Are we living in an age of competitive authoritarianism?

I spoke to Orwa Ajjoub about the remarkable rise of Syria's new ruler, Ahmad Al-Shara'a, from wanted terrorist to White House visitor. His ruthless pragmatism is his signature and we discussed this in some detail, including his relations with the Kurdish SDF, with Turkey, Israel and the regional states, as well as with the US. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sara Dorman of Edinburgh University spoke to me about the rising tide of authoritarianism around the world, and particularly the form of competitive authoritarianism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Behind the Lines formally announces joining the Cooler Heads podcast family, making us now the little brother to the massive success that is Quiet Riot - the brilliant politics podcast with Alex Andreou, Naomi Smith and Kenny Campbell, I was delighted to have as my guest none other than Emily Thornberry MP, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Back in January I spoke to Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation expert, about what the Trump era would portend. Her views proved remarkably prescient and I thought it would be of further interest now. Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Trump deal for Gaza, announced with great pomp and ceremony appeared to lead very quickly to a resumption of hostilities. Has Trump or even his administration got a plan for seeing this through, or was this just a quick deal to get the hostages out? I discussed this with regular guest, Middle East expert Michael Stephens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Professor Emma Briant is a prolific and important researcher on disinformation and information warfare, some of the most things in our age. She has frequent been asked to give evidence to parliaments about the issue including recent evidence to the UK parliament here https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/138542/pdf/ and to the New Zealand parliament here She can be found online at https://bsky.app/profile/emmalbriant.bsky.social as well as in all the other relevant places. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two years on from the devastating events of October 7, 2023, Gaza lies in ruins and numerous hostages are still held by Hamas. The destruction and losses, both in human terms and to the idea of peace as a possibility has been devastating. Whilst there are glimmers of hope in the latest ceasefire negotiations, it still feels too early to try to answer huge questions about the future of Israel and Palestine. So, on this difficult anniversary I have chosen to showcase the work of Mya Guarnieri, an American-Israeli writer and academic who married a Palestinian and wrote an account of her life across the lines in a moving book. Thank you for listening to this episode of Behind the Lines. Please subscribe to avoid missing any episodes and please subscribe to my substack here: https://arthursnell.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As countries all over the world, but particularly liberal democracies in the West, turn themselves inside out over the issue of migration and in the process empowering the far right, it was my great pleasure to speak to one of the few people who actually is willing to give calm, clear facts on this subject. Zoe Gardner is rightly a prominent figure in media and public debates on migration, but is almost the only person willing to stand up and be counted with some humane, calm and utterly essential facts on the matter. It was such a privilege to get her on the podcast and I hope you get as much from the conversation as I did. You can find Zoe's work online in all the usual places including https://bsky.app/profile/zoejardiniere.bsky.social Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky @snellarthur.bsky.social. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often Disorder which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest think tank. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Check out Olena's work at https://ukrainesarmsmonitor.substack.com/ Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky @snellarthur.bsky.social. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often Disorder which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest think tank. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky @snellarthur.bsky.social. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often Disorder which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest think tank. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices