The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey

The Turbulent World with James M. Dorsey

Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and co-host of the New Books in Middle Eastern Studies podcast. James is the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog, a book with the same title as well as Comparative Political Transitions between Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, co-authored with Dr. Teresita Cruz-Del Rosario and Shifting Sands, Essays on Sports and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa.

Episodes

Trump Goes After Wall Street Journal in Major Test of Press Freedom

August 14, 2025 • 10 mins
Dow Jones has a stellar record of standing by its reporting. As a former Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent, I know that firsthand.
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Indonesia’s writing on the wall-Gaza drives hardening Muslim public opinion

August 11, 2025 • 13 mins
A recent opinion poll in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority state and democracy, throws a damper on Israeli and US hopes that Middle Eastern and Muslim states may recognise the Jewish state without a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Even more concerning, the poll suggests that public opinion is turning against a compromise two-state solution that w...
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Pushing Saudi Arabia to be an Israeli copycat

August 8, 2025 • 12 mins
With Saudi recognition of Israel off the table, pro-Israeli and Israeli pundits and far-right and conservative pro-Israel groups in the United States are pushing the kingdom to become an aggressive regional player in Israel's mould. The pundits and groups want Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to abandon his de-escalation policy, including the kingdom's fragile freezing of its differences with Iran, and to reignite his ill-fat...
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Re-occupying Gaza-From the fire into the frying pan

August 7, 2025 • 12 mins
In a reversal of repeatedly stated policy that Israel would not re-occupy Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is signalling that he is mulling Israel’s re-occupation of the Strip. Mr. Netanyahu suggested as much in a Hebrew-language statement issued by his office. Israel’s Security Cabinet this week discussed the proposition with the full Cabinet scheduled to debate it in the coming days. The statement announced that Mr...
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Trump’s focus on food for Gaza promises to be problematic

August 2, 2025 • 14 mins
US President Donald J. Trump's acknowledgement of Israel's throttling of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza is more than a rebuke of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's denials of starvation in the Strip. It also signals the president's temporary retreat from grandiose visions of reshaping the Middle East. Mr. Trump’s switching of gears to focus on Gaza’s humanitarian crisis was likely prompted by images of Palestinians, partic...
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Breaking up Syria

July 31, 2025 • 11 mins
A far-right pro-Israel think tank has put flesh on suspicions that Israel is seeking to weaken the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, if not break up Syria as a nation state. The Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum revived a years-old call for a “freedom corridor” that would link the Druze community in southern Syria with the Kurds in the north. The Forum’s call came as senior Israeli and Syrian officials negotiate security ...
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Gaza ANews 30072025

July 30, 2025 • 8 mins
James discusses on aNews mounting pressure on Israel to allow unfettered humanitarian aid into Gaza and to end the devastating war.
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Testing Israel’s Limits

July 28, 2025 • 20 mins
US-mediated talks between Israel and Syria serve as a bellwether for the extent to which Israel can reshape the Middle East and impose its will on the region. They also are likely to indicate the degree to which US and Israeli interests diverge in Syria. Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaiibani and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a confidante of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, focussed this week on security arra...
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Instability Spreads As Israels Military Campaigns Escalate_BFM 23072025

July 24, 2025 • 10 mins
Instability Spreads As Israels Military Campaigns Escalate_BFM 23072025 by James M. Dorsey
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Israel-Iran war highlights Israeli dependency on US and potential US leverage

July 24, 2025 • 17 mins
A just-published report on Israel and the United States’ interception of Iranian missiles during the 12-day Israel-Iran war highlighted the Jewish states’ dependence on US military support. The report by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) concluded that US-operated Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence or THAAD air defence systems, produced by Lockheed Martin, accounted for almost half of all interceptions ...
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Will he, or won’t he-That is the question as US frustration with Netanyahu mounts

July 22, 2025 • 13 mins
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appears determined to depopulate Gaza by hook or by crook, even if he has bowed to US pressure by agreeing to a reduced military presence in the Strip as part of a temporary ceasefire. The reduced presence, involving a withdrawal from the Morag Corridor that separates Rafah from the rest of Gaza, would complicate Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s plans to corral hundreds of thousands o...
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Saudi Crown Prince places a calculated bet on foreign soccer club ownership

July 21, 2025 • 9 mins
Soccer has long been a tightly controlled double-edged sword for Middle Eastern autocrats. On the one hand, autocrats sought to harness the sport’s popularity that evokes the kind of passion in a soccer crazy part of the world that was traditionally reserved for religion. On the other hand, soccer constituted one of the few arenas in which youth could vent frustration and anger. Soccer’s disruptive potential was evident in 2011 whe...
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Europe’s opportunity to break the Middle East’s cycle of violence

July 19, 2025 • 13 mins
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar celebrated this week a “diplomatic victory” by delaying European sanctions against the Jewish state. It’s a victory that could prove to be pyrrhic. That is, if EU foreign ministers, increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war, put their money where their mouth is and make good on their threat to suspend the Jewish state’s 25-year-old association agreement with the European Union b...
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The writing is on the wall as support for Israel shrinks

July 15, 2025 • 9 mins
The writing is on the wall. As Gaza ceasefire talks flail, if not fail for the umpteenth time, a series of vignettes tell the story of Israel’s increasingly shrinking support base in the United States and Europe. Alarmingly for Israel, the vignettes reflect mounting criticism of the Jewish state in US President Donald J. Trump’s Make America Great Again and America First support base, as well as among European leaders. To be sure, ...
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Will the EU force FIFA to reform

July 13, 2025 • 11 mins
World soccer body FIFA’s more than a decade-long refusal to implement meaningful reforms and adhere to its own principles, rules, and regulations is on public display. FIFA’s response to past corruption scandals and willingness to award World Cup hosting rights to violators of the group’s human rights standards illustrate the organisation’s rejection of meaningful change that would hold the group accountable. So do FIFA’s repeated,...
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In the bull’s eye-An influential pro-Israel group targets Malaysia

July 12, 2025 • 16 mins
Malaysia, unlike other perceived Muslim Brotherhood supporters such as Qatar and Turkey, has remained, by and large, in the shadows of the Middle East's information wars, despite the country’s public support for Hamas. That may change if a recent report by the Philadelphia-based far-right, pro-Israel Middle East Forum is anything to go by.
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When the world was their beat_WWWhy 04072025

July 9, 2025 • 66 mins
What happens when you bring together three veteran foreign correspondents, each carrying decades of wisdom, scars, and tales from the world’s most dangerous places?
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Trump’s dinner with Netanyahu Motion without movement

July 8, 2025 • 12 mins
A much-touted meeting between US President Donald J. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, their third encounter this year, apparently failed to move the needle on a Gaza ceasefire, despite both men expressing optimism that an agreement was only days away.
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Will Trump s proposed 60-day Gaza truce happen TRT 07072025

July 7, 2025 • 5 mins
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday. The talks come amid ongoing indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha, as efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza continue. James M. Dorsey, an adjunct senior fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, shares his analysis on whether Trump’s push for a 60-day truce has a real shot.
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Gaza ceasefire talks tiptoe in a mine field

July 5, 2025 • 14 mins
If US President Donald J. Trump had his druthers, he would announce a Gaza ceasefire on Monday when Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visits him in the Oval Office for the third time this year That may be easier said than done despite Mr. Netanyahu’s endorsement of the latest US ceasefire proposal and Hamas’s ‘positive’ response. Mr. Netanyahu and Hamas have responded positively to the proposal, even though it doesn’t bridg...
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