<p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>At the heart of much of the discussion of the multiple crises facing the Middle East is Iran, whose proxies are active across the region. But what is it that Iran itself wants? What is it trying to achieve and and what considerations does it bring to these questions?</p><br><p>To try to answer these complicated questions I was fortunate to be joined by Charlie Gammell, historian, Iran expert and former UK diplomat, to talk through Iran's recent history, it's current preoccupations and its possible futures.</p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

With Laura Cretney

<p>Argentina's 'anarcho capitalist' president Javier Milei haș a series of policies that are barely believable. I spoke to Leiza Brumat about the political and economic background to his election, his political platform and whether he is likely to get it adopted.</p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>BONUS EPISODE</p><br><p>In conversation with Jason Pack of the <a href="https://twitter.com/DisorderShow" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder Podcast</a> about Yemen. This is a joint episode with Disorder, so if you are already listening to that show, you won't find too much different between these two. </p><br><p>There are some links that were referenced during the show. </p><br><p><a href="https://time.com/6555947/houthi-airstrike-history/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://time.com/6555947/houthi-airstrike-history/</a></p><br><p><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/12/houthis-red-sea-british-royal-navy-is-back/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/01/12/houthis-red-sea-british-royal-navy-is-back/</a></p><br><p>And my substack articles on Yemen can be found here <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://arthursnell.substack.com/</a> </p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>EMERGENCY EPISODE</p><br><p>On 11 January US and UK airforces struck targets in Yemen associated with the Huthi militia which has been targeting international shipping in the Red Sea, purportedly in solidarity with the plight of the Palestinians.</p><br><p>To try to understand the bewildering background to these worrying events I was privileged to be joined by Hannah Porter, Senior Research Officer for Yemen at ARK Group and a particular expert on Yemens Huthis.</p><br><p>Hannah can be followed on Twitter @Hannaheporter</p><br><p>You can find me in the usual places, including a recent Substack piece I wrote about Yemen's Huthis here: <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com/p/what-do-the-houthis-want" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://arthursnell.substack.com/p/what-do-the-houthis-want</a></p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>After a tough year in 2023 and a lack of major progress in regaining territory from the Russians, this year promises to be another challenging one for Ukraine. Looming over all of what Ukraine does is the question of Western support. Will the USA be able to overcome its political turmoil and continue to provide the Ukrainians with the weapons and aid they desperately need? Will Europe be able to step up its weapons production? And perhaps the biggest question of all: will Donald Trump return to the presidency, thereby ending American support to Ukraine?</p><br><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lukeharding" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Luke Harding</a>, Guardian foreign correspondent and author of the book <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/invasion-9781783352777" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Invasion</a>, has spent most of 2023 in Ukraine, reporting from the frontlines of that conflict. He joined me to discuss the war so far and the war to come.</p><br><p>Thank you for listening to this podcast. Please check out my substack Not All Doom <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://arthursnell.substack.com/</a> and don't forget to give us a positive review if you have enjoyed this episode. </p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>With all the pressure of the Christmas season I held off from putting out a 'geopolitical review of the year' or something like that: there's a lot going on and people need some space. Instead, I wanted to finish the year with an episode that is in some ways completely different, but also relevant to the issues we have covered in the podcast earlier. <a href="https://www.tcd.ie/research/profiles/?profile=smomara" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Shane O'Mara</a> is a professor of experimental brain psychology at Trinity College, Dublin and the author of numerous books and studies. He also has a brilliant Substack called <a href="https://brainpizza.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Brain Pizza</a> which I can highly recommend.</p><br><p>Recently, Shane published a book called Talking Heads which explains the unexpected link between human conversation, which of course depends on human memory, and nations. At a time when nationalism in its most pernicious and dangerous form is an increasing phenomenon, understanding that it is a function of human memory, not some inherent feature of Englishness, Germanness, Russianess or whatever, feels like an important insight and worth talking about.</p><br><p>Thank you all for listening to this and other episodes of the podcast. I hope you have enjoyed it and hope that you will continue to listen into 2024.</p><br><p>You can follow me <a href="https://twitter.com/SnellArthur" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/SnellArthur</a> also more often on BlueSky <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. I write at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com/p/my-enemys-enemys-enemys-enemy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://arthursnell.substack.com/</a></p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>As the Israeli assault on Gaza, immediately preceded by the Hamas-led massacre in Southern Israel, continues, we return to the history of this conflict. This is the second part of my extended interview with the historian&nbsp;<a href="https://www.historythatmatters.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Barr, author of several books on the history of the Middle East including&nbsp;A Line in the Sand&nbsp;and&nbsp;Lords of the Desert</a>, some of the best regarded guides to the region, particularly in the early years of the twentieth century. If you have not yet heard the preceding episode 18, where James starts this story, I recommend that you listen to that first.</p><br><p>In this episode we start at the aftermath of World War II and the horrific events of the Holocaust, as Jews are trying to emigrate to what will become the State of Israel and the British colonial authorities are trying to stop them.</p><br><p>You can follow James via his website <a href="https://www.historythatmatters.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.historythatmatters.org/</a> as well as on Bluesky at&nbsp;<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jamesbarr.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://bsky.app/profile/jamesbarr.bsky.social</a></p><p>I am on Twitter @snellarthur, Bluesky <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social</a> and&nbsp;arthursnell.substack.com </p><br><p>If you’ve enjoyed this podcast why not subscribe, and give us a positive review.</p><br><p>Also, don't forget to check out the Disorder Podcast <a href="https://www.goalhangerpodcasts.com/disorder" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.goalhangerpodcasts.com/disorder</a></p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

Part 1 of a 2 part special

<p>The sense that our politics isn’t working might be familiar to listeners of this podcast. If you heard last week’s episode you’ll know that I had James O’Brien discussing his book “How they Broke Britain”, which gets to the heart of these questions. But one area that James and I didn’t touch on is our parliament. Britain’s parliament, sometimes self-importantly calling itself the Mother of Parliaments, isn’t working properly. Its members aren’t scrutinising legislation properly, its regulations and procedures are largely broken and it contributes to a wider sense of cynicism around our politics. Two seasoned parliamentarians, Nick Harvey and Paul Tyler, have focused in on the way parliament currently works and how it&nbsp;<u>should</u>&nbsp;work and have produced a short, easily readable book which contains a set of clear proposals, around elections, parliamentary procedure, reform of the upper house and standards in public life. Although it’s just about parliament, this book could be titled How to Fix Britain, because if its recommendations where followed, our national life would be improved immeasurably. It’s actually called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Can-Parliament-Take-Back-Control/dp/B0CHKY67X8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Can Parliament Take Back Control&nbsp;</a>? And comes with strong endorsements from the Institute for Government, the Constitution Unit at University College London and the Former Clerk of the House of Commons, Lord Lisvane.</p><br><p>I was lucky to be able to speak to Paul and Nick and draw on their combined several decades of political experience to hear their recommendations for how to fix our politics. Here they are</p><br><p>You can find Paul and Nick on Twitter and in the usual places. I am @snellarthur on most social media and my Substack is&nbsp;<a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://arthursnell.substack.com/</a>&nbsp;</p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>James O'Brien is often described as the voice of liberal England. With this regular radio slot on LBC and his huge online following, he is a reminder that popular doesn’t have to be populism. His patient, forensic but totally accessible unpicking of cynical political dishonsesty, particularly of the Brexist variety, has been a beacon of sanity for literally millions of people - at a time when so many other media outlets, including the BBC, no longer seem prepared to call out deliberately misleading public messaging. O’Brien sometimes feels like a lone voice of reason and that points to a profound change in our society. Politicians have always tried to avoid answering difficult questions and portray their own actions as virtuous and ingenious, but the kind of profound dishonesty characterised by Boris Johnson coupled with the refusal to take responsibility for your own failings, perhaps best epitomised by Liz Truss, feels like a newer phenomenon. This plays into a wider prospect, of a country that now feels broken, its media, its politics and perhaps most importantly its public services, all deeply dysfunctional. The roots and causes of that malaise are the subject of James OBrien’s new book,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/457804/how-they-broke-britain-by-obrien-james/9780753560341" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>How they Broke Britain</em></a><em>.</em>&nbsp;In the excellent introduction, O’Brien talks of the boiling frog metaphor and succinctly explains the premise of his book: it is “the story of slowly boiled water from which an entire country failed to escape”.</p><br><p>Like anyone who has been profoundly distressed by that boiling water, I have been a big admirer of O’Brien’s work, both on LBC and on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/mrjamesob" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. This was particularly the case as his book has a similar title to my own,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Britain-Broke-World-1997-2022/dp/1912454645/ref=sr_1_1?crid=25OL0S2R0OZ9G&amp;keywords=how+britain+broke+the+world&amp;qid=1700830990&amp;sprefix=,aps,110&amp;sr=8-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>How Britain Broke the World</em></a><em>.&nbsp;</em>I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest they are companion volumes, but I was to some extent attempting in my work to look at some of the similar effects of Britain’s internal politics on the wider world. So it was a huge pleasure and privilege to have James on the podcast. He is, as you’d expect for a consummate radio presenter, an excellent guest and I really hope you get as much from listening to him as I did from interviewing him.</p><br><p>Thanks for listening and please subscribe to this show if you haven’t already. You can follow my work at&nbsp;<a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://arthursnell.substack.com/</a>&nbsp;as well as on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/SnellArthur" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bluesky</a>.&nbsp;</p><br><p>Finally, a link to the Disorder Podcast which I mentioned at the top of the show:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goalhangerpodcasts.com/disorder" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.goalhangerpodcasts.com/disorder</a></p><br><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

Are Ukraine and Russia in a stalemate? And does the rest of the world care anymore?

with Larisa Brown

Mike Martin on the risks of global conflict

The complexities of Israel's neighbourhood, with Michael Stephens

<p><br></p><p>In this episode I wanted to go back to something that Paul Mason said in an earlier episode&nbsp;which struck a chord. He identified that the weakest link in International democratic politics is the world’s greatest democracy, the United States.</p><br><p>Here’s Paul’s line “the key to the international situation is America. we could&nbsp;wake up in November 2024 with Trump as president that is a legitimation of&nbsp;insurrectionary politics.” (Have a listen to that episode&nbsp;- number 7 - if you’ve not yet had the chance)</p><br><p>That challenge led me to this week’s interview. Greg Olear, whose name sounds Irish but is in fact Slovakian in origin is an American novelist, podcaster and commentator on political affairs. He has a&nbsp;<a href="https://gregolear.substack.com/p/europes-war-with-arthur-snell?nthPub=191" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">substack</a>&nbsp;and his&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/prevail-with-greg-olear/id1553506699" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">podcast</a>, Prevail, can be found in all the usual places.</p><br><p>Greg has focused heavily on the current crisis in American politics, as well as the complicated history of President Trump’s links to Russia and the degree to which that still matters. I hope you get as much from the discussion as I did.</p><br><p><br></p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&amp;ik=763cd0fc5d&amp;attid=0.1.1&amp;permmsgid=msg-f:1780266340717995279&amp;th=18b4c6cdfc14a50f&amp;view=fimg&amp;fur=ip&amp;sz=s0-l75-ft&amp;attbid=ANGjdJ-LgwwelAFhDmP8Udx95ujymcsHoOOUUU7D2-I7AE30EgXhErPNbvdN7vkHfYbVDsUsds4jamc2tMemnJUgEqvwLA-ZavYJtukdfwkaI89vnSz8cspiJ2bc5c0&amp;disp=emb">Arthur Snell (@snellarthur.bsky.social)</a></p><p>bsky.app</p><br><p><a href="https://twitter.com/SnellArthur" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Arthur Snell (@SnellArthur) / X</a></p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/SnellArthur" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">twitter.com</a></p><br><p><a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&amp;ik=763cd0fc5d&amp;attid=0.1.2&amp;permmsgid=msg-f:1780266340717995279&amp;th=18b4c6cdfc14a50f&amp;view=fimg&amp;fur=ip&amp;sz=s0-l75-ft&amp;attbid=ANGjdJ_Y0nkCzEhlhSFK8CzMWu0BH26XCkkwmT5UGsX4vj72VXb_ANyHEYtxzmFPHqXsqV_eEmXg2e7KDvNI2wbj8W2h0_MPjoHzG5YWF7160VvbBi_3cqADl42oNss&amp;disp=emb">Not all doom | Arthur Snell | Substack</a></p><p>arthursnell.substack.com</p><br><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

With Arthur Snell and Shashank Joshi

<p>EMERGENCY PODCAST</p><br><p>We’re only 4 days after the stunning horror of Hamas’s attack on Israel. Much remains unclear, but we now know that a major Hamas operation completely blindsided Israel’s defences and nearly 1,000 Israelis, mostly civilians are dead, with several hundred taken as hostages to Gaza. Israel has regained control of the towns that were seized by Hamas fighters, but there remain gunmen at large in what is obviously a chaotic situation.</p><br><p>Israel has responded with a huge mobilisation of forces against Hamas, with 600 killed in Gaza, according to the BBC. Gaza is officially under siege with no access to supplies of water, electricity or food and Hamas are threatening to kill a hostage every time Israel carries out an air strike without warning Palestinian civilians.</p><br><p>To help us come to terms with these extraordinary events, I was joined by Jason Pack. Some of you may have heard him speak on Libya and the disordered world in episode 6 of this podcast. But Jason is very much a Middle East specialist: he lived 7 years in the Middle East, speaks Arabic and Hebrew and lived 3 years in East Jerusalem, 2 years in Syria, and 1 in Egypt...&nbsp;He is of course presenter of the Disorder podcast and Founder &amp; Director,&nbsp;<a href="https://natoandtheglobalenduringdisorder.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NATO &amp; the Global Enduring Disorder Project</a>.&nbsp;</p><br><p>Some of you might have been surprised to hear Jason say that Israel had a hand in Hamas origins. There are various articles that describe this background, this in The Washington Post&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/07/30/how-israel-helped-create-hamas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/07/30/how-israel-helped-create-hamas/</a>&nbsp;and particularly this detailed account in the Wall Street Journal (archived here:&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090926212507/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275572295011847.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20090926212507/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275572295011847.html</a>). The important point to make here is that Israel encouraged an Islamist charitable entity that was there to act as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of FATAH, also known as the PLO. The Israelis were not trying to create a militant terror group (this is a conspiracy theory that has flourished online), although one of the retired Israeli officers interviewed in the WSJ article acknowledges that he "had no illusions about [Hamas founder] Sheikh Yassin's long-term intentions or the perils of political Islam”. This is, as ever, a complex story.</p><br><p>Thanks for listening to Behind the Lines - please spread the word and give us a positive review if you find these episodes useful.</p><br><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

How to Stop Fascism

<p><br/></p><p>We’re living in an age of the self-confident autocrat: China is rising, President Erdogan coasted to a managed re-election and in the Gulf, the Arab monarchies are riding high on oil prices boosted by Putin’s war in Ukraine. And what do the autocrats do with their money? They use it to buy influence. And one of the ways that they can do this is through football, the most popular sport on the planet.</p><p><br/></p><p>In 2003 Roman Abramovich, the now-sanctioned Russian billionaire, bought Chelsea football club, setting into a motion a process of flooding the English game with colossal amounts of money. As we know now, and as many suspected for years, Abramovitrch owed his wealth directly to President Putin - so the money that infused English football from this point was effectively looted from the coffers of the Russian state. Russia would not be alone in seeking to use football to burnish its image - in 2008 Abu Dhabi bought Manchester City and Qatar bought Paris Saint Germain three years later. In both cases these small Gulf emirates successfully used football to increase their global reputation and influence. This process appears to have continued, with Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup and the purchase by Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund of Newcastle United as well as the establishment of a new Saudi Pro League, drawing in top players from all over the world. As part of the Newcastle deal, the Premier League appeared to have been given assurances that the Saudi Public Inverstment Fund was separate to the Saudi state, which is patently untrue. What this appears to show is that the English football authorities will believe what they want if it brings in the cash, with little thought for the consequences.</p><p><br/></p><p>To discuss the geopolitical and sporting implications of these changes I was honoured to be joined by Miguel Delaney, chief football writer at the Independent, who has been researching and writing about the geopolitics of football for several years.</p><p><br/></p><p>You find Miguel on Twitter @MiguelDelaney and at the Independent <a href='https://www.independent.co.uk/author/miguel-delaney'>https://www.independent.co.uk/author/miguel-delaney</a></p><p><br/></p><p>Thank you for listening to this podcast - please subscribe if you haven’t already and give us a positive review if you enjoyed it.</p><p>Vyner Street Productions </p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>Storm Daniel passed through the Mediterranean in early September,  one of a bewildering number of extreme weather events in recent months. When it hit Libya on 10 September, torrential rainfall led to catastrophic floods in the Town of Derna. At the time of recording as many as 20,000 people are missing, feared dead. It was an example of the terrifying new reality of the climate crisis where entire cities can be wiped out by wildfires or floods, literally in a matter of hours.</p><p>But everything has a context, and the context in Derna is a city that is located in one of the most chaotic countries on earth, where government services barely function and the concept of government itself is contested between different rulers in rival areas of the territory. To get a fuller understanding of the situation in Derna and Libya, I was delighted to be able to speak to Jason Pack, Libya expert and author of the book Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder. As we covered in our discussion, what happens in Libya is in some respects a microcosm of a much bigger global crisis, which is also the subject of a new podcast that Jason is bringing out, called Disorder.</p><p><br/></p><p>You can find Jason’s book here: <a href='https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/libya-and-the-global-enduring-disorder/'>https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/libya-and-the-global-enduring-disorder/</a></p><p>His new podcast is here: <a href='https://linktr.ee/disorderpod'>https://linktr.ee/disorderpod</a></p><p>And his website is here: <a href='https://www.jasonpack.org/'>https://www.jasonpack.org/</a></p><p>Thanks for listening to Behind the Lines. We are at <a href='https://behindthelineswitharthursnell.buzzsprout.com/'>https://behindthelineswitharthursnell.buzzsprout.com/</a></p><p>I tweet @snellarthur and am now on BlueSky @snellarthur.bsky.social </p><p>And you can read my thoughts on geopolitics at <a href='http://arthursnell.substack.com/'>arthursnell.substack.com</a> </p><p>Vyner Street Productions </p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>On the 30th August a military coup took place in Gabon in West Africa, dislodging the president Ali Bongo, whose family has controlled the country for nearly 60 years. That military takeover in Gabon followed swiftly on the heels of a coup in Niger, one month earlier. There seems to have been a spate of these in the Sahel region of Africa. Indeed, within a period of just over two years, every country in a 5000km line from Conakry on Africa’s West Coast to Port Sudan on the East, has experienced a military coup.</p><p><br/></p><p>And there’s a bigger picture here: democracy around the world isn’t doing very well. In the United States, Donald Trump’s chaotic rule ended in rejected election results and a violent insurrection. In Britain, we have had multiple prime ministers without a general election. Across Europe authoritarian populists contest - and sometimes win - elections. In Hungary, Poland, Israel and turkey, we see independent institutions under threat and in some cases entirely circumscribed.  And of course in Ukraine, democracy is fighting for its life against a militarised fascist regime.</p><p><br/></p><p>So this week I wanted to get the big picture, to understand what is the health of global democracy and what are its prospects. And who better to talk to about this than Brian Klaas, who is an expert on African coups, a politics professor at UCL, and author of the brilliant book Corruptible, who gets power and how it changes us. I hope you’ll find our conversation interesting - it was, and this surprised me - a lot more encouraging than I’d expected.</p><p><br/></p><p>You can find Brian’s book here: <a href='https://brianpklaas.com/corruptible'>https://brianpklaas.com/corruptible</a> He is on Twitter @brianklaas and his Substack <a href='https://www.forkingpaths.co/'>https://www.forkingpaths.co/</a> is also worth a read.</p><p><br/></p><p>Thanks again for listening to this podcast. Please subscribe and spread the word. You can leave comments and thoughts on my Substack here <a href='https://arthursnell.substack.com/'>https://arthursnell.substack.com/</a> I’m also on Twitter @snellarthur and now on Bluesky @<a href='https://bsky.appsnellarthur.bsky.social/'>snellarthur.bsky.social</a></p><p>Vyner Street Productions </p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has been controlled by one political movement - ZANU-PF. Outside the country this was often seen as the personal fiefdom of one man, Robert Mugabe. Undoubtedly he was the key figure, but after his removal from power in 2017, the party has continued to control Zimbabwe’s politics and its institutions. So it is a fair question whether there has ever been a legitimate election held in the country.</p><p><br/></p><p>Last week on 4 September president Emmerson Mnangagwa, formerly seen as one of Mugabe’s most ruthless henchmen, was sworn in for a second presidential term after another election marred by serious allegations of election irregularities, violence and targeting of opposition supporters. But this time there were differences: election monitors from Zimbabwe’s neighbouring countries, which have a history of turning a blind eye to such irregularities, on this occasion chose to spell out in highly critical detail the problems with the poll. Another big difference was the way that opposition activists were able to use their smartphones and modern tech to run a highly credible vote tally, clearly demonstrating that the officially declared results were questionable at best.</p><p><br/></p><p>To discuss these elections I was joined by Dr Sara Dorman (Twitter: @afr_pol), a Zimbabwe specialist from the University of Edinburgh and author of Understanding Zimbabwe, published by Hurst. <a href='https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/understanding-zimbabwe/'>https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/understanding-zimbabwe/</a> I also spoke to Makomborero Haruzivishe</p><p><br/></p><p>(Twitter: @MakomboreroH) who is a Zimbabwean political activist now based in the UK after a year as a political prisoner in Zimbabwe.</p><p><br/></p><p>If you are enjoying this podcast please subscribe via whichever platform you use and give us a positive review. Thanks for listening!</p><p>Vyner Street Productions </p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p><br/>Ukraine’s Radical War</p><p><br/></p><p>Thanks to all of you that have listened to the first episode of Behind the Lines and to all of those of you that are joining this new podcast for the first time. We are taking a weekly look at a different aspect of current geopolitics. This week, it’s how the information age has transformed warfare, and particularly how it has transformed warfare in Ukraine.</p><p><br/></p><p>Russia&apos;s war on Ukraine is the most online in history. The smartphone has become the way the war is recorded and transmitted, and it is the way we consume news of the war. But it is also a weapon. The smartphone has become part of the kill-chain, with Ukrainian civilians uploading targeting information via secure servers that are used by Ukrainian military to direct their artillery fires against the Russians. How do we understand this new kind of radical warfare?</p><p><br/></p><p>Dr Matthew Ford, an Associate Professor of War Studies at the Swedish Defence University, is currently writing the book War in the age of the Smartphone to be published by Hurst in 2024. Matthew is co author with Andrew Hoskins of Glasgow University of the book Radical War about how the digital age has revolutionised modern warfare. He used to be a strategic analyst at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and has recently been undertaking Open Source Intelligence work for the UK government on the Ukraine war. We discussed what is different about the Ukraine war, how the smartphone enlists civilians, both inside and outside Ukraine, and how it shapes how we talk about and understand that war.</p><p><br/><br/></p><p>Matthew can be found on Twitter @warmatters and his book is available here: <a href='https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/radical-war/'>https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/radical-war/<br/></a><br/></p><p><a href='https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/radical-war/'><br/></a><br/></p><p>You can find me on Twitter @snellarthur and you can find my Substack on some of these, and related issues here <a href='https://arthursnell.substack.com/'>https://arthursnell.substack.com/</a></p><p><br/></p><p>Thanks again for listening to Behind the Lines. If you are enjoying it, please spread the word and give us a positive review. See you next time!</p><p><br/><br/></p><p>Vyner Street Productions </p><p>Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/behindthelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">behindthelines</a> and please sign up for my substack at <a href="https://arthursnell.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">arthursnell.substack.com</a> and/or follow me on Bluesky</p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/snellarthur.bsky.social" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@snellarthur.bsky.social</a>. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often <a href="https://disordershow.com/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Disorder</a> which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the <a href="https://www.rusi.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Royal United Services Institute</a>, the world's oldest think tank.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>