Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters7 Jun 2017

Saudi Arabia moves against Qatar and we now have yet another crisis in the Middle East

There is yet another crisis in the middle east. This week, Saudi Arabia and its close allies in the region moved against Qatar, cutting off sea and air travel and moving to isolate their fellow sunni Gulf country.

Like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional group of erstwhile allies that coordinate security policies against Iran and other common threats. But tensions have been brewing for many years between Qatar and other countries on the Arabian Peninsula and these tensions have apparently come to a head in the wake of Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia. Qatar is home to both Al Jazeera and the region's largest US military airbase -- which is currently the strategic nerve center of the US air campaign against ISIS. This fact did not apparently stop President Trump for issuing statements, on Twitter of course, in support of Saudi allegations that Qatar is a nemesis that supports terrorist groups. On the line with me to unpack this situation and explain the roots of these regional rivalries, which has much to do with both the Al Jazeera television station and Qatar's backing of different proxies during the aftermath of Egypt's Arab Spring is Marc Lynch. Marc has been on the show before, most recently to discus his newest book The New Arab Wars, Uprisings and Anarchy in the Middle East. He is a professor at George Washington University and someone I rely on to help me make sense of tangled middle eastern politics. You can--and should follow him on Twitter at @AbuAardvark. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn about why this spat between Qatar and its neighbors is so profoundly consequential to global politics, then have a listen. Leave a review on iTunes!

You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.

Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!

Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:

#1: International Relations Theory, explained.

#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation

#3: A Brief History of NATO

#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.

#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.

#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin

#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)

#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(1172)

Russia's War Economy Is Starting to Crack

Russia's economy once seemed remarkably resilient in the face of international sanctions. But in recent months, a growing number of indicators suggest that Russia's war economy is coming under strains...

6 Aug 28min

What are the "Causes of Peace" Today? | Live from the Aspen Security Forum with the International Crisis Group

What can bring about peace in an era of geopolitical rivalry and persistent conflict? In an ambitious new report, the International Crisis Group takes a hard-nosed approach to this question, offering ...

3 Aug 31min

World Food Program Chief Carl Skau on the Perfect Storm Driving Up Global Food Prices

With humanitarian needs surging and resources increasingly scarce, how does the World Food Programme decide where to cut assistance? Our guest today is Carl Skau, acting executive director of the Worl...

30 Jul 29min

What Is the Future of US-China Relations? | Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Live from the Aspen Security Forum

Nicholas Burns is a veteran diplomat who served as President Biden's ambassador to China during a crucial period in U.S.-China relations. We caught up at the Aspen Security Forum in July for a wide-ra...

27 Jul 19min

UN Secretary-General Candidate María Fernanda Espinosa: The Interview

The race to become the next United Nations Secretary-General is heating up, with the Security Council preparing to hold its first straw polls to test the viability of the candidates. In this Global Di...

22 Jul 28min

How Ukraine Turned the Tide of the War | Live from the Aspen Security Forum

In recent months, Ukraine has clearly seized the initiative against Russia. Its impressive use of drones and autonomous weapons systems has put Russia on the defensive, while strikes on Russian energy...

20 Jul 20min

How the Civil War in Myanmar Became the Deadliest Conflict in Asia

The civil war in Myanmar recently passed a grim milestone. According to the conflict-monitoring NGO ACLED, an estimated 100,000 people have been killed since the war broke out in 2021. Seventy percent...

16 Jul 35min

Josh Rogin on Iran, NATO, and the Latest in Trump Foreign Policy

It was a pleasure to welcome The Washington Post's Josh Rogin for a wide-ranging discussion of the foreign policy topics du jour — from Iran and NATO to Syria, Ukraine, and the latest moves from the T...

13 Jul 40min