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.
Episodes
October 29, 2025 • 95 mins
Another revisited interview from the Conflicted Community Interview archive this week, as we get ready for more Conflicted episodes coming soon… This time, the FULL interview with Hamza Howidy - a Gazan who years ago was forced to flee to Europe, telling us about his experiences and his vision for a post-Hamas Gaza…
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This week, Thomas speaks with Hamza Howidy, a Palestinian activist originally from Gaza now living in exile in Ge...
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October 22, 2025 • 24 mins
This week on Conflicted, Thomas Small is joined by Dr. Emma Ashford, a Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center and an expert on US grand strategy. Emma brings a clear-eyed, realist perspective to the current global debates, arguing that the emerging multipolar world is an opportunity, not a catastrophe, for the United States.
Thomas and Emma dissect the end of the American unipolar moment, exploring whether the US's pivot to global pr...
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October 15, 2025 • 71 mins
This week on Conflicted, Thomas Small is joined by co-host Aimen Dean, who returns to the show to provide a vital debrief on the recent Gaza peace deal. The episode focuses on the fragile ceasefire deal brokered by President Trump, which has brought a temporary halt to hostilities between Israel and Hamas. Aimen is back with his signature, deeply informed analysis, answer your and Thomas’ questions to get beyond the narrative we no...
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October 13, 2025 • 48 mins
Conflicted: 7/7 The Inside Story is now live to all our dear listeners!
New episodes of this 6 part Conflicted special documentary series will release every Monday. But if you want to listen to them all right now and ad-free, you'll have to sign up to the Conflicted Community.
All the information you need to sign up is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
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When a horrific terrorist attack against children...
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October 8, 2025 • 24 mins
This week on Conflicted, host Thomas Small is joined by Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and a leading scholar of Iranian domestic and foreign policy. Together, they explore the profound impact of the recent 12-Day War between Iran, Israel, and the United States on the Islamic Republic. As an Iranian who has studied the regime for decades, Alex offers a vital look into the power struggles between revolutio...
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October 6, 2025 • 53 mins
Conflicted: 7/7 The Inside Story is now live to all our dear listeners!
New episodes of this 6 part Conflicted special documentary series will release every Monday. But if you want to listen to them all right now and ad-free, you'll have to sign up to the Conflicted Community.
All the information you need to sign up is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
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On March 22, 2017, the Westminster Bridge attack ...
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September 29, 2025 • 52 mins
Conflicted: 7/7 The Inside Story is now live to all our dear listeners!
New episodes of this 6 part Conflicted special documentary series will release every Monday. But if you want to listen to them all right now and ad-free, you'll have to sign up to the Conflicted Community.
All the information you need to sign up is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
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Just months after the 7/7 bombings, a new terror pl...
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September 24, 2025 • 24 mins
This week on Conflicted, host Thomas Small is joined by returning guest, Aaron Zelin - the Gloria and Ken Levy Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and founder of the acclaimed website Jihadology. Following up on their last conversation after the fall of the Assad regime, Aaron gives us an in-depth analysis of the current state of play in Syria as the new transitional government, led by Ahmad al-Shara, attempts t...
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September 22, 2025 • 32 mins
Conflicted: 7/7 The Inside Story is now live to all our dear listeners!
New episodes of this 6 part Conflicted special documentary series will release every Monday. But if you want to listen to them all right now and ad-free, you'll have to sign up to the Conflicted Community.
All the information you need to sign up is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/
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With the smoke still rising from the attacks of 7/7...
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September 17, 2025 • 51 mins
Conflicted: 7/7 The Inside Story is now live to all our dear listeners!
Episodes 1 & 2 are available from today, with the following episodes of this 6 part series on the terror attacks which changed the face of modern Britain coming every week...
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Four years before 7/7, there was 9/11. The attacks on New York's World Trade Center utterly changed the world and counter terrorism was conducted in the modern age. It left the que...
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September 17, 2025 • 37 mins
Conflicted: 7/7 The Inside Story is now live to all our dear listeners!
Episodes 1 & 2 are available from today, with the following episodes of this 6 part series on the terror attacks which changed the face of modern Britain coming every week...
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On a regular Thursday in July 2005, the peaceful morning air was shattered as four bombs ripped through the underground in central London. 52 people were killed, over 700 others we...
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September 11, 2025 • 71 mins
On the anniversary, we go all the way back to where it all started with Conflicted, Episode One - 9/11.
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.
Season 5 has ended, but if you still want to have your Conflicted fix , then y...
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September 10, 2025 • 25 mins
This week Thomas is joined by academic and RUSI fellow, Dr. Burcu Ozcelik, a leading expert on Turkish domestic and foreign policy, particularly its relations with the Kurds and the Middle East. With a Ph.D. from Cambridge University on the topic of the PKK and their path to political reconciliation, Burcu has written widely about the Kurds and their relationship with the Turkish state - you can find her work over on X @BurcuAOzcel...
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September 3, 2025 • 71 mins
Another revisited Conflicted Community episode for you this week, as we gear up for a new season of Conflicted. This time we bring you the FULL episode of Thomas' conversation with Eugene Rogan, who back in 2024 told us about his latest book, 'The Damascus Events'. Enjoy...
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The 1860 ‘Damascus Events’ saw Syrian Christians murdered by their Sunni Muslim neighbours in a brutal genocidal moment that reshaped the late Ottoman Empi...
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August 27, 2025 • 24 mins
This week on Conflicted, host Thomas Small is joined by an old friend and former housemate when they studied in Syria together, Jakub Jajcay. A man of many talents, Jakub studied Arabic with Thomas in Damascus before becoming a Slovakian army officer, while also continuing his studies about the Middle East, including working towards a PHD on Lebanese politics. When Russia invaded Ukraine, he decided to put his professional skills t...
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August 20, 2025 • 61 mins
This week, we're giving our Conflicted listeners another taste of what they get by joining the Conflicted Community, with an old episode that didn't go out on our normal feed...
As Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy seek to find a solution to war in Ukraine, we thought it would be good to throw back to our episode with British diplomat Alex Anastasiades, so you can hear some more about what it is actually like to be in the room when these...
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August 13, 2025 • 26 mins
In this week’s Conflicted Community episode we're joined by Dr. Alick Isaacs, a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-founder of Siach Shalom. Siach Shalom is am initiative that brings people from all walks of Israeli and wider Middle Eastern society—religious and secular, left and right—together to foster deep listening and dialogue. This conversation explores Dr. Isaacs' personal journey, from his upbringing as a ...
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July 30, 2025 • 23 mins
The Conflicted Community is delighted to welcome back on to the show Philip Cunliffe, Associate Professor of International Relations at UCL and co-host of BungaCast! In this insightful conversation, Thomas and Philip dive into his new book, "The National Interest: Politics After Globalization."
They trace the evolution of the national interest from medieval times to today, discussing its distinction from nationalism and how it ca...
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July 23, 2025 • 76 mins
Over the past few weeks, Southern Syria has been engulfed in violence, between the Al-Sharaa regime, local Druze militias, and even Israel joining the fray. In season 5, we spoke to Nour Salam, a member of the Druze community from Suwayda, who explained the complex dynamics of the region. So this week, we're returning to that episode, to help you make sense of the events going on there today...
Nour Salam is a Druze and a human ri...
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July 16, 2025 • 24 mins
Thomas and Aimen return to tackle a barrage of listener questions in this special Q&A episode, offering unparalleled insights into the ever-shifting landscape of Middle Eastern geopolitics.
We begin with a deep dive into the recent US strikes on Iran, where Aimen details the real impact of "Bunker Buster" bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities. Did they cause the destruction that many in the US government are claiming? The pair then ...
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