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We explore the political and social histories of North West Africa, interviewing academics with expertise in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. We interview James McDougall, a fellow at Trinity College, Oxford, about the impact of colonial legacies on these countries' political institutions. We also speak with Chuchu Zhang, a doctoral student at the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University to explain the reasons behind the divergent political fortunes of these three nations and the role of Islamic democracy in Tunisia. Lastly, we ask Arthur Asseraf, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, about media, politics, and religion in Algeria and surrounding countries, and about the prospect of wider integration across the region.

We head to the Caucasus region to explore the tense relationship between Turkey and Armenia, stemming from the Armenian genocide in 1915 but also involving other factors such as border disputes. We also discuss the 2018 Armenian Revolution and President Erdoğan of Turkey's increasingly authoritarian turn. We interview William Hale, emeritus professor with special reference to Turkey at SOAS, and ask Thomas de Waal, senior fellow at Carnegie Europe specialising in the Caucasus region, about Armenia's political future and relationships with its neighbours.

Southern Africa has recently seen several significant political shifts, and countries in the region share many historical trends. We interview expert in Lusophone Africa and bi-fellow at King's College, Cambridge, Dr Justin Pearce and the current political climate in Angola and Mozambique before speaking with Professor Saul Dubow, Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at Magdalene College, Cambridge, to gain an Anglophone perspective on events in the region, as well as exploring conceptual issues surrounding academic and journalistic research in the region.

Described by Bismarck as the "powderkeg of Europe", and later host to the worst genocide on European soil since the Holocaust, we explore what relevance the Balkans region's tumultuous past has to its future. We interview Dr Gentian Elezi, former Vice Minister of European integration in the Albanian government, about Albania's EU integration and relations with other countries in the region. We also speak with Christos Constantopoulos about the view from the Southern Balkans in Greece, with regards to the rise of fascism and Greek attitudes towards Europe. We also ask Dr Tim Less, fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge and former British diplomat in Skopje and Banja Luka, about foreign interests in the Balkans, as well as what can be gained by taking a comparative perspective between eastern Europe and the Balkans.

Our first episode explores the politics of Eastern Europe with regards to relations between Eastern European countries, their domestic politics, their relationships to the EU, and the role of Russia in the region. We speak to the Oxford International Relations Society's Julia Pieza and William O'Reilly, a fellow of Early Modern History at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. We also discuss the Cambridge Forum for Geopolitical Studies Conference on the New Geopolitics Eastern Europe, which took place in April 2018.