About this episode

The episode features a discussion between Michael Doran and Hussein Aboubakr Mansour on different approaches to understanding the Middle East through power and ideology.

When students begin to study international politics, they meet some very old and well-established schools of thought. These approaches disagree about a fundamental question: what is the most important kind of information to acquire? One school of thought recommends studying power: who holds the weapons, and who fears whom. From that, the thinking goes, you'll be able to map the hierarchies and relationships that tell you everything essential that you need to know. Another recommends studying the cultures and dominant ideas that constitute the spirit of a given regime—to try to understand the way a nation will behave based on what it loves, what it honors, and how it understands itself. Of course, ideally you would want to understand both. This week, I'm bringing together two of the most sophisticated, interesting analysts of the Middle East to discuss how they approach the region. When Michael Doran looks at the Middle East, he focuses relative power. Doing so gives him the ability to separate the signal from the noise. The vitality of theological disputes and national cultures is constrained by the ability of the state to deploy force, whether in Iran, Egypt, Turkey, or Saudi…

People in this episode

Host: Tikvah

Guests: Michael Doran, Hussein Aboubakr Mansour

Topics covered

• Middle East
• international politics
• power dynamics
• ideology
• cultural analysis

Keywords

• Middle East
• international politics
• power
• ideology
• cultural analysis
• theological disputes
• national cultures

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