Today’s episode of the MERIP Podcast features a conversation between MERIP executive director James Ryan and Susanne Dahlgren, a longtime MERIP contributor and analyst focused on Yemen whose recent essay, “Yemen After the Saudi-Emirati Split” appeared in our Current Analysis section on July 8, 2026.

Last December, the Emirati-backed Southern Transitional Council in Yemen briefly expelled Saudi and Saudi-backed militias from the Hadhramaut region, only to retreat in the face of Saudi counteroffensives. The result of this skirmish was the dramatic exit of the UAE from Yemen’s civil war, after over 10 years of involvement.

Since December, Saudi Arabia has been working to consolidate its control and influence over the varied groups vying for power in the territory of the former South Yemen, on the one hand, and holding secret talks with the Houthis, who hold territory that includes the capital Sana’a, on the other. In her piece, Dahlgren reads these maneuvers as an attempt by the Saudis to establish a modus operandi for managing the conflict from Riyadh and protecting its interests in oil production and shipping.

Then, on July 13, the Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack on Saudi Arabia, which has been followed by drone attacks on oil facilities and attempts to limit shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait. What appeared to be a cooling conflict has heated up again. James Ryan and Susanne Dahlgren discussed why the Houthis re-opened hostilities, what this turn in the saga has meant to Yemenis who are facing an extraordinary food insecurity crisis and what the future holds for a conflict that has yet to find a political path forward.

Further Reading:

Susanne Dahlgren, “Yemen After the Saudi-Emirati Split” Current Analysis, July 8, 2026

Al Ayyam Newspaper

Yemen Online

Yemen Monitor

The MERIP Podcast features exclusive interviews with contributors to the Middle East Research and Information Project from the present and past about their work for MERIP, as well as audio from events we've conducted online and in-person that examine contemporary issues in the politics, economy, society and culture of the Middle East. Hosted by James Ryan, MERIP's Executive Director. Visit our website, www.merip.org, to read all of our work without paywalls.

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On today’s program we have another installment of our MERIP Roundtable, where MERIP’s executive director, James Ryan is joined by past and present members of our editorial committee, along with recent contributors, to discuss current events. This edition focuses on the 2026 World Cup, now in its final stages. Like most iterations of the tournament, this year’s has provided a drama-filled month both on and off the pitch. Thanks to the expanded field of participation, ten nations from the Middle East and North Africa were represented, with Morocco following its exciting 2022 performance in Qatar with another deep run. Our guests discuss what participation has meant for several countries in the region, and what their prospects might be going forward. They also touch on the colonial and diasporic dynamics that have been central to the dominance of the traditional powerhouses–including the final four teams of France, Spain, Argentina and England. And of course, there are the implications of this World Cup being hosted by the United States, along with Mexico and Canada, at a time when the United States and Israel are engaged in a disastrous war on Iran that has entangled its allies in the region as well as Lebanon and Yemen.

Joining James Ryan for this conversation were Sabiha Allouche, a member of MERIP’s editorial committee and a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Exeter’s Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies, Paul Silverstein, the chair of MERIP’s board of directors and professor of anthropology at Reed College, and Nabil al-Tikriti, a former member of MERIP’s editorial committee, long-time contributor and professor of history at the University of Mary Washington.

Further Reading:

Middle East Report Issue 304, Football–Politics and Passion, Fall 2022

Clive Chijioke Nwonka and Matthew Harle eds., Black Arsenal: Club, Culture, Identity (London, W&N 2025)

John McManus, Welcome to Hell? In Search of the Real Turkish Football (London, W&N 2019)

Fatou Diome, In the Belly of the Atlantic (London, Serpent’s Tail 2008)

Mickaël Correia, A People’s History of Football (London, Pluto Press 2023)

Simon Kuper, World Cup Fever: A Soccer Journey in Nine Tournaments (New York, Simon and Schuster 2026)

The MERIP Podcast features exclusive interviews with contributors to the Middle East Research and Information Project from the present and past about their work for MERIP, as well as audio from events we've conducted online and in-person that examine contemporary issues in the politics, economy, society and culture of the Middle East. Hosted by James Ryan, MERIP's Executive Director. Visit our website, www.merip.org, to read all of our work without paywalls.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s program, we have a special release of the audio from the second installment of our summer event series “Iran in Context,” featuring conversations with scholars in the field about the deeper dynamics behind the political and military convulsions in Iran over the last year. The latest installment, available here, is on the “Politics and Counter Politics in Contemporary Iran” and includes three recent MERIP contributors, Naghmeh Sohrabi, the Charles (Corky) Goodman chair of Middle East History and Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, Mohammad Ali Kadivar, associate professor of sociology and international studies at Boston College and Paniz Musawi Natanzi, a research associate at the University of Bern and affiliate scholar of the South Asia Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The discussion was co-moderated by James Ryan, MERIP’s executive director and Rosanna Tufaro, a Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at La Sapienza University in Rome and a member of the precarity working group at SeSaMO. Their conversation explores the ways Iranian politics have been misunderstood and misrepresented outside of Iran, the major factors that have driven political change in the country over the last few decades and some thoughts on what lies ahead for a country that is clearly being reshaped in important ways. The series, which takes place on zoom, is co-produced by BRISMES (the British Society for Middle East Studies) and SeSaMO (the Italian Society for Middle East Studies).

Further Reading:

Mohammad Ali Kadivar, “Rethinking Political Change in Iran From Protest to War” Current Analysis, MERIP June 3, 2026

Paniz Musawi Natanzi, “Courts of Exclusion–Working Class Masculinity and Anti-Afghan Racism in Iran” Middle East Report Issue 314, June 17, 2025 https://www.merip.org/2025/06/banned-from-the-game-working-class-masculinity-and-anti-afghan-racism-in-iran/

Daniel Tavana, Kevin Harris, Gary Fong and Amir Farmanesh, “Who Overreports? Regime Support and Preference Falsification in Iran” (article preprint) June 15, 2026

Naghmeh Sohrabi, Toby Craig Jones, Kaveh Ehsani and James Ryan, “The MERIP Podcast: The MERIP Roundtable–On the Iran War Part II” Episode 19, March 19, 2026

The MERIP Podcast features exclusive interviews with contributors to the Middle East Research and Information Project from the present and past about their work for MERIP, as well as audio from events we've conducted online and in-person that examine contemporary issues in the politics, economy, society and culture of the Middle East. Hosted by James Ryan, MERIP's Executive Director. Visit our website, www.merip.org, to read all of our work without paywalls.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.