CONFLICTED

In a special LIVE end of season event (recorded on the 30th November) Thomas and Aimen sat down to answer your questions about the latest headlines from the Middle East. No stone is left unturned as the two discussed a potential invasion of Northern Syria, increasing tensions in Iran and the possible rehabilitation of Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. Get more from Conflicted Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A special announcement from Thomas. Find tickets to the Live Q&A on Eventbrite. Or join our FB Discussion group Or follow us on Twitter or Facebook to have your say on what topics you'd like Thomas & Aimen to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the final episode of this season, Thomas & Aimen come full circle again, back to the latest chapter in Aimen’s extraordinary life—a new, sad chapter that has forced a difficult and fateful decision upon him. The two friends also roll up their sleeves and resume their age-old ongoing argument: is the clash between Western modernity and Islamic civilization bound to end in bloody conflict, or can the Islamic world make the adjustments required to reap the benefits of modernity—without losing its soul in the process? Listen to Aimen on Blethered: https://pod.co/blethered/aimen-dean-21st-centurys-most-valued-spy-on-why-hes-leaving-scotland Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Conflicted approaches the end of season 3, Aimen & Thomas turn their attention to a country which hasn’t featured much on the podcast so far: Algeria. Often overlooked due to the Algerian regime’s isolationist policy, for those with eyes to see Algeria has been at the vanguard of Middle Eastern developments for over two hundred years. For this reason, it’s the perfect prism through which to revisit all the historical themes from this season: traditional Islamic civilization, the challenge of Western modernity, the indignities of colonisation, the triumph of nationalist independence and petro-statehood, and the slide into disillusionment and decline thanks to Cold War geopolitics, political Islamism, and the rise of global jihadism. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the assassination of Al Qaeda leader Aymen al-Zawahiri ringing in their ears, Aimen & Thomas turn their attention once again to Afghanistan, focusing this time on the Soviet invasion in 1979 and the rise of global jihadism that followed. What led the Soviets to invade? What was Kabul’s Cold War relationship with Moscow like in the run-up to the invasion? What was the U.S.’s true role in the anti-Soviet jihad? And most importantly: why did thousands of young men from the Arab role sign up to fight? Through an in-depth look at the life of the most celebrated ideologue of modern jihadism, Abdullah Azzam, we’ll answer those questions and more, as we continue to assemble the geopolitical puzzle of the modern Middle East. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our previous episode on the Iranian revolution, we left the Ayatollah Khomeini sitting high and mighty in Tehran. Little did he know, next door in Baghdad, an Arab strongman nursed revolutionary, expansionary ambitions of his own: Saddam Hussein, the Lion of the Arabs and Defender of the Eastern Gate, the ultimate symbol of corrupt and tyrannical dictatorship. Taking up where we left off back in episode 9, with Iraq reeling from the bloody 1958 coup that replaced the Hashemite monarchy with a military dictatorship, this episode describes Saddam’s blood-soaked rise to power and his tragic and ultimately futile decision to invade Iran, thus inaugurating the 20th century’s bloodiest and costliest conventional war. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve reached the Iranian Revolution of 1979! The great showdown! The watershed moment when the tensions which we’ve been tracing—between reform and reaction, modernism and tradition—erupted into sweeping rejection of the Western model of modernity and its replacement with something apocalyptic, something both ancient and strikingly new: a Shi’a Islamic Republic. It was out with the Shah, in with the Ayatollah; and the consequences have been without parallel—for the Middle East, and the world. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Aimen and Thomas talk about one of the many governing institutions which arose out of the wreckage of the old imperial and colonial world, and which still underpins the way the world functions today: OPEC. The only great governing institution founded and run by statesmen outside the Western corridors of power, since its founding in 1960, OPEC has played a big role in every major geopolitical event since its founding in 1960. War, terrorism, kidnappings, assassinations, and an ever-present threat to the global economy—the story of OPEC has it all! Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Circling back to the Arab world after a brief excursus further afield, this episode of Conflicted takes up the themes of sectarian strife and political radicalism and applies them to the country that has perhaps been most affected by the Clash of Civilizations: Lebanon. What is Lebanon? Who are the Lebanese? Why did the country crack up in 1975? Answering these questions and more, the episode climaxes with what must be the fastest, most breathless description of the Lebanese Civil War ever attempted! Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Having flitted around the edges of the Ottoman Empire for most of this season, now we’re going straight to the jugular: the heart of that empire, the city of Istanbul (or Constantinople, if you prefer). In this episode of Conflicted, we tell the thrilling story of the epic historic conflict between two peoples, Turks and Greeks, practising two faiths, Islam and Orthodox Christianity, a conflict still manifest today, most painfully on the divided island of Cyprus. The invasion of Cyprus by Turkish troops in 1974 was yet another egg in the face of the declining British empire, one of the defining events of the Cold War period, and a living witness to the ongoing clash of civilizations in the Middle East. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the Arab world, we now journey eastward to the Indian Subcontinent. Ancient, vast, and spiritually rich, the lands that comprise the nation-states of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh underwent one of the great traumas of the 20th century: the end of British rule and the Partition of the Raj. In this episode, we’ll tell this story, which includes a panoply of immense political personalities—Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah—and which reverberates down to the present day in the ongoing crisis over the Himalayan province of Kashmir. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that we’ve told the story of the rise and fall of Nasserism, we turn to Libya and its handsome and charismatic dictator, Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Believing himself to have inherited Nasser’s mantle of Arab leadership, Gaddafi’s brazen narcissistic insanity is the stuff of legend, and Aimen’s got a caravan-load of funny anecdotes to illustrate just how nuts he was. But more seriously, Gaddafi symbolizes the tragic turn toward unhinged dictatorship which much of the Arab world underwent in the second half of the Cold War. Gaddafi, Assad, Saleh, Mubarak, Ben Ali, and of course Saddam Hussein—they all stalked the Middle East like undead zombies of Nasser, a nightmare from which the Arab world is still recovering. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve finally reached the climax of the Cold War in the Middle East: the 6-Day War of 1967 and its dramatic sequel, the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The outcomes of both wars are well known; less so the political machinations leading up to them. We’ll do our best to take you behind the scenes of the corridors of power and into the minds of Arab and Israeli leaders. No one wanted war, yet war arrived. Why? These two wars were transformative: Nasserism was out and radicalism was in, and in the ongoing clash of civilisations in the Middle East, a new and improved player emerged from the wreckage of war: radical Islamism. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we race toward the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, we’re putting our final duck in its row. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Jordan and Iraq both received Hashemite monarchs—and the rivalries and ideological conflicts that followed still reverberate today, perhaps nowhere more powerfully than on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Focusing mainly on the tragic history of modern Iraq, this episode engages with the clash between modern Arab republicanism and something like traditional monarchism (Aimen’s favourite!), as competing versions of Pan-Arabism violently spread throughout the region, prompting the Hashemites into ever more desperate acts of self-preservation. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we talk about Syria. Or ask the question, really: What is Syria? Syria has been described as a “ fulcrum of geopolitical hegemony...” — a bit like Ukraine, interestingly — “...in the Middle East.” For that reason, for thousands of years Syria has been fought over and smashed up several times by invading armies from all directions, making the country somewhat amorphous, a patchwork of peoples practicing a huge variety of religions. More than perhaps anywhere else, Syria’s road to modern nationhood has been strewn with conflict—which we’ll explore through the prism of our continuing journey across the Cold War Middle East. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before the next episode, we have something a little different for your ears - an introduction to a whole new podcast - Behind the Sun. In Behind the Sun, Nadia, a young Syrian woman in the diaspora, struggles to come to terms with what the world knows about what’s happening in her country. She speaks with Riyad - her father's friend - whom she had first met in the strangest of circumstances. In episode 1, Nadia and Riyad explore the true meaning of "safety and justice" in Syria. He tells her the story of his disappearance in Syria for 21 years and how he formed a close friendship with Diab between the walls of the infamous prison Sednaya.  Behind the Sun is co-produced by Message Heard and The Syria Campaign, in collaboration with the Association of Detainees and the Missing (ADMSP) and the Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability (SJAC) under its project On the Margins No More. Subscribe to Behind the Sun wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes out weekly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Having avoided it for as long as possible, Aimen & Thomas finally turn their attention to the state of Israel: its backstory, its modern re-emergence, and its impact on the civilizational fault lines crisscrossing the Middle East. In the present day, Arab statesmen have never been closer to their Israeli counterparts, both sides united around a shared enemy: Iran. This marks a dramatic sea change from the past, and to help explain it, as so often this season, this episode reaches back into the Bronze Age, establishing the mishmash of peoples who have long called the Holy Land home, before returning to the pivotal late-Ottoman period, as Jewish migration to that corner of the Ottoman Empire, under the banner of Zionism, inspired the local Arabs to respond with nationalist ambitions of their own—culminating in the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following on from our last episode, another CIA adventure in the Middle East kicks off this episode on Egypt. King Farouk’s removal from power is the starting pistol for the Egyptian Revolution—a landmark event in modern middle eastern history. The figure of Nasser reigns supreme, whose dogged attempts to resist incorporation into the new U.S.-led Western order precipitated a crisis that might have led to World War 3: the Suez Crisis. All eyes remain fixed on Egypt today, as the war in Ukraine threatens fatal food shortages there, and regional rivalries over the River Nile could turn ugly. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we shift our focus to Iran. Nobody could have known this at the time, but with hindsight we can see that at the beginning of the Cold War, Iran had somehow become a whirlpool swirling with all of the 20th century’s clashing ideological and political forces. All the players are there: an autocratic monarch in the old style; a newly formed Communist party conspiring revolution; aristocratic Liberals demanding economic and constitutional reform; Islamist terrorists; Big Oil; a declining European empire; the Soviet Union reviving Tsarist geopolitics; and America, the new superpower. These clashing interests and ideologies would result in Operation Ajax, one of the most notorious episodes from the Cold War. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the last episode we talked about how the American half of the Cold War was established in Saudi Arabia. Today, we’re shifting our focus to the other half of that epic conflict: the Soviet Union. What were the Soviet Union’s designs on the Middle East? Or were their forays into Middle Eastern geopolitics simply countermoves in a Cold War chess game, attempts to wrongfoot their American opponent? And now, as the spectre of war between Russia and Ukraine hangs over Europe, to what extent can Soviet history, and indeed the earlier history of imperial Russia, help us to understand what’s going on? Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week’s episode, we focus attention on Aimen’s homeland: Saudi Arabia. Arabia is as old as time, and we explore how the depth and profundity of its history inform the present day. Saudi Arabia is also, as we’ll show, where the Cold War began, and to understand how, we’ll explain the way in which long-standing British power in the region gave way, fitfully and almost without anyone noticing, to those upstart imperialists from Thomas’s homeland: the United States. And we’ll see how the Cold War world of spycraft, ideological conflict, and state paranoia continues into the present, through Aimen’s take on the notorious murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month.   Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introduced in the first episode, we raise the all-important question: what is the “Clash of Civilizations?” We lay the groundwork by explaining the concept and how it relates to the “New World Order” covered in Series 2. Listen as Thomas and Aimen travel back to the end of the Cold War, this time zooming in on a little-known regional conflict, the explosive dispute still raging between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Their struggle over Nagorno-Karabakh offers a topical example of how the Clash of Civilizations manifests on the ground, and how small conflicts cast widespread reverberations, across both space—and time. Find out on all platforms. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We pick up where we left off, narrating the failure of America’s Afghanistan policy, its chaotic pull-out, and how the future of Afghanistan rests on a game of geopolitical poker—and the dealer is the Taliban! In our first episode of the season, Thomas and Aimen fully unpack Afghanistan’s modern history and its potential future all while introducing us to the idea of the ‘Clash of Civilizations’… Buckle up. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join our FB Discussion group to get exclusive updates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/450486135832418 Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us on January 19 for Season 3 as we dive even deeper into the history of the Middle East by looking at the Cold War and travelling as far back as the Bronze Age. We also reflect on today’s state of affairs and digest its complexities to answer the question: is a clash of civilizations really to blame for the Middle East’s history of conflict? Or is the real problem our blindness to the region’s reality? Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This year marks twenty years since 9/11 and the start of the war in Afghanistan. A war which is now reaching a tragic and extraordinary finale. In this special episode, Thomas and Aimen are back for a deep dive into the ancient and modern history of Afghanistan, Aimen's first hand experiences with the Taliban and an exploration of why the country has been in disarray for decades now. And we can also confirm that we are coming back for Season 3! Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Join the Conflicted fan community in our Facebook group at https://bit.ly/2WtL6J7 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In November, Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated, and so Thomas and Aimen return to discuss the regional context of Iran’s nuclear program, what’s next for the region once Joe Biden takes office, and Aimen reveals how the assassination unfolded step-by-step. Plus, you will hear an update on Season 3 and a very special guest. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. For more Conflicted updates and chat, join our Facebook group: http://bit.ly/37cqJAY Or you can follow us on Twitter here: https://bit.ly/3oXij8L Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus episode, Thomas introduces a new show from the producers of Conflicted about the Srebrenica genocide. Tune in to hear the first episode of Untold Killing in full.   The story of the last European genocide starts with the Bosnian War in 1992. Tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims fleeing from persecution found their way to Srebrenica, a town where they were meant to be protected. And before genocide was carried out in that very town in 1995, the Muslims survived a siege that lasted for years.   To subscribe to Untold Killing: https://bit.ly/untoldpod For more information and resources visit: https://www.srebrenica.org.uk/podcast/     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thomas introduces a new podcast about a subject familiar to Conflicted listeners: the Bosnian War. Untold Killing is a deep dive into one particularly tragic event during the war - the Srebrenica Genocide. Listen to the teaser and subscribe to the new show at https://bit.ly/untoldpod   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode, Thomas and Aimen sit down to answer your questions. They dig deeper into past discussions as well as touch on topics we haven’t covered in the podcast before. Expect to hear discussion about how COVID-19 is impacting the Middle East, western intervention in the Balkans and the role of Faith in Saddam’s regime.   A massive thanks to the listeners who sent in questions for this episode and filled our audience survey. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month.   Join the FB group here: http://bit.ly/37cqJAY Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted   Question Time Codes: Q1. 1:42 Q2. 21:57 Q3. 34:38 Q4. 41:07 Q5. 57:34 Q6. 1:10:58   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the financial crisis moved off the front pages, activists and politicians began to organize around another global emergency: climate change. In this episode, Aimen and Thomas discuss and debate their way through the science and politics around this hot topic.   If you’d like to help us develop Conflicted for future seasons, please take a few minutes to fill out our questionnaire at bit.ly/conflictedq (and maybe win a little treat!). Thank you! Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. You can read the full transcript here: https://bit.ly/3bICS2K   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From a bomb maker to double agent to… banker? In this episode, Aimen draws on his experience helping banks combat financial terrorism as our hosts explore the 2008 Financial Crisis and its impact on the New World Order. Listen to bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple and Spotify.   Join the Facebook group here: http://bit.ly/37cqJAY Read the transcript here: https://bit.ly/2RoEruG   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the protests in Hong Kong, to the persecution of the Uighurs and the building of the New Silk Road, this episode explores the role China has played in the New World Order. Listen to bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple and Spotify.   Join the FB group here: http://bit.ly/37cqJAY Read the transcript here: https://bit.ly/2xdNmYL   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the Iron Curtain fell, America aimed to bring Russia into the fold of their New World Order. Things didn’t go according to plan. In this episode, Thomas and Aimen discuss the rise of Putin, the Second Chechen War and Russia’s role in Syria.   Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. For more info, exclusive updates and to chat with other listeners join our Facebook discussion group: http://bit.ly/37cqJAY Read the full episode transcript here: https://bit.ly/2UQxvbG   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1990, George Bush proclaimed the dawning of a New World Order. The Cold War was over, the nation-state and capitalism had won, and the US was ready to deliver their strategy for global governance of the world. Aimen and Thomas discuss how this played out in the Middle East and where the grand vision fell short. For more info, exclusive updates and to chat with other listeners join our Facebook discussion group: http://bit.ly/37cqJAY. Find the whole transcript here: http://bit.ly/2SYhrDU Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, the world found itself teetering on the edge of a conflict, the scale of which has only been threatened a few times since 1945. Aimen and Thomas kick off Season 2 looking at who Soleimani was, his role in defeating ISIS, as well as the place of privatised espionage and drone technology in modern warfare. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. For more info, exclusive updates and to chat with other listeners you can now join our facebook discussion group: http://bit.ly/37cqJAY. You can also read the full transcript here: http://bit.ly/2SmOPnE   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find out what topic Aimen and Thomas will be tackling first in the new episode of Conflicted, and how it ties in to the wider scope of Season 2 — the collapse of America's vision for a New World Order. Our hosts also share the launch date and details of our new release schedule. For more info, exclusive updates and to chat with other listeners you can now join our facebook discussion group: http://bit.ly/37cqJAY. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is coming back for a second season! After examining the War on Terror in Season 1, hosts Thomas Small and Aimen Dean are back with a new focus: The New World Order. Take a listen to our teaser for what to expect in the upcoming episodes. Listen to bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple and Spotify. Join the Facebook Discussion Group: http://bit.ly/37cqJAY See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode, Thomas will introduce you to Jake Warren, the host of a new podcast called Undiscovered. He'll share with you an episode we think you'll enjoy - it's the incredible story of a bear, a lion and a long-abandoned zoo in the heartland of ISIS occupied Iraq.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What compels a jihadi to take up arms in defence of Islam? How are they recruited – and where are they recruited from? In the final episode of this series, Aimen gets into the specifics of the importance of a prophetic narrative and why so many fighters travelled to Syria from every corner of the globe to join ISIS. We’ll also find out how Aimen was finally outed as an MI6 spy inside al-Qaeda and how he escaped.   Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode brings us to one of the most complicated conflicts raging in the Middle East. Thomas and Aimen both know the country well and walk us through the actors and their motives. They’ll also explain how Syria became such a killing field as a result of the Arab Spring and how Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a onetime eye-doctor in London, played a direct role in the failure of the American post-war project, as he released Syria’s jihadists from prison and facilitated their migration to Iraq.   Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Yemeni civil war is one of the most brutal civil wars in the Middle East. As it continues to rage on, Thomas and Aimen explain who the players are in this conflict, why it is all about water, and the reasons Saudi Arabia and UAE are using it to fight an existential war of future survival with their arch rival, Iran. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week Aimen left listeners with a final thought: the biggest mistake in the War on Terror was the invasion of Iraq. This week, Aimen explains how this explosive conflict played into the jihadists’ apocalyptic dreams, how it spurred Osama bin Laden and other conflicts forward in neighbouring countries, and his frustrations as a double agent as he watched the region falling deeper into war. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The War on Terror has lasted 18 years with no clear end in sight. What would it take to resolve a conflict this sprawling and complex - and resolve it successfully? In episode two, Aimen and Thomas grapple with this question, piecing together the historical context, religious issues and modern politics that bred jihadism in the Middle East, and exploring how the counter terrorism efforts of the west have spurred fundamentalism rather than dismantled it.   Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where were you on 9/11? Thomas and Aimen use this historic event as a starting point as they tease out how al-Qaeda went from being a small army of jihadists seeking a caliphate in the Middle East to main player, at the centre of the global stage.   Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coming soon: 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. Listen to exclusive bonus content and get all episodes ad-free by subscribing to Conflicted Extra on Apple Podcasts and Spotify for just 99p/month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices