The return of Donald Trump to the White House in 2025 comes on the back of extreme violence in the Middle East, led by Israel and with great financial and political investment from the United States. What impact will Trump's second term have on the Middle East region, and what can we learn from his policies in his first term as President of the United States? 

Between 2017- 2021 several major policies helped alter regional dynamics. From the Abraham Accords to the withdrawal from the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement; from a strengthening of ties with the Saudi monarchy to both airstrikes and calls for troop withdrawal in Syria. 

What are the current legacies of those policies, and what can the Middle East expect from Trump’s second term? Panellists will discuss these questions from the perspective of the region, the United States, and global politics with a view to the impact on both citizens and states.

Meet our speakers and chair

Gilbert Achcar is Emeritus Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS, University of London. His many books include: The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder (2002, 2006); Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, with Noam Chomsky (2007, 2009); The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives (2010, 2011); Marxism, Orientalism, Cosmopolitanism (2013); The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising (2013, 2022); Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in The Arab Uprising (2016); and The New Cold War: The United States, Russia and China, from Kosovo to Ukraine (2023).

Tom Bateman is an international correspondent with BBC News currently covering the US State Department in Washington DC. He was previously a Middle East correspondent for 7 years based in Jerusalem. He broadcasts for the BBC's flagship services including the BBC News at Ten, BBC News Online, BBC World News America, the Today Programme and the BBC World Service. 

Mezna Qato is Director of the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies at the University of Cambridge. Her research and teaching interests centre on histories and theories of social, economic and political transformation amongst refugee and stateless communities, the politics and practice of archives, and global micro-histories of movements and collectivities in the Middle East.

Jasmine Gani is Assistant Professor in International Relations Theory at LSE. She specialises in anti-colonial theory and history, and the politics of empire, race and knowledge production. Her first monograph explored Syrian anti-colonialism against the US and Israel, drawing on archival research to trace the evolution of ideology and policy across intellectuals, social movements, and states.