Order From Ashes

Citizenship: Beyond Exceptionalism—the “Middle East,” Gender, and Sexuality

Pundits, policymakers, and even academics often treat the Middle East as “exceptional”—a region of primordial violence and war, stuck in premodern social dynamics. But such conflict is not unique to the region—the United States and Europe have, of course, fought in multiple wars, though often not on their own soil. It is because of these assumptions that news coverage of the war in Ukraine is viewed with justifiable shock, but the media often treats violence in Iraq or Syria  as relatively unremarkable—the Middle East is supposed to be used to war. 

In this episode of Order from Ashes, the scholars Karma R. Chávez and Maya Mikdashi talk about moving beyond the common exceptionalizing frameworks that surround region, gender, and sexuality. They argue that, if straight and queer sexualities are analyzed together—rather than treated as if the condition of LGBTQ minorities is solely its own separate issue—observers can better understand how state and social power operate. Queer or marginalized genders and sexualities are policed or controlled, but so too are straight sexualities and all genders, in ways that are fundamental to how state power operates. The broader implication of their analysis: when we stop seeing the Middle East as exceptionally authoritarian, backward, and violent—and stop seeing the United States and Europe as particularly democratic and civilized—the transnational contours of war and power become clearer.

This podcast is part of “Transnational Trends in Citizenship: Authoritarianism and the Emerging Global Culture of Resistance,” a TCF project supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Open Society Foundations. 

Participants:

• Karma R. Chávez, chair and associate professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, University of Texas, Austin
• Maya Mikdashi, assistant professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and a lecturer in the program in Middle East Studies, Rutgers University
• Naira Antoun, fellow, Century International

Citizenship: Are We Really in an Age of Militias?

A cursory survey of contemporary media, policy, and academic landscapes suggests that we live in an age of militias, in which they are increasingly prevalent actors and a growing political challenge in armed conflicts. But are there really more militias now than ever before? Or is there just more attention given to them? 

In this episode of “Transnational Trends in Citizenship”—the new season of Order from Ashes—scholar Jacob Mundy discusses what might be driving the “militiafication” of thinking about mass organized violence. The legacies of “new war” theories and the emerging global order—in which North Atlantic powers no longer call all the shots—are essential to understanding the alleged age of militias. 

While there are ways in which militias play an important role in constituting the global terrain of organized violence, this role does not appear to be proportionally larger in recent years than in previous decades. How can we explain, then, the disproportionate intellectual and policy weight given to militias? 

This podcast is part of “Transnational Trends in Citizenship: Authoritarianism and the Emerging Global Culture of Resistance,” a TCF project supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Open Society Foundations. 

Participants include:

• Jacob Mundy, associate professor in peace and conflict studies, Colgate University
• Naira Antoun, director, Transnational Trends in Citizenship, Century International

Citizenship: Gender, Religion, and Militias

Discussions of self-styled Islamist armed groups, such as the Islamic State, tend to heavily focus on gender and religion. Yet these elements are almost always never considered in analyses of white supremacist groups. What accounts for this difference and why does it matter? In this episode of “Transnational Trends in Citizenship”—the new season of Order from Ashes—we speak with scholar Amanda Rogers about overlooked aspects of militias and nonstate armed groups in transnational perspective.

Common frameworks that emphasize violence do not have the tools to fully understand how these ideological movements function. Important elements that tend to be overlooked in such approaches include gender and religion.  

Rogers identifies other gaps in discussions of armed groups: Even though analyses of Islamist groups incldue gender, they usually treat women as peripheral. And wildly different groups—Hezbollah, the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Hamas—are treated as the same analytical unit simply because of their supposed connection to Islam. When it comes to white supremacist groups, however, religion is barely considered at all, even thought many o have an explicit religious ideology. 

This podcast is part of “Transnational Trends in Citizenship: Authoritarianism and the Emerging Global Culture of Resistance,” a TCF project supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Open Society Foundations.

Participants include:

• Naira Antoun, director, Transnational Trends in Citizenship, Century International
• Amanda Rogers, fellow, Century International 

Citizenship Introduction: A Global Crisis in Citizenship

A worldwide crisis in citizenship and rights has made it clear that no country’s struggle is entirely exceptional. Today’s episode of Order from Ashes kicks off a new season of the podcast: Transnational Trends in Citizenship.

Today, Naira Antoun, director of Century International’s Transnational Trends in Citizenship project, talks with Century International director Thanassis Cambanis about the connections between the crises in the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America.

For more than a year, Century International hosted discussions among experts who usually focus on their own regions—the Middle East or Western Europe and North America—and asked them to compare their regions and policy areas.

As a result of this exercise, the project’s teams of researchers, activists, and academics revealed commonalities and connections in their study of militias, gender and sexuality, police accountability, and protest. They also demonstrated how bringing experts on different regions together can test assumptions, create new knowledge, and inspire powerful new insights into old but persistent policy problems.

This podcast is part of “Transnational Trends in Citizenship: Authoritarianism and the Emerging Global Culture of Resistance,” a TCF project supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Open Society Foundations. 

Participants include:

• Naira Antoun, director, Transnational Trends in Citizenship, Century International
• Thanassis Cambanis, director, Century International

War in Ukraine, Pain in Syria

Even while Ukraine is experiencing tremendous suffering and dislocation since the Russian invasion, spillover effects are being felt all over the world. Syria is especially vulnerable, after ten years of war, with Russia as a major player in the Syrian conflict.

On this episode of Order from Ashes, Century International fellows Sam Heller and Aron Lund assess some of the most immediate humanitarian, diplomatic, and military consequences of the Ukraine war for Syria. 

Heller’s recent Century International report argues in some detail how humanitarian pressures and increased diplomatic tension are likely to exacerbate hunger and precarity for Syrians. In this podcast, he and Lund make the case that Syria is vulnerable in other ways to harmful spinoff effects of the war in Ukraine.

Participants include:

• Sam Heller, fellow, Century International
• Aron Lund, fellow, Century International 
• Thanassis Cambanis, director, Century International

Making Lemonade from the Abraham Accords

A year and a half ago, the historic Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and four Arab countries—but did little for stability or democracy in the region, much less for Israeli–Palestinian peace. On this episode of Order from Ashes, Century International fellow Dahlia Scheindlin assesses the possibility of salvaging progressive foreign policy goals from the problematic agreements. 

A progressive U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East should encourage Israeli–Palestinian peace, reduce militarization, support democracy, and strengthen the rules-based international order. So far, the Abraham Accords have mostly undermined these goals. In a new report for Century International, Scheindlin argues that diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab states can promote the core aims of progressive foreign policy in the Middle East—but it will take focused American leadership to turn the Abraham Accords around.

This podcast is part of “Transnational Trends in Citizenship: Authoritarianism and the Emerging Global Culture of Resistance,” a TCF project supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Open Society Foundations. 

Participants include:

• Dahlia Scheindlin, fellow, Century International
• Thanassis Cambanis, director, Century International

Closing Syria’s Border to Aid

Millions of Syrians depend on international aid that comes through a single border crossing—aid that depends on an agreement with Russia. Every year, and sometimes more frequently, the UN Security Council fiercely debates its tenuous agreement to keep open aid crossings into Syria. The number of open crossings has steadily diminished, and today, only a single access point remains, at Bab al-Hawa. This year, Russia has suggested it will no longer agree to let UN aid through this crossing after the current UN authorization expires on July 10.
On this episode of Order from Ashes, TCF fellows and Syria experts Aron Lund and Sam Heller discuss why aid is so important to the 4 million Syrians served by the border crossing, and why it’s been an uphill struggle for the United States and its allies to keep aid flowing to the parts of Syria that remain under rebel control.

Participants include:

• Sam Heller, fellow, The Century Foundation
• Aron Lund, fellow, The Century Foundation
• Thanassis Cambanis, senior fellow, The Century Foundation

Syrians Are Going Hungry

Syria faces an unprecedented food security crisis. Almost 60 percent of the country is now food-insecure, and more than a million Syrians cannot survive without food aid. The crisis has many causes, chief among them the country’s economic collapse and the depreciation of its currency. But disruptions to key imports such as wheat and fuel have also harmed food security. Western sanctions have exacerbated these problems.

On this episode of Order from Ashes, Syria expert Sam Heller discusses the case that Western governments should do what they can to help, even though they have a limited ability to fix the crisis. Food security, Sam argues, should top Western policymakers’ Syria agenda, and inform their other Syria policy choices. 

Participants include:

• Sam Heller, fellow, The Century Foundation
• Thanassis Cambanis, senior fellow, The Century Foundation

Iran and Saudi Start to Talk

Regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia have a hand in nearly every hot spot around the Middle East. The two rivals don’t control what happens, but they can play a major role in destabilizing battleground states—or calming tensions. There are many spots ripe for diplomacy: the war in Yemen, the simmering instability in Iraq and Syria, the political crisis in Lebanon.

On this episode of Order from Ashes, we hear Middle East expert Dina Esfandiary and Iraqi analyst Sajad Jiyad about the new round of diplomacy. What has prompted Iran and Saudi Arabia to be willing to talk, and where might they be willing to calm tensions?

Participants include:

• Dina Esfandiary, senior adviser for the Middle East and North Africa, International Crisis Group
• Sajad Jiyad, fellow, The Century Foundation
• Thanassis Cambanis, senior fellow, The Century Foundation

 

Thaw Between Turkey and Egypt

 

Tensions between Egypt and Turkey have run high for nearly a decade. Turkey has hosted Egyptian dissidents and opposition parties since the Egyptian coup in 2013; and the two countries support opposite sides in the Libyan War and have very nearly come into direct military conflict. Both are major U.S. partners, at least on paper: Turkey is a formal treaty ally in NATO, and Egypt is a top recipient of U.S. military aid.

On this episode of Order from Ashes, we hear from Turkey expert Nicholas Danforth and Egypt expert Michael Wahid Hanna about the recent, tentative thaw in relations between the two countries. Turkey and Egypt’s rivalry, and its unsettling consequences, serve as a reminder that there are many countries with power to drive events, and conflicts, in the Middle East. 

Participants include:

• Nicholas Danforth, senior visiting fellow, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy
• Michael Wahid Hanna, senior fellow, The Century Foundation
• Thanassis Cambanis, senior fellow, The Century Foundation