Eastern Approaches Podcast: A precooked ceasefire and British soft power

UK Column Podcasts

In this episode, we look first to Azerbaijan's glove-puppet role on behalf of its big brother Turkey, whose strained regional relations we considered in the first podcast, and for Israel, whose officers were caught in 2017 operating military drones to shoot Armenian soldiers as a sales gimmick. Turkish drones, with Ukrainian engines (and now licensed for Saudi manufacture too), and Israeli drones have increasingly been swinging the fortunes of wars between third-party countries. Their effectiveness is not perfect but both countries' focus on drone production seems to have inaugurated an era of drone warfare, in which middle-tier powers with cash to spend can wipe out better-drilled and better-motivated troops despite the latter's home-front advantage. In the final half-hour of the podcast, we turn to British interests in the region. Is Britain, in its foreign policy in the region, now a glorified shill for Ankara? Who leads that pro-Azeri British foreign policy — the FCDO (Foreign Office) or BP?