Tag Archives: Middle East

Scholars’ Circle – Insight into the Abraham Accord between Israel and some Arab States – January 31, 2021

January 30, 2021 host

Several Arab states have signed normalization agreements with Israel. What do these “Abraham Accords” mean for security in the region and for the future of Palestinian people? What are the solutions to the Palestinian conflict? What are the alternatives to a two state solution and should the focus for Palestinians be on their civil rights? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Laurie A. Brand is the Robert Grandford Wright Professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Citizens Abroad: States and Migration in the Middle East and North Africa and Official Stories: Politics and National Narratives in Egypt and Algeria.
Mira Sucharov is Professor of Political Science and University Chair of Teaching Innovation at Carlton University. She is the author of Borders and Belonging: A Memoir and the co-editor (with Aaron J. Hahn Tapper) of Social Justice and Israel/Palestine: Foundational & Contemporary Debates.
Hamoud Salhi is a Professor of Political Science and Middle East, and Associate Dean of the College of Social and Natural Sciences at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is a political commentator for Arabic media. Hamoud is a host of SWANA Region Radio on KPFK, Los Angeles.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Will the Biden Administration Re-Join the Iran Nuclear Deal? – December 5, 2020

December 5, 2020 host

President Elected Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to return to normalcy. He has promised to return to the Iran Nuclear Deal. But what complications does he face to fulfill this promise? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Ervand Abrahamian is Distinguished Professor at Baruch College at City University of New York. He is the author of A History of Modern Iran and Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth About North Korea, Iran and Syria.
Nader Hashemi is Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor in Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, Colorado. He is the author of Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies and the co-editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and Iran’s Struggle for Democracy.
Wayne Glass is Professor Emeritus in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is the former Senior Defense Policy Advisor to Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He has worked extensively with nuclear weapons policies.
Joseph Cirincione is the Director for Non-Proliferation at the Carnegie Institute and the past president of the Ploughsharers Fund. He is the co-author of Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats and co-author of Repairing the Regime: Preventing the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Analysis of Armenia-Azerbaijan Ceasefire Agreement -/- US Electoral College fault lines – November 8, 2020

November 14, 2020 host

A peace agreement brokered by Russia was signed this week by Azerbaijan and Armenia to end the fighting in the Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, region. What are the details of the agreement and why did both sides agree? [ dur: 33mins. ]

Richard Giragosian is the Founding Director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC), an independent “think tank” located in Yerevan, Armenia. He is Visiting Professor at the College of Europe’s Natolin Campus and Senior Expert at Yerevan State University’s Centre for European Studies (CES). He is the author of the book chapter Small States and Large Costs of Regional Fracture: The Case of Armenia
Robert English is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals and the End of the Cold War and The Other Side: How Soviets and Americans Perceive Each Other.

How much did the Electoral College matter in this election? Should it be reformed? Is it anti-democratic? And if should be reformed, what should be done? [ dur: 25mins. ]

Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at University of Texas, Austin. He holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy
Sanford Levinson is W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. He is the author of many publications including Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) and Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance and, with Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Root causes of political and economic crisis in Lebanon – Aug 9, 2020

August 8, 2020 host

The devastating explosion in Lebanon last week is just one of many crisis causing profound suffering for the people there. The economic and political crises have been exacerbated by the Covid 19 pandemic bringing the country to the brink of collapse. What is behind these crises? What can be done? Doug Becker explores. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

Bassel F. Salloukh is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Department of Social Sciences at the Lebanese American University. He is the co-author of The Politics of Sectarianism in Postwar Lebanon and Beyond the Arab Spring: Authoritarianism and Democratization in the Arab World.
Hannes Baumann is Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool and Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, Middle East Center. He is the author of Citizen Hariri: Lebanon’s Neoliberal Reconstruction.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – US role in Israel and Palestinians peace promotions -/- Modern Diseases – February 16, 2020

February 15, 2020 host

What’s the role of the US in promoting peace between Israel and Palestinians? What’s the likelihood of its success? Doug Becker hosts. [ dur: 36mins. ]

Brent Sasley is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas, Arlington. He is the author of the book Politics in Israel: Governing a Complex Society and the Washington Post article The White House Peace Plan Puts Israel’s Concerns First – and Shortchanges Palestinians.
Fayez Hammad is Lecturer in International Relations and Middle East Studies at The University of Southern California. He is a frequent commentator on Middle East politics.

Sanitation and antibiotics have saved the lives of many, but are they also the culprits behind some of modern diseases? We might have gone overboard in killing our microbes and that may be causing some of today’s epidemics. [ dur 22mins. ]

Martin I. Blaser is Director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine (CABM) at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS). Blaser is also the Henry Rutgers Chair of the Human Microbiome and Professor of Medicine and Microbiology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is the author of Missing Microbes : How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues.

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Current state of affairs in Iran, Iraq, Mideast, US after death of Iranian General Suleiman -/- Australian wild Fires and Mitigation – January 19, 2020

January 18, 2020 host

Following the US drone strike killing General Suleiman in Iraq, Iran shot down a Ukrainian passenger airliner. As tensions rose, international concerns over security as well as legality rose as well. And in Iran, protests against the government’s response to the attack on the airliner arose and have been intensifying. On today’s show, we will examine both the international and the local responses to the tensions and the military strikes that have led to this crisis. [ dur: 31 mins ]

Nader Hashemi is Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor in Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, Colorado. He is the author of Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies and the co-editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and Iran’s Struggle for Democracy.
Asli Ü. Bâli is Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. She is the co-editor of Constitution Writing, Religion and Democracy and author of the research paper Negotiating Non-Proliferation: International Law and Delegation in the Iranian Nuclear Crisis.
Nayereh Tohidi is Director of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and Professor and former Chair of the Department of Gender & Women Studies at California State University, Northridge. She is the co-editor and contributor to Globalization, Gender and Religion: The Politics of Women’s Rights in Catholic and Muslim Contexts and Women in Muslim Societies: Diversity within Unity.

What is the relationship between climate change and wildfires? The intensity and breadth of the wildfires in Australia has drawn attention to the effects of climate change and the need for a greater commitment to countering the globe’s increasing tensions. We explore the scientific and political linkages between these fires and climate change. [ dur: 27mins. ]

Wenju Cai is Director of the Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research (CSHOR) and a Chief Research Scientist and Office of the Chief Executive Science Leader at CSIRO. He is a contributor to The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change. He is the co-author of Granger causal predictors for maximum rainfall in Australia.
LeRoy Westerling is Co-Director of the Center for Climate Communication at the University of California, Merced. He is the co-author of Greater Temperature and Precipitation Extremes Intensify Western U.S. Droughts, Wildfire Severity, and Sierra Nevada Tree Mortality.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Targeted assassination and international law – January 12, 2020

January 11, 2020 host

Are targeted assassinations of state representatives legal? Does the targets past support for terrorism or military aggression action matter in this determination? What might be legitimate targets of air campaigns or other uses of military power? Does the legality of the use of military and the types of other actions matter in 21st century?
Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

Mark Drumbl is a Professor at Washington and Lee University, School of Law and the Director of the University’s Transnational Law Institute. He is the author of numerous books including the award winning , Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law, and Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy.
Hannah Garry is a Professor of law at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law and Director of the International Human Rights Clinic. She specializes in international human rights law, international criminal law, international humanitarian law and international refugee law, USC
Hamoud Salhi is a Professor of Political Science and Middle East, and Associate Dean of the College of Social and Natural Sciences at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Interviews with Suicide Bomber -/- Transmission of Trauma from parent to child – May 12, 2019

May 12, 2019 host

First, from broken heart to suicide bomber we explore the various drives that fuel deadly terror. [dur: 17mins. ]

Ken Ballen, author of Terrorist in Love.

Then, is the transmission of trauma multi-generational? Do the children of survivors of mass atrocities have higher risk of developing psychological disorders? What are the social and behavioral factors that result in the trauma of successive generations? We look at the impact of survivors’ post-trauma adaptational style in their children’s eyes. [ dur: 40mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Andrei Novac is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California at Irvine, School of Medicine, and Founding Director of the Traumatic Stress Program. He is the author of the research papers Traumatic Stress and Human Behavior, Special Treatment Issues in Children of Holocaust Survivors and Free Artistic Expression: A Clinical Exploration of Resiliency and Healing After Trauma.
Yael Danieli is Director of the Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and their Children. She is the Founding Co-President of the International Network of Holocaust and Genocide Survivors and their Friends, and a Founding Director of The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. She is the author of the pubications International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma, International Responses to Traumatic Stress and the research papers Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma: Modeling the What and How of Transmission, and Differing Adaptational Styles in Families of Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust.

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Middle East

Scholars’ Circle – Insight into the Abraham Accord between Israel and some Arab States – January 31, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Will the Biden Administration Re-Join the Iran Nuclear Deal? – December 5, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Analysis of Armenia-Azerbaijan Ceasefire Agreement -/- US Electoral College fault lines – November 8, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Root causes of political and economic crisis in Lebanon – Aug 9, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – US role in Israel and Palestinians peace promotions -/- Modern Diseases – February 16, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Current state of affairs in Iran, Iraq, Mideast, US after death of Iranian General Suleiman -/- Australian wild Fires and Mitigation – January 19, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Targeted assassination and international law – January 12, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Interviews with Suicide Bomber -/- Transmission of Trauma from parent to child – May 12, 2019

By Maria Armoudian