CONFLICTED

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.

History
Religion & Spirituality
76
The Firebrand from Damascus (Part 2)
53 min
77
The Firebrand from Damascus (Part 1)
48 min
78
The First Fundamentalist (Part 2)
56 min
79
The First Fundamentalist (Part 1)
43 min
80
The Mind of a Fundamentalist
40 min
81
Where Have All The Terrorists Gone?
43 min
82
Conflicted Season 4 Announcement
Season 4 of Conflicted is coming soon on June 28th!
1 min
83
Conflicted LIVE Q&A
60 min
84
Announcement: Conflicted LIVE
0 min
85
The West vs. the Rest?
64 min
86
Algerian Civil War
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.
84 min
87
Anti-Soviet Jihad
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.
95 min
88
Saddam vs. Ayatollah
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.
80 min
89
Ayatollah vs. Shah
It was out with the Shah, in with the Ayatollah; and the consequences have been without parallel—for the Middle East, and the world.
77 min
90
Petrostates of the World, Unite!
War, terrorism, kidnappings, assassinations, and an ever-present threat to the global economy—the story of OPEC has it all!
72 min
91
Lebanon: Failed Narco-Terrorist State?
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
68 min
92
Turkquake!
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.
56 min
93
Subcontinental Rift
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.
75 min
94
Gaddafi: The Arab Madman Cometh
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.
87 min
95
Arab-Israeli Blitzkrieg
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.
63 min
96
Hashemites!
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.
76 min
97
The State of Syria
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 — “...a fulcrum of geopolitical hegemony in the Middle East.”
67 min
98
Introducing: Behind the Sun
Before the next episode, we have something a little different for your ears - an intro to a whole new podcast - Behind the Sun.
46 min
99
Zionism and It's Discontents
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 criss-crossing the Middle East.
62 min
100
Nasser: The Arab Strongman Cometh
Following on from our last episode, another CIA adventure in the Middle East kicks off this episode on Egypt.
65 min