Geopolitics - The Middle East Background Current Affairs Lecture by political scientist Bertjan Verbeek

Announcement

What are the interests of different countries in the Middle East? How do the various geopolitical players relate to each other and to the region? And to what extent can geopolitics explain the current situation in the Middle East? Come listen to political scientist Bertjan Verbeek and look at the Middle East from a geopolitical point of view.

World powers

The Middle East cannot be understood in a vacuum: there are major geopolitical interests at play, which have an enormous impact on relations within and outside the region. Its strategic location, its oil and gas resources, and access to major trade routes make it an important region for world powers. 

Countries like the United States, China, Russia and European states, as well as regional states like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, each have their own agendas. All of these players help shape relations in the Middle East and the tensions that exist there.

Come in your lunch break and learn more about the background of the turmoil in the Middle East in this second of four Background Current Affairs Lectures on the Middle East. 

This programme is in English.

About the speaker

Bertjan Verbeek is a political scientist and professor of International Relations at Radboud University. He conducts research on (crisis) decision-making in foreign policy.

The Middle East Background Current Affairs Lectures

The Middle East is politically and militarily unsettled. If there is unrest in one country, it seems to spread throughout the region. How did that come about? In order to understand the current events, scientists will explain in four Current Affairs Lectures the history, the geopolitical relations, the role of religion and the framing of the Middle East.

Join us on your lunch break to learn more about the background to the turmoil in the Middle East.

Thu 06|02 - Religion - Religion scholar Heleen Murre-van den Berg

Tue 11|02 - Framing - Political scientist Nora Stel