In my latest podcast episode, I speak with Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, Founding Director of the Center for Governance and Markets and Professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public and International Affairs, about the impacts on women that this current Taliban regime has had in Afghanistan. Listen to this and more in my latest episode; link in bio.
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.
In Ukraine, Russia’s egregious human rights violations against Ukrainian children have now reached a mammoth proportion. Russia’s calculated erasure of identity is done systematically. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children have been abducted by Russian forces, separated from their families, and subjected to indoctrination. They are forced to abandon their language, their culture, their very sense of self. Parents are left in a state of perpetual anguish, not knowing if they will ever see their children again. Hannah Arendt wrote of the “banality of evil”—how systematic cruelty becomes normalized through bureaucracy and blind obedience to authoritarianism. What we see here is precisely that: an organized heinous effort to extinguish a people’s future by reshaping its children.
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The next episode of my podcast is this upcoming Tuesday, September 8, at 10:00am EDT with Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Fellow for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Previously, he worked as senior Gulf analyst at the Gulf Center for Strategic Studies and as codirector of the Kuwait Program on Development, Governance and Globalization in the Gulf States at the London School of Economics..
Listeners can register for the live podcast recording on Zoom at the following link: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3217869984572/WN_ZdlhpZtnTNyws1-HVhPnow
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.
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The Gulf States will not return to the prewar status quo; instead, they are likely to pursue a more diversified security architecture, combining a thinner US shield with expanded ties to China, Russia, and Asian importers. The Mecca Joint Defense agreement between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan is the first significant new alliance. This shift will gradually dilute Washington’s centrality in Gulf security, complicating US force posture. Moreover, the enduring mistrust of the US will make coalition-building for future crises far more difficult. Trump’s Iran adventure is not an isolated blunder but the latest, and perhaps most explosive, expression of his assault on an already fragile global order. By discarding restraint and sidelining allies, Trump has accelerated the erosion of US credibility in the Gulf States as the newest casualties of this disorder: their cities struck, economies shaken, and security assumptions shattered.
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Throughout history, people have left the places they call home in search of safety, opportunity, education, work, or simply the possibility of a better future. Some move only a short distance, while others make the far more difficult decision to leave their country—sometimes temporarily and sometimes forever. Migration is not new. It has shaped our societies, cultures, languages, and identities for generations. Yet today, too many migrants and asylum seekers face violence, exploitation, discrimination, and hostility simply because they crossed a border. No one should lose their dignity or fundamental rights because they were forced—or chose—to build a life somewhere else. Seeking safety should never be treated as a crime. Migration must be approached with humanity, dignity, justice, and respect for human rights.
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