What’s Love Got to Do With It? Building a Different Middle East
New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast
06/01/23
•40m
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Over the last several months, there have been a series of extraordinary developments in the Middle East that could have almost as big an impact on the shape of the new global order as Russia’s war on Ukraine. Consider even a partial list:
- China's engineering of rapprochement between supposedly implacable enemies Iran and Saudi Arabia;
- The Arab League celebrating the return of Syria's president Assad, still considered a war criminal in the West;
- Saudi Arabia's application to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization while also moving towards membership in the BRICs;
- Countries from Morocco and Algeria to Saudi Arabia and Turkey moving away from political Islam;
- A growing web of diplomatic, economic, and financial ties among China, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, Iran, and Russia, that have intensified even as the West tries to enforce draconian sanctions against several of those countries.
The only thing that is clear is that a new Middle Eastern political order is under construction, one in which the United States and Europe are likely to have considerably less influence than they enjoyed over the past century.
Gilles Kepel, one of France's leading experts on the Middle East and a regular columnist for Al-Monitor, recently shared his thinking about these profound changes with New Thinking for a New World.
Listen and tell us what you think: Will the Middle East be more peaceful and prosperous without the United States playing a dominant political role?
Previous Episode
Is India Back?
May 18, 2023
•37m
India's backstory is largely unknown in the West. Between the 1st and 17th centuries AD, the country had the world's largest economy, controlling as much as one-third of global wealth. But that seemingly endless prosperity was followed by almost 500 years of decline as India was plundered and pushed aside by modern powers.
Fast forward to 2023: India is the world's most populous nation with one of the largest economies. The three trillion dollar Indian economy is expected to grow faster this year than any other major country in the world. Foreign investment is pouring in, partly looking for a safe haven from China's geopolitical ambitions and partly seeking to participate in India's new dynamism.
The man who has presided over this renaissance—Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in office since May 2014—is a global rock star. Indeed, some pollsters make the case that he is the most popular leader in the world. He has brought a degree of stability to a country where political violence used to be endemic and somehow produced an economically and geopolitically resurgent India. His and the country's importance are recognized by India's 2023 presidency of the G-20, as well as the West's aggressive courting of Modi and India as rivals to Xi and China.
Yet Western (as well as some Indian) critics worry that Modi's version of democracy is too autocratic and inward-looking, too rooted in Hindu nationalism to be sustainable. And they are skeptical that India has an economic model that can sustain the kind of outsize growth that transformed China from a country with lots of people to an economic superpower. Is India's continuing rise inevitable? Can India leverage all those people and their aspirations into supersized economic growth and power? Or might the underlying centrifugal forces of religion, inequality, and nationalism—and the sheer weight of almost 1.5 billion people—overwhelm what Modi and other Indian public and private sector leaders have set in motion? Could India really become an alternative to China?
Milan Vaishnav is a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington and an accomplished India watcher. He shared some answers in a recent New Thinking for a New World podcast.
What do you think: Will India continue its evolution to become a global power?
Next Episode
Worth Repeating: Code Red: not for Earth, for Humanity?
June 8, 2023
•36m
Join us as we revisit our conversation with Johan Rockström, renowned earth scientist and Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. A year ago, he shed light on the gravity of our situation, stating that "for the first time in human history, we face a planetary emergency." Astonishingly, this remains an urgent reality even today. Recently, an article titled "Safe and just Earth system boundaries" was published in Nature on May 31, providing further insights. For the first time, scientists have meticulously evaluated and quantified not only the boundaries within which humanity can safely operate, but also those that ensure fairness and justice for all. In an era where scientists often present their findings in a measured and objective manner, Rockström's assertion that "Human pressures on earth have reached dangerously high levels" carries immense weight and demands our attention. Tune in to our podcast episode and listen to the thought-provoking perspectives of Johan Rockström, as we delve deeper into the critical issues surrounding the survival of our species.
Are you listening? If so, what do you think? And, more importantly, what are you going to do?
This podcast was first published on June 23, 2022.
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