In this Head to Head special from Washington DC, Mehdi Hasan challenges Paul Bremer, who was appointed by President George W Bush to run the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in the wake of the Iraq war, on whether his policies led to the rise of ISIL.As the man in charge of the so-called reconstruction effort in post-Saddam Iraq, Bremer ordered the disbanding of the Iraqi army and banned members of the Ba'ath Party from holding public office. These measures, critics say, were directly responsible for Iraq’s descent into chaos.With no panel or audience, we discuss the US track record in Iraq and the region, from the 2003 invasion to the rise of ISIL. We ask him how personally responsible he feels for the birth of ISIL and whether the US should put a significant number of soldiers back on the ground in the region.

In this episode of Head to Head , Mehdi Hasan talks to Natalia Narochnitskaya, a Russian historian and former member of the Duma, or Russian parliament, for the ultra-nationalist party Rodina (Motherland).We discuss with her Russia's intervention in Syria and Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, and the consequences of these actions for its relationship with Western powers and NATO. We also discuss President Vladimir Putin's rule and examine the country's human rights record.

In this episode of Head to Head , Mehdi Hasan challenges Hina Rabbani Khar, former foreign minister of Pakistan, on whether the army is in control of the country, and if Pakistan has been supporting the Taliban.Joining the discussion are:Omar Waraich, an award-winning British journalist and former Pakistan correspondent for Time Magazine; Humeira Iqtidar, Pakistani Senior Lecturer in Politics of South Asia at King's College London and author of Secularising Islamists Mosharraf Zaidi, former advisor to Foreign Minister Rabbani Khar as well as the EU and UN.Who rules Pakistan with Hina Rabbani Khar will be broadcast on December 18 at 2000 GMT and will be repeated on December 19 at 1200, December 20 at 0100 and December 21 at 0600.Follow us on: https://www.facebook.com/AJHeadToHead; and @AJheadtohead Head to Head is Al Jazeera's forum of ideas, a gladiatorial contest tackling big issues such as faith, nationalism, democracy and foreign intervention in front of an opinionated audience at the Oxford Union.

In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Ram Madhav, National General Secretary of India's ruling BJP and former spokesman of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation and ideological wing of the BJP.