Month: September 2015

Syrian Diaspora in the Gulf

~ middleeastweekblog

Elizabeth Dickinson comes back on the show to discuss the Syrian diaspora in the Gulf. We also talked about the current refugee crisis, and accusations that Gulf states aren’t helping as much as they could. Topics covered include:

  • The scale of the support Syrians in the Gulf provided to opposition groups in Syria
  • Internal debate within the diaspora about whether or not to provide weapons
  • How the diaspora’s resources are being exhausted
  • The current focus on providing long-term assistance
  • The reasons why NGO’s can’t do what the diaspora can as an informal network
  • The growing sense of hopelessness amongst the people and groups

Links:

Thanks to Melissa, Andrew, Alex, Scott, and David for their continued support of the show. You can help upport the podcast by making a small donation on Patreon!

Child Soldiers of the Islamic State

~ middleeastweekblog

John Horgan comes back on the show to discuss his work studying the Islamic State’s use of child soldiers. Topics we covered include:

  • How IS recruits children
  • The training pipeline children go through
  • Comparing the use of child soldiers in various conflicts
  • Existing research on rehabilitating child soldiers
  • John’s work studying child soldier rehabilitation & reintegration in Pakistan

Links:

Thanks to Andrew and David for their support of the show! You can support the podcast by making a small donation on Patreon!

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