Djavad Salehi‐Isfahani received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University and has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Virginia Tech, where he is currently Professor of Economics. He is the Managing Editor of the Middle East Development Journal and a Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum (ERF) in Cairo. His research has focused…
This episode with Professor Djavad Salehi-Isfahani examines how prolonged sanctions, inflation, and structural economic stagnation have reshaped Iran’s political economy. We explore how comprehensive sanctions since 2011 constrained oil revenues and fiscal capacity, why inflation and currency depreciation have reinforced one another over time, and how these pressures have affected poverty, middle-class security, and youth prospects. The…
Iran has faced more than a decade of sustained economic pressure. Inflation has remained above 40 percent. The rial has experienced repeated episodes of sharp depreciation. Oil exports, once the central pillar of state revenue, have been significantly constrained by sanctions. From the outside, it looks like a system in permanent crisis. Yet despite these…
Ola Rifai is Deputy Director of the Centre for Syrian Studies (CSS) at the University of St Andrews, where her research focuses on the international politics of the Middle East. Her work examines identity politics, nationalism, sectarianism, and ethnic conflict, with particular attention to Syria and the broader contemporary region. Her scholarship engages with the…
Syria is often examined primarily through the angle of geopolitics, armed conflict, and regional power competition. Yet one of the most consequential, and comparatively underexplored, dimensions of the Syrian crisis concern identity: how Syrian identity was historically constructed, how it fragmented under the pressures of war, and whether it can be meaningfully reconstituted in a…
In this episode of the International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Ola Rifai about the evolution of Syrian identity and how competing narratives of nationalism, sectarianism, and statehood have shaped Syria’s political trajectory and risk before and after 2011. Find out more about how identity was managed under the Assad regime, how sectarianisation unfolded…
Professor Simon Grima is the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy, a professor, and Head of the Department of Insurance and Risk Management at the University of Malta. He is also a professor in the University of Latvia’s Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, and a visiting professor at UNICATT Milan and…
The US dollar remains the central pillar of the global financial system. It dominates cross-border payments, underpins trade invoicing, and accounts for the majority of official foreign exchange reserves. Yet in recent years, debates about the durability of dollar dominance have intensified, driven by the expanded use of financial sanctions, the emergence of digital currencies,…
Daniel McDowell is Maxwell Advisory Board Professor of International Affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. He is a former Wilson Center China Fellow. As a scholar, McDowell specializes in the study of financial sanctions, the dynamics of…
This episode with Dr Daniel McDowell examines how digital currencies, financial sanctions, and geopolitical competition are shaping the future of the global monetary system. We explore why the US dollar continues to dominate global finance despite political pressure and technological change, how sanctions influence state behaviour, and why network effects make rapid currency shifts unlikely. The discussion also…
