Best The Institute For Middle East Understanding Podcasts (2025)

1
Lawfare Archive: Natan Sachs on Israeli Anti-solutionism 27:09

11h ago27:09

27:09

From December 5, 2015: The show this week features Natan Sachs, a Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, who recently published an article in Foreign Affairs on anti-solutionism as strategy in the Israel-Palestine conflict. During his conversation with Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Ben Wittes, Sachs argues that the apparent absence of a l…

1
Lawfare Daily: Ukraine-Russia Negotiations with Eric Ciaramella and Samuel Charap 1:08:15

1d ago1:08:15

1:08:15

Lawfare Legal Fellow Mykhailo Soldatenko sits down with Eric Ciaramella, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Samuel Charap, Senior Political Scientist at Rand Corporation, to discuss the key issues in the Ukraine-Russia talks. They chat about the national interests of the interested parties, whether a negotiated set…

1
Rational Security: The “Pronghorn Shirt Daily” Edition 1:18:09

2d ago1:18:09

1:18:09

This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Benjamin Wittes and Natalie Orpett, and University of Virginia School of Law professor Ashley Deeks, to talk through the week’s big national security news, including: “Bracing for Fallout.” In a surprise move, President Trump joined Israel’s military campaign against Iran over the weekend, using…

1
FDR and the Invention of National Security with Andrew Preston 33:54

2d ago33:54

33:54

Kelly talks with Andrew Preston about his new book, Total Defense: The New Deal and the Invention of National Security. Preston explores how FDR revolutionized national security policy by connecting domestic New Deal programs to global defense strategies. Andrew Preston is a Professor of American History based at Clare College, Cambridge, where he …

1
Lawfare Daily: ‘Ransom War’ with Max Smeets 53:06

2d ago53:06

53:06

Max Smeets, Co-Director of Virtual Routes and Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich, joins Lawfare’s Jonathan Cedarbaum and Justin Sherman to discuss his recently released book “Ransom War: How Cybercrime Became a Threat to National Security.” They discuss the history of ransomware (including the term itself), how the threats have evolved over the years,…

1
Lawfare Daily: A Right to Warn: Protecting AI Whistleblowers with Charlie Bullock 41:11

3d ago41:11

41:11

In the wake of controversy over OpenAI’s restrictive nondisclosure agreements, a bipartisan group of senators has introduced the AI Whistleblower Protection Act. In this episode, Lawfare Research Director Alan Rozenshtein spoke with Charlie Bullock, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Law & AI and co-author of a new Lawfare article on the b…

1
Lawfare Daily: U.S. Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Facilities 59:34

4d ago59:34

59:34

In a live conversation on June 23, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes spoke to Lawfare Senior Editor Scott Anderson, Lawfare Foreign Policy Editor and CSIS fellow Daniel Byman, and Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution Suzanne Maloney about the American attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, what the reaction wi…

1
Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, June 20 1:34:12

6d ago1:34:12

1:34:12

In a live conversation on June 20, Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett sat down with Lawfare Legal Fellow James Pearce and Lawfare Senior Editors Anna Bower, Scott Anderson, and Roger Parloff to discuss the litigation over President Trump federalizing the California National Guard to send them to L.A., the the order for the release of Mahmoud K…

1
Lawfare Archive: Eric Adamson on the NATO Summit 37:54

6d ago37:54

37:54

From July 14, 2023: The NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, just wrapped up, and the big news is that Sweden is in, and Ukraine is not. Eric Adamson of the Atlantic Council and the Swedish Defense Association is a Swedish defense policy analyst who observed the NATO summit. He joined Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes to discuss the two big thi…

1
Lawfare Archive: El Salvador’s President Cracks Down on Gangs—and Democracy 1:05:52

7d ago1:05:52

1:05:52

From May 9, 2023: Since March 2022, El Salvador has been under a state of exception as its President Nayib Bukele seeks to crack down on the country’s powerful gangs. Bukele, who once described himself on Twitter as the “world’s coolest dictator,” has engaged in a prolonged attack on El Salvador’s democratic institutions. And the crackdown has resu…

1
Lawfare Daily: Trump’s Rescissions Request, Impoundments, and the Litigation Over Foreign Assistance 59:28

8d ago59:28

59:28

For today’s episode, Lawfare General Counsel and Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson and Lawfare Senior Editor and Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Molly Reynolds sat down for a conversation about the rescissions package President Trump recently put forward to Congress, how it relates to the litigation over the president’s attempted cuts to U.S. for…

1
The Pope's Spies: Yvonnick Denoël on the Vatican's Clandestine Operations 37:33

9d ago37:33

37:33

Kelly talks with Yvonnick Denoël about his new book, Vatican Spies: From the Second World War to Pope Francis, exploring the Vatican's little-known intelligence operations. Yvonnick is a French historian, publisher and intelligence specialist who has written on the CIA, Mossad, and espionage in the twentieth century. His new book uncovers a little-…

1
Lawfare Archive: Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer on Reforming the Insurrection Act 57:58

9d ago57:58

57:58

From April 12, 2024: The Insurrection Act is a provision that allows the president to deploy the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement. It’s been invoked dozens of times by presidents to respond to crises in the over 230 years that it’s been around, but it hasn’t been reformed in centuries. In recent years, the Insurrection Act has come back i…

1
Rational Security: The "Middle East War to End Middle East Wars" Edition 1:14:24

10d ago1:14:24

1:14:24

This week, Scott sat down with Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien and Foreign Policy Editors Daniel Byman and Dana Stuster to talk through the week’s big news in Israel and Iran, including: “The Nuclear Option.” Israel crossed the rubicon late last week and took direct military action against Iran’s nuclear weapons program, among other targets, …

1
Lawfare Daily: The Israel/Iran Conflict: What Do We Know So Far? 1:01:12

10d ago1:01:12

1:01:12

On today's episode, Lawfare Executive Editor Natalie Orpett discussed the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Iran with Suzanne Maloney, Director of the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, and Joel Braunold, Managing Director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. They talked about how the conflict is unfolding, …

1
Lawfare Daily: Evaluating January 6 Prosecutions with Greg Rosen 55:03

11d ago55:03

55:03

Greg Rosen, now an attorney at Rogers Joseph O’Donnell, spoke with James Pearce, Lawfare Legal Fellow, about his time prosecuting federal crimes in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. He focused mostly on the investigation and prosecution that followed the attack of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. He discussed how the U.S.…

1
How Israel Uses Starvation as a Weapon in Gaza 28:54

12d ago28:54

28:54

In this episode, we investigate Israel’s deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Through firsthand testimonies and expert insight, we trace how food became tools of siege—cut off from over two million Palestinians. As hunger spreads and desperation grows, we examine how this crisis is manufactured, and who bears responsibility.Than…

1
Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, June 13 1:36:15

12d ago1:36:15

1:36:15

In a live conversation on June 13, Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare Legal Fellow James Pearce and Lawfare Senior Editors Anna Bower, Quinta Jurecic, and Roger Parloff to discuss the legality of President Trump federalizing the California National Guard to send them to L.A., the pretrial detention hearing of Kilmar Abreg…

1
Lawfare Archive: The Court at War 1:03:03

13d ago1:03:03

1:03:03

From December 26, 2023: The Supreme Court during World War II issued some of the most notorious opinions in its history, including the Japanese exclusion case, Korematsu v. United States, and the Nazi saboteur military commission case, Ex parte Quirin. For a fresh take on these and related cases and a broader perspective on the Supreme Court during…

1
Lawfare Archive: Protests, the Police, and the Press 48:20

14d ago48:20

48:20

From June 21, 2023: Carolyn Cole, a Pulitzer-Prize winning staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times, has covered wars and other conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Kosovo, Liberia, Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the U.S.-Mexico border. Over the course of her 30 year career, she has been seriously injured on the job precisely once—when members…

1
Lawfare Daily: U.S. Troops on the Streets of Los Angeles 1:25:21

15d ago1:25:21

1:25:21

For today's episode, Lawfare Senior Editor and General Counsel Scott R. Anderson sat down with three leading legal experts on domestic military deployments: William Banks of Syracuse University College of Law, Laura Dickinson of the George Washington University Law School, and Chris Mirasola of the University of Houston Law Center. They discussed t…

1
Cary Nelson, "Mindless: What Happened to Universities?" (Jewish Quarterly 259, 2025) 34:58

16d ago34:58

34:58

In Mindless: What Happened to Universities?, renowned scholar and former president of the American Association of University Professors Cary Nelson delivers a searing indictment of modern higher education. Once bastions of open debate and critical thinking, universities have become ideological battlegrounds where dissent is silenced, academic freed…

1
Escalation, Episode Seven: Boiling the Frog 58:28

16d ago58:28

58:28

Today, it’s Episode Seven of Escalation, our latest narrative series co-hosted by Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien and Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina. Throughout the show, Nastya and Tyler trace the history of U.S.-Ukrainian relations from the time of Ukrainian independence through the present. You can listen to Escalation in its entirety,…

1
Episode 81 - Telecom tower opportunities in Africa and the Middle East with Sainesh Vallabh, Helios Towers 23:52

16d ago23:52

23:52

In this episode, we talk to Sainesh Vallabh, group chief commercial officer, Helios Towers, about the company’s strategic focus to drive tenants to its mobile tower infrastructure. Sainesh explains the company’s plans for the year, opportunities to look at new markets, and the challenges that Africa and the Middle East present for Helios.…

1
Will Popular Elections Undermine Mexico's Court System? Plus updates on South Korea, Poland, and the Sahel 48:36

16d ago48:36

48:36

Interview with David Mora on Mexico's Judicial Elections: 27:20 This week, Kelly and Tristen unpack key elections in Poland and South Korea, and examine the growing reach of an Al-Qaeda affiliate in West Africa. Kelly then sits down with David Mora to explore Mexico’s recent judicial elections and their implications for Mexican democracy and U.S.-M…

1
Lawfare Daily: McCarthyism and Its Echoes in Modern Politics with Clay Risen 43:24

16d ago43:24

43:24

Lawfare Contributing Editor Renée DiResta sits down with Clay Risen to talk about his book “Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America,” exploring the historical context of McCarthyism and its relevance to contemporary issues. They discuss the dynamics of accusation versus evidence during the Red Scare, the impact of vigil…

1
Rational Security: The “How Many Constitutional Crises Can We Fit Into One Episode?” Edition 1:17:17

17d ago1:17:17

1:17:17

This week, Scott sat down with Lawfare Senior Editors Molly Reynolds and Quinta Jurecic, and Contributing Editor Chris Mirasola, to focus on the week’s big domestic news, including: “Drama Majors, Meet Major Drama.” In the glittering city of Los Angeles, the Trump administration has taken the dramatic step of calling up the California National Guar…

1
Lawfare Daily: Christina Knight on AI Safety Institutes 38:53

17d ago38:53

38:53

Christina Knight, Machine Learning Safety and Evals Lead at Scale AI and former senior policy adviser at the U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI), joins Kevin Frazier, the AI Innovation and Law Fellow at Texas and a Senior Editor at Lawfare, to break down what it means to test and evaluate frontier AI models as well as the status of international effort…

1
Owen Flanagan, "What Is It Like to Be an Addict?: Understanding Substance Abuse" (Oxford UP, 2025) 42:47

18d ago42:47

42:47

A powerful and important exploration of how addiction functions on social, psychological and biological levels, integrated with the experience of being an addict, from an acclaimed philosopher and former addict. What is addiction? Theories about what kind of thing addiction is are sharply divided between those who see it purely as a brain disorder,…

1
Escalation, Episode Six: Nothing Else Matters 57:50

18d ago57:50

57:50

Today, it’s Episode Six of Escalation, our latest narrative series co-hosted by Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien and Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina. Throughout the show, Nastya and Tyler trace the history of U.S.-Ukrainian relations from the time of Ukrainian independence through the present. You can listen to Escalation in its entirety, a…

1
Lawfare Daily: Censorship, Civilizational Allies, and Codes of Practice 57:17

18d ago57:17

57:17

Lawfare Contributing Editor Renée DiResta sits down with Daphne Keller, Director of the Program on Platform Regulation at Stanford University's Cyber Policy Center; Dean Jackson, Contributing Editor at Tech Policy Press and fellow at American University's Center for Security, Innovation, and New Technology; and Joan Barata, Senior Legal Fellow at T…

1
Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, June 6 1:32:00

20d ago1:32:00

1:32:00

In a live conversation on June 6, Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare Legal Fellow James Pearce and Lawfare Senior Editors Anna Bower, and Roger Parloff to discuss a breaking Supreme Court opinion which blocks discovery against DOGE, the criminal indictment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, President Trump’s recent executive order …

1
Lawfare Archive: A New Sanctions Approach for Humanitarian Assistance 44:07

20d ago44:07

44:07

From March 14, 2023: For years, the international community has wrestled with how to reconcile sanctions policies targeting terrorist groups and other malevolent actors with the need to provide humanitarian assistance in areas under those groups’ control. Late last year, both the Biden administration and the UN Security Council took major steps tow…

1
Lawfare Archive: Protecting Civilians in Gaza and Beyond with Marc Garlasco and Emily Tripp 57:17

21d ago57:17

57:17

From January 18, 2024: Last month, the Department of Defense released its first-ever policy on civilian harm reduction. But as Marc Garlasco recently wrote in Lawfare, “[T]he policy comes at an awkward time … The U.S. military has issued guidance on how to protect civilians during operations just as its close ally Israel has reportedly killed thous…

1
Lawfare Daily: WITAOD? 52:00

22d ago52:00

52:00

Lawfare Senior Editor Anna Bower has been on a quest. She wants to identify the administrator of DOGE. It's partly a comedic bit. And her lengthy article on the subject on Lawfare last week is laugh-out-loud funny. But it's also deadly serious. She came on the Lawfare Podcast to discuss the serious questions behind WITAOD with Editor-in-Chief Benja…

1
Amitav Acharya: Why The International Order Will Survive Western Decline 49:29

23d ago49:29

49:29

Kelly talks with Amitav Acharya about his new book The Once and Future World Order and the deep roots of global civilization beyond the West. They explore why the recent decline of American dominance doesn’t mean collapse, but a chance to build a more just, inclusive global system. Amitav Acharya is the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and …

1
Escalation, Episode Five: Resets 51:53

23d ago51:53

51:53

Today, it’s Episode Five of Escalation, our latest narrative series co-hosted by Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien and Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina. Throughout the show, Nastya and Tyler trace the history of U.S.-Ukrainian relations from the time of Ukrainian independence through the present. You can listen to Escalation in its entirety, …

1
Lawfare Daily: A Tumultuous Week in Ukraine-Russia Relations, with Anastasiia Lapatina and Mykhailo Soldatenko 58:29

23d ago58:29

58:29

It’s been a big week in Ukrainian-Russian relations. There were surprise attacks, an amassing of troops, the blowing up of bridges, and peace talks in Istanbul that didn’t really go anywhere. To talk through all of this and more, Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare’s Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina and Legal Fellow Mykh…

1
Rational Security: The “Huffin’ and Puffin” Edition 1:10:20

24d ago1:10:20

1:10:20

This week, Scott sat down with Lawfare’s Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina and Contributing Editors Eric Ciaramella and Alex Zerden to talk through the week’s big national security and foreign policy news, including: “The Road to Damascus.” Over the past two weeks, the Trump administration has done an extraordinary about-face on U.S. policy toward…

1
Lawfare Daily: Democratic Backsliding and the Role of Technology 1:25:56

24d ago1:25:56

1:25:56

Political scientists who study democratic backsliding—the slow erosion of a country’s institutions—have raised alarms about the state of democracy in the United States under the second Trump administration. At the same time, the administration has embraced technology—particularly AI—as a tool for implementing many of its policies, from immigration …

1
Escalation, Episode Four: The Worst of Both Worlds 40:46

25d ago40:46

40:46

Today, it’s Episode Four of Escalation, our latest narrative series co-hosted by Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien and Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina. Throughout the show, Nastya and Tyler trace the history of U.S.-Ukrainian relations from the time of Ukrainian independence through the present. You can listen to Escalation in its entirety, …

1
Lawfare Daily: Two Courts Rule Against Trump’s IEEPA Tariffs, with Peter Harrell 59:49

25d ago59:49

59:49

For today’s episode, Lawfare General Counsel and Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sat down with Contributing Editor and leading sanctions expert Peter Harrell to talk over the not one but two judicial rulings that enjoined President Trump's tariffs last week. They discussed the similarities and differences between the two rulings, what seems likely …

1
Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, May 30 1:28:24

26d ago1:28:24

1:28:24

In a live conversation on May 30, Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare Senior Editors Anna Bower, Scott Anderson, and Roger Parloff to discuss legal challenges against President Trump’s executive actions, including two court rulings finding President Trump’s IEEPA tariffs to be unlawful, the government’s appeal of those rul…

1
Lawfare Archive: Chinese Property Ownership and National Security 41:04

27d ago41:04

41:04

From May 21, 2024: Across the country, state lawmakers are joining the effort to address the perceived national security threat from China by passing a number of measures attempting to curb Chinese influences in their states. One such effort in Florida prevents Chinese citizens from owning property in the state. Lawfare’s Associate Editor Hyemin Ha…

1
Lawfare Archive: Prosecuting the Gaza War Before the International Criminal Court with Chimène Keitner 53:06

28d ago53:06

53:06

From May 23, 2024: For today’s episode, Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson sat down with Chimène Keitner, a Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law and former Counselor on International Law at the U.S. Department of State, to discuss the recent applications for arrest warrants filed by the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (IC…

1
Lawfare Daily: Josh Batson on Understanding How and Why AI Works 41:15

29d ago41:15

41:15

Josh Batson, a research scientist at Anthropic, joins Kevin Frazier, AI Innovation and Law Fellow at the Texas Law and Senior Editor at Lawfare, to break down two research papers—“Mapping the Mind of a Large Language Model” and “Tracing the thoughts of a large language model”—that uncovered some important insights about how advanced generative AI m…

1
Escalation, Episode Three: Us vs. Them 39:59

1M ago39:59

39:59

Today, it’s Episode 3 of Escalation, our latest narrative series co-hosted by Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien and Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina. Throughout the show, Nastya and Tyler trace the history of U.S.-Ukrainian relations from the time of Ukrainian independence through the present. You can listen to Escalation in its entirety, as …

1
Episode 80 - Old blighty with Mike Hoy, Pulsant 27:17

1M ago27:17

27:17

In this episode, we are staying in the editorial team’s home county - the UK. Pulsant is a regional Edge provider focusing on the UK market, and has recently launched a new Sovereign Cloud offering. We talk with Pulsant’s CTO Mike Hoy about the data center industry in the UK in the context of the Labour government, how enterprise strategies are cha…

1
Mona Yacoubian on Trump's Middle East Visit 40:11

1M ago40:11

40:11

Interview with Mona Yacoubian on Trump's Middle East Visit: 25:55 This week, Kelly and Tristen discuss President Trump’s meeting with the President of South Africa, give an update on the war in Ukraine, and unpack the UK’s new trade agreement with the European Union. Kelly then talks with Mona Yacoubian for a breakdown on Trump's recent trip to the…

1
Lawfare Daily: Minna Ålander on Finland, NATO, and the Russian Threat 36:32

1M ago36:32

36:32

Lawfare’s Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina sits down with Minna Ålander, an Associate Fellow at the Chatham House Europe Programme, to discuss Russia's buildup of military infrastructure along its borders with NATO member countries, particularly along the Finnish border, and what European countries are doing to prepare for a potential clash with …

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