Today’s podcast guest is Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, Founding Director of the Center for Governance and Markets and a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public and International Affairs. She is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a Distinguished Fellow of Peace and International Cooperation at the Institute for Humane Studies.
In this episode, we discuss the situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban, particularly the difference between the Taliban 1.0 that ruled in the 1990s prior to the US invasion, and the current Taliban 2.0, the Taliban’s relations with Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, women’s rights in Afghanistan currently, and the prospective for insurgency against the Taliban.
Listen now; link in bio.
Today’s podcast guest is Mordechai Kedar, an Orientalist and lecturer in the Department of Arabic at Bar-Ilan University, and a Research Fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.
In this episode, we discuss the Palestinian Emirates Plan, which Dr. Kedar has presented as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, delving into the intricacies of the plan and discussing what merits this plan may have.
Listen now; link in bio.
Full bio
Dr. Mordechai Kedar is an Israeli scholar of Arab culture and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, and the vice president of NEWSRAEL.
He is an Orientalist and lecturer in the Department of Arabic at Bar-Ilan University, a Research Fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, and Vice President of “NEWSRAEL – Pro-Israeli Dynamic Feed”. He specialized, among other things, in researching the Hafez al-Assad administration in Syria.
He completed all his academic studies at Bar-Ilan University. In 1981–1983 he studied for a bachelor’s degree in the Department of Arabic and the Department of Political Science, and in 1991–1997 he completed a doctorate in the Department of Arabic. The topic of his doctoral dissertation was “The Public Political Language of the Assad Regime in Syria: Messages and Ways of Expressing Them.” In 2000, he was appointed a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University.
In 1970 he enlisted in the IDF, served in the Armed Forces and completed his service, after 25 years, with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
I recently spoke with former Israeli diplomat Alon Liel and former Palestinian politician Ziad AbuZayyad on my podcast about the case of imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti. Liel discusses the background of Marwan`s imprisonment, but more importantly, where the focus needs to be now - on what Marwan Barghouti can do for the Palestinians, and for peace.
Listen now; link in bio.
My next podcast guest on Tuesday, September 1, at 10:00am EDT is Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, Founding Director of the Center for Governance and Markets and a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public & International Affairs. She is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a Distinguished Fellow of Peace and International Cooperation at the Institute for Humane Studies.
Listeners can register for the live podcast recording with Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili on Zoom; link in bio.
Archived episodes will be released the following day, on Wednesdays at noon. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, including Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify, to be sure to always get the latest episodes.
Lebanon’s parliament has approved legislation abolishing the death penalty for all crimes and replacing it with life imprisonment with hard labor—a landmark step after decades of advocacy by Lebanese human rights defenders. Lebanon has not carried out an execution since 2004, but 85 people remained on death row as of January 2026. Once the law takes effect, Lebanon is poised to become the 114th country to abolish the death penalty for all crimes. Justice should protect human dignity, not rely on irreversible punishment. Lebanon must now commute existing death sentences and continue strengthening a justice system grounded in fairness and human rights.
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The scale, frequency, and brazenness of human rights violations around the world have not diminished, but rather have grown profoundly, raising the question of whether the very notion of “civilization” is little more than a veneer. We pride ourselves on culture, law, and moral advancement, yet beneath this thin surface lies a persistent brutality. Increasingly, it seems we have not escaped that condition; we have merely disguised it. In many countries, human rights violations have become the default response to conflict, replacing peaceful approaches and reconciliation. This failure is measured in the death, despair, and hopelessness of hundreds of millions. Scores of countries spanning the globe have committed large-scale, documented abuses against their own populations and/or native groups, and against civilians in neighboring countries, and are doing so with impunity, including: Eritrea, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Nigeria, among many others.
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If the next Israeli government—or any that follows—genuinely seeks a peace agreement with the Palestinians, it must first consider releasing Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned for nearly 22 years. Barghouti is the one Palestinian leader capable of unifying all Palestinian factions behind a peace process. He has long held that the two-state solution is the only viable path, and he is admired by virtually every Palestinian faction. Freed, he could present a united front and negotiate a sustainable agreement, ending a conflict that has inflicted nearly 80 years of suffering on Israelis and Palestinians alike—most devastatingly on Palestinians, as the Gaza war has shown. The time has come for Israel's government to think in those terms and release Barghouti, whatever the charges against him. Peace demands concessions and sacrifice, and nothing is more important than ending this horrific conflict.
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Netanyahu doesn't want peace. Neither do Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, Herzog et al.
Peace? Israel doesn't want peace. Look at their new daily atrocities in Palestine and Lebanon. Entire families WIPED OFF THE EARTH! Israel wants the land. By all means. Stop playing in our faces!
The jews don't want peace. They are contrary to all mankind.
Today’s podcast guest is Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, Founding Director of the Center for Governance and Markets and a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public and International Affairs. She is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a Distinguished Fellow of Peace and International Cooperation at the Institute for Humane Studies.
In this episode, we discuss the situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban, particularly the difference between the Taliban 1.0 that ruled in the 1990s prior to the US invasion, and the current Taliban 2.0, the Taliban’s relations with Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, women’s rights in Afghanistan currently, and the prospective for insurgency against the Taliban.
Listen now: soundcloud.com/alon-ben-meir/on-the-issues-episode-164-jennifer-brick-murtazashvili
Full bio
Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili is Founding Director of the Center for Governance and Markets and a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public & International Affairs. Her research focuses on issues of self-governance, security, political economy, and public sector reform in Eurasia, Central Eurasia, and South Asia. She is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a Distinguished Fellow of Peace and International Cooperation at the Institute for Humane Studies.
Murtazashvili is the author of several books including Land, the State, and War: Property Institutions and Political Order in Afghanistan (Cambridge University Press, 2021) with Ilia Murtazashvili, and Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan (Cambridge University Press, 2016), which received the Best Book Award in Social Sciences by the Central Eurasian Studies Society and received honorable mention from the International Development Section of the International Studies Association. Murtazashvili has advised the United States Agency for International Development, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, World Bank, the US Department of Defense, the United Nations Development Program, and UNICEF.
She is the President of the Central Eurasian Studies Society and a board member of CEDOS a Kyiv-based organization focused on urban policy and education in Ukraine. She is a member of PONARS Eurasia, a research organization focused on security issues in Eurasia. She previously served as a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
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