POMEPS Middle East Political Science Podcast

On this week's episode of the podcast, Samer Abboud of Villanova University joins Marc Lynch to discuss his book, Betrayal of the Homeland: Disloyal Subjects in Wartime Syria. In the book, Abboud argues that the Syrian regime sought to entrench its rule during wartime through bifurcating society into “loyal” and “disloyal” subjects—and punishing those it deemed treacherous. The regime framed the conflict as a war on terror, portraying its opponents as traitors to the homeland. In the post-2015 period, it established new laws, courts, and legal categories that targeted “betrayal,” which could include anything from military desertion to absenteeism to critical social media posts. Disloyal subjects were subjected to various forms of punishment and denied reentry into the country if they had been displaced. Bringing together the regime’s narratives and rhetoric with the machinery of bureaucratic practices, Abboud traces how the state sculpted the divide between loyalty and disloyalty. Empirically rich and theoretically informed, Betrayal of the Homeland offers a panoramic view of the politics of punishment during the final decade of the Assad regime, with broader implications for understanding how authoritarian states manage conflicts.

Music for this season’s podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

POMEPS, directed by Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Sina Azodi of the George Washington University joins Marc Lynch to discuss his book, Iran and the Bomb: The United States, Iran, and the Nuclear Question. The book shows that because the strategic logic of the nuclear program transcends the regimes type, dismantling the Iranian nuclear program is not viable policy option for the United States. Instead, the US must learn to live with a nuclear threshold state and make it a priority to keep Iranian capacity as far away from the bomb as possible.

Music for this season’s podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

POMEPS, directed by Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Samuel Helfont of the Naval War College at the Naval Postgraduate School joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new edited volume, Ba‘thist Iraq through Archives: Reflections, Explorations, and Opportunities (co-edited with Lisa Blaydes). This volume brings together leading scholars to take stock of what we have learned from over a decade of research using the Ba'thist archives, contributing to a new understanding of Iraq's history, with wider implications for understanding authoritarianism in general. They also discuss Helfont's book, The Iraq Wars: A Very Short Introduction. 

*Please note that the Samuel Helfont joins the podcast in a personal capacity as an academic and not as a representative for the Navy or the US Government.*

Music for this season’s podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

POMEPS, directed by Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Kali Rubaii of Purdue University joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Resurgency: Outlasting the War on Terror in Iraq. The book expands the temporal and descriptive categories of what war is—and what resistance looks like. By asking what actions and dispositions make sense when conditions of survival are diminished, and when today may be better than tomorrow, Rubaii offers new methods and insights to those concerned about the possibilities of life amid environmental devastation, mass displacement, and the slow violence of the forever wars.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Jason Brownlee of University of Austin-Texas joins Marc Lynch to discuss his new book, Force Without Authority: America's Wars in the Middle East and South Asia. The book explores why the United States' costliest military operations since Vietnam came up short and pushed Republican and Democratic leaders toward withdrawal and retrenchment. The book delivers a bracing audit of America's unipolar moment and a compelling case for statecraft over bluster.

Music for this season’s podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

POMEPS, directed by Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.