Conflicted’s tour of Africa takes another turn, this time to the East, as we head to the horn of Africa to learn about that most ancient of lands… Ethiopia! Ethiopia is the cradle of humanity – the place where some of the oldest remains of homo sapiens have been found, and its history through antiquity is equally rich. In this episode Thomas and Aimen are going way back in time to tel us about great African civilizations like the Aksumite Kingdom, and all the fascinating stories that...

Conflicted is back, continuing our trip across La Françafrique this week, with a survey of the last 10 years in Francophone West Africa, and yes, you guessed it: it’s insurgencies, jihadi movements and coups galore! Thomas and Aimen open up with a discussion of the anti-jihadist activities being carried out by the French in the Sahel since 2013, including the infamous operations Serval and Barkhane. But as jihadi movements grew, the French found themselves in hot water, which got even hotter...

On this week’s Conflicted Community episode, we invite the researcher and author Jack Margolin onto the show, to talk about his recently published book, The Wagner Group: Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army. Jack is an independent researcher and expert on modern mercenaries, focussing on conflict finance, guns and crime in data, who previously worked with the The Center for Advanced Defense Studies. Continuing our Africa focus this season, Jack and Thomas discuss how Yevgeny Prigozhin, the...

Bonjour tout le monde! In this week’s Conflicted, Thomas and Aimen are going continental as they continue their survey of Africa, with the first of a two part series on French West Africa, aka La Françafrique! France’s West African colonial possessions are relatively unknown in the English speaking world, but from Chad to Senegal, their histories are fascinating, and remind us of the disturbing continued tentacles of colonialism on the continent… In this first episode, Thomas and Aimen take...

This week we’re thrilled to bring our Conflicted Community an interview with a guest who we all at Conflicted are great fans of – British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore! Simon is an award winning historian of bestsellers including Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, Young Stalin, The Romanovs and his most recent work, The World: A Family History. But today we are here to talk with him about the newly updated version of his 2011 book, Jerusalem: The Biography. At the one year anniversary of...

Thomas and Aimen are back with a vital Q&A as the Middle East enters its most dangerous and precarious moment in recent memory. Israel’s 12 day operation, beginning with an extraordinary operation that blew up thousands of Hezbollah pagers across Lebanon, then escalated this week with the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a huge strike on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Southern Lebanon. The head of the Hezbollah snake has been cut off, and the repercussions are already...

Thomas and Aimen are back to bring you the final episode in our four part survey of the history and modern conflict in Sudan. In this episode, the pair first take us through the battles between Hasan Al-Turabi and Omar Al-Bashir in the 1990s, with Aimen revealing some fascinating anecdotes about the way Sudan incubated worldwide terror, including Osama Bin Laden, prior to 9/11. And next, we hear about the roots of the conflict raging in Sudan today, from the development of an Arab Spring...

Attention dear listeners – there’s been a small change in scheduling as Aimen has unfortunately been incapacitated and unable to record our fourth episode on Sudan. But don’t fret – Aimen is on the mend and will be back bringing us all more incredible insight and anecdotes about the Middle East very soon… So this week, we’re returning to an episode from Season 3 about our old friend, Colonel Gaddafi of Libya. If you’ve been listening closely to this season, you’ll remember that Gadaffi has...

This week for our Conflicted Community, we answer your listener questions! This week, it’s a grab bag of topics ranging from recent events like the thwarted Hezbollah attacks in northern Israel and the IS attack in Germany. Thomas and Aimen also speak about our recent series on Sudan, giving some updates on what is going on on the ground there, ahead for our final episode in the mini series next week. All this, plus thoughts about Hizb ut-Tahrir, anti-semitism and so much more… To listen to...

This week on Conflicted, Thomas and Aimen continue their exploration into the history of Sudan, focusing on two areas of the country which we’ve left off so far – but which have been hugely influential to the country’s story: Darfur and South Sudan. Both these areas were brutalised during Sudan’s 20th century history, and for remarkably different reasons. But it all comes back to the hegemony of Sudan’s ruling Three Arab Tribes – the tribes who have fixed the country’s course to conflict and...

The second episode of our four part series on the history of Sudan is here! As the British Empire loses its hold on the country, new nationalistic movements in Sudan began to develop. With the help of revolutionary Islamic thinkers like Hasan Al Turabi, various movements would vie for supremacy, with those calling for Liberal democracy, communism and Islamism all attempting to gain a foothold of power in the new reality for the country in the 20th century. But what would these tensions lead...

This week for our Conflicted Community, we answer your questions about the recent events and escalation in the Middle East.  From Hezbollah bombing a Druze village in the Golan Heights, to the Israeli response of assassinating Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, and Hamas political leader Ismael Haniyeh, it looks like escalation into regional war could well be imminent. But how did Israel pull off these targeted killings? What next for Hezbollah and Hamas? And how will Iran respond? Thomas and...

This week on Conflicted we embark on a four episode exploration of the history of Sudan, to explain the context of the conflict raging there today. In our first episode, we tackle a huge span of history – beginning with the country’s ancient Christian roots, before explaining the period of Islamification and various conquests by the Egyptians and of course the British. But who would rise in defiance of them all? Sudan’s Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, a self-styled revolutionary religious messiah who...

Our very own Thomas Small has started a brand new podcast over on Substack called ‘Life Sentences’ – and we want to give Conflicted listeners a listen to the first episode… Life Sentences is Thomas’ attempt to introduce the world to the Church Fathers – the Christian writers, theologians, mystics and divines who wrote in the first 1000 years of Christianity. The podcast sees Thomas read out the texts of the Church Fathers and comment on them as he goes, making them relevant to today.  It’s a...

Season 5 of Conflicted is here! In this season, we’re delving deep into a continent whose Islamic heritage is often overlooked, but which is one of the most consequential and politically significant places in the world of geopolitics today. That’s right – in Season 5, Conflicted does Africa! In our opening episode, Thomas and Aimen are giving you an introductory overview of the continent, and we really are covering a lot. From the Islamisation of North Africa, to the ISIS cells forming on...

All Conflicted fans know Aimen’s life story – but what about that of his co-host, Thomas Small? Avid listeners will have heard Thomas talk about his Orthodox Christian faith and his time as a novice monk at a monastery on the Greek island of Mount Athos, but the story of how he got there, and why he decided to leave the brotherhood, is a fascinating tale… This week, Thomas and Aimen switch roles to find out more about Thomas’ spiritual journey. We’re putting out this episode to all of our...

The 1860 ‘Damascus Events’ saw Syrian Christians murdered by their Sunni Muslim neighbours in a brutal genocidal moment that reshaped the late Ottoman Empire. It’s an example of how previously harmonious communities can descend into brutal violence in a very short time span. But in the Ottoman Empire’s response to the violence, it’s also an example of how hostile communities can be brought back from the brink. To learn more about this fascinating historical episode and its resonances today,...

Iran is rarely out of the news at the moment: from the death of President Raisi (which we covered in our last Conflicted Community episode), to the rumours of Supreme Leader Khamenei’s illness, and with unrest inside the country ever present, it feels like a country at the precipice. So this week, we again look to Persia to make sense of what Iran’s global strategy actually is. And this week, in a Conflicted Community first, we welcome a guest onto the show to help Thomas and Aimen on their...

Enjoy another clip from a new episode for our Conflicted Community!  This week, Thomas and Aimen discuss the life and times of Iran’s President Raisi – ‘ The Butcher of Tehran’ – as well as doing a deep dive on the fascinating relationship between Iran and Azerbaijan, before Aimen gives us some intel on how Raisi might have died… To keep listening, you’ll need to subscribe to the Conflicted Community. And don’t forget, subscribers can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom, where you can...

Enjoy a clip from the first exclusive Q&A episode for our Conflicted Community! Thanks so much to our supporters for sending in all these brilliant questions on our Discord chatroom. This week, Thomas and Aimen answer your burning questions, from Eurovision to Qatar, visiting corners of the world they’ve not touched on before…  To keep listening, you’ll need to subscribe. And don’t forget, subscribers can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom, where you can ask questions for future...

Thomas introduces a whole hour of extra content, as Aimen gives evidence to the Foreign Affair Committee in the UK Parliament. To hear more about this trip to the palace of Westminster, as well as other bonus content, sign up to the Conflicted Community! Members also get access to our chatroom on Discord, where you can engage in riveting post-episode debates, and ask questions for upcoming exclusive Q&A episodes. All the information you need to sign up is on this link:...

The second episode for our Conflicted Community is here!  This bonus episode is the final one going out to all of our dear listeners on this feed, so to keep listening, you’ll need to subscribe. Subscribers can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom on Discord, which is already brimming with conversation and analysis. All the information you need to sign up is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  For our second episode, Thomas and Aimen are returning to their bread and...

Welcome to the first episode for our Conflicted Community!  We’ll be coming to you every two weeks with interactive episodes for our subscribers. We’re giving the first couple of episodes out for all of our dear listeners, but to keep listening, you’ll need to subscribe. And don’t forget, subscribers can also join our Conflicted Community chatroom on Discord, to discuss everything you hear, and so much more. All the information you need to sign up is on this link:...

The Conflicted Community is now live!  Want to hear bonus episodes of Conflicted and chat with fellow Dear Listeners? Now you can! We’re going to be putting out new interactive episodes every two weeks for subscribers, as well as giving access to our Conflicted Community chatroom on Discord, where you can engage in riveting post-episode debates. All the information you need to sign up is on this link: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/  This is a paid for community and these new episodes...