Remembering Sharq Al-Adna: British Radio Propaganda in the Middle East, 1941–1956

Abstract

Set up covertly during the Second World War and continuing until the Suez crisis of 1956, the Near East Arab Broadcasting Station – better known as Sharq al-Adna – was for most of its life one of the most influential radio stations in the Middle East. This article draws on an unpublished memoir by a former director of the station, to tell the little-known story of a British attempt to win Arab hearts and minds during a formative period in the emergence of the modern Middle East.