Radio War Nerd EP118—Turkey, Syrian Kurds & Afrin Invasion, with Joshua Landis

Guest: Joshua Landis, Director of Center for Middle East Studies & Associate Professor at U Oklahoma Recorded January 23, 2018 Turkey's multi-pronged invasion into the Syrian Kurdish-controlled region of Afrin took a lot of MENA-watchers by surprise—including the War Nerd and seasoned Syria expert Joshua Landis. We spoke to Landis to make sense of not only Turkey's actions, but also all the other main actors in Syria—Syrian Kurds, the Assad government, the US military, Iran, Hezbollah, Saudis, and local Syrian Sunnis and jihadis. We also spoke to Professor Landis about his own fascinating history in Syria and Lebanon, and how it has informed his understanding of the region. At 1:41:30 — a look at the World of Wars: Latest news on Turkey's Afrin invasion . . . USS Pueblo anniversary . . . Haqqani strikes again in Afghanistan . . . UAE snubs Qatar in Louve-2 map . . . Ames remembers Oliver Ivanovic, Kosovo Serb leader assassinated last week . . . weapons loons want to bring back the Stinger . . . Joshua Landis is director at the Center for Middle East Studies and associate professor at U Oklahoma. Read his excellent blog Syria Comment and follow him on twitter: @joshua_landis.