CONFLICTED

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to two friends of the show about how Europe is responding to the war with Iran. In the first half, the Rt Hon Tom Tugendhat MP — former chair of the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee and former UK Security Minister — discusses Britain’s confused response to the conflict, and in the second half, French journalist Wassim Nasr explains France’s position.

Sir Tom and Wassim explain:

The UK government’s uncertain response to the Iran war

What politicians mean when they talk about the ‘legal basis’ for military action

The lessons of the Iraq War and whether they are being misunderstood

Iran’s role in the insurgency against Western forces in Iraq

The debate over designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization in the UK

The state of the British military after decades of defence cuts

The strategic controversy surrounding Diego Garcia and the Chagos Islands

France’s historic Arab Policy and its effort to maintain strategic independence in the Middle East

France’s military agreements with the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait

The E3 framework (France, Germany, UK) and its role in negotiations with Iran

Macron’s attempt to expand France’s nuclear deterrent to cover Europe

The evolving situation in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s weakening position

Intelligence cooperation between France, Israel, and regional partners

Whether Europe is entering a new era of strategic independence

Follow Sir Tom on X: https://x.com/TomTugendhat

Follow Wassim on X: https://x.com/SimNasr

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm

Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With missiles streaking across Middle Eastern skies and the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader sending shockwaves through the region, Aimen joins Thomas from a Dubai under fire to unpack a historic turning point.

They discuss:

Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile strikes across the GCC and Israel

Life under bombardment in Dubai and the regional military response

The assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei and what it means for Iran’s future

Whether this war marks the death of the 1979 Islamic Revolution

The internal dynamics of the Iranian regime at this critical moment

The United States’ strategic calculus and the question of escalation

Join the Conflicted Community here: ⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/⁠

Find us on X: ⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠

And Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠

And Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this very special Emergency Episode, Aimen and Thomas discuss the Iran War, which began this morning with wide-ranging air strikes carried out by Israel and the United States against IRGC and Iranian regime targets, and which almost immediately resulted in Iranian counter-strikes against seven states in the region — including in Dubai, where Aimen lives.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks to former BBC journalist Martin Plaut about his new book Unbroken Chains: A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement, which tells the whole story of African slavery, a story far older and more global than the one that focuses only on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Martin explains:

How Africa’s slavery story begins in the Nile Valley around 2900 BC

Why the trans-Saharan slave routes remain less examined than Atlantic slavery

What Islam did — and didn’t — change about slavery in practice

Indian Ocean slavery

Oman’s slave market in Zanzibar and its caravans that penetrated deep into central Africa

Indigenous African slavery in Ethiopia and the Sokoto Caliphate

The role of racial hierarchies and ‘slave blood’ stigma within societies

Barbary corsairs and European so-called ‘white slavery’

Contemporary chattel slavery in Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Sudan, and Libya

Why major institutions still prefer commemorating slavery in the past to confronting it in the present

Follow Martin on X: https://x.com/martinplaut

And his personal website: https://martinplaut.com/

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm

Find Conflicted on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sdlF1mY5t4

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Saudi Arabia celebrates Founding Day, and as the murky underbelly of GCC geopolitics is on everyone's minds, we're re-releasing this classic Conflicted episode from early 2022.

Thomas & Aimen discuss:

The deep history of Arabia

The first foundations of Saudi Arabia

The transition from British to American dominance in the Middle East

Aimen’s family history within the British imperial system

The 1920 Iraqi revolt

St John Philby (Abdullah Philby)

The consolidation of Saudi Arabia under Ibn Saud

Oil politics and the American-Saudi partnership

Cold War spy-craft and intelligence networks in Saudi Arabia

Espionage culture in the region

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/

Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictedYoutube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Rowan Bishop.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices