January 25 - An Analysis of the Saudi Succession; What's Behind the Saudi Oil Strategy?; A New Left Party Takes Over in Greece

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the succession in Saudi Arabia following the death of King Abdullah and the pilgrimage of world leaders, including President Obama who is cutting short his visit to India, to the oil-rich family kingdom to pay their respects to the new king, Salman, at a time when Saudi foreign policy seems to be collapsing all around the kingdom. Lina Khatib, the Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut joins us to discuss the likely tenure of the new king who is reported to have Alzheimer’s and the role of the Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef who recently took over the Syria portfolio from the former defense minister Prince Bandar Bin Sultan.

Part 2

Then we examine the kingdom and its future further with Robert Lacy, a British historian and bestselling author whose latest book is “Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia”. He joins us to discuss the validity of the constant refrain in the media that the late King Abdullah was a reformer and that his successor will carry on his policies. We will also look into the Saudi strategy of flooding the global market to lower the price of oil which is hurting the “frackers” in the U.S., not to mention Iran, Russia and Venezuela.

Part 3

Then finally we go to Athens, Greece for an update on the results of Sunday’s critical election expected to bring the new leftist Syriza Party to power which will shake up the eurozone since Syriza’s leader Alexis Tsipras has vowed “a return of social dignity and social justice” that is expected to involve a renegotiation of Greece’s debt arrangements and the austerity measures imposed on the Greek people after a series of bailouts by the EU and the ECB. John Brady Kiesling, a former political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Athens who now lives in Athens and is the author of the new book “Greek Urban Warriors: Resistance and Terrorism 1967 – 2014” joins us to discuss the political earthquake underway in Greece and its likely fallout.