Middle East Week

Elizabeth Dickinson joins me to discuss recent GCC political news, and her work studying private Gulf fundraising for Syrian rebel groups. Thomas Hegghammer returns to the show to talk about jihadi use of internet forums and social media, in particular the interpersonal trust issues jihadis face online. Elizabeth Dickinson How Qatar Lost the Middle East Playing with Fire: Why Private Gulf Financing for Syria’s Extremist Rebels Risks Igniting Sectarian Conflict at Home Who Shot Ahmed? A Mystery Unravels in Bahrain’s Botched Arab Spring (Amazon Kindle Single) @dickinsonbeth on Twitter Thomas Hegghammer Interpersonal Trust on Jihadi Internet Forums (pdf) Jihad in Saudi Arabia (Amazon) @Hegghammer on Twitter Please rate & review the show in iTunes @KarlMorand on Twitter