Politics Theory Other

Between 2015 and 2022, a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states waged a devastating military campaign in Yemen, which - David Wearing argues in today's episode - was so severe that it resembles Israel's genocidal actions in Gaza.

A key role in the Yemen conflict was played by British-built planes that were used to indiscriminately bomb the country, and contributed to what was described by the United Nations at the time as the world's worst humanitarian disaster.

In a new report for the Campaign Against the Arms Trade and the Transition Security Project, David and his co-authors argue the case for the British government and UK arms companies to pay reparations to the people of Yemen.

In the episode we talked about the report and Britain's role in the Yemen conflict, including in the current phase as hostilities between Ansar Allah and Saudi Arabia escalate once more. And finally, we touched on the UAE and the Manchester City scandal and what it tells us about the phenomenon of the gulf monarchies' involvement in sportswashing.

Notes:

Britain’s Role in Yemen’s Brutal War Must End – And Reparations Should Follow:

https://zeteo.uk/p/britains-role-in-yemens-brutal-war

Reparations for Yemen: A proposal for a windfall tax on British arms companies that enabled Saudi war crimes

https://caat.org.uk/app/uploads/2026/09/CAATTSP-Yemen-Reperations-WEB.pdf

Séamus Malekafzali returns to PTO to talk about the possibility of further escalation in the US war on Iran and about the prospects for a diplomatic settlement. We chatted about the position of the Gulf states, and recent comments from officials in Qatar and the UAE that called for a reset of relations with Iran. We went on to talk about the price of oil and the global and regional economic impact of the conflict, and about the state of US forces in the region, following US acknowledgement of severe damage to the US naval base in Bahrain. Finally, we talked about the recent offensive by Ansar Allah in Yemen which has given the group control of Yemen's Red Sea coast.

In the popular imagination WWII is still often seen in both the United States and Britain as a moment of great national consensus, where political differences and class struggle were set aside in the cause of defeating European Fascism and Japanese imperialism.

But in his new book, 'Troop Movements', Tejasvi Nagaraja shows how the reality is much more complex, with military mobilisation and the wartime transformation of the US economy producing both new opportunities, and new dangers for Black Americans and all those engaged in anti-fascist and anti-racist struggle.

In the interview we talked about war-time wildcat strikes that aimed at creating better conditions for workers and that contested racism in the workplace.

We went on to discuss the consequences of the export of Jim Crow - with the deployment of racially segregated American units overseas and how that process affected local people and the management of subject populations in the British Empire. And finally, we talked about the post-war upsurge of strikes and protest within the US military - as soldiers deployed overseas demanded to return home, and as they sought to oppose nascent US imperialism and the reimposition of European colonialism in territories that had fallen under the control of Imperial Japan.

It's become commonplace to describe our current epoch in terms of "uncertain times", whether when talking about the Covid-19 pandemic, geopolitical ruptures, or the rapid rise of insurgent political forces. But Natasha Lennard argues that talk of uncertainty and doubt often masks the violent certainties that structure our world - from the seeming inviolability and permanence of property and border regimes, to entrenched conceptions of gendered experience.

In today's episode we talked about how Natasha came to focus on this question, and the political implications of making a distinction between knowledge and certainty.

Notes:

On Un/Certainty:The Uses of Doubt in Dangerous Times

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3217-on-un-certainty?srsltid=AfmBOopaoxZxzJRVsNnOCKTkvlvzWGzrj5cm69etz4IrZS7MjV9x1cET

Richard returns to talk about this year's wildfires. We talked about the scale and extent of the wildfires, how they compare to recent years, and the threat of the so-called weather whiplash effect, with heatwaves and wildfires being followed by severe flooding. We also talked about how fire is impacting biodiversity, how better land use management could reduce the threat posed by wildfires, and why Richard thinks we should be cautious about applying an apocalyptic framing to the phenomenon.

Notes:

Welcome to the Pyrocene:

https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/climate-international-politics/2026/08/welcome-to-the-pyrocene

Europe’s summer of wildfires is just a taste of what’s to come:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/europes-summer-of-wildfires-is-just-a-taste-of-whats-to-come/