Welcome to Season 15 of the POMEPS Middle East Political Science Podcast! On this week's episode of the podcast, Rana Khoury of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign joins Marc Lynch to discuss her new book, Civilizing Contention: International Aid in Syria's War. Khoury asserts that to understand civilian and refugee activism in war, we must regard the international actors and organizations that enter the scene to help. When these organizations respond to crises, they work with local actors. In so doing, they facilitate the activists' participation in something like a civil society even in the depths of war. Yet as aid imposes its structures and routines, it also leaves activists unprotected from the violence of war and its aftermaths.

This year, in addition to the book conversations, POMEPS Director and podcast host Marc Lynch will be providing more context either on the book itself or the topic of the book. Each week you'll hear about related published academic research on the topic or any other interesting material Marc comes across and wants to share. You'll be able to find all of the citations and links at the end of the weekly podcast post.

Music for this season’s podcast was created by Feras Arrabi. You can find more of his work on his website Music and Sound at www.ferasarrabi.com.

POMEPS, directed by Marc Lynch, is based at the Institute for Middle East Studies at the George Washington University and is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York.