Episode notes
In this Conflicted Conversation, Ian Kumekawa (a fellow of Harvard University and a lecturer at MIT) talks about his book Empty Vessel: The Story of the Global Economy in One Ship. Ian explains: The offshore global economy: where loopholes, ships and responsibility slip beyond ordinary jurisdiction From Little Toot to rusting barges: how industrial capitalism lost its confident postwar world Sweden’s socialist shipyards, private tax dodges, and the strange birth of the Vessel Containerisation’s hidden cost: how global trade hollowed out Manhattan’s working waterfront The Falklands War,…
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CONFLICTED
Message Heard · History · English
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.
More from CONFLICTED All episodes →
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11 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
Re-Interrogating 9/11: A 25th Anniversary Debate
To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Aimen and Thomas take a deeper, wider look at the historical, ideological, and geopolitical context on either side of that momentous world-changing event. Join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Aimen and Thomas discuss: Was 9/11 an ending as well as a beginning? The myth of the peaceful 1990s America inherited a geopolitical mess after the USSR's collapse America as a revolutionary power Could preserving Middle Eastern monarchies have prevented later…
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9 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 34 min
The End of the Nation State?
Where did the nation-state come from—and what happens if the conditions that made it powerful are now disappearing? Thomas discusses these questions and much more in this wide-ranging Conflicted Conversation with award-winning novelist and essayist Rana Dasgupta, whose new book After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order sets out to explain where our world order came from and where it could be going. Rana explains: The origins of the modern nation-state and the decline of universal sacred empires Louis IX, the Crown of Thorns and the sacralisation of the French state How…
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3 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 13 min
The Battle for Taiwan
In this Conflicted Conversation, journalist Chris Horton talks about his new book Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and Its Struggle for Survival. Chris explains: Why China wants Taiwan and why the island is vital to control of the western Pacific. Taiwan’s strategic position in the First Island Chain between China, Japan and the Philippines. How a Chinese invasion, blockade or maritime quarantine of Taiwan could unfold. Why a war over Taiwan could devastate global trade and the world economy. What Taiwan’s fall would mean for US power, Japan and the Philippines. Why Taiwan is an independent…
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1 Sep 2026 · 58 min
Trump's Strangulation Strategy
Aimen's prediction on 4 August came true, and in the intervening weeks the United States have ramped up the economic pressure on the Iranian regime. The question is: how with the IRGC react? The war re-escalated over the weekend, and as the Iranian people began to make their feelings felt, all indications are that peace is farther away than ever. Aimen and Thomas discuss: Operation Economic Outcast: US sanctions and regional trade restrictions tighten Iran’s economic isolation. Strait of Hormuz: US demining, Gulf oil exports and Iran’s new underwater drone threat reshape the naval war.…
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25 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 12 min
Simon Sebag Montefiore: How the Modern Middle East Was Made
In this Conflicted Conversation, Simon Sebag Montefiore returns to the show, this time to talk about his new book The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East. Simon explains: How Britain and France tried — and often failed — to shape the post-Ottoman Middle East Why Sykes–Picot is a misleading shorthand for the region’s modern borders How Atatürk, Nasser and other Middle Eastern leaders remade the region through their own choices The violent shift from Ottoman pluralism to nationalist, more homogeneous states Why Nasser’s charisma produced a powerful Arab myth but a disastrous…
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18 Aug 2026 · 56 min
The Battle for Yemen Begins Again
Yemeni researcher and political analyst Baraa Shiban (and dear friend of the show) is back not only to give us an update on Yemen now that the civil war (and Saudi Arabia’s role in it) are heating up again, but also to give Thomas a much-deserved dressing down for not going far enough to hold Jeremy Hunt to account for his role in the Stockholm Agreement. Baraa explains: The collapse of the 2022 Yemen truce and renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and Red Sea shipping The Yemen battlefield map: Houthi control of Sanaa, Hodeidah and the northwest versus government-held south and east The…
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13 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 19 min
Libya: The Return of the Arab Strongman?
Turning their attention away from Iran and toward another Middle Eastern hotspot, Aimen and Thomas explain the course of events in Libya since the Arab Spring. Seismic political events are underway in that sad country, which has been riven by civil war and political division for over fifteen years. They discuss: The difference between East and West Libya First Libyan Civil War: state collapse and militia fragmentation NATO intervention and Western short-termism Khalifa Haftar: from Gaddafi officer to eastern strongman Second Libyan Civil War: Operation Dignity and divided government Libya…
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11 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 19 min
The Crusades: What Was Really Going On?
In this Conflicted Conversation, Nicholas Morton discusses his new book The Crusader Storm: A Global History of the Wars for the Middle East. Associate Professor in History at Nottingham Trent University, Nicholas reframes the Crusades as one part of a much larger transformation of the medieval Middle East, driven above all by Seljuk-Turkmen expansion, Byzantine contraction, Fatimid decline and the fragmentation of political power. Nicholas explains: The Seljuk-Turkmen transformation of the medieval Middle East Why the Crusades were not the region’s main event Dandanqan, nomadic warfare and…
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6 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
Slavery and Islam: The Whole Story
In this Conflicted Conversation, Justin Marozzi discusses his new book Captives and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World. Justin traces the long, varied history of slavery in the Islamic world, arguing that slavery could sometimes offer remarkable paths to freedom and power, but that these exceptions never erased the violence of capture, ownership and exploitation—or the uneasy entanglement of abolition with Western imperialism. Justin explains: The scale and longevity of slavery in the Islamic world The spiritual status of enslaved people in early Islam…
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4 Aug 2026 · 50 min
Will America Cut and Run?
Donald Trump has once again stepped back from a threatened major attack on Iran. So has America lost the Iran War? Or is Trump’s apparent hesitation part of a longer strategy to exhaust the Iranian regime? Aimen and Thomas discuss: Whether Iran has outmanoeuvred Trump despite America’s overwhelming military superiority Aimen’s three possible futures for the war: US withdrawal, prolonged attrition or extreme escalation Why an American retreat could unleash an even more destructive regional war Israel, the Gulf states and Pakistan in a Middle East without American restraint The revival of the…
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