CONFLICTED

In this episode, Aaron Zelin returns to Conflicted to unpack the extraordinary collapse of the Syrian Democratic Forces’ position in northeast Syria over the past week — and what the fallout could mean for Syria’s fragile post-Assad order.

Aaron explains:

Why the March 2025 framework agreement ultimately failed

Why Sunni Arab tribes abandoned the SDF — and how Damascus prepared the ground

How and why fighting erupted in Kurdish neighbourhoods of Aleppo

The rapid fall of SDF-held areas in Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Hasakah

What happened at ISIS prisons and detention camps during the collapse

Why claims of ‘Kurdish abandonment’ by the United States are misleading

The PKK factor — and the risk of a new insurgency or terrorism campaign

What Syria’s consolidation means for ISIS, regional stability, and the country’s future

Follow Aaron on X: https://x.com/azelin

This episode includes BONUS MATERIAL after the credits ONLY for subscribers to the Conflicted Community.

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.
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On the first anniversary of the dismantling of USAID, the United States Agency for International Development, Thomas and Aimen trace the history of the organisation and ask whether USAID’s collapse represents a failure of liberal internationalism itself, or simply the end of one particular way of organizing American power in the world.

They discuss:

Trump’s 2025 executive order and the effective end of USAID

USAID, anti-communism, and the CIA

The Clinton-era debate over whether USAID should survive at all

USAID in the War on Terror: Iraq, Afghanistan, and counterinsurgency

The Arab Spring and the shift toward NGO-mediated governance

Corruption in USAID

What the end of USAID tells us about the end of the unipolar era

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ 

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.
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In this episode, Yemeni researcher and political analyst Baraa Shiban (a great friend of the show) tells the thrilling behind-the-scenes story of how different visions for the future of Yemen led long-simmering tensions between the UAE and Saudi Arabia to explode into the open.

For further reference, here’s a helpful map of Yemen showing current areas of control: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/info/infographic/49654 

Baraa explains:

How Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the war with different goals

The role Yemeni political parties and militias played in the conflict

Why southern Yemen has never been unified

The UAE’s obsessive fight against the Muslim Brotherhood

The emergence of parallel security structures and rival centres of power

How Saudi Arabia acted as a mediator between rival factions

The explosive gains, and rapid reversals, of Yemen’s renegade Southern Transition Council

Follow Baraa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baraashiban/

Follow Baraa on X: https://x.com/BShtwtr

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm 

Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A rare public rupture has emerged between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Triggered by a dramatic escalation over Yemen in late December 2025, the dispute has exposed deeper ideological and strategic differences between the two Gulf powers.

In this episode, Thomas and Aimen step back from the battlefield to examine the historical roots of Saudi–Emirati rivalry and why Yemen became the arena where these differences finally collided in public.

They discuss:

The 30 December 2025 Saudi airstrikes and the ultimatum to UAE forces

Why Yemen is the arena, not the cause, of the Saudi–UAE dispute

Continental vs maritime power in the Arabian Peninsula

The British influence on the Emirati state

The Buraimi Oasis dispute

Tribal allegiance and ‘weird borders’ in Gulf geopolitics

Why the UAE tolerates breakaway regions and Saudi Arabia cannot

Whether this rupture will be patched up and what happens if it isn’t

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ 

Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced by Thomas Small and edited by Alan Leer.
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Islam is often treated as a civilisation apart — self-contained, resistant to modernity, and fundamentally at odds with the West. In this episode, Thomas speaks to Oxford professor James McDougall about why that framing is misleading, and how Islamic history is inseparable from the making of the modern world itself.

Drawing on his new book Worlds of Islam: A Global History, McDougall explains:

Why Islamic and Western histories are deeply intertwined rather than civilisationally opposed

The extent to which Islam is an imperial and political project

Islam’s role in shaping global modernity before European dominance

What made European power different in the nineteenth century

How the Mongol sack of Baghdad reshaped the geography of the Islamic world

The importance of Central Asia, Indonesia, and West Africa to Islamic history

The debate over early Islamic sources and why scholarly scepticism has softened

Whether today’s tensions reflect a clash of civilizations — or a clash of perspectives

Follow James on Instagram: www.instagram.com/jamesrobertmcdougall

Follow James on Substack: substack.com/@mcdougalljames

Follow James of Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamesrmcd.bsky.social

Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm 

Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices