February 22 - Turkey Intervenes in Syria; Polar Opposite Personalities Negotiate the Greek Debt Deal; Outside Factions Prevent a Settlement of Libya's Civil War

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the Turkish military incursion into Syria and assess its significance in terms of whether this will mean a more active role for Turkey on the ground in Syria or will the impasse persist between the U.S. and Turkey as Turkey’s president Erdogan repeatedly insists that the priority should be to remove the Assad regime, rather than face up to the consequences of earlier Saudi and Turkish support for the Islamic State and other radical factions who hijacked the Syrian revolution and have created havoc across the region. Henri Barkey, a Professor of International Relations at Lehigh University who served on the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and is the author of “Reluctant Neighbor: Turkey’s Role in the Middle East”, joins us to discuss the possibility of Turkey continuing to stay on the sidelines of a crisis they helped create.

Part 2

Then we look into another standoff, this time between Greece and Germany, where two very different personalities, one a leftist former economics professor and the other a conservative former tax-collector who is an ardent supporter of austerity, are negotiating a restructuring of the Greek bailout in very tense talks that are not being helped by the Greek press characterizing Wolfgang Schaeuble SHOI BLEH as a Nazi and the German press criticizing the flamboyant Yanis Varoufakis as an uncouth hyperbolic Greek. The founder and editor of the journal Modern Greek Studies, Theofanis Stavrou, a Professor of History and Classical and Near Eastern Studies, and the author of “Greece Prepares for the 21^st Century” joins us to discuss how the clash of personalities is exacerbating policy differences as the Greek debt negotiations come to the crunch.  

Part 3

Then finally we examine the role of ISIS and other foreign actors in the chaotic Libyan civil war which is hampering efforts of the various Libyan factions to come together and settle their differences. Mohammed Bamyeh, a Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of “Islam and Society: Social Movements, Global Structures, Social Critique” joins us to discuss what can be done to restart negotiations to end the factional violence that is bankrupting and destroying Libya.