History As It Happens

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode (with no ads!) on Thursday, March 26. Israel is at war in Lebanon again, displacing a million Lebanese from their homes in the southern part of the country, its latest attempt to disarm Hezbollah. This new invasion continues a long pattern stretching back decades, where Israel tries and fails to create a Lebanon it can control. In 1982, that meant picking the country's president amid a destructive civil war. It almost worked — until an assassin's bomb killed Bashir Gemayel. Our guest is historian Ahron Bregman. Ahron Bregman is a historian at King's College London and the author of Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. Recommended reading: Lebanon's Negations by Loubna El-Amine (New York Review)

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode (with no ads!) on Monday, March 23. One of the world's longest ruling autocrats, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli airstrike, the opening blow of a war to defeat or destroy Iran. During his 37 years in power, Ali Khamenei was a mysterious figure, forged by revolution and fired by anti-Western hostility. He tormented his people and exported violence across the Greater Middle East. Who was he? And what is his legacy? Our guest is historian Roham Alvandi. Dr Roham Alvandi is Associate Professor of International History and Director of the Iranian History Initiative at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Subscribe for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode (with no ads!) on Thursday, March 19. "Peace Through Strength" has long been a mantra in American foreign policy. Yet peace never seems to arrive despite all the strength. Instead, the Pentagon budget soars toward $1 trillion, and the U.S. military is being used to coerce and bomb other countries into submission once more — even after the cascading interventionist disasters of the post-9/11 period. In this episode, historian Brandan Buck charts the origins of "peace through strength" and reflects on the overlooked tradition of anti-war conservatism from the early 20th century. Recommended reading: When Peace Through Strength Means War is Peace by Brandan Buck and Beckett Elkins (The American Conservative)

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 28-minute episode (or preview 7 minutes). Nearly three weeks into launching an unprovoked attack on Iran, whose supreme leader was assassinated in an Israeli air strike, it has become clear that President Trump and his national security team badly misjudged their enemy. The regime is surviving. And, according to expert Vali Nasr, Iran is transitioning to an IRGC-led state with even more uncompromising leadership. Unintended consequences were, therefore, inevitable because key U.S. decision-makers misunderstood Iran and ignored intelligence warnings about the unlikelihood of regime collapse. Vali Nasr teaches Middle East studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is the author of "Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History."

Subscribe for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode on Monday, March 16. Thirty-five years ago, a U.S. administration built an international coalition and received congressional authorization to fight a major war in the Middle East. Today, an American president leaps into war with a videotaped announcement and not a peep of public debate. In this episode, historian Jeffrey Engel compares and contrasts the First Gulf War of 1990-91 to today's U.S.-Israeli onslaught on Iran. In some important ways, today's conflict was made possible by the earlier war, which, at the time, was considered a decisive victory. But there were unintended consequences: the U.S. has been unable to extract itself from the Middle East. Historian Jeffrey Engel is the founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. He's the author of When the World Seemed New: George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War.

Subscribe for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode on Thursday, March 12. What is neoliberalism? Is it to blame for the crisis of American democracy? In this follow-up episode to What is Neoliberalism?, the historian Nelson Lichtenstein discusses the enormous economic changes that have transformed American capitalism, from free trade to global financialization following the Cold War's final chapter. Rather than "neoliberalism," today's complex problems would seem to need a new lexicon. Recommended reading: A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 25-minute episode (or preview 5 minutes). The regionwide war now engulfing the Greater Middle East has threatened to involve Turkey, after Iranian ballistic missiles headed for the country were successfully intercepted by NATO air defenses. Also, last month, former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett warned that a "new Turkish threat is emerging," accusing Ankara of plotting to encircle Israel with Islamist allies. In this episode, historian Howard Eissenstat explains Turkey's real interests in the war's outcome and why its relationship with Israel is dangerously deteriorating. Howard Eissenstat teaches at St. Lawrence University and the Stockholm University Institute of Turkish Studies (SUITS). Eissenstat's research focuses on the intersection of nationalism, religious identity, and policy in the Turkish Republic. Recommended reading: The Next Big Middle East Conflict? by Howard Eissenstat

Subscribe for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode on Monday, March 9. The Nazis were in many ways unique, but the Army psychiatrist who evaluated the two dozen defendants at Nuremberg in 1945 saw in Germany's war criminals the potential for authoritarianism in all societies, including America. Douglas Kelley's warnings were not well received at the time, but they resonate today, as unaccountable authoritarian figures make war in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Author Jack El-Hai is our guest. Jack El-Hai is a magazine writer and nonfiction author who covers history, medicine, and crime. Among his many books is The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII. Credit: Audio excerpts are from Nuremberg (2025), Sony Pictures Classics.

Subscribe for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode on Thursday, March 5. In wars from Eastern Europe to the Greater Middle East, new technologies and tactics are transforming some battlefields, while in other theaters, warring states are leaning on failed ideas and magical thinking to somehow produce different and better outcomes — all while civilians shudder under the earth-shaking power of missiles and bombs. In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft reflects on the changing face of battle and the old mistakes repeated by modern statesmen. Recommended reading: Ukraine marks biggest evolution in military tactics since WWII by Anatol Lieven (Responsible Statecraft)

Subscribe now to listen to this entire 20-minute episode (or preview 5 minutes). Is the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran legal under international law? Did President Donald Trump fulfill his oath to the Constitution before hurling the country into another war in the Greater Middle East? And what about Iran's retaliation, which is sending missiles and drones into Gulf States aligned with the U.S? In this episode, Adil Haque, an expert on international law and the ethics of war, answers pressing questions about the new conflict threatening to pitch the Greater Middle East into chaos. Subscribe at historyasithappens.com for all our bonus content, ad-free listening, and early access to two regular episodes every week.