CONFLICTED

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

CC: Wassim Nasr – Does Lifting Sanctions Equal Stability in Al-Sharaa’s Syria?

June 11, 2025 • 25 mins
Another old friend is back on the show, to give our Dearest listeners an update on the ever evolving situation in Syria - so welcome back the gallic tones of France 24 journalist and fellow of the Soufan Centre, Wassim Nassr! In this conversation, Thomas Small and Wasim discuss the current state of Syria, focusing on the recent lifting of sanctions by Trump, the implications for President Ahmad Al-Shara's government, and the histo...
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The Syrian Civil War Pt.7: Life Under ISIS in Raqqa

June 4, 2025 • 84 mins
Conflicted returns with another episode in our series on the Syrian Civil War, welcoming a new guest onto the show to tell us about her experiences of living life under ISIS in the city of Raqqa – Rania Ali. Rania tells us about her experiences growing up in Raqqa, and the city's rich history - a place of conflict throughout the centuries. As the Arab Spring protests began, Rania became involved, and she details the secretive natu...
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CC: Baraa Shiban – Does Trump Spell the End for the Houthis?

May 28, 2025 • 24 mins
An old friend returns to the Conflicted Community for a chat about his home country of Yemen. Yes, you guessed it, it’s the irrepressible Baraa Shiban… Thomas and Baraa once again discuss the complex and evolving situation in Yemen, focusing on the impact of U.S. administrations, the role of the Houthis, and the broader regional dynamics in the Middle East. The impact of the new Trump administration has entirely changed the situat...
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CC: Rob Geist Pinfold – How the Settlers Captured the Israeli State

May 21, 2025 • 24 mins
In this episode for our Conflicted Community, we continue our survey of the Israel-Palestine question with another interview, as Thomas Small engages with Rob Geist-Pinfold, a lecturer in defense studies and international security. This week we focus particularly on the Israeli settler movement. The conversation delves into the historical roots of the settler movement, its evolution from a secular to a religiously motivated initia...
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CC: Giri Rajendran Pt.2 – Trump's Military Moves and What ‘Liberation Day’ Really Means

May 14, 2025 • 23 mins
Giri Rajendran is back for round 2 for the Conflicted Community, continuing our conversation about Donald Trump and his so-called ‘grand strategy’.  This second part of our conversation delves into the decline of U.S. global power and the historical context of rising powers, particularly in relation to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In this conversation, Thomas and Giri delve into the complexities of the Ukraine conflict, the im...
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The Syrian Civil War Pt.6: The Siege Ends, The Regime Falls

May 7, 2025 • 73 mins
This week on Conflicted we are drawing our narrative arc on Syria to a close with our second episode with filmmaker and political activist, Matar Ismaeel. Last time Matar told us about his experiences filming protests in 2011 as the Syrian revolution began, being tortured in Assad’s prisons, and witnessing firsthand the brutal siege of Southern Damascus. This episode Matar finishes his remarkable story with us - from recounti...
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Conflicted Community: Giri Rajendran - Trump’s New World Order

April 30, 2025 • 23 mins
The Conflicted Community is back to talk about the headlines we can’t seem to escape -  Donald Trump and his tearing up of the economic world order.  This episode, Thomas sits down with Giri Rajendran, the holder of no fewer than 3 degrees in economics and finance from the London School of Economics. Giri has worked as an economist in transatlantic defence before moving to work in finance, first in private wealth management and ...
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Tom Khaled Würdemann – Israelism, Palestinianism and the Quest for Peaceful Co-existence

April 23, 2025 • 96 mins
The Conflicted Community returns with another episode on the complex and multifaceted Israel-Palestinian conflict, focusing on the ideological dimensions that shape perceptions and identities.  This time, Thomas invites on Tom Khaled Würdemann, a PhD candidate at the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Heidelberg in Germany on the perspective of Palestinian intellectuals towards Israel between 1960 and 2000. He teaches ...
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The Syrian Civil War Pt.5: The Siege of Southern Damascus

April 16, 2025 • 62 mins
Conflicted returns with another episode in our series on the Syrian Civil War, this time with a new contributor, who begins today a two episode arc where we’ll be looking at the Siege of Southern Damascus… Thomas Small has invited on Matar Ismaeel, a documentary filmmaker and political activist from Masyaf, Syria. Now back in his homeland after years of exile, Matar speaks to us from Masyaf itself, relaying an extraordinary story ...
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CC: Hamza Howidy – Protest, Exile, and a Post-Hamas Vision of Gaza

April 9, 2025 • 22 mins
This week, Thomas speaks with Hamza Howidy, a Palestinian activist originally from Gaza now living in exile in Germany. Hamza shares his extraordinary story of growing up under Hamas rule and the constant threat of Israeli military action on the one hand, and the brutality of Hamas on the other.   Hamza was forced to leave Gaza due to his involvement in protests against Hamas in 2019 and 2023, taking the dangerous journey across th...
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CC: Kahlil Sayegh – Palestinian Survival in the Face of Israel and Hamas

April 2, 2025 • 23 mins
This week for the Conflicted Community we begin a series of conversations about the conflict in Israel and Palestine, with Palestinians themselves, to shed some light on the Palestinian perspective of this most complex of conflicts. And this week it is the turn of Khalil Sayegh, a Palestinian Christian political analyst, who shares his personal journey from Gaza to Ramallah, to Washington D.C.  In this episode, Khalil tells us abo...
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The Syrian Civil War Pt.4: Afrin Under Siege & Exile in Turkey

March 26, 2025 • 84 mins
Conflicted brings to an end our three part series with Ronnie Hamada, a Syrian Kurdish civilian, whose experience of the Civil War has been thrilling us over the past few episodes...  Thomas and Ronnie open with the impact of the Battle of Aleppo on the Kurdish province of Afrin, highlighting the rise of jihadist groups and the challenges faced by the Kurdish community. Ronnie also shares his harrowing experiences living under sie...
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CC: Q&A – The Truth Behind the Violence in Syria

March 19, 2025 • 23 mins
Thomas and Aimen are back together for another Q&A! This week we answer your questions on the many and varied crises that seem to be engulfing the Middle East and the world in 2025… Thomas and Aimen begin by analysing the complex and tumultuous situation in Syria, exploring the recent resurgence of violence, the role of disinformation, and the internal conflicts among the Alawite community which have been sparking new fears of int...
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The Syrian Civil War Pt.3: The Arab Spring Hits Aleppo

March 12, 2025 • 70 mins
This week on Conflicted, Ronnie Hamada is back with Thomas to describe his experiences as a Kurdish civilian during the Syrian Civil War, as we continue our retrospective on that most complex of conflicts. And this week, after setting up some Kurdish history last time, Ronnie takes us through what it was like to live through the Arab Spring protests as a university student, where he saw his classmates attacked by Assad backed thugs...
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Conflicted Community: Elisabeth Kendall – Politics, Conflict and Jihadi Poetry in Yemen

March 5, 2025 • 24 mins
This week for our Conflicted Community members, we return to Yemen for an interview with, Dr Elisabeth Kendall, an academic whose work has covered so many varied manifestations of the country’s culture, politics, and the conflict that has engulfed it for the past decade. Elisabeth is a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Cambridge, where she is also the Mistress of Girton College. Her research explores how...
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The Syrian Civil War Pt.2 – The Kurds Rise Up

February 26, 2025 • 70 mins
This week on Conflicted, we begin in earnest our retrospective on the Syrian Civil War, where we will be inviting actual Syrians from a multitude of different perspectives, to tell us about their experiences of the war.  After setting the scene with our old friend Wassim Nasr last time, over our upcoming episodes, we’ll be creating a kind of narrative history for you, our listeners, as we make sense of this most complex of conflic...
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Conflicted Community: Dalia Ziada – Liberal Activism in Egypt, from the Arab Spring to October 7th

February 19, 2025 • 23 mins
This week for our Conflicted Community members, we have an interview with the Egyptian political activist Dalia Ziada, whose incredible personal story crosses so many of the major events in the modern middle east, from the Arab Spring, to October 7th. Dalia is an award-winning Egyptian writer and political analyst whose work focuses on governance, geopolitics, and defense policy. In Egypt, she co-founded the Liberal Democracy Inst...
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The Syrian Civil War Pt.1: Wassim Nasr Meets Al-Sharaa

February 12, 2025 • 90 mins
Conflicted takes on… the Syrian Civil War.  In the wake of the fall of Assad, with the Syrian Civil War over, at least for the moment, Conflicted is bringing you a bit of a retrospective. In the coming episodes, we’ll be inviting Syrians and other people who experienced the conflict, from a multitude of different perspectives, onto the show to tell us about their experiences of the war. In doing so, we want to create a kind of nar...
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Conflicted Community: Q&A – What now for Israel and Gaza?

February 5, 2025 • 23 mins
The Conflicted Community is back for another Q&A for all of our dearest listeners. This week, in the first time Thomas and Aimen have got together since the Gaza ceasefire deal, they discuss its implications for the region and the world, with the help of listeners' questions. From the motivations of the parties involved in the ceasefire, to the question of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, to what Trump has planned for the reg...
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Ethiopia Pt.3: The Shadow of the Derg

January 29, 2025 • 73 mins
Conflicted comes to the end of our Ethiopia series with an episode beginning at the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, and charting the country's tumultuous course through the late 20th century. This was a time characterised by a brutality the country had not witnessed before, as the Communist military dictatorship, known as the Derg, wreaked havoc on the country. Ethiopia in the 70s and 80s was one dominated by horrifying ep...
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