Empire — Season 1, Episode 1: Obama's Middle East Challenge

Episode synopsis

In his new series analysing global powers and their agendas Al Jazeera's chief political analyst Marwan Bishara focuses on the challenges facing the new US president. With such antipathy towards George Bush's foreign policy, what can the world expect from Obama and his new team?

About Empire

Empire is a unique programme that reports on and debates global powers on behalf of an international citizen. It does so in a way whereby it questions those geopolitical, geoeconomic, corporate, and other forms of power that influence citizens across borders. Many of those are not held accountable by any one government or any one nation, and so looking at the world as the global village it has become - with its integrated societies - we try to answer the questions on the minds of many of our viewers: why and how does global power act, react? And how does it throw its weight around?

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Obama's Middle East Challenge
• E2Israel and the US
• E3Arab unity in the shadows
• E4Obama and Afghanistan
• E5Sarkozy's France
• E6Iran: Influence or Threat
• E7Viva la Evolucion
• E8Media wars
• E9The World's Most Powerful Club
• E10The Long War: The US and al-Qaeda
• E11Europe: A Superpower on the Fast-track
• E12What future for 'Greater Israel'?