This episode of The Dig is brought to you by our listeners who support us at patreon.com

and by University of California Press, publishers of the book Ethnic Studies at the Crossroads

by George Lipsets. Ethnic Studies is more visible than ever, but not without political and legal

threats. This book takes a look at the current state of the field,

examining its painful contradictions as well as its potential.

Critical yet optimistic,

this book upholds the promising wider role of ethnic studies

in social transformation.

Learn more about ethnic studies at the crossroads at

UCpress.edu.

Welcome to The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin magazine.

My name is Daniel Denver, and I'm broadcasting on the road from a studio in Tacoma Park, Maryland.

The U.S. Israeli illegal war of aggression on Iran has quickly become fundamentally an economic war. Iran, outgunned by its enemies, has leveraged

control over the Strait of Hormuz and its capacity to attack oil and gas infrastructure

across the region. It's deployed relatively cheap drones and missiles against expensive interceptors and radar equipment.

The asymmetric strategy aims to impose massive economic costs on the U.S. and Israel,

and also on Gulf states that aren't directly participating in the war on Iran, but who are, more generally, key allies in the U.S. Israeli

geostrategic project. Indeed, Iran's economic warfare aims to force the whole world

to reconsider the liability of acquiescing to U.S. imperial power. This episode is a deep analysis of economic warfare

in its many dimensions. My guests are Asla Bali, Svandir Batmengelage, and Nick Mulder.

Next week, we'll return to Nusantara, our series on the history of Indonesia. And if you want more context

in what's going on in Iran and the Middle East, check out our multi-part series on Iran

...