1999), Turkey in the Middle East (2001), Demo Islam, Turkey’s New Regime (2003). He has taught courses at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University on Turkey and the Middle East politics.
Liel was the board member of Gazit Inc. (biggest real estate company in Israel). He was the chairman of the Israel-Turkey Business Council between 2002-2006, and is the chairman of the Global Code Ltd.
Liel was the president of the Jewish-Arab soccer club, Abu Gosh-Mevaseret. He is also the founder and the chairman of the Israel-Syria Peace Society.
My guest today is Moshe Ma’oz, Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a previous Director of the university’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. Professor Ma’oz is renowned for his expertise in Arab and Middle East affairs, and has published extensively on Islam and on the history and politics of the Middle East. He is a leading expert on Syria. Professor Ma’oz has been a visiting professor, scholar, and fellow at many leading universities and institutions around the world. He has served as an advisor on Arab Affairs for Israel’s Knesset, and was a member of official advisory committees that counseled the late Prime Ministers Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.
My guest today is Professor Safwan M. Masri, Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University. In this role, he directs a number of Columbia’s global initiatives and is responsible for the development of an expanding network of Global Centers, located in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, and Tunis. These centers work to advance Columbia’s global mission and extend the University’s reach to address the pressing demands of our global society.
Masri holds a senior research scholar appointment at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He joined the faculty of Columbia Business School in 1988 and was appointed Vice Dean in 1993, a position he held for thirteen years. He previously taught engineering at Stanford University, and was a visiting professor at INSEAD (Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires) in France.
A scholar on education and contemporary geopolitics and society in the Arab world, Masri’s work focuses on understanding the historic, postcolonial dynamics among religion, education, society, and politics. He is the author of Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly (Columbia University Press, 2017), which examines why Tunisia was the only country to emerge from the Arab Spring as a democracy. Masri’s writings on education and current affairs have been featured in the Financial Times, Huffington Post, and Times Higher Education.
Masri is an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association. He was founding chairman of both King’s Academy and Queen Rania Teacher Academy in Jordan, and served as an advisor to Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. He is a trustee of International College in Beirut and of the Welfare Association (Taawon) in Ramallah, and a member of the advisory board of the School of Business at the American University in Cairo. Masri has served on the governing boards of Endeavor Jordan, the Children’s Museum Jordan, Arab Bankers Association of North America (ABANA), and Aramex.
Masri earned his Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University in 1982; his Master of Science in industrial engineering, also from Purdue, in 1984; and his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University in 1988. He was honored with Columbia’s Singhvi Professor of the Year for Scholarship in the Classroom Award in 1990, the Robert W. Lear Service Award in 1998, and the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in a Core Course in 2000. Masri has also been honored with the 2003 American Service Award from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
My latest guest is Nina Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at New School University in New York. She is senior fellow at the World Policy Institute and contributing editor to Project Syndicate: Association of Newspapers Around the World. After receiving her PhD from Princeton University, she had a two-year research appointment at the School of Historical Studies of Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and then served as Deputy Editor of East European Constitutional Review at NYU School of Law. She is a member of Council on Foreign Relations and a recipient of Great Immigrants: The Pride of America Award from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Her articles have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and other publications. She is the author of Imagining Nabokov: Russia Between Art and Politics (Yale UP, 2008) and The Lost Khrushchev: A Journey Into the Gulag of the Russian Mind (Tate, 2014).
On this episode, my guest Dr. Waheguru Pal Singh (W.P.S.) Sidhu and I discuss Iran, North Korea, and nuclear proliferation.
Dr. Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu is Visiting Professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and Non-Resident Fellow at NYU’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC), as well as Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Brookings. Prior to coming to CIC, he served as Vice President of Programs at the EastWest Institute in New York, and as Director of the New Issues in Security program at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). Dr. Sidhu has researched, written, and taught extensively on the United Nations and regionalism, peace operations, Southern Asia, confidence-building-measures, disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation issues. His recent publications include: The Iraq Crisis and World Order: Structural, Institutional and Normative Challenges; Arms Control after Iraq: Normative and Operational Challenges; Kashmir: New Voices, New Approaches; and China and India: Cooperation or Conflict? He has also published in leading international journals, including Arms Control Today, Asian Survey, Disarmament Diplomacy, Disarmament Forum, International Peacekeeping, Jane's Intelligence Review, Politique Etrangere, and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Dr. Sidhu was the consultant to the first, second, and third United Nations Panel of Governmental Experts on Missiles in 2001-2002, 2004 and 2007-2008 respectively. He was also appointed as a member of the Resource Group set up to assist the United Nations High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change in 2004. Dr. Sidhu earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He holds a Masters in International Relations from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and a Bachelor's degree in History from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, India.
My latest guest is Daisy Khan, Executive Director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), a New York based non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening an expression of Islam based on cultural and religious harmony, as well as building bridges between Muslims and the general public. At ASMA, Daisy Khan has created a number of groundbreaking intra- and inter-faith programs. She has led numerous interfaith events, such as the theater production, Same Difference, and the Cordoba Bread Fest Banquet. She continues to mentor American Muslims on assimilation issues, balancing faith and modernity, the challenges of living as a minority, and intergenerational questions. To strengthen the voices of women and youth within the global Muslim community, she created two cutting-edge programs of international scope: Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow (MLT) and the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE).
Khan regularly lectures in the United States and internationally. She has appeared on numerous media outlets, such as CNN, Al Jazeera, and BBC World’s Doha Debates. She often serves as an adviser and contributor to a variety of documentaries, including PBS’s Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, National Geographic’s Inside Mecca, and the Hallmark Channel’s Listening to Islam. Khan is a weekly contributor to the Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog and is frequently quoted in print publications, such as Time Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Saudi Gazette, and the Khaleej Times. Born in Kashmir, she spent twenty-five years as an interior architect for various Fortune 500 companies. In 2005, she dedicated herself to full-time community service and building movements for positive change, both in the United States and around the globe. In recognition of this important work, Khan is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Interfaith Center’s Award for Promoting Peace and Interfaith Understanding, Auburn Seminary’s Lives of Commitment Award, and the Annual Faith Leaders Award. She was also selected by Women’s eNews as one of the 21 Leaders for the 21st Century.
My guest this week is Jonathan Cristol, a fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York City and a senior fellow at Bard College’s Center for Civic Engagement in Annandale, New York. Dr. Cristol is a noted expert in Middle Eastern politics and international security.
At World Policy Institute he researches, writes about, and speaks on issues pertaining to international security, Middle East politics, and United States foreign policy in the Middle East and East Asia. His writing appears regularly in publications including CNN Opinion and World Policy Journal. Dr. Cristol appears frequently in television, radio, print, and podcast media including: Channel News Asia; CNN; i24 English; al Jazeera English; and Reuters; among many others.
He meets regularly with government officials from all over the world, and organizes and hosts a wide variety of public, semi-public, and private events focusing on all aspects of international security. Dr. Cristol is the host of the World Policy Security Series and co-host of “[jargon redacted]: Seriously Irreverent Conversations on Policy.”
Dr. Cristol is an assistant professor of international affairs and director of the Globalization and International Affairs Program at Bard College. At Bard, his courses include: “The United States and the Modern Middle East”; “The History of International Institutions”; “Advanced International Relations Theory”; “Non-State Actors in World Politics”; and “The Nature of Power,” an innovative course that met in regular joint sessions with cadets from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is a former academic director of the State Department’s “Study of the United States Institute- United States Foreign Policy” program, run jointly by Bard College and the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Dr. Cristol maintains a wide network of contacts within the New York City based nonprofit, diplomatic, and policy communities, and is a regular participant in discussions at: the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, where for many years he was a “New Leader”; Council on Foreign Relations, as part of the Council’s educational outreach program; and many other foreign affairs organizations and groups. He is on the “Young Patron’s Council” of “Off-the-Record,” the longest running women’s foreign policy lecture series in the United States.
Dr. Cristol serves as an instructor and subject-matter expert on Middle East affairs for a Maryland-based defense contractor; and is available for consulting and special projects through Dūcō, a global security, technology, and policy consultancy.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here: http://alonben-meir.com/audio/issues-episode-22-jonathan-cristol/
My guest for this episode is Ambassador Teuta Sahatqija.
Ambassador Sahatqija is Consul General at the Consulate General of the Republic of Kosovo in New York.
She is a well-known political activist and a Member of Kosovo’s Parliament. She is also the President of the Cross Party Women Parliamentary Caucus and Vice President of the Parliamentary Committee on Economic Development. She was an advisor to the former President Fatmir Sejdiu, chairwoman of the Reformist Party ORA, and a member of the Parliamentary Committees for International Affairs and Development. She was also a Founding Member of KUSA – Kosovo US Alumni.
Mrs. Sahatqija is also an electrical engineer, and she has worked as a manager of a computer center in a food production company, as well as being the owner and director of a private telecommunication company in Gjakova.
A full transcript of the episode can be found here: http://alonben-meir.com/audio/issues-episode-21-ambassador-teuta-sahatqija/
My guest on this episode is Kelly Berkell, an attorney and a Research Fellow at the Center on Terrorism at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She has worked in regional politics, including as legislative counsel to a New York State Assembly Member. Most recently, Kelly served as National Security Fellow at Fordham Law School’s Center on National Security, where she focused primarily on evolving cyber threats. A graduate of NYU School of Law and Barnard College, Kelly practiced securities and corporate litigation in Manhattan and Boston before moving into the public sector. She has served on the boards of various not-for-profit, community, and advocacy organizations.
A full transcript of this episode (lightly edited for clarity) can be found here: http://alonben-meir.com/audio/issues-episode-20-kelly-berkell/
My latest guest is Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Organization of American States.
Born in Talibon, Republic of the Philippines in 1959, he was ordained as a priest for the Diocese of Tagbilaran on June 29, 1985, and incardinated to the newly created Diocese of Talibon in 1986. He earned his doctorate in Theology and entered into the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1990.
Archbishop Auza has served at the Apostolic Nunciature in Madagascar, Bulgaria, and Albania. He subsequently served in the Secretariat of State in the Vatican, and from there was appointed to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations. In 2008, he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti, and was ordained Titular Archbishop of Suacia. He was appointed Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York on July 1, 2014, and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Organization of American States on July 16, 2014.
A full transcript (lightly edited for clarity) is available at the following link: http://alonben-meir.com/audio/issues-episode-19-archbishop-bernardito-auza/
My guest today is Emre Celik, President of the Rumi Forum. His work focuses on intercultural dialogue issues related to pluralism, social harmony, and peace building. Celik is originally from Australia, where he was involved in numerous interfaith and education projects in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. He has a degree in computer engineering and a master's degree in teaching.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here: http://alonben-meir.com/audio/issues-episode-18-emre-celik/
My guest today is Dr. Sahar Khamis, associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland. Dr. Khamis is an expert on Arab and Muslim media and the former head of the Mass Communications and Information Sciences Department at Qatar University. She’s a former Mellon Islamic Studies Initiative visiting professor at the University of Chicago.
She is the co-author of the books: Islam Dot Com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and Egyptian Revolution 2.0: Political Blogging, Civic Engagement and Citizen Journalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). Additionally, she authored and co-authored numerous book chapters, journal articles and conference papers, regionally and internationally, in both English and Arabic. She is the recipient of a number of prestigious academic and professional awards, as well as a member of the editorial boards of several journals in the field of communication, in general, and the field of Arab and Muslim media, in particular.
Dr. Khamis is a media commentator and analyst, a public speaker, a human rights commissioner in the Human Rights Commission in Montgomery County, Maryland, and a radio host, who presents a monthly radio show on “U.S. Arab Radio” (the first Arab-American radio station broadcasting in the U.S. and Canada).
For a full transcript, visit: http://alonben-meir.com/audio/issues-episode-17-sahar-khamis/
My guest today is David Rabinowitz, Director of the Mental Health Clinic at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel. He has worked as a psychiatrist in charge of psychiatric outpatient services in both South Africa and Israel, and has invested in the development and teaching of professional skills and approaches in community mental health care.
My discussion with him today focuses on the psychological dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A full transcript can be found here:
My guest today is David Rabinowitz, Director of the Mental Health Clinic at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel. He has worked as a psychiatrist in charge of psychiatric outpatient services in both South Africa and Israel, and has invested in the development and teaching of professional skills and approaches in community mental health care.
My discussion with him today focuses on the psychological dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
My latest guest is David Schenker, Aufzien fellow and director of the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute.
Previously, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Levant country director, the Pentagon's top policy aide on the Arab countries of the Levant. In that capacity, he was responsible for advising the secretary and other senior Pentagon leadership on the military and political affairs of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories. He was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service in 2005.
Prior to joining the government, Mr. Schenker was a research fellow at The Washington Institute, focusing on Arab governance issues and a project coordinator a Bethesda-based contractor of large, centrally-funded USAID projects in Egypt and Jordan. In addition, he authored two Institute books: Dancing with Saddam: The Strategic Tango of Jordanian-Iraqi Relations (copublished with Lexington Books, 2003) and Palestinian Democracy and Governance: An Appraisal of the Legislative Council (2001). More recently, he published a chapter on U.S.-Lebanese relations in Lebanon: Liberation, Conflict, and Crisis (Palgrave, 2009), and Egypt’s Enduring Challenges (2011), a monograph focusing on post-Mubarak Egypt. His writings on Arab affairs have also appeared in a number of prominent scholarly journals and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Jerusalem Post.
My latest guest is Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal, Professor Emeritus at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Bar-Tal received his graduate training in social psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and completed his doctoral thesis in 1974. He previously served as a Director of the Walter Lebach Research Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education, Tel Aviv University and as President of the International Society of Political Psychology, and was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Israel Journal. He has won numerous awards, including the Alexander George Award of the International Society of Political Psychology, Nevitt Sanford Award of the International Society of Political Psychology, and Morton Deutsch Conflict Resolution Award of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence. He was awarded the Golestan Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2000-2001, and in 2013 received honorary membership in the Polish Society of Social Psychology.
Since the early eighties his interest has shifted to political psychology and the study of the socio-psychological foundations of intractable conflicts and peace building, including reconciliation. In the latter area, he studied the evolvement of the socio-psychological infrastructure in times of intractable conflict that consists of shared societal beliefs of ethos of conflict, collective memory, and emotional collective orientations. He also studied socio-psychological barriers to peacemaking and ways to overcome them, and acquisition of the conflict repertoire by children and adolescents.
Within this scope of studies he developed with his collaborators theoretical frameworks for concepts like siege mentality, intractable conflict, delegitimization, collective victimhood, socio-psychological infrastructure, culture of conflict, effects of lasting occupation, barriers to peace making, construction and struggle over conflict supporting narratives, acquisition of intergroup psychological repertoire, early development of the ethos of conflict, transitional context, collective identity, and peace education, among many others.
The work in these areas has resulted in books, Group Beliefs (1990), Shared Beliefs in a Society (2000), Stereotypes and Prejudice in Conflict: Representations of Arabs in Israeli Jewish Society (2005), Living with the conflict (2007), and Intractable conflicts: Socio-psychological foundations and dynamics (2013). He co-edited a wide variety of volumes, and in addition has published over two hundred articles and chapters in major journals, books and encyclopedias.
Of special importance in his professional life is founding and leading a “learning community” of 10-15 graduate (mostly doctoral) students, who come from different disciplines and universities, to carry their studies about conflict and their resolution. The learning community serves as a framework for learning, reflecting, debating, and developing; carrying conceptual and empirical studies; socialization for academic career and societal involvement; and for social support.
Through the years he has lectured widely on his work, and worked as Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University, Brandeis University, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, University of Muenster, University of Maryland College Park, Polish Academy of Science, University of Palermo, and Australian National University.
He retired in 2015 and decided to devote his second career to political activism. He founded a peace movement Save Israel-Stop the Occupation with the goal to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and establish the Palestinian state. SISO's website can be found here: www.siso.org.il/
My latest guest is Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal, Professor Emeritus at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Bar-Tal received his graduate training in social psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and completed his doctoral thesis in 1974. He previously served as a Director of the Walter Lebach Research Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education, Tel Aviv University and as President of the International Society of Political Psychology, and was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Israel Journal. He has won numerous awards, including the Alexander George Award of the International Society of Political Psychology, Nevitt Sanford Award of the International Society of Political Psychology, and Morton Deutsch Conflict Resolution Award of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence. He was awarded the Golestan Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2000-2001, and in 2013 received honorary membership in the Polish Society of Social Psychology.
Since the early eighties his interest has shifted to political psychology and the study of the socio-psychological foundations of intractable conflicts and peace building, including reconciliation. In the latter area, he studied the evolvement of the socio-psychological infrastructure in times of intractable conflict that consists of shared societal beliefs of ethos of conflict, collective memory, and emotional collective orientations. He also studied socio-psychological barriers to peacemaking and ways to overcome them, and acquisition of the conflict repertoire by children and adolescents.
Within this scope of studies he developed with his collaborators theoretical frameworks for concepts like siege mentality, intractable conflict, delegitimization, collective victimhood, socio-psychological infrastructure, culture of conflict, effects of lasting occupation, barriers to peace making, construction and struggle over conflict supporting narratives, acquisition of intergroup psychological repertoire, early development of the ethos of conflict, transitional context, collective identity, and peace education, among many others.
The work in these areas has resulted in books, Group Beliefs (1990), Shared Beliefs in a Society (2000), Stereotypes and Prejudice in Conflict: Representations of Arabs in Israeli Jewish Society (2005), Living with the conflict (2007), and Intractable conflicts: Socio-psychological foundations and dynamics (2013). He co-edited a wide variety of volumes, and in addition has published over two hundred articles and chapters in major journals, books and encyclopedias.
Of special importance in his professional life is founding and leading a “learning community” of 10-15 graduate (mostly doctoral) students, who come from different disciplines and universities, to carry their studies about conflict and their resolution. The learning community serves as a framework for learning, reflecting, debating, and developing; carrying conceptual and empirical studies; socialization for academic career and societal involvement; and for social support.
Through the years he has lectured widely on his work, and worked as Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University, Brandeis University, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, University of Muenster, University of Maryland College Park, Polish Academy of Science, University of Palermo, and Australian National University.
He retired in 2015 and decided to devote his second career to political activism. He founded a peace movement Save Israel-Stop the Occupation with the goal to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and establish the Palestinian state. SISO's website can be found here: https://www.siso.org.il/
My guest today is Ajmal Khan Zazai, tribal leader and Paramount Chief of Paktia Province in Afghanistan. As a tribal leader, he works to bring an end to insurgency and corruption in Afghanistan, and support a process to bring peace, stability, and prosperity to all Afghans.
Born Aug 25th, 1968 in Kabul, Afghanistan, Khan attended primary school in Kabul until emigrating to Pakistan in 1980 due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. While studying at Sidiq-i-Akbar High School in Peshawar, Khan continually crossed the border between 1984 and 1986 into Afghanistan to fight the Soviet army. From 1986 till 1989, he worked for the NGO Afghan Health and Social Assistants (based in Peshawar) as Assistant Director for Public Relations.
In an ambush in 1989, he survived an attempt on his life by extremist elements and was forced to immigrate to Canada. From 1990 till 1993, he studied microcomputer management at the Herzing Institute Toronto, and returned to Paktia province in 1995. From 1996 till 1998, he worked with his father Raiss Afzal Khan Zazai, who was the head of the United Tribes front, in organizing Afghan tribes to revolt against the Taliban regime in Paktia. The attempt was unsuccessful, and some prominent tribal leaders were killed by the Taliban, including his father in 2000.
In 2004, the Zazi tribes appointed Khan as the chief of the Zazi tribes.
He continued with the vision of his late father by uniting the Afghan tribes into the United Afghan Tribes Jirga and continued to unite the tribes within Paktia and across Afghanistan. In 2008, he was elected as the paramount chief of all the tribes in Paktia province. From 2008 till 2012, he channeled over $20 million US into community development projects through the Central Asia Development Group by building retaining walls, water canals, dams, girls’ schools, and bridges and roads in Paktia. These efforts provided employment for over 46,000 people.
In 2009, Khan received a fellowship degree in the Silk Road studies program at SAIS (sponsored by the Rumsfeld Foundation) in Washington, DC. In 2010, he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree for services provided in the implementation of democracy and the rule of law in London, and was given a honorary degree as well for numerous lectures given in the United Kingdom.
His vision is to unite the Afghan Tribes in order to bring an end to insurgency, corruption, and warlordism in Afghanistan, and support a process which could bring peace, stability, and prosperity to all Afghans.
My guest for this episode is Carne Ross, Executive Director of Independent Diplomat, which he founded in 2004.
During a fifteen year diplomatic career for the United Kingdom, he served as political officer in the British embassies in Bonn, Oslo, and Kabul, and was Head of the Middle East Section and Deputy Head of Political Section at the UK Mission to the United Nations.
In this episode, we discuss a number of topics, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Syrian civil war, and Independent Diplomat's work with Somaliland, the Marshall Islands, and the Syrian opposition. For more information about Mr. Ross and Independent Diplomat's work, please visit their website: https://independentdiplomat.org/
My guest for this episode is Andrew J. Tabler, the Martin J. Gross Fellow in the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute, where he focuses on Syria and US policy in the Levant.
Mr. Tabler achieved unparalleled long-term access to Bashar al-Assad's Syria. During fourteen years of residence in the Middle East, Mr. Tabler served as co-founder and editor-in-chief of Syria Today, Syria's first private-sector English-language magazine; as a consultant on U.S.-Syria relations for the International Crisis Group (2008); and as a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs (2005-2007), writing on Syrian, Lebanese, and Middle Eastern affairs. Following his graduate work in Cairo, Egypt, Mr. Tabler held editorships with the Middle East Times and Cairo Times, where he focused on Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, before becoming senior editor and director of editorial for the Oxford Business Group (OBG). In 2001, Mr. Tabler personally oversaw with OBG the first comprehensive English-language report on Syria in more than thirty years. Mr. Tabler has lived, worked and studied extensively in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey.
Mr. Tabler has interviewed Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad, the late Israeli president Shimon Peres, the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, slain Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, and former Lebanese prime ministers Fouad Siniora and Saad Hariri. His articles and opinion pieces on Middle East affairs and U.S. foreign policy have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs. He has also appeared in interviews with CNN, NBC, CBS, PBS, NPR, and the BBC.
Mr. Tabler is author of "Syria's Collapse and How Washington Can Stop It" (Foreign Affairs, July-August 2013) and the 2011 book In the Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle with Syria (Lawrence Hill Books).
My guest for this episode is Ambassador Patrick Theros. In March 2000, Ambassador Theros assumed the office of President of the US-Qatar Business Council after a 36-year career in the United States Foreign Service. Ambassador Theros joined the Foreign Service in 1963 and, prior to his appointment as Ambassador to the State of Qatar, served in a variety of positions including Political Advisor to the Commander in Chief Central Command; Deputy Chief of Mission and Political Officer in Amman; and Charge d’affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission in Abu Dhabi; Economic and Commercial Counselor in Damascus.
During these periods he earned four Superior Honor Awards. In 1990 he was accorded the personal rank of Minister Counselor. In 1992 he received both the President’s Meritorious Service Award for career officials and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem honored Ambassador Theros with the honor of Knight Commander Order of the Holy Sepulcher. In 1999 His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah Al-Thani awarded Ambassador Theros Qatar’s Order of Merit.
Immediately before his appointment to Qatar in 1995, Ambassador Theros served as Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, responsible for the coordination of all U.S. Government counterterrorism activities outside the United States. He speaks Spanish, Arabic and Greek fluently.
In addition to his duties as President of the US-Qatar Business Council, Ambassador Theros has the following affiliations: Member of the Board of Directors, Middle East Policy Council (elected 2010) Council of Foreign Relations, Member Representative to USA of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Arab American Bankers Association of America, Member Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, Member American Academy of Diplomacy, Member
Ambassador Theros was born in 1941 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and attended public schools in Michigan, Ohio and the District of Columbia. He graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 1963 and has done advanced studies at the American University in Washington, D.C., the Universidad Centroamericana in Managua, Nicaragua, the Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia, and the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
My latest guest for 'On the Issues' is Frederic C. Hof, director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and a specialist on Syria. Prior to becoming director, he was a resident senior fellow with the Center.
On March 28, 2012 President Obama conferred on Hof the rank of ambassador in connection with his new duties as special adviser for transition in Syria. Hof was previously the special coordinator for regional affairs in the US Department of State's Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, where he advised Special Envoy George Mitchell on the full range of Arab-Israeli peace issues falling under his purview and focusing on Syria-Israel and Israel-Lebanon matters. He joined the State Department in 2009 after serving as the president and CEO of AALC, limited company, an international business consulting and project finance firm formerly known as Armitage Associates LC.
Hof's professional life has focused largely on the Middle East. In 2001 he directed the Jerusalem field operations of the Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee headed by former US Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and was the lead drafter of the Committee's 2001 report. In 1983, as a US Army officer, he helped draft the "Long Commission" report, which investigated the October 1983 bombing of the US Marine headquarters at Beirut International Airport. Both reports drew considerable international praise for fairness and integrity.
A 1969 graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Hof began his professional career as an Army officer. He is a Vietnam veteran and served as a US Army Middle East Foreign Area Officer, studying Arabic at the Foreign Service Institute in Tunisia and receiving a master's degree from the Naval Postgraduate School. He served as US Army attaché in Beirut, Lebanon and later in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as director for Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestinian Affairs.
Hof has written extensively on Arab-Israeli issues. He is the author of Galilee Divided: The Israel-Lebanon Frontier, 1916-1984 (Westview Press, 1985); Line of Battle, Border of Peace? The Line of June 4, 1967 (Middle East Insight, 1999); and Beyond the Boundary: Lebanon, Israel and the Challenge of Change (Middle East Insight, 2000). He has also written many articles on Jordan Valley water issues. His writing on the Israel-Syria, Israel-Lebanon, and (by virtue of his work on the "Mitchell Committee") Israel-Palestinian tracks of the Middle East peace process has contributed positively to the body of literature promoting Arab-Israeli peace.
His awards include the Purple Heart, the Department of State Superior Honor Award, the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, and the Defense Superior Service Medal. He resides in Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife, Brenda.
A full transcript of this conversation is available here: http://alonben-meir.com/audio/issues-episode-9-frederic-c-hof/
My guest for this episode is Steve Schlesinger, a Fellow at The Century Foundation and former director of the World Policy Institute at the New School (1997–2006) and former publisher of the quarterly magazine, The World Policy Journal.
In the early 1970s, he edited and published the New Democrat magazine, and after that spent four years as a staff writer at Time magazine. For twelve years, he served as New York State Governor Mario Cuomo’s speechwriter and foreign policy adviser. In the mid-1990s, he worked at the United Nations at Habitat, the agency dealing with cities. He has also taught at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
He is the author of three books: Act of Creation: The Founding of The United Nations (Basics Books, 2003), for which he won the 2004 Harry S. Truman Book Award; Bitter Fruit: The Story of the U.S. Coup in Guatemala, with Stephen Kinzer (Doubleday, 1982), cited as one of the New York Times’ “notable books” for 1982; and The New Reformers: Forces for Change in American Politics (Houghton Mifflin, 1975). He is the coeditor of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.’s Journals: 1952–2000 (Penguin Press, 2007) and The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (Random House, 2013).
A specialist on the foreign policies of the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, he is a frequent contributor to magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and the New York Observer. He has appeared on CNN, Fox TV, NPR, NBC, Book TV, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, Christopher Matthews “Hardball” and Chuck Todd’s “Daily Rundown”, and other media outlets as well as in seven different documentaries on the UN and two on the 1954 CIA coup in Guatemala.
On this episode of On the Issues, I speak with Dr. Tim Williams, a consultant who has an extensive career history that extends from community and clinical psychology to working on military coordination in humanitarian response during conflict, development of governance and economic development in a fragile economy in a post-conflict context.
His PhD research and subsequent academic work is on the topic of how professionals make ethically loaded decisions at the nexus of personal, business and professional demands and values. In addition he has researched ethical decision-making in Antarctic scientific field parties, analysed the cultural interpretation of landscape in a military occupation, and written on psychological intervention in a chronic armed conflict and natural disaster. He is experienced in both quantitative and qualitative analytic techniques and has applied these across a range of fields including humanitarian access, supply chain and trade development, ethics and development of good governance.
For six years (2010-2016) Tim worked in the Office of the Quartet Representative in Jerusalem where his work focused on bridging between the political and diplomatic sphere and practical projects and interventions with government officials from several governments and many agencies, diplomats, private sector business, civil society groups and the international development community. This role involved advising and working with the Quartet Representative (Mr Tony Blair) to use his political weight and diplomacy to further Palestinian economic development. In particular Tim worked on specific areas where financial corruption was evident in trade facilitation, utilities (water and energy) development and management, and in improving access for Palestinian rule of law officials.
Tim built on his training and experience in psychology and his extensive participation in working with many cultures and in many government structures to bring his advanced skills of interpersonal and group relations, group process and facilitation, critical rigor in data gathering, analysis and presentation of conclusions, and skills in consultation and negotiation.
Tim has worked most recently in the Middle East (Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Egypt) but also has experience in the Asia-Pacific region (Thailand, New Zealand).
My guest for this episode is General Anthony Zinni, retired four-star Marine Corps General and former commander-in-chief of the US Central Command. He also served as the US Special Envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and in missions to Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.
General Zinni retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2000, after a distinguished 39-year career that took him to over 70 countries in many command assignments. In his final tour of duty, from 1997 to 2000, he was commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central Command. In his military career General Zinni earned 23 personal awards and 37 unit, service, and campaign awards.
General Zinni joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1961 and was commissioned an infantry second lieutenant in 1965, after completing his undergraduate degree in economics at Villanova University. He earned graduate degrees in international relations from Salve Regina University and in management and supervision from Central Michigan University. General Zinni has been awarded honorary doctorates from Villanova University; the College of William and Mary and the Maine Maritime Academy.
He has held academic positions that include the Stanley Chair in Ethics at the Virginia Military Institute, the Nimitz Chair at the University of California, Berkeley, the Hofheimer Chair at the Joint Forces Staff College, and the Harriman Professorship of Government at the Reves Center for International Studies at the College of William and Mary. He has worked with the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and the Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva.
He was Chairman of the Board of BAE Systems Inc., and a member of the board of Dyncorp International before being appointed an executive vice president. He also served as president of International Operations for M.I.C. Industries, Inc. General Zinni is the author of two best-selling books on his military career and foreign affairs: Battle Ready and The Battle for Peace. His most recent book, Leading the Charge, was published in 2009.
I recently spoke with David L. Phillips, Director of the Program on Peacebuilding and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He has worked as a senior adviser to the United Nations Secretariat and as a foreign affairs expert and senior adviser to the U.S. Department of State. Mr. Phillips has published six books, and authored many policy reports as well as over 100 articles in leading publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, and Foreign Affairs.
For a full bio, please visit: http://ac4link.ei.columbia.edu/profiles/detail/164
I recently spoke with Venera Kusari, Program Coordinator at the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity at Columbia University. She facilitates collaboration with the Consortium and other institutions within Columbia University and outside to design and support projects that aim to prevent and eliminate youth and gang violence. She has extensive experience with international NGOs in the Balkans, mainly in Kosovo. She has worked on issues as diverse as disaster relief, refugees, gender equality, and minority rights in conflict and post-conflict contexts. Her research focus is in inter-ethnic and community conflict through the lens of Dynamical Systems Theory and Coordinated Management of Meaning.
I recently spoke with Karen Greenberg, Director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University, and a noted expert on national security, terrorism, and civil liberties. Her latest book is Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State, which explores the War on Terror's impact on justice and law in America.
I recently sat down for a discussion with Ehud Eilam, former private contractor for the Israeli Ministry of Defense and an expert on Israel’s national strategy and military doctrine, to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israel's national security.
I recently sat down for a discussion with Florian Qehaja, Executive Director of the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, to discuss countering radicalism and violent extremism across the world.