The War in Syria: How Should the World Respond?
Saturday 6 February 2016, 3.30pm
The Music Room, The Storey
Download 'Festival of Questions' Programme here
Syria represents the epicentre of global conflict in 2015. The heartland of IS, and a country in which USA, Russia and Europe are all engaged in military operations. Should military intervention increase in the region to solve matters? Do other strategies for ending the conflict exist?
Malu Halasa is a writer and editor in London. She has co-authored books and anthologies, which feature new writing and visuals from the Middle East, including: Syria Speaks – Art and Culture from the Frontline (London: Saqi Books, 2014); Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations (2009); The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design (2008); Kaveh Golestan: Recording the Truth in Iran (2007); Transit Beirut: New Writing and Images (2004) and Creating Spaces of Freedom: Culture in Defiance (2002). Her essay ‘Defying the Killers: The Rise of the Street in Syria’ was published in Shifting Sands: Unravelling the Old Order in the Middle East edited by Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson (2015). Last year she finished her first novel Mother of All Pigs.
Simon Mabon is Lecturer in International Relations at Lancaster University, Director of the Richardson Institute and a Research Associate with the Foreign Policy Centre. He holds a doctorate in International Relations from the University of Leeds. He is the author of Saudi Arabia and Iran: Soft Power Rivalry in the Middle East (2013), Hezbollah: From Islamic Resistance to Government (co-authored 2015), Terrorism and Political Violence (ed. 2015), British Foreign Policy (co-authored 2016) and The Origins of ISIS (co-authored 2016). He has published articles in Third World Quarterly, Middle East Policy and Contemporary Security Policy and regularly appears on the BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN, CNBC, ABC, France 24, Deutsche Welle and Russia Today to discuss events in the Middle East.
Robin Yassin-Kassab is co-author with Leila al-Shami of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War, and author of The Road From Damascus, a novel. Books he's recently contributed to include Syria Speaks, Shifting Sands, and Beta-Life: Stories from an A-Life Future. His journalism on Syria, and book reviews, have appeared at the Guardian, the National, Foreign Policy, the Daily Beast, Newsweek, al-Jazeera, and elsewhere. He co-edits www.pulsemedia.org and blogs at www.qunfuz.com
Idress Ahmad is the author of The Road to Iraq: Making of a Neoconservative War and writer/contributor to The Daily Beast, The Nation, Vice News, LA Review of Books, Guernica Magazine and more. Along with Robin Yassin-Kassab and Danny Postel he is the editor PULSE, a collaborative political weblog featuring work by a variety of writers, activists and academics based in five continents.
#myquestionis and #FestQ
This panel discussion is part of Day of Questions #1.
Presented by Lancaster Arts in partnership with Modern Culture, & Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at Lancaster University, with venue partners The Storey and The Dukes
