Canada and the World, Ep. 11: The Khashoggi Affair

“We may never find out what happened to him.”

Two weeks after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi — a US resident who wrote for The Washington Post — entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, not to be seen again, four Middle East experts join podcast host Bessma Momani to discuss what has happened since and what this case means for journalism, for human rights and for geopolitics. This week’s guests explore key questions going forward: Is there a narrative to be believed about what happened to Khashoggi after he entered the consulate? How does the United States-Turkey relationship factor when it comes to reactions by those countries’ leaders? Why has the US Congress taken such an interest? And, how can we sustain attention around this story until some kind of justice can be found?

Our host

Bessma Momani is professor at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and University of Waterloo and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. She’s also a non-resident senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. and a Fulbright Scholar. She has been non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and a 2015 Fellow at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. She’s a frequent analyst and expert on international affairs in Canadian and global media. 

This week’s guests

Randa Slim is a senior fellow and director of conflict resolution and the Track II Dialogues Program at the Middle East Institute. She is also a non-resident fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced and International Studies (SAIS) Foreign Policy Institute.

Joyce Karam is the Washington correspondent for The National and former Washington bureau chief for Al-Hayat.

Murtaza Hussain is a journalist with The Intercept whose work focuses on national security, foreign policy and human rights. His work has previously been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian and Al Jazeera English.

Henri Barkey is a professor of international relations at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and former director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Canada and The World is produced and edited by Matthew Markudis. Each episode can be found on iTunes and other podcast applications.