World Citizen: Why WikiLeaks and Hezbollah Crossed Paths

World Citizen: Why WikiLeaks and Hezbollah Crossed Paths

In the annals of "strange bedfellow" political encounters, the recent broadcast in which WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange interviewed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stands out as a remarkable episode. After all, who would have expected to see Assange -- the master hacker, iconoclastic atheist and publicity-loving poster child for technological assaults on orthodoxy -- crossing paths with Nasrallah -- the reclusive leader, ancient-garb wearer and head of a theocratic organization based on centuries-old scriptures?

On closer examination, however, the debut episode of Assange's show, "The World Tomorrow," on the Kremlin-funded RT network, which featured Nasrallah as its first guest, is less surprising. The two enormously charismatic men share parallel challenges in their radically different lives. And their careers, although sharply different, have in common a disdain for much of the Western establishment.

In fact, Assange's decision to interview Nasrallah, and Nasrallah's choice of Assange for his first television interview in half a decade, makes a lot of sense. Both men knew it was a recipe certain to command attention. And both men had some urgent image-mending to do.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review