As the Middle East wakes up to an unnerving new normal following the signing of the M.O.U., Aimen and Thomas turn their attention to something truly cutting edge: the AI Arms Race that is rapidly transforming the Gulf into the front lines of a truly global U.S.-China confrontation.

Aimen and Thomas discuss:

• Iran’s drone attacks on Gulf data centres.
• AI in missile defence and military targeting.
• The physical infrastructure behind cloud computing.
• Cheap Gulf energy and rapid data-centre construction.
• The UAE–Saudi competition for AI leadership.
• Sheikh Tahnoon, G42 and MGX.
• Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN strategy.
• The US–China global AI rivalry.
• Israel’s cybersecurity and military-AI role.
• Whether AI-generated art can be genuinely creative.

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

Find us on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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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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In this Conflicted Conversation, Yeganeh Torbati, the Iran correspondent for the New York Times, discusses her excellent new book Stolen Revolution: Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran.

Yeganeh explains how:

• The 1979 revolution promised justice but created clerical authoritarianism.
• Islamic law was subordinated to preservation of the supreme leader.
• Institutions created to help the poor became engines of economic corruption.
• The IRGC became a military-economic oligarchy.
• Khatami-era reformism failed by refusing to challenge the constitutional source of authoritarian power.
• Ahmadinejad promised to overthrow corrupt elites but merely installed new ones.
• Rouhani promised economic normalization but enabled even greater corruption.
• The destruction of all sources of organized opposition left protesters exposed to overwhelming violence.
• Foreign powers encouraged expectations they did not possess the strategy or commitment to fulfil.
• Iranian society continues to resist socially and culturally, making the future unstable rather than settled.

Find Yeganeh on X: https://x.com/yjtorbati

And on Instagram: ⁠www.instagram.com/yjtorbatireports

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

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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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In this Conflicted Conversation, George Osborn draws on his excellent new book Power Play: Video Games, Politics and the Battle for Global Influence to reveal the hidden political power of video games.

Once dismissed as a niche hobby, gaming has become one of the largest social environments ever created: a vast digital third space where billions of people form identities, build communities, and increasingly encounter politics — often aligned with authoritarian agendas.

George explains:

• The history of video games: from arcades to global digital networks
• How gaming helped drive the modern technology revolution
• Why video games became the ‘third spaces’ of the internet age
• Steam, online gaming, and the rise of digital communities
• How China controls and regulates gaming culture
• Saudi Arabia's investment strategy in gaming and esports
• Russia, information warfare, and influence operations in gaming
• Gamergate and the politicisation of gaming communities
• Steve Bannon, online culture, and the rise of populist politics

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

Find George on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/georgeosborn.bsky.social

And on Instagram: www.instagram.com/george_e_osborn

And his Newsletter: www.videogamesindustrymemo.com

Find us on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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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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In the wake of the recently published Memorandum of Understanding between the White House and the Iranian regime, Aimen and Thomas explore what the MoU means and reflect on everything they got wrong about the Iran War.

They discuss:

• How the MoU is a strategic lifeline for the Islamic Republic
• How it legitimises Iran’s proxy network, from Hezbollah to the Houthis
• How billions in frozen Iranian funds have already been released through Qatar — with American approval
• How the proposed $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran has corruption written all over it
• How it enshrines the principle that Iran can charge for access to the Strait of Hormuz
• Whether Netanyahu lured Trump into a war he did not fully understand
• The collapse of the Abraham Accords' vision for a new Middle East
• If Conflicted itself has misread Trump, populism, and the future of American power

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

Find us on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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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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Elizabeth Tsurkov returns for another Conflicted Conversation. This time, the conversation turns to Israel after October 7th. Elizabeth traces her own political journey from the Israeli right to a hard-won humanism, then explains how Israel’s old security doctrine collapsed — and why the new one may lead not to safety, but to permanent war.

Elizabeth and Thomas discuss:

• Israel’s security doctrine after 7 October
• Israel’s shift from deterrence to pre-emption
• Why deterrence without a political endgame failed
• Gaza, Hamas and the limits of military victory
• Hezbollah, Lebanon and Israel’s buffer-zone strategy
• Israel’s new "buffer zone" security perimeter
• Iran’s missile threat and Israel’s war with Tehran
• The Abraham Accords, IMEC and bypassing Palestine
• Why real Israeli fears may be producing the wrong answers

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

Elizabeth's personal website: ⁠https://elizabeth-tsurkov.net/en/⁠

Find Elizabeth on X: ⁠https://x.com/LizHurra⁠

Find Elizabeth on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-tsurkov-79491b15/⁠

Find us on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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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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Aimen returns to bring us up to date on all the latest manoeuvrings in the Middle East.

Aimen and Thomas discuss:

• Trump’s chaotic, micromanaged Iran diplomacy and reliance on inexperienced “real estate” advisers.
• Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Turkey, and Egypt as flawed or compromised mediators with “skin in the game.”
• Why Aimen thinks Switzerland would be the proper neutral US–Iran mediator.
• Oman’s tilt toward Iran amid assumptions of American decline and future Iranian regional weight.
• The UAE–Saudi split over Iran: Emirati hawkishness versus Saudi caution and strategic bruising.
• Saudi resentment over Yemen, Houthi attacks, Israel’s freer hand, and lack of US security guarantees.
• Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, and Iran: efforts to decouple the Lebanon front from the US–Iran track

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

Find us on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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And Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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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

Hamza Abu Howidy returns for another Conflicted Conversation. Last time he appeared, he told us his personal story of growing up in Hamas-ruled Gaza, how he was imprisoned and tortured by Hamas for speaking out against their oppression, and how he entered into exile in Germany just before the 7 October attacks changed everything.

This time he switches from Gaza to the West Bank, telling Thomas all about the other side of Palestine — a side which goes overlooked, but which is increasingly becoming a zone of almost unbearable conflict.

Hamza and Thomas discuss:

• Settler violence as settler terrorism
• How Israeli settlements undermine the Oslo process
• Settlement expansion as a strategy to prevent a Palestinian state
• The shift from a two-state ideal to a one-state reality
• The Hardal movement and Smotrich’s political world
• The Hilltop Youth: origins, ideology and violence
• The dual legal system in the West Bank
• The Yehuda Shmuel Sherman incident and the revenge attacks that followed
• E1 and the threat to a viable Palestinian state
• The West Bank economy after 7 October
• Palestinian municipal and national elections
• Israeli elections and the lack of hope for political change
• Israel’s post-7 October security doctrine
• The Board of Peace and the problem of Hamas disarmament
• Arab disillusionment with resistance ideology

Find Hamza on X: https://x.com/HowidyHamza

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

Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠

⁠And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.

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

Because Aimen is still away, we’re taking this opportunity to introduce you all to our executive producer Jake Warren. A journalist and programme-maker, Jake not only had the idea for Conflicted, he is also the founder of Message Heard, the company that produces the show.

Jake and Thomas discuss:

• Conflicted’s origin story
• Jake’s Hungarian-Jewish grandfather who escaped on the Kindertransport
• His early work for Vice Media in North Korea, Rwanda, and Lebanon
• How he won the trust of notorious Islamist preacher and organiser Anjem Choudary while covering his story
• Visiting the family of murdered soldier Lee Rigby
• How Jake first came across Aimen’s story
• How Thomas and Aimen became friends

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

Find Jake on X: https://x.com/TheJakeWarren

Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ConflictedYoutube

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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

In this latest Conflicted Conversation, Thomas talks with Tory MP Sir Jeremy Hunt. Over fourteen years of Conservative government, Hunt served as Culture Secretary, Health Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. But in this discussion, Jeremy draws especially on his eventful year running the Foreign Office to argue against Western defeatism and to make the case for liberal democracy.

Sir Jeremy discusses:

• The view from inside power during Britain’s 2010–2024 crisis years
• Britain’s imperial inheritance, post-Brexit identity, and the “Global Britain” problem
• Trump’s 2018 NATO shock and Hunt’s case for higher European defence spending
• China, Russia and Iran as the new autocratic challenge to liberal democracy
• Yemen and the Stockholm Agreement as a tragic test of humanitarian diplomacy
• Iran, hostage diplomacy, the JCPOA and the limits of Western coercive power

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

Find us on X: https://x.com/MHconflicted

And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced by Thomas Small and Ross Field and edited by Mariana Ramirez-Zablah.

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Is Donald Trump mad? Or is he a practitioner of the Madman Theory — and therefore not mad at all?

James D. Boys, author of ⁠⁠U.S. Grand Strategy and the Madman Theory: From Nixon to Trump⁠⁠, argues that the Madman Theory is not madness, but the performance of madness: a tactic by which a sane leader feigns irrationality to make an adversary believe there is even a one percent chance of overwhelming, disproportionate force.

In this new Conflicted Conversation, Boys explains:

• What the Madman Theory means
• Donald Trump, unpredictability and Trump Derangement Syndrome
• Nuclear strategy, Eisenhower, and Cold War brinkmanship
• Barry Goldwater, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the politics of nuclear fear
• Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and the Madman Theory in Vietnam
• Trump’s use of Madman tactics against North Korea, Iran, NATO and trade partners
• Whether Trump’s second-term grand strategy is chaos, coercion or calculated geopolitical pressure

Follow James on X: ⁠https://x.com/jamesdboys⁠

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

Find us on X: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠

And Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠

And Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod⁠⁠

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

Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.

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

Aimen is back with a huge amount of behind-the-scenes information on what’s been happening in the Middle East in the past three weeks—especially on the real reasons the UAE withdrew from OPEC, and what’s been going on inside Donald Trump’s head as he tries to chart a course to victory in the Iran War.

Aimen and Thomas discuss:

• The recent discovery of HUGE shale oil reserves in the UAE
• The Mar-a-Lago deal the UAE struck with Trump
• Why the recent OPEC shake-up had NOTHING to do with Saudi Arabia
• The truth about UAE and Saudi attacks on Iran
• Did the UAE, Saudi, and Qatar really beg Trump not to resume the war?
• How Iran’s military capability remains STRONGER than people think
• The corruption behind Pakistan’s mediation efforts in the Iran War
• The benefits and liability of Trump as a War Leader

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

Find us on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

And Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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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