Long Form Podcast Episode 1
with Bassam Haddad and Mouin Rabbani

A World in Upheaval with Nesrine Malik

This conversation focuses on Long Form’s primary theme, an exploration of whether this historical moment represents the disintegration of the global order established after the Second World War, or a period of upheaval that will ultimately leave it intact. Topics covered include the elections of Donald Trump in the US and Keir Starmer in Great Britain; the role played by the far right and centrists in challenging the global order; Sudan; and Palestine.

Long Form consists of a series of lengthy discussions and conversations with leading thinkers, scholars, and activists that explores the most pressing issues of our day, sheds light on their context and dynamics, and in so doing seeks to explore the broader theme of challenges to the global order and how these might affect it.

Featuring

Nesrine Malik is a columnist and features writer for The Guardian newspaper. She is the author of We Need New Stories, Challenging the Myths Behind our Age of Discontent (UK), and The Myths That Subvert Freedom (US). Her work focused on culture war, globalisation, and identity politics.

Bassam Haddad is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Magazine and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding the Syrian Calamity: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).