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Message Heard

An ex-Al Qaeda jihadi turned MI6 spy and a former monk turned filmmaker, have been embedded at the heart of conflicts in the Middle East. Together Aimen Dean and Thomas Small unpack the realities of war, fundamentalism and their global implications through first-hand experience.

CONFLICTED

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to Harvard professor Sven Beckert about his new book Capitalism: A Global History.

Sven explains:

 Why the history of capitalism matters for understanding the present

 How most histories of capitalism are too Eurocentric

 How merchant communities in the medieval Muslim world and other regions laid the foundations of capitalism

 How European merchants learned from and interacted with merchants in the Muslim world

 Trust networks in global trade, including family, religious, and city-based merchant networks

 How capitalism and state power grew together

 European divergence: why Europe became central to capitalism

 Effects of Ottoman control and European geopolitical weakness on Atlantic expansion

 Role of conquest, slavery, and colonial expansion in building capitalist societies

 Tension between capitalism’s drive for unlimited growth and nature’s limits

 Challenges to neoliberalism from the left and the populist right

Find Sven on Bluesky: @svenbeckert.bsky.social

Visit Sven’s personal website: svenbeckert.com

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm 

Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Capitalism Is Not What You Think

All eyes are on the Strait of Hormuz and Kharg Island as the United States and its allies struggle to wrest full control of the Arabo-Persian Gulf from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Aimen and Thomas lay out the whole story of this geostrategically vital region, from ancient times all the way up to this very morning—explaining why this war is happening, and how it is almost certainly to end. 

Aimen and Thomas discuss:

 How the Strait of Hormuz caused Noah's Flood

 The medieval Kingdom of Hormuz

 How the Gulf is always caught up in the Iranian plateau's endless boom-and-bust political cycle 

 How Europeans staked a claim on Hormuz in 1507—and never really left

 The fact that the U.S. did indeed go into this war with a plan for Hormuz

 How the U.S. will take Kharg Island—and what they will do with it

 The ingenuity of Gulf Arab leadership in planning workarounds for the eventuality of the Strait being closed

 How European powers and other allies are really contributing to the war effort

Join the Conflicted Community here: ⁠⁠⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/⁠⁠⁠ 

Find us on X: ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠

And Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠

And Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠⁠⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠⁠⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠⁠⁠

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Strait of Hormuz and Kharg Island: How America Intends to Win This War

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks with Ali Ansari, Professor of Modern Middle East History at the University of St Andrews.

Prof. Ansari discusses:

 The depth and antiquity of Iranian culture

 His childhood experiences inside the Shah's inner circle

 The Shah's biggest mistake

 How the revolution could have better built upon what it inherited

 The huge incompetence and corruption that has undermined Iran's political economy

 How the new Supreme Leader is the IRGC's man

 The clarity of America's military aims alongside the opacity of its political aims

 The real weaknesses of the Iran Nuclear Deal

 How Iranians inside Iran feel about the regime and the war

Follow Prof. Ansari on X: ⁠https://x.com/aa51_ansari

Join the Conflicted Community here: ⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm ⁠

Find Conflicted on X: ⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠

And Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠

And Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠

And YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4⁠ 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Iran: The Long Road to War

Iran has chosen its new Supreme Leader: Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the recently assassinated Ayatollah Khamenei. Who is he? What does he believe? And most importantly, is his coming to power the fulfilment of ancient prophecy?

Aimen and Thomas discuss:

 Mojtaba's youth and his experience fighting in the Iran-Iraq War as a 17 year old

 How he became his father's primary gatekeeper, and how he used this to amass great power and wealth

 Mojtaba's self-belief: that he is "the Khorasani", a long-expected End Times figure in Shia eschatology

 The long story of Islamic apocalypticism and how the Islamic Republic has used medieval prophecies to justify its ambitions

Join the Conflicted Community here: ⁠⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/⁠⁠ 

Find us on X: ⁠⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠

And Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠

And Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠⁠

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who is Iran's New Supreme Leader and What Does He Believe?

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to two friends of the show about how Europe is responding to the war with Iran. In the first half, the Rt Hon Tom Tugendhat MP — former chair of the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee and former UK Security Minister — discusses Britain’s confused response to the conflict, and in the second half, French journalist Wassim Nasr explains France’s position.

Sir Tom and Wassim explain:

 The UK government’s uncertain response to the Iran war

 What politicians mean when they talk about the ‘legal basis’ for military action

 The lessons of the Iraq War and whether they are being misunderstood

 Iran’s role in the insurgency against Western forces in Iraq

 The debate over designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization in the UK

 The state of the British military after decades of defence cuts

 The strategic controversy surrounding Diego Garcia and the Chagos Islands

 France’s historic Arab Policy and its effort to maintain strategic independence in the Middle East

 France’s military agreements with the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait

 The E3 framework (France, Germany, UK) and its role in negotiations with Iran

 Macron’s attempt to expand France’s nuclear deterrent to cover Europe

 The evolving situation in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s weakening position

 Intelligence cooperation between France, Israel, and regional partners

 Whether Europe is entering a new era of strategic independence

Follow Sir Tom on X: https://x.com/TomTugendhat

Follow Wassim on X: https://x.com/SimNasr

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm 

Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Iran War: British Uncertainty vs. French Resolve

With missiles streaking across Middle Eastern skies and the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader sending shockwaves through the region, Aimen joins Thomas from a Dubai under fire to unpack a historic turning point.

They discuss:

 Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile strikes across the GCC and Israel

 Life under bombardment in Dubai and the regional military response

 The assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei and what it means for Iran’s future

 Whether this war marks the death of the 1979 Islamic Revolution

 The internal dynamics of the Iranian regime at this critical moment

 The United States’ strategic calculus and the question of escalation

Join the Conflicted Community here: ⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/⁠ 

Find us on X: ⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠

And Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠

And Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Death of Ayatollah Khamenei & The Future of Iran

In this very special Emergency Episode, Aimen and Thomas discuss the Iran War, which began this morning with wide-ranging air strikes carried out by Israel and the United States against IRGC and Iranian regime targets, and which almost immediately resulted in Iranian counter-strikes against seven states in the region — including in Dubai, where Aimen lives.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

🚨 Emergency Episode: The Iran War Has Begun 🚨

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to former BBC journalist Martin Plaut about his new book Unbroken Chains: A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement, which tells the whole story of African slavery, a story far older and more global than the one that focuses only on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Martin explains:

 How Africa’s slavery story begins in the Nile Valley around 2900 BC

 Why the trans-Saharan slave routes remain less examined than Atlantic slavery

 What Islam did — and didn’t — change about slavery in practice

 Indian Ocean slavery

 Oman’s slave market in Zanzibar and its caravans that penetrated deep into central Africa

 Indigenous African slavery in Ethiopia and the Sokoto Caliphate

 The role of racial hierarchies and ‘slave blood’ stigma within societies

 Barbary corsairs and European so-called ‘white slavery’

 Contemporary chattel slavery in Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Sudan, and Libya

 Why major institutions still prefer commemorating slavery in the past to confronting it in the present

Follow Martin on X: https://x.com/martinplaut

And his personal website: https://martinplaut.com/

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm 

Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

African Slavery: The Untold Story

As Saudi Arabia celebrates Founding Day, and as the murky underbelly of GCC geopolitics is on everyone's minds, we're re-releasing this classic Conflicted episode from early 2022.

Thomas & Aimen discuss:

 The deep history of Arabia

 The first foundations of Saudi Arabia

 The transition from British to American dominance in the Middle East

 Aimen’s family history within the British imperial system

 The 1920 Iraqi revolt 

 St John Philby (Abdullah Philby)

 The consolidation of Saudi Arabia under Ibn Saud

 Oil politics and the American-Saudi partnership

 Cold War spy-craft and intelligence networks in Saudi Arabia

 Espionage culture in the region

 The murder of Jamal Khashoggi

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ 

Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictedYoutube 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Rowan Bishop.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Conflicted Revisited: Spying for Saudi

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to historian Yossef Rapoport about his new book Becoming Arab, and the revolutionary argument at its heart: that Arab identity in Egypt and the Levant was not the result of mass migration from Arabia, but was forged in the medieval countryside between the 11th and 15th centuries.

Rapoport explains:

 What the word ‘Arab’ meant in the early Islamic centuries

 Why most medieval villagers in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine did not initially think of themselves as Arabs

 Why migration models fail to explain Arabisation in the settled countryside

 How Islamisation and Islamic governance reshaped rural society

 The role of clan genealogies, taxation, and local leadership in creating Arab village identities

 The extraordinary 1245 Fayyum survey and what it reveals about rural Egypt

 The rise of popular Arab epics and the imagination of tribal ancestry

 Ibn Taymiyyah’s critique of manufactured tribalism in the 14th century

 How medieval Arabisation reshapes modern debates about identity, belonging, and land

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm 

Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Strait of Hormuz and Kharg Island: How America Intends to Win This War

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