Where should we look to find the origins of political violence and crisis? Is political crisis and conflict inevitable? If so, what can we possibly do to improve the human condition and ground a rationale for effecting change in a universe that really is devoid of any ultimate, transcendent meaning? For this week’s episode, I am very excited to welcome Nabila Jamshed as my special guest to talk about these questions and how they bear on the nature of existential crisis in overwhelmingly disastrous times of global confusion and how we might face the world being on fire without being inundated by despair. 

Nabila Jamshed is an international security and global governance professional currently working with the United Nations. She has previously served as a political analyst with multilateral agencies and the UN in The Hague, in India, and with the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan. She studied in Delhi, and did her Master’s in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford, England. 

Nabila’s career in the United Nations system began with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, where she worked as a Political Affairs Specialist. She joined the OPCW during the organisation’s work on chemical disarmament in Syria, for which it was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. With the UN, she co-authored the UN Environment Programme and UNU’s Inclusive Wealth Report for 2014, written articles in various newspapers and specialises in the UN’s work on preventing conflicts, crisis response, and outlawing weapons of mass destruction. 

Links:

Nabila Jamshed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NabilaJamshed

Blessy Mathew Prasad, “Breaking Down War and Peace,” The New Indian Express, November 21, 2016, http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/edex/2016/nov/21/breaking-down-war-and-peace-1540144.html 

Nabila Jamshed’s TEDx talk, “How Not to Have an Existential Crisis,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbV5Gs2d0q4.

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The opening clip is an excerpt from the audiobook “God is Not Great” by Christopher Hitchens, courtesy of Hachette Audio. Text Copyright 2007 by Christopher Hitchens. Audio production copyright 2007, Hachette Audio. Used with permission.

The opening and ending music is “Jade” by Esther Nicholson and is used under license. The editing was done by Rich Lyons of the “Living After Faith” podcast.

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