Dr Massoumeh Torfeh, Research Associate at the Centre for Global Media and Communications, explores the question Trump’s strategy in relation to Iran in the article linked below for TRT World: TRT Article link Featured image credit: “Kerman, bazaar” by hermien_amsterdam is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Mohamed Taha, SOAS PhD candidate, discusses future prospects of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt after Morsi. “The death of Egypt’s former president, Mohamed Morsi, in a Cairo court on June 17, on the same day he was elected six years previously, closed a chapter in Egyptian history. Morsi was the first president of Egypt to be elected in popular, representative and multiparty elections. But his burial in a graveyard alongside previous
Camilla Caraccio reports about parents in the southern Italian city of Taranto who are taking on the Arcelor Mittal Italia steelworks they say is polluting the air and killing their children. “In January, Angelo Di Ponzio lost his 15-year-old son. Giorgio died from a soft tissue sarcoma, a degenerative phenomenon linked to prolonged exposure to dioxin in the air. “A genocide is unfolding before our very eyes, and the world
When I boldly announce to people that I am starting new research on artificial intelligence (AI) in Ethiopia, a common response to this has been: “Ethiopia? AI? But why there?” My response to this has usually been: “Oh, exactly because this question gets asked!” Indeed, breakthrough advancement in AI technology is predicted to transform every aspect of how people live, work and communicate globally. These debates about what the digital
Tuesday 11 June 2019 6:00pm to 7:30pm Hosted by the Middle East Centre Research Centres Meeting Suite, 9th Floor, Pankhurst House, Clement’s Inn, WC2A 2AZ The Iraqi media landscape has been characterised by partisan ownership, in the main based on political and religious affiliations. Comparative ethnographic research has revealed highly irregular practices and the struggles of Iraqi journalists to adhere to the norms of professionalism, suggesting that these
“Rachi Taha @ THE BARBICAN 2013 PART OF SHUBBAK FESTIVAL” by wheelzwheeler is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 The summer is upon us and consequently, festival season. From June 28 – July 14, the fifth biannual Shubbak Festival will take place all around London. The full program consists of Arab artists in diaspora and around the Arab world within the visual, literary, musical and performance realms. As
The Centre for International Studies & Diplomacy (CISD), hosted a roundtable discussion “Cyber-Diplomacy: international affairs in the digital age” on Thursday 23 May 2019. The debate featured a range of SOAS academics and external participants, and ran from 12:00-17:00. The event was held under Chatham House Rules. In a moment reflecting the significance of visual language in digital diplomacy, the day began with a “groufie”, courtesy of Twiplomacy’s Matthias
Both the US and Iran are reluctant to make the first move towards talks and if it remains that way a third-party should initiate contact before tensions reach a boiling point. The US President Donald Trump vowed to destroy the Iran nuclear deal as early as his campaign days in November 2016. That wish may be granted very soon as the rest of the signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan
2019 may be as significant a moment as 2011 for media and communication scholarship focusing on the Arab World. As in the uprisings that disrupted the political order in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria in 2011, the highly mediated and visible protests in Sudan and Algeria, two of the least covered countries in the region, have, too, managed to challenge long-standing power structures, catching media analysts and scholars somewhat by
Is there a role social media can play in shifting perspectives on security challenges and approaches to migrant smuggling and human-trafficking in North Africa? Such a question, I suggest, is becoming more relevant because security perspectives and policies, particularly in the context of migration, are taking shape in a climate of anti-immigration sentiment, racism and xenophobia, which feeds into the securitisation of the humanitarian crisis around North African migration. So
