Episodes
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The Arctic.
For all of recorded human history, it’s been nothing more than a vast, frozen desert, left untouched by all except a handful of intrepid explorers, a few hardy indigenous communities… and, well, polar bears.
But in the ever-warming 21st century, this frosty expanse might just become the next major battleground where world powers clash for strategic and material dominance.
The melting of the ice is opening up a massive new frontier, so in this episode, we're going to conduct a bit of Arctic exploration of our own.
First, we’ll take a look at all the High North has to offer and see exactly why the region is quickly becoming a top priority for many of the world’s governments.
Then we’ll see who the major players are and where they’re positioning themselves on this icy chessboard.
And finally, we’ll examine whether we could have a really Cold war on our hands in the coming years. Watch on YouTube
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The Israel-Palestine conflict is already one of the most contentious and violent in the world.
But surprise attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in early October and subsequent retaliation by Israel’s military left thousands dead and injured after just a few days of fighting.
This podcast explains the roots of the conflict and details why Israel and Palestine have such a fractured relationship and lays out the arguments of both sides.
It also examines why the prospect of a two-state solution seems more like fantasy than ever before, why Hamas chose this moment to launch its attack... and finally, what the wider implications might be for the region and beyond.
00:00 - Intro01:53 - What actually happened on Oct 7? 03:04 - History of Israel-Palestine conflict 06:48 - Israeli and Palestinian viewpoints 09:20 - Why a two-state solution is a fantasy 12:18 - Why did Hamas choose to attack now? 14:15 - What happens next, thoughts, conclusions
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The United States and Europe are home to some of the world's most prosperous economies, high living standards and liberal democracies, and allocate billions in aid every year to developing countries.
So why does the rest of the world have such disdain for the West? And why are so many countries in Africa, the Arab world and South Asia pulling away from Western partnerships in favour of Russia, China and India?
In this episode, we're going to pull back the facade of the West's liberal democracies to reveal just how they manipulate the rest of the world.
We'll examine how and why so many countries in the Global South are choosing to align with the East.
And finally, we'll explore what America, Britain and the powers of Europe must do if they want to turn the tide.
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The Kurds are widely regarded as one of the world's largest ethnic groups without a country of their own.
There are some 35-40 million Kurds living today in the heart of the Middle East. But despite their considerable number and historical significance, they are locked in an ongoing struggle for recognition and autonomy because the region of Kurdistan has never existed as a sovereign state.
For more than a century, many Kurds have clamoured for the creation of a modern-day 'Greater Kurdistan' where their people could live in peace, free of the social and political agendas of other governments who seek to oppress them.
But there are many reasons - some obvious and others less so - as to why the creation of such a state would be so fraught with difficulty.
Here, we’ll look at the plight of the Kurds in different countries, examine their fight for autonomy and predict whether a sovereign Kurdistan is ever likely to become a reality.
LIST OF IMPORTANT ACRONYMS:
PKK - Kurdistan Worker's Party (Kurdish political movement in Turkey) PYD - Democratic Union Party (essentially Syrian branch of PKK) YPG - People's Protection Units (militant group affiliated with PYD) YPJ - The YPG but for women SDF - Syrian Democratic Forces (multi-ethnic militia led by the YPG) KRG - Kurdistan Regional Government (executive body of Iraqi Kurdistan) KDP - Kurdistan Democratic Party (political party in Iraqi Kurdistan) PUK - Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (another political party in Iraqi Kurdistan) AANES - Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria
CHAPTERS 0.00: Intro 1.42: History of the Kurds 5.09: Kurds in Turkey 8.45: Kurds in Syria 12.33: Kurds in Iran and Iraq 18.35: Will there ever be a sovereign Kurdistan?
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India's evolution into a rising global power means it is being referenced ever more frequently in the same breath as Russia, China and the United States.
But unlike those superpowers locked in fierce ideological, economic and in some respects military competition, India finds itself in a privileged position - and is making the most of it.
The current Indian government under PM Narendra Modi has proven extremely adept at leveraging the competing interests of east and west - much to its own benefit - and has so far managed to navigate a path between them without alienating one or the other in the process.
But how exactly is Delhi managing to pull this off - and how long can it last?
00.00 Intro
02.04 Evolution of Indo-US relations
04.27 Evolution of Indo-Russian relations
07.04 Non-alignment foreign policy, strategic autonomy
10.05 Modi's brand of strategic autonomy, playing East and West
15.09: What next for India and its relationship with the US and Russia?
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The people of Turkey head to the polls on Sunday 14th May to cast their votes in hotly anticipated presidential elections, with incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's 20-year grip on power looking shakier than ever.
With the Turkish economy reeling from brutal inflation and millions of people having lost their livelihoods after this year's devastating earthquake, 69-year-old Erdogan faces a staunch challenge to get re-elected.
But there is a considerable portion of Turkey’s population wishing the elections would never come.
No matter the outcome, the fate of some 3.7 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey looks even more bleak.
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Episode 7 of the World Beyond The West podcast takes us to Bamako, the capital city of Mali in sub-Saharan Africa, to explore the fascinating, complicated and uncomfortable relationship between France and its former African colonies.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, France ruled over 20 African states, until growing discontent and changing societal norms after the First World War led French leaders to grant almost all the countries under their rule independence by 1960.
But France has never stopped profiting from its colonial past on the continent, leveraging its influence, financial authority and advantageous independence agreements to prop up its economy at the expense of Francophone Africa.
To learn more about this unbalanced post-colonial relationship and explore the ways in which it could be rehabilitated, David spoke with Moussa Kondo.
Moussa is a former special adviser to the Malian presidency, the current director of the Sahel Institute for Democracy and Governance, and the founder of the Malian newspaper L’Express de Bamako.
He is also an inaugural fellow of the Obama Foundation for his work with the Malian chapter of Accountability Lab
Links to Moussa’s social media profiles, along with the webpages for the Sahel Institute of Democracy and Governance and Accountability Lab are below:
Moussa Kondo
Twitter (@Kondoba)
LinkedIn
Sahel Institute
(Twitter @sahelinstitute)
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Taiwan insists it is a self-governing country and has no desire to be kept under China’s thumb, while the oriental superpower’s authoritarian President Xi has refused to renounce the right to use force to wrest what he sees as a renegade province back under Chinese control.
China has not held back in demonstrating its military ferocity, conducting a series of large-scale military exercises which have seen several of its jets encroach on Taiwanese air space and missiles plunge into the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan has responded to these perceived threats by ordering yet more defensive weaponry from America, leveraging its democracy and high-tech economy to strengthen foreign relations while revitalising its domestic arms production.
And to top it off, Joe Biden has deviated from decades of deliberately ambiguous American rhetoric on the China-Taiwan problem by claiming the US would intervene militarily should Xi's armies attempt to seize the island by force.
But how did two territories with such close cultural ties become socio-political polar opposites? Are they really headed for war? And why is the United States even involved?
Let's wind the clock back a few decades to understand all this and more.
TIMESTAMPS:
0.00: Introduction
2.07: Origins of China-Taiwan tensions
3.43: How Taiwan transformed from authoritarian province to flourishing democracy and technological powerhouse
7.49: Possibility of war between China and Taiwan
10.37: Shift in US foreign policy and involvement in China-Taiwan issue
14.47: Outro, questions for audience
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It’s been 365 days since Russian tanks rolled across the border and into Ukraine, irrevocably changing the course of world history and impacting millions of lives.
Today, David sits down with Dr Huseyn Aliyev for a deep dive into the war so far, examining the military, political, economic and social consequences of the conflict and exploring what might happen in the weeks, months and even years to come.
Dr Aliyev is a Lecturer in Central and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow and an expert in conflict and security in Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. Most of his research focuses on violent mobilisation and participation in armed conflict. He currently leads a collaborative ESRC(UK Economic and Social Research Council)-funded research project entitled ‘From Russia with War: Mobilisation of Foreign Fighters in the Former Soviet Union.’Dr Aliyev’s previously conducted extensive fieldwork in Ukraine and was embedded with pro-government mobilised paramilitary groups from 2015-2019. His research on pro-government mobilisation in Ukraine was published in high-ranking academic journals, such as Comparative Political Studies, Studies of Conflict and Terrorism and Terrorism and Political Violence.
You can find updates on Dr Aliyev’s ‘From Russia With War’ project on Twitter here (@FromRuswithWar)
0.00: Introduction
2.01: Welcome, introduction to Dr Aliyev
4.28: Recap of war, key factors so far
6.19: Western involvement and support of Ukraine
9.30: Limits to support for Ukraine
11.40: Russian war effort, Russian army vs Wagner group
17.40: Russian military and political infighting
25.10: Stalemate, what is success for Russia, success for Ukraine?
29.20: Impact of war on younger generations in Ukraine
32.55: Impact of war on younger generations in Russia
35.20: How life has changed for Ukrainians living under Russian rule, life for Ukrainians deported to Russia
38.52: How conflict has changed since 2014, what life is like for volunteers still fighting
45.30: Foreigners volunteering to fight in Ukraine
52.00: How does the war end?
54.50: Goodbyes, Dr Aliyev’s ongoing projects
57.00: Outro, David in Russia and Ukraine
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Dr. Pavel Albores is a Professor of Operation and Supply Chain Management and Director of the Centre for Research into Safety and Security (CRISIS) at Aston Business School.
He has worked with leading governmental organisations in the field of preparedness, disaster management and response across ten different countries.
Pavel's primary research interests revolve around the fields of simulation, supply chain management, emergency management and humanitarian logistics, particularly with regard to natural disaster response.
You can learn more about Aston CRISIS management centre hereYou can follow Pavel on social media here
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Since the state of North Korea was founded in 1948, the Kim family has ruled over its people with total, unyielding power.
While its southern neighbour has flourished into one of the world's most technologically advanced and economically prosperous nations, the 'hermit kingdom' remains largely stuck in the past.
Much of its subjugated population is starving, has little or no access to healthcare and medication considered rudimentary in developed countries, and for the most part lives life in total isolation from the outside world.
Instead, the latest descendant of the Kim bloodline - incumbent supreme leader Kim Jong Un - has dumped almost all his nation's wealth into the pursuit of an obsessive mission: to cultivate the globe’s most powerful 'strategic arsenal' of missiles and nuclear devices.
But why is Kim so hell bent on arming himself to the teeth at the expense of his people? And why has the population not revolted against the de-facto monarchy after decades of neglect?
Here, World Beyond The West explains how North Korea came to be thanks to Kim Jong Un’s grandfather Kim Il Sung, explores the methods its supreme leaders have used to cultivate their omnipotence, and reviews the evidence to suggest that Kim Jong Un is preparing to test a new nuclear weapon.
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Ethiopia’s Tigray war was recently described by the White House as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world – but you’d have had to go out of your way to know much about it. This episode will give you an essential breakdown of the conflict and how it came to be, cover the key terms of the newly signed peace deal, and examine the factors that could put it in jeopardy.
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The focus for audio log number one is Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin – the Russian leader who has been in power in one position or another since 1999 and is the chief architect of Europe’s biggest armed conflict since the Second World War ended in 1945.
World Beyond The West explores how Russia’s president became the isolated, idealistic autocrat we see today, sheds light on the factors that play into his decision making and explains why it’s most likely going to be very difficult to negotiate a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine.
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