Behind the Lines with Arthur Snell is a geopolitics podcast. Every week we give the listener access to the best informed people to help you understand this turbulent world and get a feel for the things that will matter in the future.
I am on Bluesky here and you can read some of my thoughts on world affairs here https://arthursnell.substack.com/
If you enjoyed this podcast please spread the word and give us a positive review - it makes all the difference! I don't have a special subscriber tier for this content, but if you would like to support this work, please buy me a coffee ko-fi.com/snellarthur
NEW: we get a lot of great writers on the show. With that in mind, I have set up a Bookshop.org linked account. If you'd like to buy any of the books discussed on the podcast, click here and you'll be able to support both the podcast and independent bookshops as you do so.
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As Behind the Lines formally announces joining the Cooler Heads podcast family, making us now the little brother to the massive success that is Quiet Riot - the brilliant politics podcast with Alex Andreou, Naomi Smith and Kenny Campbell, I was delighted to have as my guest none other than Emily Thornberry MP, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
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Classic Behind the Lines: Disinformation in the Trump Era with Nina Jankowicz
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 • Duration 01:01:30
Back in January I spoke to Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation expert, about what the Trump era would portend. Her views proved remarkably prescient and I thought it would be of further interest now.
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Understanding Trump's authoritarianism
Season 6 · Episode 6
Friday, August 22, 2025 • Duration 52:40
Professor Christina Pagel is responsible for the excellent website https://www.trumpactiontracker.info/? in addition to her work in public health and public policy. Here, she explains how she is tracking increasing authoritarian and anti-democratic tendencies in the Trump administration.
Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky
@snellarthur.bsky.social. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often Disorder which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest think tank.
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Ep 17 Can Parliament Take Back Control?
Season 1 · Episode 17
Friday, December 1, 2023 • Duration 42:07
The sense that our politics isn’t working might be familiar to listeners of this podcast. If you heard last week’s episode you’ll know that I had James O’Brien discussing his book “How they Broke Britain”, which gets to the heart of these questions. But one area that James and I didn’t touch on is our parliament. Britain’s parliament, sometimes self-importantly calling itself the Mother of Parliaments, isn’t working properly. Its members aren’t scrutinising legislation properly, its regulations and procedures are largely broken and it contributes to a wider sense of cynicism around our politics. Two seasoned parliamentarians, Nick Harvey and Paul Tyler, have focused in on the way parliament currently works and how it should work and have produced a short, easily readable book which contains a set of clear proposals, around elections, parliamentary procedure, reform of the upper house and standards in public life. Although it’s just about parliament, this book could be titled How to Fix Britain, because if its recommendations where followed, our national life would be improved immeasurably. It’s actually called Can Parliament Take Back Control ? And comes with strong endorsements from the Institute for Government, the Constitution Unit at University College London and the Former Clerk of the House of Commons, Lord Lisvane.
I was lucky to be able to speak to Paul and Nick and draw on their combined several decades of political experience to hear their recommendations for how to fix our politics. Here they are
You can find Paul and Nick on Twitter and in the usual places. I am @snellarthur on most social media and my Substack is https://arthursnell.substack.com/
Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky
@snellarthur.bsky.social. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often Disorder which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest think tank.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Ep 16: James O'Brien on How they Broke Britain
Season 1 · Episode 16
Friday, November 24, 2023 • Duration 52:11
James O'Brien is often described as the voice of liberal England. With this regular radio slot on LBC and his huge online following, he is a reminder that popular doesn’t have to be populism. His patient, forensic but totally accessible unpicking of cynical political dishonsesty, particularly of the Brexist variety, has been a beacon of sanity for literally millions of people - at a time when so many other media outlets, including the BBC, no longer seem prepared to call out deliberately misleading public messaging. O’Brien sometimes feels like a lone voice of reason and that points to a profound change in our society. Politicians have always tried to avoid answering difficult questions and portray their own actions as virtuous and ingenious, but the kind of profound dishonesty characterised by Boris Johnson coupled with the refusal to take responsibility for your own failings, perhaps best epitomised by Liz Truss, feels like a newer phenomenon. This plays into a wider prospect, of a country that now feels broken, its media, its politics and perhaps most importantly its public services, all deeply dysfunctional. The roots and causes of that malaise are the subject of James OBrien’s new book, How they Broke Britain. In the excellent introduction, O’Brien talks of the boiling frog metaphor and succinctly explains the premise of his book: it is “the story of slowly boiled water from which an entire country failed to escape”.
Like anyone who has been profoundly distressed by that boiling water, I have been a big admirer of O’Brien’s work, both on LBC and on Twitter. This was particularly the case as his book has a similar title to my own, How Britain Broke the World. I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest they are companion volumes, but I was to some extent attempting in my work to look at some of the similar effects of Britain’s internal politics on the wider world. So it was a huge pleasure and privilege to have James on the podcast. He is, as you’d expect for a consummate radio presenter, an excellent guest and I really hope you get as much from listening to him as I did from interviewing him.
Thanks for listening and please subscribe to this show if you haven’t already. You can follow my work at https://arthursnell.substack.com/ as well as on Twitter and Bluesky.
Finally, a link to the Disorder Podcast which I mentioned at the top of the show: https://www.goalhangerpodcasts.com/disorder
Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky
@snellarthur.bsky.social. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often Disorder which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest think tank.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Ep 15: Ukraine - Europe's Forgotten War?
Season 1 · Episode 15
Friday, November 17, 2023 • Duration 01:03:54
After months of fierce fighting, mostly in the Donbas region, Ukraine's attempt to push through Russia occupation zone to reach the Sea of Azov appears to have failed. Russia's incredibly dense minefields, its increasingly sophisticated use of drones, and its willingness to weather extraordinary casualties have all contributed to a lack of Ukrainian progress. But the West's failure to supply Ukraine with the weapons it needs, whether artillery, tanks or fighter jets, have all contributed to these setbacks. Now, as winter sets in, Ukrainians are braced for intense Russian aerial bombardment. Alongside this grim prospect, western attention is now more focused on events in Israel and Palestine. According to President Zelensky, this has resulted in fewer artillery shells reaching Ukraine. Underlying all of this is the fact that the US is no longer continuing supplying Ukraine - as a result of congressional gridlock and a Republican Party that appears closer to Moscow than to Kyiv.
Who better to discuss these difficulties with than the man in the lucky orange hat, John Sweeney - joining me from Kyiv. John can be found on Twitter @johnsweeneyroar and also has a very worthwhile Patreon https://www.patreon.com/JohnSweeneyRoar/posts
As ever, you can find me on https://arthursnell.substack.com/
Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky
@snellarthur.bsky.social. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often Disorder which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest think tank.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ep 14: The Gardener of Laskhar Gah - Britain's Afghan Betrayal
Season 1 · Episode 14
Friday, November 10, 2023 • Duration 43:47
When I worked at the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand Province, I was largely based at the Forward Operating Base in Lashkar Gah - the main city of Helmand. There, amid the dust and noise of an active military campaign, there was a small, beautifully tended garden inside the base. I’m going to be honest and say that I was too preoccupied with my own job ever to ask myself who was responsible for its upkeep- even as I enjoyed that little slice of tranquility and beauty almost every day.
Had I stopped to find out, I would have learned that the gardener was Shaista Gul, a local Afghan citizen whose hard work created a beautiful garden in the most unlikely place. By talking on this job, Shaista, and the thousands of Afghans, many of them interpreters, that served Britain during its involvement in the NATO mission, became enemies of the Taliban, facing constant threats, and worse, including murder.
After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, some lucky Afghans were able to escape on evacuation flights from Kabul. But most were left behind and thousands made their way to Pakistan, including many that had been assured of resettlement in the UK. This month, the government of Pakistan has decided to expel all undocumented Afghans in the country believed to be around 1.5 million people. Of these, around 2,000 have been accepted as eligible to come to Britain in recognition of their past service with our forces. But thanks to a cost-saving policy made by Rishi Sunak last year, these people were kept in Pakistan in preference to bringing them to the UK where the migration system is under acute strain. Now these people, who risked their lives serving our country, find themselves threatened with being returned to Afghanistan by the Pakistani government.
The story of Britain’s treatment of those Afghans that worked with us during our involvement in that country is the subject of Larisa Brown’s book, the Gardener of Lashkar Gah. Larisa is a defence correspondent, currently with The Times and previously working for the Daily Mail. She joined me, just as Pakistan was preparing to start its campaign of expulsions, to talk about Shaista Gul and the wider history of Britain’s betrayal of its Afghan friends.
You can find Larisa’s book here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/gardener-of-lashkar-gah-9781399411028/
I am on https://arthursnell.substack.com/
Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky
@snellarthur.bsky.social. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often Disorder which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest think tank.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
10-year anniversary: an optimistic take - The UK's Long March back to Europe?
Season 1 · Episode 13
Tuesday, June 23, 2026 • Duration 01:01:42
On the 10th anniversary of the UK's fateful Brexit vote, I wanted to re-issue a conversation I recorded back in November 2023 with the leader of the European Movement, Dr Mike Galsworthy - a scientist, campaigner and passionate European about how we might rejoin the EU. We cover a lot of ground and we started with the impact of Brexit on science - Mike’s professional calling, before moving on to discuss the future and how Britain might think about reversing Brexit and rejoining the EU.
You can follow Mike on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/mikegalsworthy.bsky.social
The European Movement can be found here: https://www.europeanmovement.co.uk/
Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky @snellarthur.bsky.social.
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Behind the Lines Ep 12: Bella Omnium Contra Omnes?
Season 1 · Episode 12
Friday, October 27, 2023 • Duration 40:38
Dr Mike Martin, former soldier, military strategist and author of How to Fight a War joined me to discuss how Israel and Hamas are fighting their war. Our discussion took us into a wider exploration of conflict in the modern age and the risk of escalation and agglomeration of individual conflicts into global ones.
Mike can be found on Twitter where he writes fascinating threads on what is happening in Ukraine and wider global conflict issues. He also has a website here: https://www.threshedthought.com/
I am, as ever, on Twitter @snellarthur also more often these days on BlueSky and also on substack https://arthursnell.substack.com/
I hope you get something from this episode. Please subscribe, share and generally spread the word!
Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky
@snellarthur.bsky.social. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often Disorder which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest think tank.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
BONUS EPISODE: Avoiding A Regional War
Season 1 · Episode 11
Monday, October 23, 2023 • Duration 47:58
Understanding the risks of a regional war between Israel and its antagonists feels like the most important issue at the present time. I was able to speak to Michael Stephens, former head of the Middle East programme at RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, about the complex diplomatic and strategic relations that exist across the region. We covered Iran and its proxies, the Arab Gulf states and Egypt, as well as discussing Israel's own policy choices.
Michael is on Twitter here MikeRStephens
You can find me @snellarthur on Twitter and Bluesky.
Check out our Bookshop.org affiliate site behindthelines and please sign up for my substack at arthursnell.substack.com and/or follow me on Bluesky
@snellarthur.bsky.social. You can sometimes find me on other podcasts - most often Disorder which I am involved with in partnership with RUSI, the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest think tank.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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