The Control Zone

In this episode of The Control Zone, hosts Kellie Kuenzle and Jessica Buxbaum speak with Siranush Sargsyan, an Artsakhtsi Armenian journalist and human rights advocate who was displaced from her homeland in 2023. Currently in Portugal, Sargsyan talks to The Control Zone about living through war, her experience as a refugee in Armenia and abroad, and her hopes to return to Artsakh. This is the third and final episode in our three-part series on the Occupation of  Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), where we break down Armenian and Azerbaijani occupation of the region and how ethnic tensions and fight for the land shaped the two states and the South Caucasus as a whole.  Check out Sargsyan's work in the BBC, Armenian Weekly, and Institute for War and Peace Reporting and follow Sargsyan on Twitter @SiranushSargsy1 Find us on: Instagram: @thecontrolzone Twitter: @ControlZonePod  Have an idea or story tip? E-mail [email protected] or Signal +12037310505 This project is entirely self-funded. Please consider supporting us at https://buymeacoffee.com/thecontrolzone

In this episode of The Control Zone, hosts Kellie Kuenzle and Jessica Buxbaum speak with Javid Agha, an Azerbaijani journalist currently in exile in Warsaw, Poland, on the history of Armenian and Azerbaijani occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh. We speak with Agha on the conflict's origins, Soviet influence, and the international community's short attention span in regards to solving the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis. Agha shares the Azerbaijani perspective of the region's wars and conditions for peace. Our conversation reveals how the struggle for self-determination and sovereignty can often create a political gray zone where nationalist fervor and state violence takes root.  This is the second episode in our three-part series on the Occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), where we break down Armenian and Azerbaijani occupation of the region and how ethnic tensions and fight for the land shaped the two states and the South Caucasus as a whole.  Follow Javid Agha on Bluesky @cavid.info, Twitter @cavidaga, and Instagram @cavid_aga and find his work in Eurasianet, BNE Intellinews, OC Media, France24, and VOA Azerbaijani.  Find us on: Instagram: @thecontrolzone Twitter: @ControlZonePod  Have an idea or story tip? E-mail [email protected] or Signal +12037310505 This project is entirely self-funded. Please consider supporting us at https://buymeacoffee.com/thecontrolzone

In this episode of The Control Zone, hosts Jessica Buxbaum and Kellie Kuenzle speak with Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and the author of Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War, a definitive study of Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh, a mountainous enclave claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet republics.  Our conversation covers the conflict's history from the collapse of the Soviet Union through several wars to present-day peace negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, after Azerbaijan regained control of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023 and displaced the region's Armenian population. We ask, what does Artsakh look like after decades of war and how achievable is peace there? This is the first episode in our three-part series on the Occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), where we break down Armenian and Azerbaijani occupation of the region and how ethnic tensions and fight for the land shaped the two states and the South Caucasus as a whole.  Follow Thomas de Waal on Twitter @Tom_deWaal.  Find us on: Instagram: @thecontrolzone Twitter: @ControlZonePod  Have an idea or story tip? E-mail [email protected] or Signal +12037310505 This project is entirely self-funded. Please consider supporting us at https://buymeacoffee.com/thecontrolzone

This is the second installment of The Control Zone's two-part conversation with Palestinian writer and political analyst Muhammad Shehada and the final episode of our series, The Occupation of Gaza: From the Early 20th Century to Today. In this episode of The Control Zone, hosts Jessica Buxbaum and Kellie Kuenzle speak with Shehada about the current state of Gaza, proposed US-led reconstruction schemes and alternatives to these plans, and the rise of Israeli-backed criminal gangs accused of looting humanitarian aid. Shehada explains how Gaza’s destruction, displacement, and aid restrictions are shaping daily life, while unpacking the political and economic interests driving so-called postwar plans for the territory. Find us on Instagram: @thecontrolzone Twitter: @ControlZonePod  Have an idea or story tip? E-mail [email protected] or Signal +12037310505 This project is entirely self-funded. Please consider supporting us at https://buymeacoffee.com/thecontrolzone

In this episode of The Control Zone, hosts Jessica Buxbaum and Kellie Kuenzle speak with Palestinian writer and political analyst Muhammad Shehada about the current state of Gaza, the aftermath of the ceasefire, Israel’s military expansion, proposed US-led reconstruction schemes, and the rise of Israeli-backed criminal gangs accused of looting humanitarian aid. Shehada explains how Gaza’s destruction, displacement, and aid restrictions are shaping daily life, while unpacking the political and economic interests driving so-called postwar plans for the territory. This is the first installment of a two-part conversation with Shehada and part of the concluding episodes in our series, The Occupation of Gaza: From the Early 20th Century to Today. Find us on Instagram: @thecontrolzone Twitter: @ControlZonePod  Have an idea or story tip? E-mail [email protected] or Signal +12037310505 This project is entirely self-funded. Please consider supporting us at https://buymeacoffee.com/thecontrolzone

In this episode of The Control Zone, hosts Jessica Buxbaum and Kellie Kuenzle speak with modern Middle East historian Dr. Anne Irfan on the history of Israel's occupation Gaza from the 1967 Arab-Israeli War until the outbreak of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza in 2023. Irfan, author of the newly-released, A Short History of the Gaza Strip, breaks down the rapid transition from Egyptian rule to Israeli military occupation in 1967 —  exploring how the evolution of Palestinian resistance and Israeli policies transformed Gaza’s political and social landscape. Find us at Instagram: @thecontrolzone Twitter: @ControlZonePod  Have an idea or story tip? E-mail [email protected] or Signal +12037310505  This project is entirely self-funded. Please consider supporting us at https://buymeacoffee.com/thecontrolzone 

In this episode of The Control Zone, hosts Jessica Buxbaum and Kellie Kuenzle launch a four-part series exploring the history of military occupation in Gaza. Joined by historian Roberto Mazza, a visiting scholar at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University and host of the Jerusalem Unplugged podcast, the conversation traces the historical foundations that shaped Gaza long before what we see today. The episode begins in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, examining Gaza as a port city, agricultural center, and strategic crossroads between Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. The discussion explores how Ottoman land reforms, changing property laws, and regional politics laid foundations that still influence Gaza today. From there, the episode moves through the geopolitical transformations of the 20th century, including the collapse of Ottoman rule, the emergence of Zionist settlement in Palestine, and early military confrontations between Israel and its neighbors. The hosts and Mazza also unpack the often overlooked history of Gaza during the Suez Crisis in 1956, when Israel briefly occupied the Gaza Strip.  This historical perspective shows how themes of control, displacement, land ownership, and strategic geography have shaped Gaza for more than a century. Consider checking out Mazza's podcast here.  Find us at Instagram: @thecontrolzone Twitter: @ControlZonePod Have an idea or story tip? E-mail [email protected] or Signal +12037310505  This project is entirely self-funded. Please consider supporting us at https://buymeacoffee.com/thecontrolzone 

In the debut episode of The Control Zone, hosts Jessica Buxbaum and Kellie Kuenzle trace the long and contested history of military occupation, from its earliest legal foundations to the complex, technological systems of control we see today. Their first guest, occupation studies scholar Peter Stirk, former director of the Centre for the History of Political Thought at Durham University, unpacks the origins of military occupation as a legal and political concept. Beginning with the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, he explains how occupation emerged not simply as the presence of foreign troops, but as a distinct form of governance, one that claims authority without sovereignty. From Napoleon’s armies in Europe to U.S. interventions in Cuba and Iraq, Stirk highlights a recurring theme across centuries: frustration. Occupying powers, he argues, frequently fail to achieve their ambitions, whether political, ideological or economic, revealing patterns of continuity that stretch into the present day. The Control Zone is a podcast about occupation, its past, present and future, and the people resisting it.  Peter Stirk is part of the Occupation Studies Research Network. Learn more about their work here.  Find us at Instagram: @thecontrolzone Twitter: @ControlZonePod Have an idea or story tip? E-mail [email protected] or Signal +12037310505  This project is entirely self-funded. Please consider supporting us at https://buymeacoffee.com/thecontrolzone