Voices: The EISA Podcast

Author: EISA

Voices: The EISA Podcast is the official broadcast of EISA, the European International Studies Association. This space for cutting-edge research in the discipline of International Relations is the audible companion to EISA. Apart from our flagship conference, the EISA organises a range of innovative events and activities for scholars and students working in the field of International Studies. This podcast sets the stage for deeper insights into award-winning papers, books and theses, as much as it provides a room for the critical engagement with key concepts in political and sociological thought. Voices: The EISA Podcast traces how these concepts have been taken up in the discipline of IR. It interrogates their emergence, their gendered and racialized omissions, and their relevance to current debates and analyses. Through our erudite interview guests, a wide range of critical reading, and reflections on our everyday experiences, Voices: The EISA Podcast helps to think through core IR concepts.
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Language: en

Genres: Education, Science, Social Sciences

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Why is...the Gulf so geopolitically important?
Thursday, 7 May, 2026

In this episode, we tackle a question that cuts to the heart of today’s global power struggles: Why is the Gulf so geopolitically important? To unpack this question, we are joined by Laleh Khalili, Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins she discusses the escalating tensions surrounding the US and Israeli war on Iran, the strategic implications of a potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the wider risks of oil price shocks and global economic disruption. Moving beyond headline geopolitics, the conversation situates these developments within broader histories of empire, extraction, and capitalist accumulation. Laleh Khalili explains how the Gulf has been shaped by long-standing imperial entanglements and what this means for how we should understand its international relations and political economy today. Laleh Khalili’s work has been central to analysing the infrastructures and logics of contemporary capitalism and war. Amongst other works, she is the author of Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula and Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy.