The Pivot by Globely News

Gaza: Famine, Genocide, and the Day After

Khalil Sayegh of the Agora Initiative joins host Arif Rafiq to discuss conditions on the ground in Gaza, what kind of political future awaits the Palestinian people, and his views on the response of Christian Zionists in the U.S. to the mass killings of Palestinians.
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The Narendra Modi Legacy

India’s general elections begin this month and are likely to bring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party back to power for a third consecutive term.
King’s College London Prof. Christophe Jaffrelot and host Arif Rafiq discuss the fundamental features of Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist project developed in the “laboratory” of the Gujarat state and applied nationally over his first two terms as prime minister.
They explore how Modi commandeered India’s Hindu nationalist movement and refashioned it into a Modi-centric populism, backed by a vigilante-driven social surveillance regime and marked by crony capitalism. They assess what an India after Modi might look like and whether democracy and secularism can bounce back once his reign has come to an end.
 
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Narendra Modi: India's Most Powerful Post-Independence Leader
Hindutva: A Deep Dive Into India’s Hindu Nationalist Ideology 
 
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Ethiopia, Somaliland and the Horn of Africa's Game of Ports

University of Maryland Professor Michael Woldemariam joins host Arif Rafiq to discuss the recent maritime access agreement between Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland. They address landlocked Ethiopia’s problem of geography, its regional aspirations, the challenges of federalism and fragmentation in Somalia and Ethiopia, and the contestation between great and regional powers, including the U.S. and China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Turkey.
 
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https://globelynews.com/africa/ethiopia-somaliland-horn-africa-game-of-ports/
 
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East Africa Map:

China's War on the Uyghur Muslims

Uyghur activist Nury Turkel (@nuryturkel) speaks with host Arif Rafiq on China’s persecution of the Uyghur Muslims; the systems of coercion, surveillance, and collective punishment directed at the Uyghurs; and how you, the listener, may be unknowingly consuming products made in part through forced Uyghur labor.
 
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https://globelynews.com/asia/china-uyghur-muslim/
 
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Indonesia 'After' Joko Widodo

Jacqui Baker (@indobaker) of Murdoch University joins host Arif Rafiq to discuss Prabowo Subianto’s victory in Indonesia’s presidential elections, the legacy and political future of the popular outgoing president Joko Widodo, and the durability of the economic and political status quo in this rising Southeast Asian power.
 
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After Joko Widodo: What a Prabowo Presidency Means for Indonesia
 
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Guyana: The World's Newest Petrostate

Jay Mandle, a professor emeritus of economics at Colgate University, joins host Arif Rafiq to discuss whether Guyana, now the world's newest petrostate and fastest-growing economy, can leverage its newfound oil wealth to change its destiny and avoid the "resource curse."
By 2035, Guyana could become the world's fourth-largest producer of oil. But it faces a host of challenges in exploiting these resources for the benefit of its population. In this episode, Mandle and Rafiq these obstacles, including climate change, longstanding ethnic and racial divisions, and threats from neighboring Venezuela.
 
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Guyana: Can the World’s Newest Petrostate Change Its Destiny?
 
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The Many Political Lives of Anwar Ibrahim

Meredith Weiss, a professor of political science at the University at Albany, joins host Arif Rafiq to discuss the many political transformations of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim over his political career. A prominent Islamist student activist, Anwar was cultivated by longtime Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as his heir apparent, only to be victimized and imprisoned by him later. As a dissident, Anwar became an outspoken Muslim democrat both at home and on the global stage. Today, his politics, in the view of some, can be described as post-Islamist. Anwar Ibrahim's fascinating political journey is not his story alone: it is that of Malaysia too.
 
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The Many Political Lives of Anwar Ibrahim
 
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(Image Credit: Firdaus Latif)

Iran, the IRGC, and the Battle for the Middle East

Afshon Ostovar, an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, joins host Arif Rafiq to discuss how Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) transformed from being a ragtag militia to a preeminent outside force in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East. They explore the IRGC’s network of partners, including the so-called Axis of Resistance, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses in how IRGC leverages these groups as part of its strategy of asymmetric warfare against its adversaries and rivals, including the U.S. and Israel.
 
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Iran’s IRGC and the Battle for the Middle East
 
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The China Challenge

Ali Wyne, a senior advisor at the International Crisis Group, joins host Arif Rafiq to discuss the implications of Taiwan's recent elections, how China is responding to the results, the risks of a U.S.-China war over Taiwan, and the broader challenge of managing a rising China.
 
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The China Challenge: How to Manage Strategic Rivalry With Beijing
 
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American Jews: Beyond the Tropes

Journalist Emily Tamkin, author of "Bad Jews," joins host Arif Rafiq to discuss the evolving and often contentious debate over what it means to be an American Jew and how today's conversations about Jews, whiteness, and wealth fit into the broader historical, American Jewish experience. They also discuss the parallels between neoconservatism in the 60s and 70s and today's counter-progressivism — or anti-wokeism — among Jewish public intellectuals. The conversation concludes with Tamkin's thoughts on the crisis of American Zionism.
 
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American Jews: Beyond the Tropes
 
 
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