CONFLICTED

Latest Episodes:

The Middle East Braces for Escalation Oct 02, 2026

Show notes

The war is widening, diplomacy has stalled, and the Middle East is once again sliding towards escalation as the relationship between Israel and the Gulf states grows closer while pressure on Iran is mounting at sea, in the air, and across its network of regional allies.

For mind-expanding Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Aimen and Thomas discuss:

The failure of the latest US-Iran diplomacy at the UN and the growing risk of renewed escalation.
Israeli claims of renewed Iranian nuclear activity at Pickaxe Mountain and the wider nuclear question.
The secret Abu Dhabi meeting and the emerging Saudi-UAE-Israeli security alignment.
The war in Yemen, the Houthi advance, and Saudi plans for a major counter-offensive.
Pakistan’s growing military role in Saudi Arabia and the significance of the Mecca Pact.
The widening regional front: Somaliland, al-Shabaab, Eritrea, Europe, and security around the Bab al-Mandab.
Iraq after the US troop withdrawal and the future of Iran-backed militias across the region.
The Strait of Hormuz, pressure on Iran’s economy and aviation, and the attempted FlyDubai terrorist attack.

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.

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Carlos the Jackal: The World’s First Super-Terrorist Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

In this latest Conflicted Conversation, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joby Warrick tells Thomas all about his latest book The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist.

For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: ⁠⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm⁠⁠

Joby explains:

Carlos the Jackal: From Venezuelan Marxist to Global Terror Icon
Wadi Haddad, the KGB and the Birth of International Terrorism
Dawson’s Field and the Rise of Made-for-TV Terror
How the Media Created the Myth of “Carlos the Jackal”
OPEC 1975: Gaddafi, Ransom Millions and Carlos’s Biggest Coup
Carlos Inc: How Dictators Turned Terrorism Into a Hired Service
From Carlos to Bin Laden: The Shift From Marxism to Jihadism
Joby Warrick Meets Carlos: Unrepentant After 30 Years in Prison

Find Joby on X: https://x.com/JobyWarrick

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small .

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The Houthis Are Winning — Here’s Why Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

Aimen's away this week. But not to worry! Sitting in his seat is Mohammed al-Basha: a Yemeni-American analyst with over twenty years of experience. Basha is the perfect person to help us understand better the larger forces at work in the Yemen Civil War — with consequences for the entire world.

For world-class Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Basha and Thomas discuss:

How the Houthis Smashed Yemen’s Western Front in Just Seven Days
Inside the Houthi Machine: From Mountain Rebels to a Revolutionary State
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi: The Hidden Leader His Followers Treat Like a Sacred Authority
How Gaza Supercharged Houthi Recruitment, Weapons and Global Ambition
Why Yemen’s Anti-Houthi Forces Keep Falling Apart
Tareq Saleh: The Warlord Who Embodies Yemen’s “Game of Thrones”
Saleh Co-Opted the Tribes — the Houthis Are Trying to Crush Them
Could the Houthis Take All of Yemen — and Would Yemen Survive It?

Find Basha on X: https://x.com/BashaReport

And on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bashareport

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.

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1453: The Catastrophe That Ended Rome Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

In this latest Conflicted Conversation, historian Anthony Kaldellis of the University of Chicago discusses his new book 1453: The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople.

For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: ⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm⁠

Anthony explains:

Why the ‘Byzantines’ were really Romans
The Roman state’s extraordinary longevity
Constantinople’s strategic importance
The rise of the Ottoman state
Ottoman slavery, the devşirme, and the janissaries
Romans, Italians and Turks living side by side
Venice and Genoa’s role in the East
Ottoman cannon and the myth of Orban
Why the siege was not inevitable
The enslavement and dispersal of the Romans
How ‘Byzantium’ was reinvented after its fall

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small .

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Globalisation Made Global Jihad Possible Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

In this week’s Conflicted Conversation, UCL associate professor Philip Cunliffe makes a provocative case: far from being polar opposites, global Islamism and American unipolarity were born of the same globalised order. But what happens when that order starts to fall apart? And is today’s rising New Left inadvertently fighting to save the liberal-imperial system it says it wants to destroy?

For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm

Philip and Thomas discuss:

How U.S. unipolarity and globalisation reshaped the world after the Cold War
Why Cunliffe thinks ‘global Islam’ is a distinctly modern political phenomenon
How early state-seeking Islamism gave way to transnational Islamism and jihadism
Why neoliberal globalisation weakened state sovereignty and boosted Islamist networks
The strange overlap between liberal humanitarianism and jihadist causes
How the CIA, Afghanistan and Syria blurred the line between ally and enemy
Why the new American Left could revive the logic of liberal interventionism over Israel
What comes after the decline of American empire: sovereign nation-states or rival new blocs?

Find Philip on X: https://x.com/thephilippics

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small .

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Saudi Arabia’s Yemen Disaster Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Every region-watcher was stunned over past week as the anti-Houthi forces in Yemen suffered an extremely brutal reversal—with global consequences. Aimen lifts up the curtain of inter-Gulf politics to help Thomas understand better what went wrong, and why Saudi Arabia's confused foreign policy may deserve the lion's share of the blame.

For mind-expanding Q&A's with Aimen, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Aimen and Thomas discuss:

Did Iran dupe Saudi Arabia?
How the Houthis humiliated their rivals
Mocha falls: Bab al-Mandab exposed
Saudi Arabia’s oil lifeline gets hit
Why Yemen’s anti-Houthi coalition imploded
The bitter Saudi-UAE divorce
Has Qatar reshaped Saudi foreign policy?
Why Trump refused MBS’s rescue call

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.

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Re-Interrogating 9/11: A 25th Anniversary Debate Sep 11, 2026

Show notes

To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Aimen and Thomas take a deeper, wider look at the historical, ideological, and geopolitical context on either side of that momentous world-changing event.

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Aimen and Thomas discuss:

Was 9/11 an ending as well as a beginning?
The myth of the peaceful 1990s
America inherited a geopolitical mess after the USSR's collapse
America as a revolutionary power
Could preserving Middle Eastern monarchies have prevented later disasters?
Al-Qaeda and liberal globalisation
Jihadism amid the wreckage of earlier promises
Was the War on Terror a rupture or an acceleration?
Bin Laden’s selective use of history
History without a puppet master

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.

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The End of the Nation State? Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

Where did the nation-state come from—and what happens if the conditions that made it powerful are now disappearing?

Thomas discusses these questions and much more in this wide-ranging Conflicted Conversation with award-winning novelist and essayist Rana Dasgupta, whose new book After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order sets out to explain where our world order came from and where it could be going.

Rana explains:

The origins of the modern nation-state and the decline of universal sacred empires
Louis IX, the Crown of Thorns and the sacralisation of the French state
How Enlightenment political theology transformed God, sovereignty and individual rights
Industrialisation, mass democracy, welfare states and the political power of workers
Liberalism, populism and the changing relationship between elites and mass democracy
The origins of international law in empire, property rights and global capitalism
Why the postwar rules-based international order is now weakening
The East India Company, Silicon Valley and the rise of quasi-sovereign corporate power
China as an alternative model of state power and control over private capital
Climate change, mass migration and whether the nation-state can survive a new ‘nomad century’

Find Rana on X: x.com/byranadasgupta

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small .

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The Battle for Taiwan Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

In this Conflicted Conversation, journalist Chris Horton talks about his new book Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and Its Struggle for Survival.

Chris explains:

Why China wants Taiwan and why the island is vital to control of the western Pacific.
Taiwan’s strategic position in the First Island Chain between China, Japan and the Philippines.
How a Chinese invasion, blockade or maritime quarantine of Taiwan could unfold.
Why a war over Taiwan could devastate global trade and the world economy.
What Taiwan’s fall would mean for US power, Japan and the Philippines.
Why Taiwan is an independent democracy but still officially called the Republic of China.
Who the Taiwanese are: Indigenous peoples, Hoklo, Hakka and post-1949 mainlanders.
How martial law, dictatorship and democratisation created modern Taiwanese identity.
Why the Kuomintang, once Communist China’s enemy, is now Taiwan’s most Beijing-friendly major party.
Whether Taiwan could eventually choose closer integration with China through democracy rather than war.

Find Chris on X: www.x.com/heguisen

Visit Chris’s website: www.chrishortonwriter.com

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small .

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump's Strangulation Strategy Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

Aimen's prediction on 4 August came true, and in the intervening weeks the United States have ramped up the economic pressure on the Iranian regime. The question is: how with the IRGC react? The war re-escalated over the weekend, and as the Iranian people began to make their feelings felt, all indications are that peace is farther away than ever.

Aimen and Thomas discuss:

Operation Economic Outcast: US sanctions and regional trade restrictions tighten Iran’s economic isolation.
Strait of Hormuz: US demining, Gulf oil exports and Iran’s new underwater drone threat reshape the naval war.
Iran’s economic crisis: collapsing rial, inflation, shortages and possible unrest increase pressure on the IRGC.
UAE-Iran trade: Dubai’s historic commercial role shrinks as Gulf states join Washington’s economic campaign.
US strategy in the Gulf: Trump administration cohesion, long-term military deployment and growing concern about China.
Iran escalation risks: attacks on Gulf infrastructure, domestic repression and renewed US-Iran fighting.
Tactical nuclear weapons: Aimen warns the conflict could cross the nuclear threshold if escalation continues.

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

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

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices