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On October 26, the Republic of Georgia held parliamentary elections with immense geopolitical stakes. The former Soviet republic was once staunchly pro-Western and pro-European. But over the last several years, the country has drifted closer to Russia's orbit, largely due to one man: the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili. His Georgia Dream party has dominated Georgian politics for nearly a decade, and this rule has brought some democratic backsliding, including a new NGO law, modeled after a similar law in Russia, aimed at undermining civil society.
However, the people of Georgia remain overwhelmingly pro-West and pro-European. So, this election was seen as a reckoning: would the ruling Georgian Dream Party be voted out, halting the country’s drift towards Russia?
Despite some reports of election irregularities, Georgia Dream declared victory, claiming 54% of the vote. The opposition rejects this outcome, leaving the country in an uneasy post-election period.
Joining me from Tbilisi, Georgia, is Andres Ilves, Regional Director for the Near East and Eastern Europe for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. We discuss what happened in these elections, what accounts for Georgia's drift towards Russia, and some of the key geopolitical implications of these results.
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Today’s episode is produced in partnership with the CGIAR Research Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration for a series that examines what works to improve the well-being of people in Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings. CGIAR is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security.
We are calling this series “From Fragility to Stability” and in today’s episode I host a roundtable discussion with three experts about how social assistance can improve mental health in fragile settings.
You will hear from:
Michael Mulford, World Vision International
Adiam Hailemichael, World Bank economist
Melissa Hidrobo, Senior research fellow, IFRPRI
The escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has sparked a rapidly unfolding displacement crisis in Lebanon. Over the past few weeks, as Israel intensified its strikes and launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, around 700,000 people have fled their homes. This is in addition to the 100,000 people who fled the region shortly after the October 7 attacks, which saw some exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah. In the last two to three weeks, what began as a limited conflict has sharply escalated, leading to this new displacement crisis.
Joining me to discuss the contours of this crisis and its potential impact on Lebanese society, politics, and security is Juan Gabriel Wells, the country director for Lebanon at the International Rescue Committee. As he explains, this new wave of displacement is layered on top of several other crises affecting Lebanon today, including a deep and ongoing economic catastrophe.
Today’s episode is produced in partnership with the CGIAR Research Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration for a series that examines what works to improve the well-being of people in Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings. CGIAR is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security.
We are calling this series “From Fragility to Stability” and in today’s episode I host a roundtable discussion with three experts about how to better deliver humanitarian and social assistance in fragile settings
You will hear from:
Kibrom Abay (IFPRI Senior Research Fellow - Development Strategies and Governance)
Mitchell McTough (IWMI Postdoctoral Fellow – Water, Conflict & Resilience)
Susanna Sandstrom (Senior Economist, Head of Economic and Markets Unit, World Food Program)
You can find this episode and other episodes that are part of this series on GlobalDispatches.org
My guest today, Marietje Schaake, is the author of a brilliant new book, The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley. The book explains how the tech industry has effectively captured government, assuming many of the functions traditionally held by governments, but without the oversight inherent in democratic governance. This includes areas like national security, domestic functions, and even the maintenance of democracy itself.
Marietje Schaake is an old friend of mine and a former member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands. We begin our conversation by discussing her experience leading the EU's election observation mission in Kenya in 2017, when a faulty French voting technology company disrupted the election with serious political consequences. We then move on to examine the tech industry's role in supplanting government in the national security realm, and why Elon Musk's alliance with Donald Trump is so potentially dangerous for democracy.
The Tech Coup is easily one of the best books I've read this year. It presents a compelling argument for why democracies should push back against the growing influence of the tech industry—and how they can do so.
Here is my conversation with Marietje Schaake, a non-resident Fellow at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center and the Institute for Human-Centered AI, and the author of The Tech Coup.
Today’s episode is produced in partnership with the CGIAR Research Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration for a new series that examines what works to improve the well-being of people in Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings. CGIAR is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security.
We are calling this series “From Fragility to Stability”
In today's episode, I host a roundtable discussion with three experts on the topic of Anticipatory Action— that is, how acting before a crisis hits can reduce impacts on the most vulnerable. You will hear from:
To learn more visit: https://www.globaldispatches.org/
When Sudan's civil war erupted in April 2023, something extraordinary happened. Neighborhoods, mostly in and around Khartoum, began setting up what they called "Emergency Response Rooms." This name is somewhat of a misnomer because, while some Emergency Response Rooms do provide medical assistance, others serve as communal kitchens, day care centers, or offer maternal health services. In each case, they were created by the community in response to its own needs. This so-called mutual aid happens across cultures and around the world.
What is profoundly unique about mutual aid in Sudan is that these Emergency Response Rooms have organized themselves into a coherent network that connects very local, neighborhood-level humanitarian responses to international donors. They have done this through a homegrown system of oversight and governance, providing a revolutionary new model for humanitarianism.
Joining me to discuss Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms, how they work, and why they represent such a departure from more conventional approaches to humanitarian relief, is Alsanosi Adam. He is the external communications coordinator for the national umbrella group that supports the work of over 700 Emergency Response Rooms throughout Sudan.
You can support their work, like I did, here: https://mutualaidsudan.org/
Today's episode is the launch of a new series called "From Fragility to Stability" in which we examine what works to improve the well-being of people in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings who often struggle to sustain resilient food, land, and water systems in the face of the climate crisis. The series is produced with CGIAR, a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security, to help deepen understanding of fragility, conflict, and migration dynamics. Episodes in this series will convene experts, practitioners, policymakers, and stakeholders to foster a collaborative dialogue, share insights, and co-create actionable strategies to address the multifaceted challenges of conflict, crises, and fragility.
To kick off this series we have a high powered panel discussion focusing on how partnerships can bring food systems from fragility to stability. You will hear from:-Ismahane Elouafi, Executive Managing Director–CGIAR -Andrew Harper, Special Advisor to the High Commissioner on Climate Action, the UN Refugee Agency -Arif Husain (Chief Economist and Director of Analysis, Planning and Performance United Nations World Food Program -Katrina Kosec, Senior Research Fellow–IFPRI; Lead–CGIAR Research Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration; Lecturer, Johns Hopkins Universit To learn more and access other episodes in this series, please visit https://www.globaldispatches.org/t/fragilitytostability
Today’s episode is produced in partnership with the CGIAR Research Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration for a new series that examines what works to improve the well-being of people in Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings. CGIAR is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security.
We are calling this series “From Fragility to Stability” and in today’s episode I host a roundtable discussion with three experts on the topic of responsibly scaling innovations in fragile settings
You will hear from: Karen Nortje, International Water Management Institute Research Group Leader for Gender, Equality and Social Inclusion.
Maha Al-Zubi, Regional Researcher - Sustainable & Resilient Water Systems. International Water Management Institute,
Kyle Cordova, Founder and CEO of Aquaporo.
For the United Nations itself, the big event during the UN General Assembly was the Summit of the Future. This was a two-day event that kicked off UNGA and led to the adoption of a document known as the Pact for the Future. This pact contains a suite of proposals for reforms to the UN and the broader multilateral system. Negotiations had been taking place line by line for months, and last week it was finally gaveled into being, adopted by consensus.
Joining me to discuss what happened at the Summit of the Future, including some of the key outcomes, is Daniel Perell, Representative to the United Nations for the Baha'i International Community, and someone who has been following and participating in the Summit of the Future process very closely. If you want to learn some of the significant results of the Summit of the Future and what comes next, this episode is for you.
This episode is produced in partnership with the Baha’i International Community, an NGO that represents the worldwide Baha’i community at the UN and other international forums, where it emphasizes that recognizing humanity’s interconnectedness is key to a shared global future."
Today's episode is a crossover with our sister podcast To Save Us From Hell, a weekly chat show about the UN. I'm joined by co-host Anjali Dayal, who is an international relations professor at Fordham University, and Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group. We spoke on Tuesday afternoon, a few hours after President Biden's farewell UNGA address.
We cover a good deal of ground in this episode, including Biden's speech, Antonio Guterres' speech, some drama at the Summit of the Future, and other happenings around the UN during this very busy High-Level Week.
Enjoy, and be sure to subscribe to To Save Us From Hell by visiting https://www.globaldispatches.org/s/to-save-us-from-hell
UNGA week is here! Hundreds of world leaders are gathering in New York for the opening of the 79th United Nations General Assembly. This is always one of the most important moments in international diplomacy, and this week will be no different.
We have a special episode today. I kick off with some commentary about the stories I think will drive the agenda during UNGA78, including the Summit of the Future and the prospect of the UNGA unfolding in the context of a widening regional conflict in the Middle East. I also want to shine a spotlight on two important stories from New York this week that will probably not get the attention they deserve, but are nonetheless central to what UNGA is all about: achieving results for the betterment of humanity. To that end, I interview Dr. Ahmed Ogwell, Vice President of Global Health Strategy at the UN Foundation, who tells us what to expect from a high-level meeting on antimicrobial resistance. I then speak with Kerrlene Wills, Director for Ocean and Climate at the UN Foundation, who discusses a second key high-level meeting on sea-level rise.
For more, please visit https://www.globaldispatches.org/
I caught up with my guest today, Pascal Lamy, on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization's Public Forum. Pascal Lamy is a former Director-General of the WTO and the current Vice Chair of the Paris Peace Forum. He has a reputation as a big thinker, particularly on geopolitical matters.
In our conversation, we discussed some of the contours of the deepening rivalry between China and the United States on trade issues. There is an emerging trend in the geopolitics of "decoupling," which is the idea that the world may be split into two trading blocs: one led by China and the other by the United States. I kick off by asking Pascal Lamy if he believes that decoupling is inevitable at this point. We then discuss the roots, causes, and impacts of trade rivalries between the US and China, as well as the role of the European Union and how the rest of the world — that is, countries outside the US, China, and Europe — can influence debates around international trade.
Today's episode was recorded live at the World Trade Organization's headquarters in Geneva. The live taping coincided with the WTO's "Public Forum," a week-long gathering of civil society at the WTO's headquarters. It's a major event, with around 5,000 people registered from around the world, attending a series of meetings, workshops, speeches, panel discussions, and, of course, our live Global Dispatches taping.
This episode features two guests. First up is the WTO's chief economist, Ralph Ossa, who discusses his research on the global implications of widening trade disputes between major powers, such as the United States and China. I'm then joined by Anabel Gonzalez, the Vice President for Countries at the Inter-American Development Bank and a former Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization, who offers her ideas on how trade may be harnessed to promote global equality and prosperity.
While in Geneva, I paid a visit to the U.S. Permanent Mission to interview Ambassador Bathsheba Crocker. She is the top U.S. official in Geneva, representing the United States at the many United Nations agencies and international organizations headquartered here.
I wanted to speak with Ambassador Crocker because the work of the UN in Geneva can sometimes fly under the radar, yet it directly impacts everyone on the planet, including Americans. I was interested in learning more about how the U.S. engages with agencies that most Americans have probably never heard of—such as the World Intellectual Property Organization or the International Telecommunications Union—but that nonetheless help to shape our world in ways that affect the daily lives of ordinary people.
We start by discussing how the U.S. engages with some of the more technical UN agencies in Geneva, and then move on to the Biden administration’s decision to rejoin the Human Rights Council after the previous Trump administration withdrew. We also discuss the relationship between the work of the UN here in Geneva and the UN in New York, particularly in relation to issues of peace and security.
Gene therapy is effective against many diseases and even has the potential to address enduring global health challenges like HIV. However, gene therapy as it currently exists is astronomically expensive to develop and administer. What’s more, the burden of diseases that may be most susceptible to gene therapy, such as sickle cell disease and potentially HIV, is concentrated primarily in the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
My guest today, Dr. Boro Dropulic, is working to close that gap and bring these advanced therapies to places where they are needed most. He is the Executive Director of Caring Cross, a nonprofit dedicated to both developing advanced medical cures and making them widely accessible. In our conversation, he explains why these gene therapies are so expensive today and how to make them affordable for health systems in the developing world.
If you are a regular listener to the podcast and reader of our associated Global Dispatches newsletter, you know that I believe one of the most important issues in the world today is the growing gap between humanitarian needs and the funding available to meet those needs. Climate change and conflicts are causing a surge in the number of people around the world who require a modicum of humanitarian aid to survive. Yet, funding has not kept pace. Far from it. The gap is large and growing.
In response to this pressure, one of the largest and oldest international humanitarian organizations, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, is trying something new. While they still rely on traditional donors, mostly wealthier Western countries, they are also experimenting with innovative financing schemes. This includes using insurance in novel ways and exploring how to issue bonds or sell carbon credits to fund their humanitarian work.
Joining me to discuss how the IFRC is approaching these complex financial instruments is Nena Stoiljkovic, IFRC's Under Secretary General for Global Relations and Humanitarian Diplomacy. We kick off by discussing why climate change is driving up the costs of humanitarian response and the IFRC's new program to support climate-resilient communities before diving into a longer conversation about the novel ways in which the IFRC plans to finance that, along with its regular disaster response.
In mid-August, the United States and Switzerland hosted peace talks for Sudan's warring parties. The talks took place outside Geneva at a time when the conflict was exacting a massive toll on the civilian population of Sudan. Just as the talks were getting underway, the UN confirmed a famine in a massive IDP camp in Darfur. Meanwhile, over 10 million people have been displaced by the fighting, making it the largest humanitarian crisis in the world by the numbers.
There have been some attempts at international mediation, none of which have stuck. Over the summer, the newly appointed U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, began laying the groundwork for these talks in Switzerland, which only recently concluded. There is obviously still no ceasefire in Sudan, but according to my guest today, Cameron Hudson, Senior Fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the talks nonetheless did achieve important progress on getting humanitarian aid to beleaguered populations.
Ever since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban three years ago, I have periodically checked in with my guest today, Zuhra Bahman. She is the Afghanistan Country Director for Search for Common Ground, an NGO focused on peacebuilding. When the Taliban toppled the Afghan government and asserted control in Kabul, Zuhra Bahman happened to be out of the country on a business trip. However, she was determined to return, and she did. As she explained in our previous conversations, she felt an obligation to influence the direction of her country under Taliban rule, improve the lives of women and girls, and promote local peacebuilding efforts.
In our conversation today, I ask her: Has she been successful? More broadly, Zuhra Bahman explains how consistent engagement with the Taliban authorities has led to some incremental gains, and she argues why the international community ought to deal directly and consistently with the Taliban.
On August 14th, the World Health Organization declared MPOX a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern." This is the highest level of alarm that the WHO can issue to confront a public health crisis, and it was triggered in response to a rapidly spreading outbreak in Central Africa.
As my guest, Dr. Eric Toner, explains, this MPOX outbreak is different from the one two years ago due to the fact that this new strain of the virus is both more deadly and more transmissible. Dr. Eric Toner is a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. He explains the differences between the strains and what we know so far about how MPOX is spreading within Central Africa and, more recently, to other continents. We have a lengthy discussion about how to contain the outbreak, which includes deploying effective vaccines. However, the problem is that the supply is limited and controlled by just a handful of vaccine manufacturing companies.
In 1991, Somaliland declared independence from Somalia, but no country has yet to accept Somaliland's sovereignty. That, however, may soon change. On January 1st, Ethiopia and Somaliland entered into a memorandum of understanding that includes Somaliland leasing a coastline and port to landlocked Ethiopia, and in return, Ethiopia would be the first country in the world to formally recognize Somaliland's independence.
When news of the MOU came to light earlier this year, it sent shockwaves throughout the Horn of Africa. Somaliland is in the north of Somalia, with a long coastline on the Gulf of Aden and bordering Ethiopia and Djibouti. It has many of the trappings of a state, including its own currency and governing institutions. It is a multiparty democracy and far more stable and less violent than Somalia. Somalia, however, still claims Somaliland—and every country in the world formally considers Somaliland to be part of Somalia. This move by Ethiopia threatens to upend this consensus of the last three decades.
Joining me from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, is Guleid Ahmed Jama, a lawyer and researcher. We kick off by discussing Somaliland's unique history before having a long conversation about this Ethiopia deal and what comes next.
Every two years, since 1951, the United Nations has compiled data and estimates about the world's population. These are contained in a report called World Population Prospects, which provides our best estimates about global population and demographic trends. The latest edition of World Population Prospects was released in June, and joining me today is one of the people responsible for putting this report together.
John Wilmoth is Director of the Population Division at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. He last joined us two years ago after the previous iteration of this report was released. We will discuss what has changed, or not, from the estimates of two years ago, why we should be paying attention to rapidly aging populations in East Asia, and what we mean by the "demographic dividend" that many countries in Africa are poised to harness.
I caught up with Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli at the Aspen Security Forum in mid-July. She is the new President and CEO of the One Campaign, which advocates on behalf of global development, justice, and equal rights, with a particular focus on Africa. I was interested in speaking with her at a major conference dedicated to international security precisely because African security issues are often far from the top concerns of the American foreign policy community.
One of the big challenges facing many African countries today is how heavily indebted they are. Many African countries these days are spending far more money servicing debts than on their own economic and social programs. Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli explains that this already has international security implications and is bound to get worse unless something changes. We discussed how we can change the narrative around Africa in general and why including Africa in conversations about global security will become increasingly imperative in the future.
The July 28th national elections in Venezuela were supposed to usher in a new era of democracy after 25 years of Chavismo rule. Back in October, President Nicolas Maduro agreed to free and fair elections and, in return, had some US sanctions lifted. He quickly reneged on that deal, barred a popular opposition leader from running, and engaged in other election-related shenanigans.
Still, Venezuelans voted in massive numbers, rallying around a lesser-known opposition candidate named Edmundo Gonzalez. But hours after the polls closed, Nicolas Maduro claimed victory, a position backed up by his hand-picked national electoral body. Crucially, Venezuelan authorities have not released a full accounting of the election results, including a paper trail that Venezuela's voting systems use to verify results. This has led to widespread and credible accusations that Venezuela's election was stolen.
On the line with me from Caracas is Phil Gunson, a senior analyst for the Crisis Group. We recorded our conversation on August 1st amidst profound political uncertainty in Venezuela. He explains what happened in the lead-up to and immediate aftermath of the elections and how this situation may evolve.
Kamala Harris did not have an extensive foreign policy track record before becoming Vice President. And as Vice President, she did not assume much of a foreign policy portfolio during the Biden Administration. So what could we expect from a Kamala Harris foreign policy? How might it be the same as or different from Joe Biden's foreign policy? And if Harris becomes President, who might assume senior foreign policy roles, such as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor? Joining me to discuss these questions and more is Alexander Ward, a national security reporter who starts at the Wall Street Journal next week and author of The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump, a vital book that tells the story of the first two years of the Biden Administration's foreign policy.
We kick off by discussing what role, if any, Harris played in the two major events that Alexander Ward details in his book: the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We then discuss what sort of foreign policy vision can be deduced from Kamala Harris' time as Vice President and Senator from California.
On July 19th, the Houthis launched a drone that struck an apartment building in Tel Aviv, killing an Israeli. This was a long-range, sophisticated drone and marked the first time the Houthis successfully struck Israeli soil. Israel responded with airstrikes against the Port of Hodeida, in the Houthi-controlled part of Yemen.
The Houthis are the de facto rulers of most of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the main port city, Hodeida. About a month into the Gaza war, the Houthis—who are part of the so-called Axis of Resistance that includes Hamas and Hezbollah—began attacking civilian commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The US has led an international mission to protect those ships in the Red Sea and deter Houthi attacks by striking targets in Yemen.
At the time, many Yemen experts, including my guest today, Alex Stark, warned that bombing the Houthis would not deter them—and would likely only embolden the group. This escalation against Israel proved her right. Alex Stark is an associate policy researcher at Rand who wrote a prescient article in Foreign Affairs some months ago titled "Don't Bomb the Houthis." In our conversation, Alex Stark explains why this attack on Israel was such an escalation, provides some broader context in which the Houthis decided to launch their Red Sea attacks, and offers perspective on how this latest escalation may evolve.
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Bangladesh is roiled in the most intense protests and domestic upheaval in decades. The protests began peacefully by students objecting to a quota system for government jobs, in which government jobs are mostly reserved for those who fought in the 1971 war for independence and their descendants. That quota system was in place for years, then it was substantially revoked only to be re-instated by Bangladesh's high court in a ruling last month. This sparked protests which turned violent when a pro-government student group attacked the protesters.
The government of Sheikh Hasina has since enacted a brutal crackdown, imposing curfews, blocking the internet, and authorizing security forces to shoot on sight anyone breaking curfew. This crackdown by Sheikh Hasina is the latest example of her turn to authoritarianism, a trend that has been accelerating in recent years.
My guest today, Ali Riaz, is a Distinguished Professor at the Department of Politics and Government at Illinois State University and the President of The American Institute of Bangladesh Studies. We kick off discussing the quota system and the genesis of these protests before having a long conversation about how economic stagnation after a period of rapid growth, combined with corruption and an authoritarian turn, has created the volatile situation we see in Bangladesh today.
Alsu Kurmasheva was visiting her ailing mother in Russia when she was detained by the authorities and had her passports confiscated. She is a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and her arrest immediately raised alarms that, like the Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich, yet another American journalist has been targeted and wrongfully detained in Russia. However, unlike the wrongful detention of Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva's case is far less known.
My guest today is Pavel Butorin, Alsu's husband and also a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He explains what happened to Alsu and his ongoing efforts to secure her release from a Russian jail.
On May 19th, a helicopter crash in Iran killed President Ebrahim Raisi and several top government officials. This forced new presidential elections, and on July 5th, Masoud Pezeshkian defeated his more hardline opponent and is now Iran's president-elect. Pezeshkian comes from the reformist faction of Iranian politics, but real power still lies in the hands of unelected clerics, none more so than Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Still, this election will have an impact on Iran's relationship with the outside world, including the West. Joining me to explain the international implications of Masoud Pezeshkian's election is Sina Toossi, a senior nonresident fellow at the Center for International Policy. We discuss what we mean by "reformist" in the context of Iranian politics, which leads into a broad conversation about the kinds of changes we might see in Iranian domestic and foreign policy as Pezeshkian takes the reins of government from a hardline faction that has been dominant for the last several years.
The Labour Party won an overwhelming victory in the recent elections in the United Kingdom. Keir Starmer is now Prime Minister, ending 14 years of Conservative rule in the UK. So what does this mean for Britain's foreign policy? Can we expect any major changes to Britain's relationship with the world?
Joining me to discuss the foreign policy implications of the UK elections is Jason Pack, host of the Disorder Podcast. We have an extended discussion about the new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, who Jason Pack argues will have an outsized role in shaping UK foreign policy in the years to come. This includes reorienting and reinvigorating Britain's once-vaunted global development programs.
"The Lammy Doctrine" New Statesmen The Disorder podcast: https://linktr.ee/disorderpodFrom July 15th to the 18th, the Chinese Communist Party is holding a gathering known as the Third Plenum. This is a highly anticipated political event, as Xi Jinping and party officials are expected to announce key economic reforms intended to spur the Chinese economy. For the past several years, especially since COVID, the Chinese economy has been lagging. According to my guest today, Anja Manuel, executive director of the Aspen Security Group, this is largely because Xi has prioritized regime security over economic growth.
We kick off by discussing what the Third Plenum is and have a broad conversation about the economic and political context in which this meeting is occurring. We also discuss the broader geopolitical implications of a slowing Chinese economy and what that means for competition between the US and China.
Finally, Anja Manuel previews the Aspen Security Forum, which kicks off on July 16th. This is a significant foreign policy and national security gathering that I've had the pleasure of attending for the past few years.
A rather bizarre incident recently occurred in the South China Sea off the coast of the Philippines. On June 17th, the Chinese Coast Guard clashed with Philippine naval vessels en route to resupplying a stranded Philippine ship on a formation known as the Second Thomas Shoal. This desolate shoal is very much in the territorial waters of the Philippines, but China nonetheless claims it as Chinese sovereign territory. The Chinese have routinely harassed Philippine ships in the area, but on June 17th, the Chinese Coast Guard attacked the Philippine naval vessels with water cannons, swords, and axes in the most violent incident of its kind in years. This kind of escalation risks drawing in the United States due to the longstanding Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and the Philippines, which obliges the US to come to the defense of the Philippines. This has the potential to draw the US and China into direct conflict.
My guest today is Prashanth Parameswaran, founder of the ASEAN Wonk newsletter and fellow at the Wilson Center. We kick off by discussing what exactly happened during the June 17th incident before having a broader conversation about the dynamics in which this territorial dispute in the South China Sea draws the US and China closer to conflict--and how to escape that trap.
On June 27th, a group of food security experts from the United Nations and major international relief agencies known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released devastating new data on hunger in Sudan. Their data shows that over 755,000 people are experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. This means that there are almost no coping mechanisms left, and people are starving to death. Those experiencing this extreme level of food insecurity are spread throughout several regions; it is not localized to just one part of the country.
The cause is conflict. In April last year, a full-scale civil war erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The food system in the country, including farmlands and trading routes, has been destroyed. Meanwhile, international humanitarian relief is being obstructed by the warring parties and not reaching people in need in sufficient numbers.
My guest today, Dr. Oliver Kiptoo Kirui, is a Research Fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He recently conducted a large wartime household survey of food security in every region of Sudan. We discuss his findings in detail, as well as what can be done to reverse the massive food crisis gripping the country. The war does not look like it will end anytime soon, so in the midst of conflict, what can be done to limit deaths from starvation and widespread hunger?
On Tuesday, June 25, Kenyan protesters stormed parliament in Nairobi in scenes reminiscent of the January 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol. However, unlike January 6, police responded violently, and at least six people were killed. The protests had been ongoing for days as the Kenyan parliament moved on a finance bill that would increase taxes for ordinary Kenyans in unusual ways. Like many countries in Africa, the government of Kenya faces an extreme level of debt and was looking for new sources of revenue to service its debt payments while also keeping the government functioning. Following the protests, President William Ruto said he would no longer pursue this taxation bill.
While protests in Kenya are hardly unusual, what makes this protest movement so unique, according to my guest today, Brian Obara, is that it was not organized along ethnic, tribal, or even class divides. Rather, it was youth-led and broad-based -- and that could signal a profound change in Kenyan politics. Brian Obara is a Kenyan lawyer, media professional, and columnist for The Star, a daily newspaper in Nairobi. We kick off by discussing what was in this ill-fated Finance Bill that so agitated Kenyans. We then discuss what transpired in the protests and what this episode suggests for the future of politics in Kenya.
The situation in Southern Lebanon is extremely precarious. Israel is positioning more and more military assets along its northern border, while Hezbollah continues its near-daily attacks on Israeli targets from Lebanon and has threatened an all-out war. Caught in the middle are about 10,000 United Nations peacekeepers.
The United Nations Interim Mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has more peacekeepers deployed per square kilometer than any other UN peacekeeping mission in the world. These peacekeepers have helped avert an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah in the past, but tensions are very high right now. If conflict is averted, it may be due to the off-ramp to continued escalation between Hezbollah and Israel that UNIFIL provides. On the other hand, if Israel and Hezbollah decide to escalate, there’s little these peacekeepers can do to stop them.
The lead segment of our second episode of To Save Us From Hell explains the role of UNIFIL in managing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah since 2006 and why some diplomats are considering expanding UNIFIL to prevent a new devastating war in the region. On the flipside, we also discuss what would happen to these 10,000 Blue Helmets if they get caught in the middle of a war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Our second segment focuses on a summit this week between Taliban officials and representatives of about 30 governments and international institutions, convened in Doha under UN auspices. This meeting is somewhat controversial and has earned reprobation in some circles for the fact that no Afghan women will be represented.
Finally, we share an excerpt of our interview with Courtney Fung, an academic who studies Chinese diplomacy and its approach to the United Nations. This is a 15-minute excerpt of our full 40-minute interview that is available to our paying supporters. The interview covers China’s evolving relationship to the UN, including how the policies and strategies it pursues are changing as it becomes a more robust global power.
To Save Us From Hell is listener-powered. Please support our work through your paid subscription: https://www.globaldispatches.org/SaveUs
Since 2019, Burkina Faso has been in a state of near-constant conflict. Extremist groups control or occupy large swaths of the country—about 40-50% according to some estimates. Meanwhile, the government is extremely unstable and has been toppled by a succession of military coups. The military government in power today is generally hostile to the same Western powers that have historically supported the people of Burkina Faso with humanitarian and development assistance.
My guest today, Jan Egeland, is the president of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a large international humanitarian NGO. Each year, the NRC publishes a list of what it considers the most neglected humanitarian emergencies on the planet, and this year, the crisis in Burkina Faso tops the list. Jan Egeland recently returned from Burkina Faso, and in our conversation, he explains why the humanitarian crisis there is so challenging and what can be done to make Burkina Faso less neglected by the international community.
This is the debut of "To Save Us From Hell," our new weekly chat show about the United Nations. "To Save Us From Hell" is a project of Global Dispatches and features weekly conversations between co-hosts Mark Leon Goldberg and Anjali Dayal about the latest news and happenings around the United Nations. They discuss the implications of Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea for the UN, recent progress on Gaza and Sudan at the Security Council, and who should replace the outgoing top UN humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths.
To Save Us From Hell is a project of Global Dispatches and is supported entirely through the paid subscriptions of our supporters. You can access a discounted subscription here: https://www.globaldispatches.org/SaveUs
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Elections for the European Parliament saw sweeping gains for far-right parties in Germany and France. It was in France that these election results led to the surprising—and very daring—decision by Emmanuel Macron to dissolve parliament and call for snap elections. The first round of these legislative elections will be held on June 30th.
Macron is facing a challenge from the far-right National Rally, a party that used to be known as the National Front, which was founded by the Nazi-adjacent Jean-Marie Le Pen and is now led by his daughter, Marine Le Pen. These elections could lead to the far right winning enough seats in the French parliament to lead the government.
On the line to discuss the European Parliament elections in general and the results in France is Art Goldhammer, a senior affiliate at the Center for European Studies at Harvard. He explains the political dynamics leading up to these snap elections, and we have a long conversation about the implications for Europe should France be led by the hard-right National Rally.
India's election was supposed to be a coronation for Narendra Modi. Instead, he got a comeuppance. India is, of course, the world's largest democracy, and after a nearly month-long election season, the final results were declared in early June. Narendra Modi and his political party, the BJP, fared much worse than expected. They secured far fewer seats in the Lok Sabha, the parliament, than anticipated, and now Modi and the BJP will have to form a coalition government after losing an outright majority.
On the line to discuss the election results and what they mean for Indian politics and foreign policy going forward is Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center's South Asia Institute and also the deputy director of the Wilson Center's new Indo-Pacific program. As Michael Kugelman explains, the outcome of this election suggests a growing skepticism among the Indian public of Modi's brand of Hindu nationalism and the authoritarian tendencies he's embraced.
"To Save Us From Hell" is a new weekly chat show about the United Nations. Each week, two veteran UN watchers break down the latest news from the United Nations, giving our audience insights into what is driving the agenda at UN headquarters and in its operations around the world.
Co-host Mark Leon Goldberg is a veteran journalist who’s the editor-in-chief of UN Dispatch and founder of Global Dispatches. He's covered the UN for nearly 20 years. Anjali Dayal is a Professor of International Relations at Fordham University who’s written widely about the UN and teaches students about its intricacies. They are teaming up for this one-of-a-kind podcast that will launch in the middle of June.
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On Friday, May 31, President Biden made a surprising announcement about a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Biden laid out the terms of this three-phased cessation of hostilities and said that this deal was proposed by Israel and sent to Hamas. The optics of a U.S. president making public what he said was an Israeli proposal made many people question whether or not Israel was fully behind this deal. Meanwhile, Biden aimed much of his remarks at Hamas, urging them to accept this ostensibly Israeli deal. At the time of recording, Hamas has neither accepted nor rejected this proposal.
My guest today is Joel Braunold, managing director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. We kick off by discussing what is included in this ceasefire agreement before having a long conversation about the reactions and responses to the Biden announcement by Hamas and Israel. We spend a good deal of time discussing some of the motivations behind Hamas' approach to a ceasefire deal and the complex domestic politics in Israel surrounding this deal.
Check out our new weekly podcast about the United Nations!
Claudia Sheinbaum will be the next President of Mexico. In national elections on June 2, the protégé of President López Obrador and former Mayor of Mexico City won a landslide victory, earning nearly 59% of the vote. She is a former climate scientist and will be the first woman and the first person of Jewish origin to lead the overwhelmingly Catholic country.
But beyond the presidency, there were over 20,000 positions at all levels of government up for election, and it was in these state and local elections that things turned violent. Very violent. This was by far the bloodiest election in Mexico's history, with over 30 candidates assassinated during the campaigning.
My guest today, Falko Ernst, is the senior analyst for Mexico at the International Crisis Group. As he explains, this election-related violence is a product of criminal gangs competing for control, influence, power, and wealth. We kick off by discussing Claudia Sheinbaum's background and her unique approach to violent crime as mayor of Mexico City. We then discuss the dynamics that led to violence in the lead-up to these elections and what can be done to disrupt criminal gangs' sway over local politics in Mexico.
After the Islamic State was largely defeated on the battlefields of northern Syria in 2019, thousands of fighters and their families were placed in detention facilities in the region. By far the largest of these detention camps is Al Hol, which at its peak held over 70,000 people from several dozen countries. Today, over 50,000 people live in Al Hol, which is essentially an open-air prison. The vast majority of people living there are children.
My guest today, Sarhang Hamaseed, is the director of Middle East Programs at the United States Institute of Peace and is intimately involved with efforts to help repatriate families currently stranded in this prison camp. When we caught up, he had recently returned from Iraq, working on programs to support the reintegration of Iraqi families in Al Hol. In our conversation, Sarhang Hamaseed explains why this festering prison camp in northern Syria is both a humanitarian and security crisis that deserves broader international attention.
Some of the most heavily indebted countries in the world are also the ones most vulnerable to climate-induced natural disasters. When a hurricane, cyclone, or massive drought hits a country, officials can be faced with the choice of either servicing their debts or paying for disaster recovery. As the pace and scale of natural disasters increase due to climate change, some policy entrepreneurs have introduced the idea of including so-called "Pause clauses" in loan agreements that would enable the country to suspend debt payments for a period of time as it recovers from a natural disaster. The best-known champion of this idea is the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley. This was her signature proposal in a suite of reforms to international financing policies for climate-vulnerable countries known as the Bridgetown Initiative.
My guest today, Michael Sheldrick, tells the story of how Pause Clauses went from an idea on paper to a policy now widely implemented by the World Bank in his new book: "From Ideas to Impact: A Playbook for Influencing and Implementing Change in a Divided World." Michael Sheldrick is a co-founder of Global Citizen and devotes a chapter of his book to the successful implementation of Pause Clauses. (The book covers much more than Pause Clauses, but it is what we focus on in our conversation today because it is such a good example of policy entrepreneurship in the face of a seemingly intractable problem.)
From Ideas to Impact: A Playbook for Influencing and Implementing Change in a Divided World https://gtly.to/4X3iZoma5
Over the past several weeks, hundreds of thousands of people in the Republic of Georgia have taken to the streets to protest against a law making its way through parliament that would force many NGOs to register as foreign agents. The law is modeled on similar measures in Russia that led to the near wholesale criminalization of pro-democracy and human rights civil society groups. This move in Georgia's parliament is being pushed through by a political party led by an oligarch who made his fortune in Putin's Russia. It is also happening at the same time as Georgia is seeking to establish closer ties with the West and join the European Union.
On the line to discuss what this law actually says, how it may impact Georgia's future, and human rights inside Georgia is Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Europe & Central Asia at Amnesty International.
On Monday, May 20th, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, applied for arrest warrants for three senior Hamas leaders and for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The Hamas leaders include the top official in Gaza, Yahyah Sinwar, Hamas’ military commander Muhammad Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, the Qatar-based political leader of Hamas. These three men were charged with crimes related to the October 7th attack and their treatment of hostages in captivity. On the Israeli side, Netanyahu and Gallant were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using starvation as a method of warfare.
For those of you who subscribe to the Global Dispatches Newsletter, you'll know that I've been expecting this shoe to drop since November, when Karim Khan first warned Hamas and Israeli officials that his office has jurisdiction in relation to this conflict. Well, this ICC action has now happened, and on the line with me to discuss what these applications for arrest warrants mean and where this ICC case may be headed next is Mark Kersten. He is an assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology at the University of the Fraser Valley who specializes in International Law. He's also a senior consultant at the Wayamo Foundation.
I daresay you will not find a more informed conversation about the ICC from any other podcast out there. To support our work, please become a paying supporter at Global Dispatches at:
For humanitarian professionals, people whose job it is to deliver aid in conflict and disaster zones, Gaza is unique. Unlike other crises that suffer from lack of attention, the situation in Gaza is a top priority for governments around the world. Accordingly, there is no shortage of aid available to stem the crisis, which in some parts of Gaza has crossed the famine threshold. Rather, it is distributing the aid that has become the challenge, both in terms of getting the aid through Israeli inspections and, once in Gaza, getting the aid to where people need it most.
My guest today, Jeremy Konyndyke, is the President of Refugees International and a veteran humanitarian professional who served as head of USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance from 2013-2017. We kick off discussing why humanitarian groups, the United Nations, and the Biden administration are so concerned about a full-scale Israeli assault on Rafah in southern Gaza. We then discuss the propriety of a humanitarian pier the US is constructing off the coast of Gaza and why the crisis in Gaza is so different from other humanitarian crises around the world. We conclude our conversation with an important discussion of the crisis in Darfur, and specifically the complicity of the United Arab Emirates in supporting a genocidal paramilitary.
Thousands of delegates gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, last week for the UN Civil Society Conference. The gathering was dedicated to the upcoming Summit of the Future, a major UN conference in September intended to reform and revitalize the UN and the multilateral system. The Nairobi civil society conference was an important opportunity for advocates, the NGO community, and other interested parties to help shape the outcome of the Summit of the Future.
On the line to discuss with me what happened at the Nairobi conference and to explain more broadly the role of civil society as we approach the Summit of the Future is Lili Nkunzimana, United Nations representative at the Baha'i International Community's New York Office. We also discuss the current state of play of the intergovernmental negotiations over the Pact for the Future, which is the outcome document for September's summit.
Today’s episode is produced in partnership with the Baha’i International Community, an NGO that represents the worldwide Baha’i community at the UN and other international forums, where it says that recognizing humanity’s interconnectedness is key to a shared global future. This episode is part of a series on the Summit of the Future. The previous episode in this series was published in January and can be found on http://www.GlobalDispatches.org.
NB. “The inputs for the New Agenda for Peace were in December 2022, not December 2023 as stated int he episode."
Each year, the United Nations Development Program produces the Human Development Report. This is a compilation of country-level data around education, health, and economic security that aspires to give a more holistic understanding of a country's development beyond economic indicators alone.
UNDP has been putting this Human Development Report together for decades, and while some countries would sometimes register advances or declines in the so-called Human Development Index, the global trend was always one of unrelenting progress.
Until COVID. The COVID years resulted in global declines along the human development indicators for reasons explained by my guest today, Pedro Conceicao, Director of the Human Development Report Office at the United Nations Development Program. As Pedro Conceicao explains, the most recent report shows that, globally, the Human Development Index is registering progress, but that progress is not as sharp as it was prior to COVID. We discuss this trend and much more about the Human Development Report.
This is a special preview of the Inside Geneva podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Recently UNWRA, the UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians, has been facing scrutiny of what exactly their role is in the current Israel-Hamas conflict. Many people around the world hadn’t heard of UNRWA before this conflict - so what is it exactly, why was it founded, and does it need to continue? Journalist Imogen Foulkes takes a deep dive, talking to UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, Israeli diplomat Nina Ben-Ami, Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Louis Charbonneau of Human Rights Watch.
Inside Geneva is produced by Swissinfo, a multilingual public service media based in Switzerland.
El Fasher is the largest city in Sudan's Darfur region. It is also one of the few major cities in Darfur that has not fallen to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during the civil war that broke out last year. However, an attack on El Fasher seems imminent. The RSF has surrounded the city and is laying siege to it. The United States, the United Nations, and key players around the world are urging against this impending attack, but it's unclear whether the RSF will be deterred.
There are deep concerns for the fate of at least 800,000 people trapped in El Fasher, given that the RSF is a genocidal militia. The RSF is the re-branded Janjaweed Militia, which carried out the Darfur genocide 20 years ago. Since the full-scale civil war in Sudan began in April 2023, the RSF has reprised many of its genocidal tactics, targeting non-Arab ethnicities in Darfur for annihilation.
My guest today is Mutasim Ali, Legal Advisor at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. The Wallenberg Centre recently published a report compiling evidence that genocide is ongoing in Darfur, with the RSF perpetrating it against non-Arab groups. We discuss at length how they came to this conclusion. Mutasim Ali is also from El Fasher, so we talk about the looming RSF assault on the city and what, if anything, can be done to prevent this attack.
Sudan represents the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. This episode is part of our ongoing series on the atrocities in Darfur and the civil war in Sudan, which is receiving scant media attention despite the sheer scale of this ongoing calamity.
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H5N1, otherwise known as Avian or Bird Flu, has been around for a long time. Mostly, the virus has been passed among wild birds, but there have also been sporadic outbreaks in poultry flocks. Now, the virus has spread to dairy cattle and, in at least two cases, from cattle to people. This has experts in pandemic prevention on high alert. Dairy workers come in close contact with cattle, raising concerns that the virus could mutate in such a way that it can be transmitted not only from animals to people but also from human to human.
Joining me to discuss the risk that H5N1 could become a virus capable of human-to-human transmission, and what can be done to prevent that, is Robyn Alders. She is an honorary professor with the Development Policy Center at the Australian National University and a member of the Lancet Commission on the Prevention of Viral Spillover. We begin by discussing the history of H5N1 before delving into the current outbreak among dairy herds. Alders also explains why addressing the root cause of these outbreaks requires a fundamental shift in how we approach food systems.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom has passed a controversial new law that would allow the government to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Under the so-called "Safety of Rwanda" bill, the Rishi Sunak government has pledged to send migrants from the UK to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed.
However, is Rwanda actually safe? My guest today, Sally Hayden, is a journalist who has reported extensively on migration and refugee issues. Last month, she was barred from entering Rwanda due to her prior reporting on the plight of refugees who had been sent to Rwanda as part of a separate, but similar, European Union program.
Sally Hayden is the author of "My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World's Deadliest Migration Route," which won the prestigious Orwell Prize. In our conversation, Sally Hayden discusses her previous reporting on refugees in Rwanda and explores how this new UK bill fits into Europe's increasingly harsh policies towards refugees and asylum seekers.
American aid is on its way to Ukraine. This week, Congress passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill that includes about $60 billion for Ukraine. This aid had been stalled for months, mostly due to Republican intransigence in the House of Representatives. But now, the funding is being released, and according to my guest today, it will have a significant impact on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Evelyn Farkas is the Executive Director of the McCain Institute and served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Ukraine, Russia, and Eurasia during the Obama administration. We discuss the influence this new aid package will have on the trajectory of the conflict and why its timing is critical. Farkas recently returned from Ukraine, where officials told her they were bracing for a new summer offensive by Russia.
Diplomats are gathering in Ottawa this week for the latest round of negotiations on a treaty to end plastic pollution.
Back in 2022, 175 countries agreed to develop a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution by 2024. This meeting in Ottawa is the penultimate round of negotiations and a critical moment in the long effort to curb the environmental damage caused by the rampant production and use of plastic today.
On the line with me to discuss what these negotiators hope to achieve and some of the key obstacles in the way of a robust treaty on plastic pollution is Erin Simon, Vice President and Head of Plastic Waste and Business at the World Wildlife Fund. We kick off discussing the problem of plastic pollution before having a broader conversation about these treaty negotiations. This includes a conversation about some key diplomatic stumbling blocks preventing the adoption of a treaty on plastic pollution.
On April 1st, Israel launched airstrikes on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus, killing seven Iranian officials, including a very senior general. Iran responded with a massive drone attack on Israel, marking the first time that Iran directly attacked Israeli soil. All this is happening, of course, in the context of the conflict in Gaza.
My interview guest Dalia Dassa Kaye is a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and a Fulbright Schuman Visiting Scholar at Lund University. She has done extensive research and writing on the mechanics of armed conflict escalation in the Middle East, which we discuss in the context of this current crisis. We kick off discussing the recent series of events since April before having a broad conversation about the dynamics of escalation between Israel and Iran. This includes the potential that the United States becomes more deeply dragged into this conflict in the Middle East.
On the one year anniversary of the outbreak of civil war, Sudan is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today. On April 15, 2023, fighting spread from Khartoum to other parts of the country, including Darfur, where the conflict took on ugly ethnic dimensions, potentially leading to genocide. Over 8 million people have been displaced, and the UN is warning of famine in parts of the country.
My interview guest today, Kholood Khair, is the founder and director of Confluency Advisory, a think-and-do tank formerly based in Khartoum. She explains how the conflict has evolved over the last year and why the humanitarian crisis is as dire as ever. In our conversation, we spend a lot of time discussing potential ways out of this crisis, which thus far have been elusive.
Kholood Khair explains:
How the conflict in Sudan began.
How the conflict has changed over the last year.
Why the conflict is becoming more complex and harder to solve the longer it lasts
What the international community, including the United States, can do to better support a peace process.
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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, better known as UNRWA, was established in 1949 to support Palestinians displaced during the first Arab-Israeli war. Today, it provides services and humanitarian relief to nearly 6 million Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and of course Gaza.
There has always been some tension between Israel and UNRWA, but since the October 7th attacks and the Israel war in Gaza, Israeli leaders have sought to dismantle UNRWA all together and the United States seems to be a willing partner in this effort.
Following accusations that 12 out of UNRWA's 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the October 7 attacks, the United States suspended funding for UNRWA and many other key donors followed suit. This funding suspension took place even as UNRWA's humanitarian relief networks in Gaza are widely regarded as irreplaceable. To the extent that aid is reaching besieged populations in Gaza, it is UNRWA facilitating the deliveries.
My interview guest today, Jonathan Lincoln is a former United Nations official who served as a Senior Coordination Officer at the Jerusalem office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, where he worked on aid in the West Bank and Gaza. He is now the interim Director of the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He recently wrote a piece in Foreign Affairs about the necessity of UNRWA and the need for reforming the agency which inspired this interview.
On March 31st, Turkey held local elections across 81 provinces. These elections took place less than a year after national elections cemented President Erdogan and his AK Party's hold on power, which he had been consolidating for nearly 20 years through democratic backsliding. But these elections were different -- very different. Erdogan's AKP suffered huge defeats across the country, perhaps none more impactful and symbolic than the AKP's crushing loss in the Istanbul Mayoral race.
As my guest today, Lisel Hintz, explains, these may have been local elections, but the results show a growing nationwide opposition to Erdogan and his authoritarian leadership style. Lisel Hintz is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. We kick off by discussing the implications of the election results before delving into a lengthy conversation about Istanbul's mayor, who is emerging as a prominent national leader challenging Erdogan.
The Gaitenistas, otherwise known as the Gulf Clan, are Colombia's largest and richest criminal armed group. They formed nearly 20 years ago but have gained considerable strength since Colombia's landmark 2016 peace agreement with the Leftist FARC guerrilla group. Today, The Gulf Clan controls much of Colombia's Atlantic coast and is a key player in drug trafficking and migrant smuggling. All the while, they use coercive tactics to control the population.
My guest today, Elizabeth Dickinson, is Senior Analyst for Colombia at the International Crisis Group and author of a recent report on this group. In our conversation, she explains how this group emerged to become such a potent force in Colombia today and why it is thus far upending President Gustavo Petro's efforts to secure a so-called Total Peace for all of Colombia.
The Crisis Group report.
Xi Jinping has dramatically reshaped China since coming to power in 2012. He is now effectively a leader for life, and throughout his time in power, he has molded Chinese politics and society to his own ideological predilections. Understanding this ideology, known as "Xi Thought," is crucial for comprehending how China perceives its role in the world today.
Steve Tsang, the director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London and co-author with Olivia Cheung of the new book "The Political Thought of Xi Jinping," provides a thorough analysis of the development and application of Xi's political ideology and its impact on China domestically and in its international relations.
We begin by discussing why understanding Xi Thought matters for comprehending China today. We then explore some of the key tenets of this ideology before engaging in a detailed conversation about an ancient Chinese imperialist ideology that Xi is reviving for the modern world.
Podcast guest Rosemary Salomone is the Kenneth Wang Professor of Law at St John's University School of Law and author of the book "The Rise of English: Global Politics and the Power of Language." The book takes readers around the world to show the political, social and cultural implications of English having been firmly established as the Lingua Franca. We kick off discussing how English became the dominant global language. We then discuss how reactions against the dominance of English are shaping domestic and international politics in interesting and sometimes unusual ways.
In Mid-March the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would effectively ban Tik Tok in the United States. Tik Tok's parent company, Byte Dance, is Chinese. This bill would force Byte Dance to sell Tik Tok to an American buyer or else the app would no longer be available in the United States. President Biden has said he’d sign this bill into law, but at the moment the legislation is stalled in the Senate. My guest today Kaiser Kuo argues that these anti-Tik Tok measures are emblematic of a "moral panic" around China that is increasingly taking hold among American policy makers. He is the host of the Sinica Podcast and after discussing our views on whether or not the US should ban Tik Tok, we discuss the broader geopolitical context in which a move like this is being contemplated.
The Commission on the Status of Women concludes this week at the United Nations. CSW, as it is known, is one of the major annual events at UN headquarters, second only to the opening of the UN General Assembly in September. But unlike UNGA, it rarely gets much media attention, at least not the kind of attention commensurate for a diplomatic gathering of its size.
Joining me to explain the key debates and discussion from the 68th Commission on the Status of Women is Michelle Milford Morse, Vice President for Girls and Women Strategy at the United Nations Foundation. We kick off with a long conversation about the unique diplomatic dynamic surrounding international debates and discussions on gender equality--including why after years of progress, advocates for gender equality are now playing defense. We then discuss some of items that were on the agenda at CSW this year.
The security and humanitarian situation in Haiti has gone from bad to worse over the last several days. The country, ensnared in an enduring crisis following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, now faces a critical juncture as violence led by gang coalitions escalates and state authority wanes. Amid this chaos, Prime Minister Ariel Henry signaled his intent to step down, agreeing to a transitional governing council. Meanwhile, a Kenya-lead prospective police mission under UN authorization remains in limbo, highlighting the urgency for immediate intervention to prevent further collapse.
Renata Segura, Deputy Director for Latin American and the Caribbean for the International Crisis Group, sheds light on Haiti's descent into chaos. This includes a recent surge in gang conflict which saw a temporary alliance aiming to confront the state's governance structures. This gang alliance has led to an unprecedented level of turmoil, targeting police stations, airports, and causing mass jailbreaks. Segura explains where this crisis may be headed next, and what the international community can do to prevent the crisis from getting even worse.
Key Takeaways:Artificial Intelligence is changing warfare. Fully autonomous weapons that can make their own decisions about what to target or whom to kill are already in limited use today. But the pace of development of AI suggests that these so-called "Killer Robots" may become more and more common in future armed conflicts. Meanwhile, the speed at which new AI technology is coming online far exceeds the ability of the international community to come up with guardrails that might place controls on fully autonomous weapon systems.
Guest Paul Scharre is the Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security. He is the award-winning author of Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. We kick off by discussing what we mean by autonomous weapons before having a longer conversation about what the future holds for AI in warfare, nuclear security, and how to secure sensible regulations on autonomous weapons and military uses of AI.
Western countries have seized hundreds of billions of dollars of Russian assets following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Since then, the question of what to do with those assets has loomed large over debates about Ukraine.
Vladimir Milov is a Former Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation and now a Russian opposition politician. Milov makes a compelling case for the expropriation of these assets as a means to aid Ukraine's reconstruction efforts and explains the web of state-affiliated money hidden overseas. Vladimir Milov delves into the staggering amount of Russian capital funneled out of the country, shedding light on the possibility that a significant portion is controlled by entities with direct ties to the Russian state. He emphasizes the necessity of differentiating between clearly identified state-owned assets and the more obscured parastatal resources that play a role in the international economy. Milov also discusses the potential for substantial funds to be uncovered, which could dramatically aid in the reconstruction of Ukraine's war-damaged infrastructure and society.
Stuart Reid is the executive editor of Foreign Affairs and author of the new book "The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination." The book tells the story of Congo's liberation from Belgium in the 1950s and 60s and the rise to prominence of Patrice Lumumba, Congo's charismatic independence leader. Believing Lumumba to be under the sway of the Soviet Union, the CIA hatched a plot to assassinate him at a time when Congo was falling into a chaotic civil war. Into this civil war, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dispatched a unique peacekeeping mission to restore order and died in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances. Stuart Reid weaves each of these stories into a single compelling narrative that reads at times like a spy thriller.
Alexander Ward ia national security reporter for POLITICO and author of the book "The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump." We discuss the implications of Mitch McConnell stepping down as the leader of the Senate Republicans and delve into the key themes and insights from Ward's important new book. We explore the concept of the "foreign policy for the middle class" and how it shaped the Biden administration's approach to foreign policy. Ward also examines the decision-making process behind the Afghanistan withdrawal and the administration's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Our conversation sheds light on the acrimonious relationship between Biden and Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, and the challenges of navigating international crises. The episode concludes with a discussion on the ongoing Gaza crisis and the potential impact of Trumpism on future foreign policy decisions.
There is a global development pileup on the horizon. In 2024 and 2025, about a dozen funding pools that support global development and global health are due for replenishment. These replenishments are essentially fundraisers for entities like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI), and the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), among many, many others.
A new report from the Center for Global Development warns that these fundraisers may all be competing with each other for similar pools of money—and doing so at a time of contracting foreign aid budgets and pivotal elections in key donor countries.
One of the authors of that report, Clemence Landers, joins me for a conversation about the causes and consequences of a potential replenishment traffic jam. We kick off discussing what we mean by a "replenishment" in Global Development speak. Clemence Landers also makes the point that of these fundraisers, the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) is arguably the most consequential. IDA is the branch of the World Bank that provides grants and very concessional loans to support the development priorities of the lowest-income countries. The World Bank president is seeking a major replenishment this December.
On January 28th, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger jointly announced they were leaving the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. This is a regional economic and political union of most countries in West africa. Citizens enjoy free movement across borders of ECOWAS member states and many of its members share the same currency. ECOWAS also seeks to uphold democratic norms, and each of these three countries are led by military juntas. Now, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are setting up rival entity, called the Alliance of Sahel States.
Joining me to discuss the significance of this joint decision to exit ECOWAS is Ornella Moderan, a researcher and practitioner who's been working in the Sahel and West Africa for nearly 15 years. She is currently a Research Fellow with the Netherlands-based Clingendael Institute. We kick off discussing the role of ECOWAS in West Africa, particularly the important,albeit imperfect, ways it seeks to uphold democracy in the region. She then explains why these countries left ECOWAS and what this decision means for the region, for Africa and for the world at large.
Last week, the United States Senate passed a foreign aid bill that included about $60 billion for Ukraine's defense. The vote was overwhelmingly bi-partisan, but the ultimate fate of continued American aid for Ukraine now depends on action in the House of Representatives, where the outcome is unknown.
Mounting uncertainty around America's commitment to Ukraine's defense comes at the two year anniversary of Russia's invasion. The apparent wavering today is a far cry from the overwhelmingly broad support for Ukraine in the early days of the war. So how did we get to this point? And how might the passage or not of a spending bill to support Ukraine impact the trajectory of the war and the transatlantic alliance that has emerged in Ukraine's defense? Joining me to discuss these questions and more is Peter Van Praagh, President of HFX, a Washington, DC based organization that convenes the Halifax International Security Forum. We kick off discussing the action in the United States Congress before having a broader conversation about the necessity of international support for Ukraine and the implications should that support waver.
Disorder Podcast https://tr.ee/ksicr-3Wty
Indonesia is the third largest democracy in the world, and on February 14th national elections were held including to replace the extremely popular outgoing president Joko Widodo. The current defense minister Prabowo Subianto won those elections and will be Indonesia's next president. He's a controversial figure who has been credibly accused of human rights abuses during Indonesia's long Suharto dicatorship. He was also a former rival of Joko Widodo, but received the popular president's backing while tapping the president's son as to run as his presidential nominee.
Indonesia is a massive democracy in an increasingly stragegic region. So what does Prabowo Subianto's election mean for Indonesia's foreign policy, its relationship to the United States and China, and for broader global trends like climate change? To answer these questions and more I speak with Prashanth Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow at the Wilson Center and Founder of the Asean Wonk Newsletter. We kick off discussing Prabowo's background before having a longer conversation about how this change in government may impact Indonesian foreign policy.
2024 is an important year for African democracy. At least 19 national elections scheduled to take place this year. Not all of these elections will be free or fair-- let alone competetive. Some of these elections will serve to ensconce leaders for life like Rwanda's Paul Kagame. Others may serve to consolidate power following a coup. But genuine multi-party democracies like Ghana and South Africa are also headed to the polls in important elections.
Joining me to discuss key trends in African democracy and some of the highlights on the African electoral calendar in 2024 is Oge Onubogu, director of the Africa Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. We kick off discussing Senegal, a once reliably stable democracy that has experienced significant backsliding and recently cancelled upcoming elections.
To understand any country's foreign policy you need to understand domestic political dynamics. So what is driving Iranian decision making right now? Negar Mortazavi is a journalist, host of the Iran Podcast and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. I reached out to her for this interview because it seems that lost in much commentary about the widening crisis in the middle east is a nuanced understanding of what is influencing Iranian policy and decision making. Our conversation focuses on Iranian domestic politics and how that is shaping the regime's response to the Gaza crisis and US strikes against Iran backed groups in the region.
Disorder Podcast: https://tr.ee/ksicr-3Wty
On January 25th, a milestone was reached in humanity's long fight against Malaria. For the first time ever, a Malaria vaccine was included in a country's routine childhood vaccinations program. Cameroon rolled out a new Malaria vaccine for children and other countries will soon follow. This comes after years of successful trials in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi which demonstrated the vaccine to be safe and effective in preventing Malaria deaths among children.
Joining me to put this milestone in context is Margaret McDonnell, Executive Director of United to Beat Malaria, a global grassroots campaign of the United Nations Foundation. We kick off discussing the burden of Malaria around the world and have a broader conversation about how this new vaccine fits into global efforts to rid humanity of Malaria.
On January 15, Kim Jong Un formally declared South Korea to be an enemy state. This is significant for the fact that since the end of the Korean War, the line from Pyongyang was more or less that South Korea was like a wayward relative and would ultimately be reunified with the North. But now, according to Kim and changes he's enacting to the North Korean constitution, the state of South Korea is Enemy Number 1. This policy shift comes amidst several geopolitical trends that combined suggests to some longtime North Korea watchers that Kim is readying for war.
On the line with me to explain the significance of this official change in North Korea's policy towards South Korea, why this change is happening now, and what can be done to deter of constrain Kim Jong Un, is Sue Mi Terry. She is a former CIA analyst, long time North Korea expert and producer of the new documentary about North Korea called Beyond Utopia, which was just nominated for a BAFTA for best documentary.
The United Nations is hosting the Summit of the Future in September during the annual opening the UN General Assembly. If all goes according to plan, world leaders will endorse a so-called "Pact for the Future" that will serve as a vehicle for enacting meaningful reforms to the United Nations. In late January, negotiations began in earnest over what will be included in that pact.
My guest today Dan Perell has been following this process closely. He serves as a representative for the Baha'i International Community's United Nations Office. We kick off discussing why the Secretary General is so invested in the Summit of the Future and its potential to encourage key reforms to the United Nations. We also discuss what role civil society organizations like the Bahai International Community can play in helping ensure a successful Summit of the Future.
This episode is produced in partnership with the Baha’i International Community, an NGO that represents the worldwide Baha’i community at the UN and other international forums, where it says that recognizing humanity’s interconnectedness is key to a shared global future.
The UN has not declared a famine in gaza--not yet at least. But the World Food Program has said there are "pockets of famine" in Gaza. In December, the UN released its most comprehensive assessment of food security in Gaza and estimated that over half a million people are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity inside Gaza. For comparison's sake, in the entire rest of the world there are an estimated 129,000 people facing similarly catastrophic levels of food insecurity. My guest today, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna is the CEO of Mercy Corps, a large international humanitarian NGO that has long had a presence in Gaza. We discuss the food security landscape and prospect of famine, and then have an in depth discussion about the complex process of getting even limited humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Climate change is impacting the migratory patterns of fish around the world. And in some cases, the changing location of fish stocks is heightening the risk of armed conflict.
My guest today, Johan Bergenas, is Senior Vice President for Oceans at the World Wildlife Fund. Late last year, the World Wildlife Fund launched a platform called Oceans Futures to collect data on climate change and fisheries models and provide early warning of potential hostposts where fisheries might cause conflict. There has been a surge in conflict over fish over the last forty years, and this model seeks to help policy makers understand where such conflict might erupt, and how to prevent the outbreak of conflict over fisheries. In our conversation, Johan Bergenas explains where we can expect conflict over fish in the near and long term.
On Tuesday January 16th, Iran launched airstrikes in Pakistan targeting a terrorist group it claimed carried out attacks in Iran. Two days later, Pakistan responded with its own strikes in Iranian territory, targeting a separatist group that has carried out attacks against Pakistan.
These attacks were notable for both their scale--these were major missile and drone strikes -- and for the fact that Iran and Pakistan otherwise have normal, stable and even cordial diplomatic relations. These are not hostile neighbors, yet in the course of one week they conducted military strikes on each others' territory. These hostilities come amid escalating instability throughout the broader middle east.
My guest today Michael Kugelman is Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center. We kick off discussing Pakistani-Iranian relations and why this episode is such a departure from normal. Michael Kugelman explains how this flare up is influenced by the fraught situation in the Middle East, and offers some insights into how this crisis may evolve in the coming days and weeks.
Taiwan held elections for President and the Legislature on January 13. These elections were highly anticipated for the fact that the leading candidates have differing views on how to manage Taiwan's relationship with China. The current vice President, Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party won the elections and is considered to be more pro-west, pro-independence, and skeptical of China.
My guest today, Kharis Templeman, spent the last several weeks in Taiwan leading up to the vote. He explains the results, including the fact that while the DPP candidate Lai Ching-te won the presidency, the DPP does not have a majority in the legislature. We discuss the significance of this split government and what Lai ching-te's presidency means for cross strait relations with China. Kharis Templeman is Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the manager of the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region. He is also a Lecturer at the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University.
Since mid-November, the de-facto authorities in most of Yemen, the Houthis, have launched dozens of attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis say they are doing this in response to Israel's war in Gaza and these attacks have severely disrupted a key global shipping lane. The United States and the United Kingdom have launched missile strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen in retaliation, and to deter future attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
My guest today, Gregory D. Johnsen, is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He is currently the associate director of the Institute for Future Conflict at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is a longtime Yemen watcher who served on the UN Security Council's Panel of Experts on Yemen.
We kick off with a brief background on the Houthis and their role in Yemen's civil wars. We spend most of this conversation discussing the motivation behind the Houthi attacks and why airstrikes are not likely to deter future Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
As I'm recording this, Antony Blinken is on a whirlwind trip to at least eight countries in the Middle East and Mediterranean region. This flurry of diplomatic activity comes in the wake of worrying signs that the conflict in Israel and Gaza may spread throughout the region. The Houthis have mounted a series of attacks on commercial shipping off the coast of Yemen in the red sea. Meanwhile, Israel has targeted a senior Hamas and a senior Hezobollah leader with missile strikes in Lebanon. The risk of widespread regional escalation is suddenly very acute, according to my guest today Natan Sachs, the director of the Center for Middle East Policy and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings.
We kick off discussing Antony Blinken's trip and what he hopes to accomplish. And this includes planning for a post-Hamas political order in Gaza. And here, Natan Sachs explains, there is significant differences between the preferences of the Biden administration and Netanyahu -- and deep divisions within Israeli politics.
Yaroslav Trofimov is the chief foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and author of the new book "Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence." Yaroslav Trofimov is a veteran journalist who has covered conflicts around the world. He also happens to have been born and raised in Ukraine. In the book, he offers a first-hand account of the war, and really explains the conflict from a Ukrainian perspective.
We spoke amid news of a major prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia, so I kick off asking him about the significance of prisoner exchanges and what it means, if anything, for the trajectory of the conflict. We also discuss the recent major missile barrage on Kyiv, which was the largest single attack since the start of the war, and Ukraine's response. Much of our conversation focuses on some of the trends to follow in 2024, particularly as there is serious doubt about whether or not the United States Congress can pass a funding bill to support Ukraine's defense.
As we enter 2024, the conflict in Sudan is shaping up to be one of the worst crises in the world. Nearly 7 million people have been displaced, hunger is widespread and a hallmark of this civil war has been ethnic cleansing that may have crossed the threshold to genocide. Despite being a calamitous catastrophe, Sudan has not received much media attention, nor sustained high level engagement by policy makers, particularly in the West.
To begin 2024, I am bringing you my conversation with Kholood Khair, the founder and managing director of Confluence Advisory, a think and do tank formerly based in Khartoum. We kick off discussing her analysis of why conflict broke out in April between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. We then discuss how this conflict evolved to the point where the Rapid Support Forces appear to very much have the upper hand and why international diplomacy has thus far failed to end this civil war.
Ten years ago the podcast industry was in its infancy and the format of Global Dispatches was a bit different than it is today. I would sit down with people who had interesting lives or careers in international affairs and interview them about their life and career, with digressions about the historic foreign policy moments in which their or career intersected. I did around 200 of these longform biographical interviews over the first several years of the podcast. These interviews are mostly behind a paywall at this point, and unlocked for paying subscribers via Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
For today, I wanted to bring everyone my 2016 conversation with Clarissa Ward, CNN's Chief International Correspondent. At the time, Clarissa Ward had recently snuck into rebel held territory in Syria. We kick off with a conversation about the mechanics of sneaking into a conflict zone and the risks that war reporting entails. We then have a long conversation about how and why she became a journalist, including her time in Beirut and Baghdad.
Get more episodes like this by becoming a premium subscriber. For Apple Podcasts, upgrade directly in the app. To access these bonus episodes on Spotify, go here. https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches
A few months ago, I attended one of the more interesting dinners of my life. Partly, it was the conversation: the venue was the Council on Foreign Relations. But mostly, it was the menu. The dishes served were of ingredients that are going extinct.
Sam Kass curated the menu for this “Dinner of Extinction.” He was the White House chef for the Obamas and now works at the intersection of climate sustainability and food systems — and take it from me, also cooks a great meal. I caught up with Sam Kass again for a wide ranging conversation about foods that are going extinct. He discusses in detail the ways in which climate change is imperiling everything from Snow Crabs to the peaches he served atop the burrata, to coffee and wine.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is holding national elections on December 20th. The DRC is a massive country, with some 100 million people. It is also one of the most resource-rich countries on the planet, particularly the kinds of metals required in consumer electronics and in the batteries used in electric vehicles. Needless to say, the politics of the DRC are an issue of global importance.
Incumbent Felix Tshisekedi is seeking re-election, five years after the DRC's first peaceful transfer of power since the 1960s. However, there are serious doubts that this election will be free or fair; meanwhile in the Eastern part of the country an ongoing conflict may prevent millions of people from casting their votes. I'm joined today by Zaynab Hoosen, a political economist at Oxford Economics Africa in Capetown. We discuss the major candidates and several of the key issues that are dominating the debate as Congolese head to the polls.
The international climate change conference, COP28, concluded in Dubai on December 13th, one day later than its scheduled end-date. Negotiators went into overtime to hammer out an agreement that for the first time addressed the politically fraught question of phasing out fossil fuels.
Joining me to discuss that key outcome and other significant results of COP28 is Pete Ogden, Vice President for Climate and Environment at the United Nations Foundation. We kick off discussing why this particular meeting in Dubai was an important moment for the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to at least 1.5 degrees celsius. We then discuss the contentious politics and diplomacy around an agreement to phase out fossil fuels and other key outcomes of this UN Climate Conference.
In February 2021, the Myanmar military toppled the civilian government of Burma, lead by Aung San Suu Kyi. Mass protests followed this coup and were brutally suppressed by the military junta. Soon, an insurgency sprang up. For much of this conflict, the Burmese military has had the upper hand. But things changed dramatically in recent weeks. Now, the Burmese military looks as weak as it ever has in its nearly 40 years of on and off again control of Myanmar. The Junta's defeat suddenly looks like a real possibility.
Joining me to provide important context for understanding the civil war in Myanmar is Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. We kick off discussing the outbreak of conflict in Myanmar following the 2021 coup. Gregory Poling does a good job of breaking down the complexities of a civil war that involves a wide number of ethnic armed groups, many of which have now joined in an alliance to defeat Burmese military. We also discuss the role of China and the United States, and whether or not we can expect a collapse of the Myanmar Junta in the near future.
This episode of Global Dispatches was recorded as a live taping of the podcast, produced in partnership with CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Global Dispatches and CGIAR are partnering on a series of episodes about the nexus between climate and security.
In our conversation today expert panelists discuss the path to resilient societies in a polycrisis era and soft launch CGIAR's new Climate Security Sensitivity Tool to assess the peace potential of climate adaptation
The episode kicks off with some opening remarks from, Peter Laderach, Co-lead CGIAR Climate Security, Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT
I then moderate a panel discussion featuring :
Carolina Sarzana – Climate Security Specialist with CGIAR, the Alliance of Bioveristy and CIAT
Linda Ogallo – Climate Change Adaptation Expert at the Climate Prediction and Applications Centre, Intergovernmental Authority on Development
Suzanna Huber -- Climate and Energy Advisor World Food Programme, Regional Bureau Eastern Africa
Erick Mariga -- Regional Fragility and Resilience Coordinator, at the Africa Development Bank Group
Mana Farooghi -- Climate and Environment Adviser at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Raj Shah served as administrator of USAID during the Obama administration and is now the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, a major philanthropy that is a key player in the global development space. His new book "Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens" draws from lessons in his career to argue that big bold visions for systemic change -- what he calls "big bets" -- are crucial drivers of progress, particularly in global health and development. In our conversation, Raj Shah explains this premise. We then have a long discussion about the current state of global development and the kinds of big bets he believes are required to accellerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and beyond.
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I caught up with Estonia's top military commander General Martin Herem at the Halifax International Security Forum in November. Estonia is a NATO member that borders Russia and I was interested in drawing out General Herem's perspective on the conflict in Ukraine.
We kick off with General Herem's military and strategic analysis of the current state of play of the war in Ukraine. We then have an extended conversation about the implications of a long and drawn out war for frontline countries like Estonia -- and for Europe more broadly. He explains what he believes Ukraine needs to break the current military impasse, and why a long war in Ukraine undermines Estonian security.
There is a mounting humanitarian emergency on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since October, hundreds of thousands of Afghans living in Pakistan have fled back to Afghanistan. They are being forcibly repatriated by the Pakistani government which began a crackdown on so-called illegal immigrants, compelling the expulsion of over three hundred thousand Afghans in just the last few weeks.
On the line to explain the unfolding humanitarian crisis is Samira Sayed-Rahman, director of policy advocacy and communications for The International Rescue Committee in Afghanistan. We kick off discussing the reasons for Pakistan's sudden crackdown and then discuss the crisis this is generating inside Afghanistan. We also discuss the complications of international humanitarian relief work in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
This episode of Global Dispatches was recorded as a live taping of the podcast, produced in partnership with CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Global Dispatches and CGIAR are partnering on a series of episodes about the nexus between climate and security.
In our conversation today expert panelists discuss the multiple benefits of climate adaptation for disaster related displacement. The episode kicks off with some opening remarks from, Peter Laderach, Co-lead CGIAR Climate Security, Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT
I then moderate a panel discussion featuring :
Michelle Yonetani, Senior Policy Officer, Office of the Special Advisor to the High Commissioner on Climate Action, UNHCR
Sandra Ruckstuhl, Senior Researcher, International Water Management Institute and Co-lead, CGIAR Fragility, Conflict and Migration Initiative
Tasneem Siddiqui, Professor, University of Dhaka
Raphaela Shveiger, Yale World Fellow, Yale University
I caught up with Congressman Jason Crow at the Halifax International Security Forum, a major global security conference held each year in Nova Scotia that brings together military leaders, politicians, media and civil society groups from democratic countries. Congressman Crow is a Democrat from Colorado, first elected in 2019 and someone widely viewed as a rising star in national security and foreign policy circles. We discuss the Israel-Palestine crisis, kicking off with a question about the propriety of calling for a ceasefire. We then discuss the impact this crisis is having in the broader Middle East, on domestic politics in the United States -- and why Israel should not repeat the mistakes of the US War on Terror.
This episode was recorded as a live taping of the podcast, produced in partnership with CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.
It is part of a series of episodes about the nexus between climate and security, and in our conversation today expert panelists discuss the multiple benefits of climate Adaptation for Peace Building and Human Security. The episode kicks off with some opening remarks from,
Cesare Scartozzi, Climate Finance and Peace Specialist, Senior research fellow, CGIAR/Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT
I then moderate a panel discussion featuring :
Grazia Pacillo, Senior Scientist and co-lead CGIAR FOCUS - Climate Security
Catherine Wong, Team Leader for Climate and Security Risk at the United Nations Development Programme
Helana de Jong is Senior Specialist for Fragility with the COP28 UAE Presidency
In early November the United States and China held their first talks on nuclear security and arms control since 2019. The talks came ahead of a much anticipated meeting between President Biden and President Xi in San Francisco.
There were no tangible outcomes from these initial nuclear security talks, but the fact that they happened at all is a sign of progress according to my guest today Rachel Elizabeth Whitlark. She is an Associate Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She is also author of the book "All Options on the Table: Leaders, Preventive War, and Nuclear Proliferation" which includes archival research on how past US administrations approached the Chinese nuclear program. And as you will see from our conversation, that history is instructive for understanding why China may be seeking to expand its nuclear program today.
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The much anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive began in earnest in June and certainly made some gains, but nothing approaching expectations. Ukraine's top military commander admitted the conflict was a stalemate, likening it to the trench warfare of World War One. Meanwhile the world's attention has shifted to the Middle East and the future of American support for Ukraine is uncertain.
Joining me from Kyiv is journalist Tim Mak. He's been in Ukraine for most of the last two years to report on the war, first for NPR ans now on his substack publication called The Counter-Offensive with Tim Mak. We kick off discussing the current state of the war in Ukraine and the significance of the top commander's remarks. We then discuss how this seemingly bleak moment for Ukraine is impacting the lives of Ukrainians and the domestic political implications of a future in which an outright Ukrainian victory is looking less and less likely.
The International Criminal Court is opening an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Palestine following the October 7 attacks and Israeli military action in Gaza. This may set into motion a process that leads to ICC indictments of Israelis and Palestinians. Joining me to explain what this investigation may look like and how it may unfold is Mark Kersten, Senior Consultant of the Wayamo Foundation and an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of the Fraser Valley, in British Columbia.
The conflict in Israel and Gaza is escalating, but it has so far not spread in any major way across the region. But so long as the conflict persists, it could just be a matter of time until other fronts of this war open up. Middle East scholar Dalia Dassa Kaye explains how the Gaza war may ignite the entire middle east. She is a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and a Fulbright Schuman visiting scholar at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University. We spoke on Tuesday, October 31 about a why a wider regional war is very much in the realm of possibility.
Today's episode was recorded as a live taping of the podcast, produced in partnership with CGIAR.
It is part of a series of episodes about the nexus between climate and security.
The episode kicks off with some opening remarks from, Shalini Roy, a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit at the International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI. It then includes a moderated discussion featuring :
Dan Gilligan, Director of the Poverty, Gender and Inclusion Unit at IFPRI and Co-Lead of the CGIAR Gender Equality Initiative
Ana Solórzano, Social Protection Advisor for Climate and Resilience at the World Food Program
Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed, Research Lead at the Centre for Disaster Protection
Raashee Abhilashi, Regional Project Coordinator and Consultant, Climate Change Group, at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
An opposition candidate named María Corina Machado overwhelmingly won a primary in October to challenge Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro in presidential elections next year. Maduro was the hand picked successor to Hugo Chavez and has been in power since 2013, overseeing an economic freefall and social dislocation of a massive scale. All the while, Maduro has tightened his grip on power through authoritarian means.
Elections in Venezuala have not been free nor fair. But there was a significant political breakthrough this month that suggests things might be different this time. In negotiations in Barbados, the Maduro government agreed to allow competitive elections in 2024. In response, the United States lifted some key sanctions on Venezuela. For the first time in long time, there is a decent chance that Venezuela may move past Maduro.
On the line with me to help understand these key recent developments is Mariano de Alba, a senior advisor for the International Crisis Group. We kick off discussing the background of Maduro's main challenger, María Corina Machado, before having a longer discussion about what this agreement in Barbados means for Venezuela's political future.
China’s economy has been exhibiting troubling signs. Property prices are falling, making households less wealthy and curtailing consumer spending. High government debt, a declining population, and America’s policy moves are combining to pose Chinese policymakers a serious challenge.
How is Beijing navigating the country’s economic slowdown? How will China’s struggles impact the global economy?
For answers, watch FP’s Ravi Agrawal in discussion with three experts: Economist Adam Posen; the Wall Street Journal’s chief China correspondent, Lingling Wei; and James Palmer, author of FP’s weekly China Brief newsletter.
This episode is a special cross promotion for FP Live, the flagship podcast from Foreign Policy Magazine, hosted by Foreign Policy Editor in Chief Ravi Agrawal. If you like Global Dispatches, you will certainly want to subscribe to FP Live.
President Biden wrapped up a brief visit to Israel on Wednesday. The trip was also intended to include a meeting in Amman, Jordan with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Sisi of Egypt. That leg of the trip was abruptly cancelled following the tragedy at the hospital in Gaza. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is becoming increasingly dire. According to the latest reports from the United Nations, fuel is running out and water supplies are dangerously low. Some one million people are displaced and several hundreds of thousands have fled to southern Gaza near the Egyptian border in the hopes of finding some modicum of refuge and relief.
My guest Nancy Okail is President of the Center for International Policy, a think tank in Washington, D.C. She is also an Egyptian activist and scholar and in our conversation explains some of the political considerations that are driving Egypt's response to the unfolding crisis over its border. Moments before I caught up with her, President Biden had delivered a speech in Tel Aviv in which he announced an agreement from Israel's War Cabinet for the provision of humanitarian relief into Gaza, from Egypt. We kick off discussing President Biden's speech before having a longer conversation about what the Israel-Hamas war looks like from the perspective of the Egyptian government.
Since the early 2000s, Tobacco use has declined steadily and in some cases very sharply nearly everywhere in the world except China. According to the world health organization, Tobacco use for people 15 years or older declined globally from 34% in the year 2000 to 23% last year. But in China, tobacco use has remained relatively stable -- falling just 1%, from 27 to 26 percent in the last two decades.
A new piece of investigative journalism offers one key explanation of why China has been such an outlier to this global trend, namely the political influence of China's national tobacco monopoly.
My guest today, Jason McClure, a correspondent with The Examination, a new non profit investigative news agency focused on global health. He is one of the authors of the report detailing the ways in which the state-run China National Tobacco Corporation successfully undermined Tobacco use reduction efforts in China.
How China Became Addicted to its Tobacco Monopoly"
https://www.theexamination.org/articles/how-china-became-addicted-to-its-tobacco-monopoly
The crisis in Israel and Gaza--and Southern Lebanon and the West Bank -- is unfolding rapidly. Following the Hamas attacks on Saturday, Netanyahu promised to “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.” Israel has already launched heavy airstrikes on Gaza and seems to be readying a ground invasion. Meanwhile, unrest in the West Bank has resulted in 11 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers, and in Southern Lebanon Hezbollah has been trading rocket fire with Israel.
Joining me to discuss this crisis is Daniel Levy, who is head of the U.S. Middle East Project and is a former peace negotiator under the governments of Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. We kick off discussing why the Hamas attack happened when it did, the strategic logic underpinning Hamas' actions, Israel's likely response, the implications of this episode for Israeli domestic politics, and the prospect that this might devolve into a wider regional conflict.
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The World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings are taking place in Morocco this month, and for the first time in a long time there is real momentum around enacting reforms to how these decades old institions operate. A big boost to a reform agenda came at the G-20 meeting in India in early September when President Biden backed a reform agenda to increase the World Bank's capacity to support low and middle income countries with better loans aimed at promiting sustainable development. He also announced he'd ask congress for an additional $25 billion for the World Bank.
This was significant for a number of reasons. First, it demonstrated a responsiveness to the criticism of developing world countries who have long sought better financing options for climate compliant economic development projects. Second, the US is the largest shareholder at the World Bank, so what the US president says carries a great deal of weight.
On the line to discuss some of the proposed reforms--and the many political pitfalls along the way -- is Karen Mathieson, project director at the Center for Global Development. We kick off with a discussion of why the World Bank needs reform before having a longer conversation about the proposals now on the table.
Diego Garcia is a small Island in the dead center of the Indian Ocean that is part of the Chagos Archipelago. In the early 1970s, the United Kingdom, which controlled the Islands, leased Diego Garcia to the United States for use as a military base. However, in the process of transferring Diego Garcia to the US, the United Kingdom forcibly expelled the island's native population and that of the surrounding Chagos Archipelego. Thousands of Chagossians were exiled from their homeland, most of whom were forced to Mauritius, which is over 2,000 kilometers away.
The forced deportation of Chagossians was a crime against humanity committed 50 years ago. But only recently has it gotten its day in court. My guest today, Philippe Sands is a famed international lawyer who has taken on the cause of righting his historic wrong. His recent book "The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile Justice and Courage" tells the story of the Chagossian exile and the effort to secure justice for Chagos islanders. We kick off our conversation with a brief history of the Island before we discuss the series of legal victories in both British courts and the International Court of Justice in the Hague that has lead to final negotiations underway to support the return of Chagosians to their homeland.
On September 19th, Azerbaijan launched a swift military offensive against ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, a long disputed region. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bloody war over this territory following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which resulted in de-facto Armenian control over what is internationally recognized to be Azerbaijani territory.
That status quo existed for nearly 30 years, until September 2020 when Azerbaijan launched a surprise military offensive routing ethnic Armenian forces. Russia brokered a ceasefire and installed Russian peacekeepers to enforce a truce. But Azerbaijan had the clear military advantage. Meanwhile Russia's invasion of Ukraine undermined its role in the region. So, Azerbaijan took the initiative and now a de-facto ethnic cleansing is underway as tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians flees their homes--and their homeland since the middle ages.
Joining me from Yerevan, Armenia to discuss this unfolding crisis is Olesya Vartanyan, Senior Analyst for the South Caucasus region at the International Crisis Group.
Justin Trudeau dropped a bombshell before Parliament last week when he accused the government of India of assassinating a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a Sikh dissident living in British Columbia when he was gunned down by assailants outside his place of worship. Nijaar had long agitated for an independent Sikh state apparently putting him in the crosshairs of Narendra Modi’s government. The idea that a democracy like India would carry out a hit on North American soil is a major development — and one that will complicate American foreign policy as well.
Joining me to discuss this situation is Justin Ling, a Canadian journalist and author of the Bug Eyed and Shameless Substack. We kick off discussing what we know thus far about these accusations and then have a longer conversation about what this means for Canadian diplomacy and American foreign policy going forward.
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When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, there was a brief moment when it seemed possible that this crisis might inspire European governments to turn away from fossil fuels. Russia was a huge supplier of natural gas to many European markets, and with those supplies suddenly cut off, there was an opportunity to replace Russian fossil fuel with clean energy.
That did not happen. In fact, just the opposite occurred. According to research by my guest today Jeff Colgan, European investments in clean energy fell precipitously following Russia's invasion of Ukraine as governments scrambled for fossil fuels. Jeff Colgan is the Richard Holbrooke Professor of Political Science at Brown University and co-author of a new report, "Letting Europe’s Energy Crisis Go to Waste: The Ukraine War’s Massive Fossil Fuel Costs Fail to Accelerate Renewables'
We kick off discussing the state of Europe's energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and then have an extended conversation about how and why Europe doubled down on Fossil fuels during the energy crisis that followed.
Throughout this week there has been a notable lack of female leaders. By my count just seven of the 99 Presidents or Prime Ministers to address the General Assembly were women. This is a recurring issue in every UN General Assembly I've covered since 2005. In our second segment today, I discuss the issue of women's political representation with Hibaaq Osman, founder and CEO of Karama a movement working in the Arab Region on ending violence against women and promoting women's political participation.
For our first segment, I speak with Pete Ogden, Vice President for Climate and the Environment at the United Nations Foundation. The Climate Ambition Summit convened on Wednesday by Antonio Guterres was the centerpiece of climate diplomacy at UNGA this year. Pete Ogden explains what happened at that summit and how events at the UN and throughout New York this week are helping to shape the outcome of the next major moment in climate diplomacy, COP28, which kicks off in Dubai in late November.
The Global Dispatches podcast is teaming up with the United Nations Foundation for a special daily series during the 78th United Nations General Assembly.
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Today is Wednesday, September 20th and it was a very busy day at the United Nations. Of all the days this week, today was arguably the most packed with high level consequential meetings. Throughout the day today was the Secretary General's Climate Ambition Summit. We will bring you full coverage of that in tomorrow's episode. Also today, the Security Council held a meeting on Ukraine, which featured Zelenskyy's first time addressing the Security Council in person since Russia's invasion.
There were two key meetings on Global health, one on Pandemic Preparedness and Response, the other on Universal Health Coverage. I will be speaking with Kate Dodson Vice President for Global Health at the United Nations Foundation about those meetings as well as a key meeting on Tuberculosis later in the week during our second segment.
Our first segment features Vera Songwe, Chairwoman and Founder of the Liquidity and Sustainability Facility and Co-Chair of the High Level Panel on Climate Finance who discusses the crucial topic of Financing for Development.
The Global Dispatches podcast is teaming up with the United Nations Foundation for a special daily series during the 78th United Nations General Assembly.
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Tuesday, September 19th marks the start of the United Nations General Assembly "General Debate." This is the parade of Presidents and Prime Ministers who address the world from the rostrum in the United Nations General Assembly hall. The day follows a familiar pattern each year: the Secretary General kicks off, followed by the new President of the General Assembly, who is Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago. By tradition the President of Brazil is the first leader of a UN member state to speak, followed by the President of the United States.
Joining me to discuss these speeches and more is Anjali Dayal, Associate Professor of International Politics at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center Campus and Maya Ungar of the International Crisis Group. We spoke just as Volodymyr Zelenskyy concluded his first in-person UNGA address since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That is our first segment today. Our second segment features Butti Almheiri, UN Foundation Next Generation Fellow for Climate, who previews some of the climate focused themes this week.
The Global Dispatches podcast is teaming up with the United Nations Foundation for a special daily series during the 78th United Nations General Assembly.
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Monday, September 18 marks the kickoff to what is known around the United Nations as "High Level Week." The main event today was the Sustainable Development Goals Summit, which was intended to revive progress towards the SDGs following years of reversals during COVID. In the words of Antonio Guterres' opening remarks today, "the world needs an SDG rescue plan."
Joining us on the second half of the show to discuss the SDG Summit is Navid Hanif, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). To kick off and set the stage for all of High Level Week is Elizabeth Cousens, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation. We discuss some of the key stories that will drive the diplomatic agenda during the 78th United Nations General Assembly and preview some of the major events and meetings happening throughout the week. This is your vital UNGA78 scene setter.
Global Dispatches is teaming up with the United Nations Foundation for a special daily series during the 78th United Nations General Assembly. This is episode one of four.
Interpol is the International Criminal Police Organzation. It was established 100 years ago to facilitate the cross border cooperation of national police agencies. Interpol is an international organization with very high name recognition, but few people have a decent understanding of how it works.
As it happens, before I became a foreign policy journalist I did an internship at Interpol's headquarters in Lyon, France. And it is there that I caught up with my guest today, Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock. He is a former German police officer who is entering his tenth and final year as the Secretary General. In our conversation we discuss some broad trends in the transnational organized crime that he has witnessed in his tenure, and how Interpol is evolving to meet those challenges. We discuss how Interpol manages geopolitical friction and rivalries among its 195 member states, to stay true to its original mission of facilitating international police cooperation.
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PEPFAR is an acronym that stands for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. It is the largest foreign aid program targeted at a specific disease, and it is widely considered to be one of the most successful US foreign aid programs ever.
George W Bush who started the program in 2003. It continued and expanded under President Obama and even thrived during the Trump years. But today its fate is uncertain. Funding for PEPFAR is provided by congress every five years, and typically this is a highly bi-partisan and wholly uncontroversial affair. It was due to be re-authorized this year -- but with the end of the fiscal year rapidly approaching, this legislation has not gone through.
At issue is domestic politics around abortion. Anti-abortion groups in the United States have falsely accused PEPFAR under the biden administration of somehow indirectly or secretly supporting abortion. This idea has infected Republican politics -- several Republican members of congress who once supported PEPFAR are now preventing a vote on its re-authorization, threatening to undermine what one of these very members of congress once called "The most successful foreign aid program since the Marshall plan."
On the line to discuss PEPFAR's history of success and its uncertain future is Gayle Smith, CEO of the One Campaign and former head of the US Agency for International Development.
Bill Richardson passed away on September 1st at the age of 75. He was a long serving member of Congress and Governor of New Mexico, former Secretary of Energy and US Ambassador to the United Nations. But his most lasting impact on international affairs was his freelance work as an international hostage negotiator. He would travel in his personal capacity to places like North Korea, Burma, and autocratic regimes around the world to help free people wrongfully detained abroad. He had a knack for negotiating with particularly nasty foreign leaders, earning him the moniker, "Undersecretary of Thugs."
When we spoke in 2015, Richardson had recently published a book about his experiences negotiating with autocrats called "How to Sweet Talk a Shark." And in our conversation, Richardson recounts stories and lessons learned from his work as a freelance diplomat dedicated to the release of hostages and political prisoners. We kicked off discussing how his unique bi-cultural upbringing and early experiences as a politician in New Mexico helped him develop the kinds of skills he would later deploy in negotiations with people like Saddam Hussein.
I really appreciated this time with Bill Richardson. He was famously a very good talker, and this interview did not disappoint. The paywall on this episode is removed in remembrance of Bill Richardson.
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On August 20th a former academic, diplomat and now anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arevalo stunned the world with a landslide victory in Guatemala's presidential election. Arevalo won with over 60% of the vote, besting a former first lady who represented Guatemala's long dominant conservative -- and corrupt -- political establishment.
This was a truly unexpected result. People who professionally observe Central American politics, including Ivan Briscoe, were taken by surprise. Ivan Briscoe is Program Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Crisis Group. As he explains, Arevalo is genuinely committed to democracy and rooting out corruption -- and this is putting him at odds with the incumbent corrupt establishment. And despite the election results, the establishment is fighting back and taking measures to prevent Arevalo from wielding power in office and enacting meangful change. We kick off with a discussion of Arevelo's fascinating biography before having a longer conversation about the significance of his landslide victory.
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BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It is a significant grouping for the sheer size of the countries involved. BRICS account for 40% of the world's population and nearly one third of global GDP. In late August BRICS held a much anticipated summit in Pretoria in which they agreed to add six more countries into the club: Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
You would be correct in thinking this is an odd grouping of countries, but as Ali Wyne explains, the attractiveness of joining BRICS outweighs the rivalries that some of these these countries might have with each other. And that, he says, captures the zeitgeist of geopolitics today. Ali Wyne is a senior analyst with Eurasia Group's Global Macro-Geopolitics practice, focusing on US-China relations and great-power competition.
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Peter Bergen is one of the world's foremost experts on global jihadist movements like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda. He is a journalist who has covered this beat for decades, including the first television interview with Osama Bin Laden in 1997. Peter Bergen discusses where Qaeda and the Islamic State stand today, including how the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has impacted these global Jihadist movements. We also discuss why the Western Sahel region of Africa has become the geographical base of so many al Qaeda and Islamic State splinter groups. We discuss those questions and many more in detail, but kick off with a plug of Peter Bergen's new podcast, In the Room.
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Pangolins are small mammals with hard scales and vital to biodiversity in forested regions. They are also the most trafficked mammal in the world. Although they are a protected species in international law, transnational organized criminal groups profit from trafficking Pangolins
This includes the Congo Basin in Central Africa. International organized criminal groups run poaching and trafficking networks in which most poached pangolins are exported to China and Southeast Asia, where they are a key ingredient in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pangolin meat is considered a high-end delicacy.
According to my guest today Oluwole Ojewale these networks rake in millions and are a destabilizing force across several countries in the Central Africa. Oluwole Ojewale is the Regional Organized Crime Observatory Coordinator for Central Africa at the Institute for Security Studies. As he explains in our conversation Pangolin trafficking is part of a broader criminal network of illicit wildlife trafficking that funds armed groups, including terrorist groups active in the Central Africa.
The number of migrants and refugees who are dying at sea while crossing the mediterranean is at a four year high. Nearly 2,000 people are confirmed to have died in the medditeran thus far in 2023, although the real number is likely higher. In one tragedy alone, about 600 people drowned off the coast of Greece in June.
The most popular migrant route in recent months has been from Tunisia to Italy. That was where the MSF/Doctors Without Borders Rescue Ship the Geo Barents was patrolling in early August when it came acorss a crowded migrant boat that had been adrift for days. My guest today, Margot Bernard of MSF, describes this rescue operation in detail. And through her account of this rescue, explains how policies of European countries are contributing to a surging number of deaths at sea.
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In 2003 a militia drawn from ethnic Arab tribes in Darfur, known as the Janjaweed, partnered with the government of Sudan in a genocidal campaign against non-Arab tribes in the region. An estimated 300,000 people were killed in the 2003-2004 Darfur genocide. In August 2023, there is mounting evidence of ethnic cleansing is again underway in Darfur, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum is warning that there is risk of a full blown genocide.
As Cameron Hudson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies explains, what is happening in Darfur today is reminiscent of the Genocide 20 years ago. We kick off discussing the current campaign of ethnic cleansing underway in Darfur. He then explains how the genocidal Janjaweed militia became the Rapid Support Forces, which are carrying out these atrocities while battling for control of the whole of Sudan in a full blown civil war that began in April. We discuss how the Rapid Support Forces funds its operations, and the support it is receiving from the United Arab Emirates.
Global Dispatches will bear witness to the unfolding crisis in Darfur even as it is far from the headlines of most western outlets. We will offer original reporting, and give you the analysis and context you need to understand this crisis as it unfolds through a series we are calling Darfur Genocide Watch. To access this series and support our work, become a paid subscriber in Apple Podcasts, via Patreon or via Substack
For the last eight years a decrepit old oil tanker off the coast of Yemen has been like a ticking time bomb, threatening to unleash unprecedented disaster in the Red Sea. The 47 year old oil tanker, the FSO Safer, was fraying and decaying -- and filled with one million barrels of oil. For reference, this is about four times the amount that the Exonn Valdez spilled in 1989. The UN estimated that a spill from the SFO Safer would cause an ecological, environmental and humanitarian disaster across the Red Sea region, destroying pristine reefs, and imperling costal fishing communities in Yemen, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and beyond. It would take 25 years for fish stocks to replenish. The cleanup alone would cost $20 billion.
But today's episode is about how that disaster was averted. On Friday, August 11th the United Nations announced that the FSO Safer's 1 million barrels of oil had been offloaded. This was the culmination of a massive political, diplomatic and logistical undertaking and my guest is the person who was at the center of it all, the UN's top official in Yemen David Gressly.
David Gressly is an Assistant UN Secretary General, with whom I spoke from Aden just hours after the last oil had been pumped out of the FSO Safer. We kick off discussing the circumstances in which the oil became trapped in the old vessel, which is very much part of the story of Yemen's civil war. But this is a good news story of a crisis averted.
Haiti is in the midst of the worst humanitarian and security crisis in years. Gang related violence is surging - and the Haitian National Police are overwhelmed and incapable of restoring order. According to some estimates gangs now control about 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. This rampant insecurity is driving a humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes. About half the country is experiencing food insecurity.
Amid surging violence and insecurity, Prime Minister Ariel Henry appealed to the international community to send help and asked the United Nations Security Council to support a foreign military or police intervention in Haiti. For a long time, no county was willing to step up and volunteer to lead an intervention in Haiti -- that was until Kenya said that it was willing to lead a UN-backed multinational intervention in Haiti.
But is this even a good idea? Joining me to discuss that question and many more is Renata Segura, Deputy Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Crisis Group. We kick off discussing the gang violence and security challenges in Haiti before having a long conversation about the international dynamics driving a potential Kenya-lead intervention in Haiti.
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On July 26th, the democratically elected president of Niger Mohamed Bazoum was deposed in a military coup. This coup seemingly came out of nowhere. Now, a country that had been a key US ally and a French ally in the region is suddenly in turmoil. There is also a good deal of concern that the new Nigerienne junta may turn to Moscow for support, just like the coup leaders in Mali and Burkina Faso.
Joining me to discuss the coup in Niger and what comes next is Leonardo Villalón, professor of African Politics at the The University of Florida. We kick off discussing the possible motivations of the coup leaders and then have a long conversation about the domestic, regional and geopolitical implications of this coup.
The Wagner group was a key fighting force in Ukraine until its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, attempted a mutiny. 20 years before Wagner was tapped to fight in Ukraine, the United States turned to the private security firm, Blackwater, during its occupation of Iraq. Like Wagner, Blackwater was a for-profit entity that was fighting alongside one of the most powerful militaries in the world. And also like Wagner, Blackwater was credibly accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
So why is it that countries turn to private groups like this during wartime? I put that question to Dr. Benjamin Tkach, associate professior of political science at Mississippi State University. He is a researcher who studies security privatization, including private military contractors and mercenaries. We kick off briefly defining our terms: what do we mean by "mercenary" and "private security and military company?" We then have a long discussion about the corporate structure of the Wagner Group and its deployment in Africa and Ukraine. Benjamin Tkach compares Wagner today to Blackwater 20 years ago to help answer the question of why powerful countries turn to private groups in times of war.
Get our newsletter!Monica Juma is the National Security Advisor to Kenyan President William Ruto. Kenya is a stable democracy in a tough neighborhood. There is an ongoing Islamist insurgency across the border in Somalia, and nearby Sudan is in the midst of a spiraling civil war. On top of this all, the Horn of Africa is experiencing the worst drought in 40 years. I asked Monica Juma about each of these challenges, starting with how climate change is impacting Kenya’s national security. Today's episode was recorded live at the Aspen Security Forum. It is the last of three interviews I conducted on site in the middle of July, the others including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and International Relations scholar Joseph Nye. https://www.globaldispatches.org/
Oleksandra Matviichuk is a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. She is a human rights lawyer who leads the Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian human rights organization.
Oleksandra Matviichuk has been systematically documenting Russian war crimes and crimes against humanity since 2014, when Russia first annexed parts of Ukraine. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, her work has intensified and includes advocating for ways to bring perpetrators to justice. We kick off discussing her work prior to the 2014 annexations and 2022 Russian invasion and then have a powerful conversation about reconciling her values as a human rights lawyer and the desperate need for a swift Ukrainian military victory against Russia.
I caught up with Oleksandra Matviichuk at the Aspen Security Forum, where we recorded our conversation live.
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I caught up with legendary international relations scholar Joseph Nye at the The Aspen Security Forum. This conference was a target rich environment for snagging great guests for the podcast and I have some excellent episodes coming up, including a conversation with the most recent Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the Ukranian Human Rights Lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk and Kenya's National Security Advisor Monica Juma.
I speak with Joseph Nye, best known for coming up with the concept of "Soft Power" about the sources of Chinese soft power today and how that factors into geopolitical competition with the United States. We also discuss what opportunities might be harnessed to avoid a new Cold War between the United States and China.
Since the start of the war, Russia has abducted tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. These kidnappings have been well documented by Ukrainian authorities and civil society groups. Last March, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and his children's affairs commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the "unlawful transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."
What happens after these children have been abducted is revealed in a new documentary by my guest today Isobel Yeung, senior correspondent for Vice News. She reported from both Ukraine and Russia to uncover a system of re-purposed summer camps and foster families who have assumed guardianship over abducted Ukrainian children. She interviews the ringleader of it all-- the alleged war criminal Maria Lvova-Belova.
NATO held a Major summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11th and 12th. Top on the agenda, of course, was Ukraine including Ukraine's potential future NATO membership. Another key issue on the agenda was Sweden. Last year, both Sweden and Finland asked to join NATO. Finland is in, but Turkey had been blocking Sweden's membership. That abruptly changed in Vilnius, paving the way for all Nordic countries to become NATO members.
Joining me to discuss what happened at this meeting, and what the Vilnius summit suggests about the future of NATO is Jim Goldgeier a professor of International Relations at American University and a longtime scholar of NATO and transatlantic affairs. We kick off discussing the debate around Ukraine's potential membership before discussing many of the other issues on the agenda in Lithuania, and what meeting means for NATOs future and the war in Ukraine.
The international shipping industry is a major greenhouse gas emitter, accounting for about three percent of all greenhouse gas emitted last year. For reference, this is roughly equivalent to the total annual emissions of Germany.
Because these emissions occur on international waters, the shipping industry was purposefully left out of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Instead, a UN agency called the International Maritime Organization is the forum for multilateral diplomacy to curb emissions in international shipping. In early July members of the IMO met in London for negotiations.
Joining me to discuss why this meeting was so significant to international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions is Susan Ruffo, Senior Director and Senior Advisor for Ocean and Climate at United Nations Foundation. We kick off discussing the impact of international shipping on climate change and then have an extended conversation about what happened at this meeting of the International Maritime Organization, which includes a new target for emission reduction and progress towards enacting a levy on carbon emissions from shipping.
Taiwan will hold presidential elections in January 2024. Needless to say, these elections will have extremely consequential geopolitical implications. The two main candidates have differing views of Taiwan's relationship with China. Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is the current Vice President and represents the stronger pro-independence faction of Taiwanese politics. His main rival, Hou Yu-ih of the Kuomingtang (KMT) supports closer relations between Taipei and Beijing. And this year there is a surprising third party candidate, Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), who is is shaking up what is conventionally a two party presidential contest.
Joining me for an in-depth conversation about Taiwanese politics and these upcoming elections is Kharis Templeman, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution where he is the program manager of the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region. We kick off discussing the political history of Taiwan following the Chinese civil war and then have an in-depth conversation about each of the candidates' positions on the key issue of cross straight relations.
Less developed countries rightly lament the lack of access to funding for sustainable development that donor countries routinely promise, but rarely deliver. To remedy, dozens of Presidents, Prime Ministers and high-level officials met in Paris for the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact to rethink the "global financial architecture" to support developing economies grow in a climate compliant way. This summit was intended to kickstart momentum toward new funding opportunities for sustainable development, including enacting reforms at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
This was a big moment for the sustainable development community and joining me to explain what happened is Clemence Landers, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development. We kick off discussing why such a meeting was necessary in the first place, including a trifecta of crises that is driving economic distress in less developed countries today. We then discuss the outcomes of the meeting, and what it means for global development and climate change debates going forward.
Amed Khan has been described as a "direct action philanthropist." He goes to the frontlines of humanitarian crises on his own and uses his personal wealth and networks to deliver whatever the communities say they need. For the past two years, Amed Khan has been in Ukraine near the frontlines of fighting in places like Bakhmut. When we spoke he had just returned from Kherson, which experienced catastrophic flooding following the sabotage of a major dam upstream.
We kick off discussing how he got into this line of work in general, and to Ukraine in particular. As he explains he has a long history in Ukraine, but more recently worked with Ukrainian special forces to help rescue Afghans as Kabul fell to the Taliban. This was just months before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
We discuss why "frontlines philanthropy" is a unique approach to humanitarianism, the advantages and limitations of which we discuss at length.
Over the decades, Senegal has earned a reputation as a reliably stable democracy in West Africa. But recent events have put that reputation to test. Over the last month, Senegal has been rocked by widespread protests against the government of President Macky Sall. These protests were sparked by the arrest and conviction of a prominent opposition party leader, Ousmane Sanko. The government response to these protests has been brutal. More than a dozen people have been killed, many by live ammunition fired into crowds of protesters.
Joining me to discuss recent events in Senegal is Carine Kaneza Nantulya, deputy director within the Africa division at Human Rights Watch. We discuss what lead to these protests and what Human Rights Watch uncovered about the government’s deadly response. We then have a broader discussion about what is driving democratic backsliding in Senegal
Back in 2017, the Trump administration announced that the United States would formally leave UNESCO, the UN's education, science and cultural organization. When the Biden administration came to office it promised to reverse course and rejoin UNESCO. On June 12 this year it announced a plan to do just that.
Joining me to discuss America's complicated relationship with UNESCO and explain why the Biden administration is seeking to rejoin is Peter Yeo, President of the Better World Campaign and Senior Vice President at the United Nations Foundation. We kick off discussing what exactly UNESCO does and how it supports American interests before having a longer conversation about this recent frought history between UNESCO and the US. Peter Yeo then explains the process by which the Biden administration is seeking to rejoin UNESCO.
Since fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15th this year, more than million people have been displaced internally and internationally. Many of the borders across which Sudanese have fled are not functional borders -- that is, there is no process to register or screen people who are entering a country. According to my guest today, non-functional porous borders are exacerbating an aleady dire humanitarian crisis.
Margaret Monyani is a senior migration researcher at Institute for Security Studies in South Africa. We kick off discussing why the African Union is focusing more heavily on border control and administration before having a longer conversation about what Sudan's refugee crisis tells us about African borders today.
On May 14th, Thailand held general elections. The results were a shock to the Thai political system.
Since a 2014 coup, the military leaders have dominated Thai politics. A main opposition party has challenged military rule, but has been genereally thwarted at every turn. However, this year a third party emerged victorious: and their vision for the country represents a radically progressive shift in Thai politics.
The Move Forward Party, lead by a charismatic Harvard and MIT educated 42 year Pita Limjaroenrat won the elections. And they did so, according my guest today, by chanellening a kind of progressive populism that can change Thailand's domestic political culture and foreign policy in big ways.
Prashanth Parameswrn is a Fellow at the Wilson Center and founder of the ASEAN Wonk Substack Newsletter. We kick off discussing the political context in which Move Forward won these elections. We then have an extended conversation about how the Military Junta has rigged the Thai political system in such a way that the Move Forward Party may never actually be able to form a government. Even if they did, the threat of a coup would loom large. We then have an extended conversation about what this election means in terms of Thai foreign policy and geopolitical competition in Southeast Asia between the US and China.
On June 7th, the Professional Golf Association announced a merger with a Saudi backed rival golf league known as LIV Golf. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which is controlled by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, backed this deal. The chairman of the Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund will serve as the chairman of this new yet-to-be named golf league. In other words, Saudi Arabia just bought the sport of Professional Golf.
This move comes on the heels of other Saudi forays into professional sports, including the purchase of the Newcastle United Premier League soccer team in 2021.
The Saudi purchase of professional golf is a clear example of an attempt to rehabilitate its public image through sports, otherwise known as "sportswashing."
Joining me to discuss this Saudi public diplomacy gambit is Alex Ward, National Security Reporter for Politico. We kick off discussing the lessons learned from Saudi Arabia's purchase of Newcastle United and then have a conversation about the PGA merger in the context of Saudi Arabia's politics and foreign policy.
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In the early hours of Tuesday, June 6th a major Dam on the Dnipro river in Russian occupied Ukraine suffered catastrophic damage. Floodwaters are now rushing downstream and sending tens of thousands of people fleeing.
The path of these destructive floodwaters roughly follows the frontlines between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Southern Ukraine and this breach comes just as Ukraine's much anticipated counteroffensive gets underway. This obviously raises the question: did Russia sabotage the Kakhovka dam to thwart a Ukrainian counteroffensive?
I'm joined today by the former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst. He is a retired career foreign service office and now the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. We kick off discussing the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, including the likelihood that it was deliberately destroyed by Russia. We then have an extended conversation about what the destruction of this dam means for Ukraine's counteroffensive.\
The second leading cause of death from infectious disease around the world is Tuberculosis, following COVID. 10 million people globally develop TB each year, and in 2021 1.6 million died from Tuberculosis.
So why is a disease that is preventable and curable still inflicting such a major toll on the health and welfare of so many people and what can be done to reduce the burden of TB around the world? Joining me to answer these questions and more is Dr. Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership.
We kick off discussing trends in TB around the world including how covid impacted efforts to reach global targets around reducing sickness and death from TB. We then have a longer conversation about what can be done to accelerate progress against this deadly disease.
In 1993, governments around the world agreed to a landmark arms control treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention. It prohibits countries from building chemical weapons, using chemical weapons and requires countries to destroy whatever stockpiles of chemical weapons they may have.
The way treaties like this work is that governments come together every few years for what are known as "Review Conferences" in which they assess past progress and set priorities for the coming years. In the middle of May, members of the Chemical Weapons Convention gathered in The Hague for a five year review conference. And that is where things hit a few snags, according to my guest today Mary Wareham.
Mary Wareham is the advocacy director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch. We kick off discussing the history and some successes of the Chemical Weapons Convention. We then have a longer discussion about the complicated diplomatic dynamics of maintaining an an effective ban on chemical weapons use and development.
On Wednesday May 17th, Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso invoked a constitutional provision known as muerte cruzada, or "mutual death." The move dissolves the parliament and enables Lasso to rule by decree for six months when new elections are held.
This political upheaval comes at a time of surging violence in Ecuador, driven largely by gang violence related to cocaine trafficking. Joining me to discuss the political crisis in Ecuador, explain what is driving a surge in violence in the county -- and the connection between the Ecuador's politics and rising crime is Glaeldys Gonzalez a fellow for the Latin America and Carribbean program at the international crisis group.
The study and analysis of Great Power Competition is all the vogue in international relations and foreign policy circles. And understandably so: the rise of China, the actions of Russia and America's approach to geopolitics are indeed setting the conditions in which some big global shifts are playing out.
But that does not mean one should ignore the role that small states are playing in international politics. If you overlook small states, you are missing a complete picture of international relations today.
My guest today, Tom Long, is author of the book "A Small State's Guide to Influence in World Politics" and associate professor of international relations at the University of Warwick. He studies how smaller states have successfully shaped internationally affairs to their advantage.
The year is 2026, and China has just launched an invasion of Taiwan.
What happens next was the subject of a comprehensive non-classified War Game simulation lead by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Our guest, Mark Cancian, is a retired Marine Colonel and senior advisor at CSIS and one of the lead conveners of this War Game.
We kick off discussing how the War Game was designed before having a longer conversation about the outcomes it predicted. This includes death tolls, the role of Japan and whether or not the US and Chinese homeland are attacked. I'll cut to the chase: after 24 iterations, the most probable outcome was the defeat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, but at a staggeringly high cost to Taiwan and the United States.
Ukraine is widely expected to launch a counter-offensive to reclaim territory captured by Russia. And if Ukraine is successful on the battlefield, Russia may float a ceasefire proposal, that more likely than not would be disingenuous and merely an attempt to stall for time.
These are some of the conclusions of a recent Red Team exercise conducted by the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) which gathered a number of experts to predict Russia's approach to a potential ceasefire negotiation. Joining me to discuss their findings and how a Russian ceasefire proposal might upend international support for Ukraine is Dr. Paul Williams, founder of Public International Law & Policy Group which is a pro bono law firm supporting states and governments involved in, among other things peace and ceasefire.
This is a a special crossover episode featuring Global Dispatches host Mark Leon Goldberg taking questions from veteran journalist Ray Suarez, from the On Shifting Ground podcast. They discuss trends in international reporting and why humanitarian journalism is a vital part of the media ecosystem. Regular Global Dispatches listeners will get a unique understanding of how the show is put together every week.
Before COVID more and more children around the world were receiving their routine vaccinations on time and in full. But COVID severely interrupted that progress. Now, we are seeing lagging indicators of interrupted childhood vaccinations in the form of outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases like measles and diphtheria.
To reverse this trend a number of global health entities have joined forces for what they call “The Big Catch-up” to boost vaccination among children following declines driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
joining me to discuss trends in routine childhood vaccinations around the world, the impact of COVID 19 on those trends and what can be done to restore progress is Dr. Ephrem Lemango, associate director of immunization at UNICEF headquarters in New York.
On May 11th a pandemic-era policy, known as Title 42, will expire. This was a Trump administration policy which used public health concerns as a pretext expel migrants from the United States before they could claim asylum under US and international law. Title 42 has continued under the Biden administration but is set to expire. American officials are bracing for a massive increase in the number of people seeking asylum at the southern US border. This is shaping up to be a humanitarian crisis and bureaucratic crisis rolled up into one.
Joining me to help explain recent migration patterns in the Americas and the Biden administration's approach to migration at the southern US border is Yael Schacher, director for America's and Europe and Refugees International.
We kick off discussing one key node in an increasing number of migrants journeys known as the Darien Gap. We then have a broad discussion about the patchwork of US policies intended to handle asylum claims and offer a legal pathway to entry to the USA.
Turkey holds elections on May 14th. For the first time in twenty years, President Erdogan is facing a serious challenge at the ballot box. The opposition has unified behind candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, a 74 year old career politician whose low-key demeanor is a stark contrast to President Erdogan's bombastic charisma.
As my guest today Dr. Lisel Hintz explains, Turkey's struggling economy and the fallout from the earthquakes earlier this year are re-shaping the political landscape. Dr. Lisel Hintz is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. We kick off discussing some of the domestic political dynamics driving this election and then have a discussion about the foreign policy implications of the elections. This includes Turkey's relationship to NATO, its position on Russia and Ukraine and regional dynamics in the Middle East.
In the ten year history of this podcast, it is rare to have episodes on the same topic in back to back weeks. But the unfolding crisis in Sudan is such an important topic that it demands attention.
Last week, I spoke with civil society activist Hala al Karib, who was trapped in her house in Khartoum as fighting erupted. She very much offered an informed local perspective on what was happening around her. Today, we are taking a global perspective on Sudan's burgeoning civil war with Cameron Hudson. He's a senior associate in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a long time Sudan policy hand in Washington DC.
We kick off discussing why this conflict erupted when it did. We then spend a good deal of time discussing how and why this incipient civil war is very much an international affair, including a discussion of the diplomatic failures that lead to this moment.
On March 29th, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia and charged with espionage. The charges are spurious, but the intentions are clear: Evan Gershkovich is now a hostage in Russia and his release will require a delicate diplomatic balancing act.
My guest today Dr. Dani Gilbert is an academic who studies what she calls "Hostage Diplomacy." She is the Edelson Fellow in US Foreign Policy and International Security at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College.
We last spoke in June 2022, following the arrest of the American basketball star Britney Griner. In our conversation today, we discuss the differences and similarities between the Griner case and the Gershovich situation. We also discuss what processes might lead to Gershkovich's release and how this latest wrongful detention of an American abroad fits into larger patterns around government sponsored hostage taking.
On Saturday, April 15th fighting broke out in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan. At time of recording, hundreds of people have been killed, all commercial air travel has been suspended, and international aid operations have come to a halt. In the massive city of Khartoum, millions of people are sheltering in place, with dwindling supplies of food and water-- and that includes my guest today Hala al-Karib, a Sudanese activist, research practitioner and director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa.
When I last spoke with Hala al-Karib for the podcast in late February, she more or less predicted the crisis we are seeing today which is the result of a failure of a transition to democracy in Sudan.
Hala al-Karib explains that despite the predicable failure of the democratic transition in Sudan, people were still caught off guard by the actual outbreak of fighting. We then go on to discuss some of the broader conflict dynamics and what can be done to pull Sudan back from the brink of all out civil war.
Over ten years ago, most Arab countries in the Middle East cut ties with the Syrian government during the civil war and supported armed groups dedicated to the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Meanwhile, Iran was Assad's key backer.
But now, in the Spring of 2023 a big shift is underway. Saudi Arabia and Iran are taking steps towards rapprochement and Arab governments throughout the region are re-opening embassies in Damascus and re-establishing diplomatic relations with Syria.
Joining me to explain what is driving this regional re-alignment is Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and the Mackey Chair. We kick off discussing how the outbreak of the Syrian civil war impacted regional diplomacy and why now we are seeing such profound changes in the the geopolitics of the Middle East.
About six years ago, I received a request for an interview from an academic in the United Kingdom named Martin Scott who was doing journalism related research. That interview helped to inform the new book: "Humanitarian Journalists: Covering Crises from a Boundary Zone" by Martin Scott, and coauthors Mel Bunce, and Kate Wright -- all of whom are academics.
The book identifies and defines what the authors call "humanitarian journalism" which combines conventional journalistic norms like objectivity with certain key humanitarian principals like the moral equivalence of all lives, regardless of geography. The book explicitly cites my work, as well as that of a small number of other journalists who do what they called humanitarian journalism. I talk with Martin Scott, Associate Professor in Media and Global Development at the University of East Anglia about the concept and practice of "humanitarian journalism."
At time of recording, there are two ongoing outbreaks of Marburg Virus Disease, one in Tanzania and the other in Equatorial Guinea. Marburg is in the same family of diseases as Ebola and is extremely deadly, with a case-to-fatality ratio of up to 88%. Humans can become infected through contact with fruit bats, and like ebola, Marburg is transmissible between humans through contact with bodily fluids.
Joining me to discuss these outbreaks is Dele Ogunseitan, a professor of population, health and disease prevention at the University of California Irvine and a Visiting professor at Stanford University's Center for Innovation in Global Health. He also leads the training and empowerment objective for a USAID project called One Health Workforce Next Generation.
We kick off discussing the history of Marburg before having a longer discussion about these two outbreaks and what can be done to stop Marburg from spreading further.
On November 15, the world population officially surpassed 8 billion people, according to United Nations estimates. The milestone was reached just 12 years after the world marked 7 billion people, and it is projected that global population will hit 9 billion people by 2037
So what are the key demographic trends driving population growth? Where is population growing fastest? Where is it declining? And what do the age structures of populations around the world tell us about the future of our planet? To answer these questions, we are joined by John Wilmoth, head of the Population Division at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social affairs.
We kick off with a brief history of population growth and with a discussion of the so-called demographic transition, which is the long process in which populations steadily live longer and have few children.
My guest today Rory Stewart is an author, former diplomat and politician who served as the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for International Development. He is currently the CEO of Give Directly, an international NGO that specializes in no-strings attached cash transfers. This includes to people impacted by sudden onset crises and as a tool to provide basic income for people living in extreme poverty.
When we caught up, Rory Stewart had just returned from the earthquake affected areas of southern Turkey where Give Directly has a program to support small business owners impacted by the earthquake. We discuss the value and utility of conditionless cash transfers in emergency situations before transitioning to a longer conversation about the potential role that such cash transfers can play in reducing endemic extreme poverty around the world. As we discuss, this is an empircally effetive way to combat extreme poverty, but it is not yet widely adopted by major donor governments, for reasons he explains.
We present an episode of the Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women podcast, which is now in its third season. Each episode tells the story of how women are creating change through economic empowerment. In this new season, the Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women is partnering with journalists around the world to cover underreported ways women are challenign the status quo. For the season three opener, which we share with you today, the show takes us to Kenya where reporter Eunice Maina some of the econimic incentives that perpetuate female genital mutilation -- and how to end the practice. The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women is from Foreign Policy magazine and hosted by Reena Ninan.
In early January, news emerged that Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly was facilitating peace talks between the government of Cameroon and Anglophone separatist groups.
The news came as what is sometimes referred to as the "Anglophone Crisis" enters a seventh year of armed conflict. The conflict stems from the perceived marginalization of english speaking regions in the largely francophone country. Since fighting broke out in 2017, the consequences have been absolutely devastating. Thousands have been killed and over 800,000 people have been displaced by fighting.
I'm joined today by Arrey Elvis Ntui, senior analyst on Cameroon for the International Crisis Group. He explains how and why this conflict started, and why previous attempts at peace talks have failed. He then explains why all sides of this conflict should heed this new Canadian lead initiative to facilitate peace talks.
Xi Jinping spent spent three days in Russia in a highly touted visit that included hours of direct talks with Vladimir Putin. The visit comes amid Putin's growing international isolation and heightening tensions between China and the United States.
So what did Xi hope to accomplish with this major diplomatic summit? Joining me to answer that question and more is Jordan Schneider, founder of the podcast and newsletter China Talk. We kick off discussing the evolution of Chinese-Russian relations since the invasion of Ukraine and then discuss some of the key takeaways from the Xi Jinping-Vladimir Putin summit.
It was twenty years ago this month that the George W Bush administration began its ill-fated invasion and occupation of Iraq. The ostensible justification for this war of choice was that the Iraqi regime had weapons of mass destruction that it might someday use against the United States. This premise proved to be false and today the Iraq war is widely regarded to have been a massive strategic blunder. It resulted in the deaths of over 4,000 American service members and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
I'm joined today by journalist Spencer Ackerman. In our conversation we ask the question, now with 20 years of hindsight, "why did the US launch this war?" We also discuss the many lasting legacies of this decision on US foreign policy and international relations today?
Spencer Ackerman is a foreign policy columnist for The Nation the writes the newsletter Forever Wars. He is the author of Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump, now out in paperback.
Other than Ukraine itself, no country has been more deeply impacted by Russia's invasion than Moldova. Moldova has absorbed more Ukrainian refugees per capita than any other country in the world and Moldova is uniquely dependent on Russian gas and electricity. Inflation is running at 30%.
Moldova is governed by a stridently pro-European ruling party, and in recent weeks Russia has ramped up efforts to destabilize the country through protests and disinformation campaigns
Joining me from Moldova's capital is journalist Paula Erizanu. We kick off discussing destabilization efforts by the Kremlin, before having a wider discussion of the ways in which Moldova has been impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Rob Bailis is a senior scientist for the Stockholm Environment Institute. He is a leading researcher on the intersection between energy use, health and the environment in the developing world. This includes the use of household cooking appliances -- cookstoves -- and the impact of the kind of fuel used in cookstoves on human health and the environment.
Rob Balis contributed to new research, supported by the Clean Cooking Alliance that demonstrated how a transition away from burning biomass in cookstoves to using stoves powered by liquified petroleum gas or electricity would have a positive impact on combating climate change and sharply deaths and illnesses associated with dirty burning fuels.
We kick off discussing the health and climate impacts of dirty burning household cooking appliances before having a longer discussion about his research on the counter-intuitively positive impact that fossil fuels could have in supporting an energy transition around household cooking in the developing world.
The annual Commission on the Status of Women CSW is the second largest diplomatic gathering at the United Nations each year, after the General Assembly in September.
Thousands of delegates from hundreds of countries come to UN headquarters in New York in what is the major moment on the diplomatic calendar centered on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Joining me to preview what will drive the agenda at the 67th Commission on the Status of Women is Michelle Milford Morse Vice President for Girls and Women Strategy at the United Nations Foundation.
On March 1st Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of Nigeria's sharply contested presidential election. In a three way race, Tinubu received 37% of the votes, enough to win him the presidency.
Bola Tinubu is from the same party as outgoing president Mohammadu Buhari. The election results are being challenged in court by his rivals. But if the results stand, he will be inaugurated in May.
Joining me to discuss the results of this election, and the key challenges ahead for the incoming Nigerian government is Amaka Anku, head of the Africa Practice at the Eurasia Group.
Before joining the United States House of Representatives in 2021, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs worked at the United Nations and US State Department. As she explains, this experience gave her unique insights into the valuable role the United States can play at the UN and the value the UN brings to US foreign policy.
Congresswoman Sara Jacobs is a Democrat from southern California who serves on House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she is the top democrat on the Subcommittee on Africa and on the House Armed Services Committee. She is the youngest member of the Democratic party's Congressional leadership team.
On February 23rd, President Biden nominated former MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga to serve as the next World Bank president. His nomination came as a surprise to many in the international development community, including my guest today Amanda Glassman.
Amanda Glassman is executive vice president and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. We kick off discussing the circumstances around the early departure of current World Bank president David Malpass. We then discuss the biography of Ajay Banga, and why he is something of an unconventional pick for World Bank president. We then have a longer conversation about the key challenges ahead for the World Bank this year, including why this may be a make or break year for the World Bank.
To mark the one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Global Dispatches has teamed up with the podcast Inside Geneva to bring you a live recording in which host Imogen Foulkes is joined by conflict resolution experts to discuss the prospects for peace – and how it can be won.
“The fact that we’re talking about the possibility of using nuclear weapons, the fact that we’re talking about the possibility of the United States and China going to war over Taiwan; it’s frightening,” says Katia Papagianni, director of Policy and Mediation Support at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.
“There is a concept that has been floating around in academia for many years called a hurting stalemate, when the two parties decide that enough is enough. And we are clearly not at this hurting stalemate,” says Keith Krause, director of the Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding at the Graduate Institute Geneva (IHEID).
What does a lasting peace look like?
“Peace is beyond the absence of violence. It’s really about access to justice, economic opportunities, security, and pluralism,” says Hiba Qasas, executive director of the Principles for Peace Initiative.
“Sustainable peace needs to include the youth, it needs to inform the youth, and it needs to educate the youth; so inclusion, information, and education,” says Shefali Kaur Nandhra, a graduate student in sustainable development at IHEID.
Are there good examples from the past?
“There are, of course, some success stories. I think the Colombian process, we have a lot to learn from that, and not just because it was locally driven,” says Krause.
“As someone who grew up in conflict, my concern is not only about the battlefield, but also about all the insidious impacts that come after the guns have been silenced,” says Qasas.
Once you listen to this episode, please be sure to subscribe to Inside Geneva wherever you find podcasts.
Inside Geneva is produced by SwissInfo, a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland.
In April 2019, Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir was ousted in a coup after nearly 30 years in power. The coup followed months of mass civilian protests against his regime. The transition from dictatorship to democracy has been extremely rocky, but in December 2022 civilian and military leaders entered into an agreement under heavy international pressure.
Guest Hala al-Karib, is a Sudanese activist, research practitioner and director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa. We kick off discussing who negotiated that December 5 agreement and its key provisions before discussing the many layers of challenges to a successful democratic transition in Sudan.
Humanity is tantalizingly close to killing off the last Guinea Worm. This is a water born parasite that when ingested grows and grows until it painfully exits the body through a lesion in the skin. There is no treatment for it. There is no cure for it. But it can be prevented. And if prevented everywhere, Guinea Worm Disease will be eradicated.
We are now on the cusp of that moment. In 2022, there were just 13 confirmed human cases of Guinea Worm Disease around the world. This is down from three and a half million cases in the early 1980s. At the center of the global campaign to eradicate guinea worm disease is the Carter Center. And joining me from Mali is Adam Joseph Weiss, director of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program at the Carter Center.
Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic Armenian enclave within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan. In the early 1990s Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bloody war resulting in Armenia's de-facto control of Nagorno-Karabakh.
For most of the last 30 years this was a frozen conflict with occasional flareups only fitful progress towards a diplomatic and political resolution. Then, in September 2020 Azerbaijan launched an offensive resulting in the rout of the Armenian army and the capture of large swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shaken up a ceasefire agreement and over the course of 2022, Azerbaijan has expanded its control of key strategic territories in the region.
According to my guest today Olesya Vartanyan there is a high risk that Azerbaijan may press its military advantage and resume a full scale conflict in the region.
Olesya Vartanyan is the International Crisis Group's Senior Analyst for the South Caucasus region. We kick off discussing a worsening humanitarian crisis in parts of Nagorno Karabakh, sparked by a blockade of a key corridor linking Armenia to key parts of Nagorno-Karabakh. We then discuss the trends in the conflict and diplomacy, including a hopeful move by the European Union to approve a civilian monitoring mission.
The Dadaab Refugee Complex in Kenya hosts about 310,000 refugees, most of whom are Somalis who have fled conflict and drought.
Dadaab has been around for about 30 years. And over the decades, it has periodically experienced sharp influxes of people. We are in the midst of one of those moments. In 2022, 51,000 people arrived and it is projected that in 2023 90,000 people will make their way from Somalia to Dadaab.
This ballooning population is straining humanitarian agencies' ability to provide basic services to populations in need.
My guest today, Hassan Maiyaki is the country director for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Kenya. He describes a worsening humanitarian situation there, measured in part by a sharp rise in acute child malnutrition. We discuss why the situation is seemingly getting worse and what can be done to help provide for the basic needs of a rapidly expanding refugee population.
We are in the midst of an escalating cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine. On Thursday, January 26 Israeli forces killed at least 9 people in a raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. The following evening, a Palestinian gunman killed seven people outside a Synagogue in East Jerusalem. More violence followed over the weekend.
I caught up with journalist Dalia Hatuqa who has reported from Israel and Palestine for many years. We kick off discussing some of the broader context from which this escalatory cycle of violence has emerged. This includes a ten month old series of stepped up raids by Israel into the West Bank and Gaza. We also discuss why this current violence may or may not lead a to a so-called Third Intifada, and the link between Israel's new far rightwing government and the apparently devolving crisis.
My guest Reed Brody is a veteran war crimes prosecutor and author of the new book "To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissene Habre."
Hissene Habre was the brutal dictator of Chad from 1982 to 1990, when he was ousted in a coup and fled to Senegal.
The book tells the story of Reed Brody's years long obsession to bring Habre to justice, and his partnerships with African lawyers and victims rights advocates who secured a conviction.
We kick off discussing the abuses of Hissene Habre and the successful legal strategy that resulted in a life sentence. We then take a step back and discuss the lessons learned from this successful trial that might be applied to other abusive leaders elsewhere.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, 2022 there have been numerous examples of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russian soldiers. Many of these crimes are being investigated and prosecuted by local Ukrainian courts and the International Criminal Court.
But the crime of launching this illegal war in the first place is not, as of yet, under any court's jurisdiction. Oona Hathaway is seeking to change that. She is a professor at Yale Law School who has been advocating for the creation of a UN-backed special tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression committed by Russian leaders in Ukraine. In recent weeks and month, this proposal is gaining some traction.
We kick off discussing and defining what we mean by the "crime of aggression" before the discussing the politics of creating a special internationally backed mechanism to prosecute specific Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, for the crime of aggression.
Peru is in the midst of the worst political violence experienced in the country in decades. Protests began in December following the ouster of former President Pedro Castillo. He was impeached and arrested following his effort dissolve congress in a brazen attempt to stay in power through a self-coup. Castillo's supporters have staged large protests which were violently suppressed by security forces, resulting in dozens of deaths so far.
I spoke with reporter Simeon Tegel just as protesters were moving en masse from rural parts of the country to the capital city, Lima. Simeon Tegel is a freelance journalist and contributor to the Washington Post. We kick off discussing the scene in Lima before having a longer conversation about the causes and consequences of this mounting political crisis in Peru.
On February 25th, Nigeria will hold federal elections. Nigeria is the largest democracy in Africa and one of the largest multiparty democracies in the world. Incumbent Muhammadu Buhari is respecting term limits and stepping aside, leaving and open field.
In recent history, Nigerian politics has been dominated by two parties. But with about one month before elections there is a surprising third party candidate, Peter Obi, who is leading in the polls on a surge of support by young Nigerians.
Guest Cynthia Mbamalu is director of programs for Yiaga Africa, a civil society organization that works to promote democracy in Africa. She explains how and why young people in Nigeria may determine the outcome of Nigeria's elections.
We kick off discussing the major candidates before having an in depth conversation about the youth vote, including how a protest movement against police brutality has inspired a youth political awakening.
Agathe Demarais was a treasury official in the French government working in Moscow and Beirut when she saw, first hand, some of the unintended impacts of US sanctions. Agathe Demarais is the global forecasting director of the Economist Intelligence Unit and author of the new book Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against US Interests. The book makes the provocative argument that an over-reliance on sanctions as a tool US foreign policy is making sanctions a less effective tool of US foreign policy.
In our conversation, Agathe Demarais explains how US sanctions are sort of like antibiotics in which overuse can cause resistance.
According to the International Monetary Fund, 22 countries in Africa are either in debt distress or at high risk of debt distress --that is, they are unable to fulfill their financial obligations to creditors. This is nearly double the number of countries in Africa in some form debt crisis just a few years ago.
Why so many African countries are facing a fiscal crisis today and the implications of debt distress for economic and social development is explained at length by my guest today Mark Plant, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development.
We kick off discussing why Ghana and Zambia are illustrative of broader fiscal trends in Africa and then have a discussion about the policy conundrums facing countries as they navigate fiscal crises and seek to satisfy creditors without sacrificing substantial gains in economic and social development.
In December protests erupted in cities across Bangladesh, including the capital Dhaka. The proximate cause was skyrocketing inflation triggered in part by Russia's war in Ukraine. But as my guest Michael Kugelman explains these were not mass protests, but rather highly partisan events ahead of elections scheduled for this year.
Michael Kugelman is director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington DC. We kick off discussing the significance of these protests. We then have a longer conversation about how these protests fits into broader trends in Bangladeshi politics and economy -- including Bangladesh's remarkable economic growth and its increasing authoritarianism under prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
In this episode, we are joined by Chris Miller, author of the new book "Chip Wars: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology." The books tells the story of microchip, including its history and its profound impact on international relations and geopolitics today.
Chris Miller is an Associate Professor of International History at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. We discuss why the microchip is central to our world today, how Taiwan and South Korea became the two major international hubs for the manufacture of specialized chips, and the geopolitical implications of a chip manufacturing supply chain that relies on just a few key nodes. We also discuss efforts by the US to prevent China from building a domestic advanced chip manufacture industry.
As 2023 begins the world is beset by crises driven by conflict, climate change and the nexus of the two. But some places are expected to be hit harder than others as the year unfolds and this episode's conversation with David Miliband offers listeners key insights into where humanitarian needs are expected to be most acute in 2023.
David Miliband is the President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, which at the very end 2022 released a watchlist of the top global crises it foresees this year.
We kick off with a brief discussion about the methodology of creating a crisis watchlist like this before having a extended discussion about several of his top crises of concern, as well as discuss solutions to confront humanitarian crises across the world.
The border region of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger is home to violent extremist groups eager to recruit young men to their ranks. To counter the lure of groups like the Islamic State officials have experimented with programs and projects that more deeply root young men to their communities and to reduce inter-ethnic conflict. This kind of peace-building work to strengthen what is known as "social cohesion" often flies under the radar, at least compared to high profile military activities targeting terrorist groups. But there is growing evidence that such programs are effective.
In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Siaka Millogo who ran an experiment testing the impact of social cohesion programs in villages in rural Niger. He is the Director for Burkina Faso and Niger for the aid group Mercy Corps. From 2019 through 2021, Mercy Corps and local partners identified 40 villages at risk of recruitment by violent extremist groups and undertook social cohesion programs in half of those; while the other half was a control group. And in our conversation we discuss how this experiment worked and what it can teach us about the value and impact of hyper local programs to combat violent extremism.
The United States has several hundred military bases scattered across the world. But how do citizens within countries hosting US troops feel about those bases and US military personnel?
In this episode, we are joined by Carla Martinez Machain, who conducted groundbreaking public opinion research on how exposure to a US military presence in an allied country impacts attitudes towards the US government, military and Americans more generally.
Carla Martinez Machain is a professor of political science at the University of Buffalo and is co-author of the new book "Beyond the Wire: US Military Deployments and Host Country Public" Opinion, with Michael A Allen, Michael E Flynn, and Andrew Stravers.
We discuss the sheer scope of US basing around the world before having a broader conversation about the relationship between US bases, public opinion, and foreign policy.
Negotiations for a new Global Treaty on Plastics formally kicked off in early December. Delegates from around 160 countries met in Uruguay for the first round of talks aimed at reducing the harmful impact of plastics on both the environment and health.
Antonio Guterres has called plastics "fossil fuels in another form." And called on governments to support a treaty that not only dealt with plastic waste and recycling, but also the entire life cycle of plastics, including measures to control the production of plastics.
My guest today Andres Del Castillo attended the negotiations, which took place in the seaside city Punta Del Este. He is a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law.
We kick off discussing why regulating plastics through an international agreement is necessary. We then discuss the process for these negotiations and the stances thus far of key governments around the world, including the USA, China, the European Union and countries in the global south.
Delegates from nearly every country in the world are meeting in Montreal for the UN Biodiversity Conference known as COP15. Their goal is to come up with a new global action plan to preserve nature and global biodiversity. Top among those goals is agreeing to a new global target to protect for conservation 30% of land and 30% and marine habitats by 2030.
Joining me to discuss the importance of this UN Biodiversity Conference, Ongoing at time of recording is John Reid. He co-author of Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet, with the late Thomas Lovejoy and the senior economist and partnership lead at the non-profit Nia Tero
We kick off discussing the recent history of global efforts to protect biodiversity and its link to climate change before having a longer discussion about the key issues at play at COP 15 in Montreal.
On December 8, the World Health Organization released its latest annual report on the global fight against Malaria.
The World Malaria Report found that progress against Malaria has begun stabilize after COVID related setbacks. Specifically, after a sharp rise in global malaria deaths during the first year of the pandemic, deaths have now begun to decrease -- though not yet to pre-pandemic levels.
In this episode we are joined by Martin Edlund Chief Executive Officer of the non profit organization Malaria No More, to explain what this data shows about humanity's progress against Malaria. We discuss the impact of the COVID pandemic on the fight against malaria before discussion the broader landscape in which Malaria is evolving to become a more resilient foe. We also discuss exciting technological innovations that may enable humanity to reach the goal of reducing Malaria cases and deaths by 90% by 2030.
This episode of Global Dispatches is a bit different than usual. Rather than the host, Mark Leon Goldberg interviewing someone, he is the one being interviewed.
Moderators at the WordNews page on Reddit invited Mark to share some of his expertise on international justice issues in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Specifically, what are the prospects of accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Russian war on Ukraine.
Mark has reported on the International Criminal Court and other issues related to war crimes and crimes against humanity for nearly 20 years and took questions from moderator Akaash Maharaj, Ambassador-at-Large for the Global Organization of Parliamentarians against Corruption and a fellow at the Munk School at the University of Toronto.
Rare protests broke out across several cities in China in recent weeks. Demonstrators took to the streets to protest the government's extreme Zero Covid policy, which imposes harsh lockdowns in an effort to stamp out the virus. In some cases, the protests took aim at the government itself, calling for Xi Jinping to step down.
Protests of this kind are extremely rare, so this movement understandable caught the attention of the world. It also apparently caught the attention of the government which has since signaled an easing of its quarantine policies.
In this episode, we speak with Kaiser Kuo, host of The Sinica Podcast, from The China Project. We spoke just hours after it was announced that former president Jiang Zemin had passed away at the age of 96. We discuss Jiang Zemin's legacy on china today and how his death may serve as a catalyst for further protest in China. We then have an extended conversation about the rationale of Xi Jinpin's Zero Covid policy, and what may come next for this policy and the protest movement.
On November 13, six people were killed in a bombing in Istanbul, which the government of Turkey blamed on a Kurdish militant group based in Northern Syria. Shortly thereafter, Turkey began targeting Kurdish positions in Syria and Iraq, with President Erdogan threatening an imminent ground invasion of Northern Syria.
In this episode, we speak with Lisel Hintz, assistant professor of international relations a the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, to discuss this bombing and this escalating conflict, which comes amid a profound shift in Turkey's relationships with other countries in the region.
We begin by talking about what we know about the November 13th attack and the Turkish government's attempt to control the narrative before having a broader conversation about how this crisis informs, and is informed by, recent changes in Turkey's foreign policy. This including a warming of relations with former regional adversaries like Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Lisel Hintz also explains the domestic political considerations that may be driving Erdogan's decisions on the use of force in Syria ahead of elections next year
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Podcast announcement:
Regular listeners will recall this that summer we announced that the podcast had received a grant from Building a Stronger Future, Inc the family foundation of Sam Bankman-Fried. In case you are unaware Sam Bankman-Fried is the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and professed effective altruist whose company declared bankruptcy in November. Needless to say, the grant, which was to be for three years will not be extended.
The show will keep on keeping on. But we now need the support of our dedicated audience. There are two ways you can support the show. If you are listening to this on Apple Podcasts, you can become a paying subscriber with a few taps of your finger. Alternatively, you can visit Patreon.com/GlobalDispatches and sign up for a premium subscription. In both cases, you will unlock access to our entire archive featuring hundreds of episodes. You will also be helping to ensure that the show continues to thrive for the longterm. So please do take a moment to support out work by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or signing up on Patreon.com/globaldispatches - and if you sign up on Patreon, as an added bonus, we will gladly send you a sticker in the mail.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat from New Hampshire, lead a large bi-partisan Congressional delegation to the Halifax International Security Forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia in mid-November. We just days after the US House of Representatives was confirmed to flip to Republican control following the US mid terms. With that change in power comes a degree of uncertainty around the extent to which Congress can be relied upon to continue its support for Ukraine's defense.
Senator Shaheen discusses how Congress' approach to Ukraine may change when the Republicans gain control of the house next year, as well as the situation in the western Balkans, where Senator Shaheen recently returned from an official trip to the region in which she observed the Bosnian elections. She explains how Russian meddling may undermine democratic gains in the region and how Congress can better support democracy in the region.
In this episode, we speak with Jamila Afghani, the 2022 Laureate of the Aurora Prize For Awaking Humanity, which is a prestigious annual award conferred to grassroots human rights defenders.
Jamila Afghani is a the founder of the local Afghan NGO Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organization, which among other things supports girls education in Afghanistan. She founded the organization as a refugee in Pakistan but then established it in Afghanistan just months after the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001. For the last twenty years, her NGO has supported girls and women throughout Afghanistan -- and even today, with the country back under Taliban, the work continues.
In our conversation, Jamila Afghani explains how and why she began work as a civil society leader, which also includes a leadership position with Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She also discusses how she fled Afghanistan in August 2021 and continues to lead her NGO, but now as a refugee in Canada.
As the World Cup kicks off in Qatar, the plight of the migrant workers who built the facilities enjoyed by fans and spectators is coming into sharper focus. Qatar required massive amounts of labor, and those workers often toiled in highly exploitative conditions.
In this episode, we speak with Michael Page, deputy director in the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch We discuss how and why migrant workers were exploited in Qatar and then have a conversation about how the human rights community may better leverage massive sporting events to advance human rights, including protection of freedom of expression, LGBT rights, and women's rights.
Over the last several weeks, North Korea has launched an unprecedented number of missile tests. In one week alone in early November, North Korea launched over 80 missiles, including short and long range ballistic missles.
So why is North Korea suddenly flexing like this? And what do these missile tests suggest about North Korea's nuclear strategies and intentions? I put these questions and more to Kelsey Davenport, Director of Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association. We kick off discussing the kinds of technologies that North Korea is testing and then have a long conversation that puts these tests in context of geopolitics, US policy towards North Korea and more.
During the time of this recording, Wednesday, November 9th, the final results of the US mid term elections are uncertain, but trending towards an outcome in which the Democrats are likely to hold the Senate and Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives.
At stake in these elections of course is control of Congress, which has a unique role to play in shaping US foreign policy. Congress approves budgets and spending on foreign affairs and foreign aid, confirms nominees for Ambassadors and senior positions at State Department, Defense Department and elsewhere, and provides oversight over the executive branch, among many other roles.
In this episode, originally recorded as a live Twitter Spaces, we are joined by Matt Duss, a visiting scholar in the American Statecraft program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to discuss the foreign policy implications of the US mid term elections. From 2017 to 2022, Matt Duss served as the foreign policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders.
In our conversation we discuss the role Congress plays in shaping US foreign policy before having a longer conversation about the concrete foreign policy implications of the the 2022 US Mid terms.
Delegates from around the world are en route to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt for the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Better known as COP27. The conference lasts from November 6th to the 18th.
These COPS are key moments for international climate diplomacy. And since the 2015 Paris Agreement, it is the main mechanism in which countries renew, review, and assess their progress towards the Paris Agreement goals to limit global warming to at least 1.5 degrees celsius.
In this episode, we give a preview of the key stories, debates and outcomes expected to drive the agenda in Sharm el Sheikh with a Twitter Spaces roundtable we recorded on Thursday, November 4th with guests Pete Ogden, Vice President for Energy, Climate, and the Environment at the United Nations Foundation, Nisha Krisnan, Director for Climate Resilience in Africa with the World Resources Institute, Mark Hertsgaard, executive director of Covering Climate Now and the environment correspondent for The Nation, and Dr. Omnia El Omrani, the first ever Youth Representative for COP27.
There are a record number of cholera outbreaks around the world today. Consider this data point. In 2022 alone, 29 countries have reported a cholera outbreak. This compares to 20 countries over the previous five years. The outbreaks are distributed across several regions: countries in the Caribbean, middle east, Africa, and Asia are experiencing cholera outbreaks -- some for the first time in decades.
Amidst all these concurrent outbreaks, there is a global shortage of cholera vaccines to the point that public health officials are suspending the the standard two-dose vaccination regimen in favor of just a single dose.
In this episode, we speak with Louise Ivers, director of the Harvard global health institute, and the Massachusetts general hospital center for global health about why there a sudden surge in outbreaks worldwide, where are the outbreaks the worst, and what can be done about this vaccine shortage.
On October 18th, the White House released an expansive new strategy on Countering Biological Threats, Enhancing Pandemic Preparedness, and Achieving Global Health Security.
The strategy sets out a whole-of-government approach to mitigating biological risks. This includes naturally occurring pathogens as well as dangerous new pathogens created in a lab.
In this episode, we speak with Nikki Teran, Director of Biosecurity Policy at Guarding Against Pandemics. We discuss the substance of the new US biodefense strategy -- its strengths, weaknesses, and potential barriers to implementation. Nikki Teran also describes as the Bio-risk threat landscape writ large, including the pathogens and broader trends in biosecurity that a strategy like this seeks to mitigate.
On October 21st, the United Nations Security Council imposed individual sanctions on Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer turned gang leader in Haiti. For weeks, the coalition of gangs headed by Cherizier, known as the G9 Friends and Allies have imposed a blockade on the main fuel terminal in Haiti. Fuel is now getting more scarce by the day, with prices surging to as much as 20-dollars a gallon. This is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation, with parts of Port au Prince experiencing what the United Nations deems catastrophic food insecurity. Meanwhile, amidst the chaos and fighting, a new cholera outbreak is sweeping through neighborhoods of Port au Prince.
In this episode, we are joined by Jacqueline Charles Caribbean Correspondent for the Miami Herald and a longtime reporter covering Haiti, to discuss the biography of Jimmy Cherizier before having a longer conversation about Haiti's recent gang wars and the relationship between gang violence and politics in Haiti.
At time of recording an ongoing Ebola outbreak in Uganda has sickened 64 people. 24 people have died. The outbreak was declared on September 20th in a rural community but has since spread to Kampala, the sprawling capital city.
In recent years, health officials in Africa have become very adept at responding to ebola outbreaks, and have relied on a highly effective vaccine that was developed in the wake of the 2014 West Africa ebola outbreak. However, there is no vaccine for the particular strain of ebola circulating in Uganda today.
In this episode, we speak with John Johnson, vaccine and epidemic response advisor with Doctors Without Boarders France to talk about the origins of this outbreak and how it has spread, how healthcare workers are responding, and why there's not vaccine for this particular strain of Ebola when other ebola vaccines have proven to be so effective.
The Chinese Communist Party Congress is always a key moment on the Chinese political calendar. Every five years, party delegates select party leadership. This includes the selection of the top most ranks of the Chinese Communist Party, including its General Secretary. Being a one party state, the head of the Chinese Communist Party is also the President of China.
Over the last several decades, General Secretaries of the Chinese Community Party serve at most two consecutive five year terms, but Xi Jinping is bucking this trend. He is widely expected to be installed for a third term -- demonstrating that he is the most powerful individual leader in China since the time of Chairman Mao.
In this episode, we are joined by Jessica Chen Weiss, professor of China and Asia-Pacific studies at Cornell University to talk about the significance of this Party Congress, and to shed some light on what a more ensconced and more powerful Xi Jinping might mean for China and its relationship with the rest of the world, including the United States, as well as discuss the significance of this Party Congress.
Iran is in the midst of the most significant protest movement in years -- and it is being lead by women and girls.
The spark that ignited this movement was the murder of 22 year old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by Iran's morality police for improperly wearing her headscarf. She was beaten to death in police custody.
Protests erupted throughout the country, with women and school aged girls audaciously flaunting laws around dress codes. It is a feminist lead uprising against the ultra-conservative government lead by Ebrahim Raisi and, as some argue, against the Islamic revolutionary system that has governed Iran since 1979.
In this episode, we are joined by Negar Mortazavi, an Iranian-American journalist and commentator and host of the Iran Podcast. We discuss how these protests started and then spread to become an intersectional movement. We then have a in-depth conversation about the Iranian government's response and what may come next.
Last March, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope that the brutal civil war between the Ethiopian federal government and the breakaway Tigray People's Liberation Front would come to an end. The government announced a ceasefire and an African Union lead peace process was underway.
The conflict began two years earlier, in November 2020 with clashes between Tigrayan regional forces and federal government troops. It quickly escalated. This included the intervention of Eritrean troops to support the Ethiopian government. Over the ensuing months, the conflict caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. There's been severe food shortages, a humanitarian blockade, a telecoms blackout and massive displacement.
Thus, that moment in March when a ceasefire was declared -- was extremely welcome. But just four months later, the ceasefire was shattered and now the conflict is entering a new and dangerous phase as Eritrea is re-entering the conflict in a very big way.
In this episode, we are joined by Zecharias Zelalem, a freelance journalist who covers Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa to discuss how we got to this point. We begin our conversation by discussing the circumstances that lead to this ceasefire and its dissolution before talking about the current trajectory of the Ethiopia-Tigray conflict.
These are perilous moments in the conflict in Ukraine. In response to the Ukrainian military's stunning gains in recent weeks, Putin is escalating. He has enacted a military mobilization within Russia and is once again threatening the use of nuclear weapons.
How seriously should we take these nuclear threats? In what scenarios and circumstances might Putin actually use a nuclear weapon. And how should the Biden administration and NATO respond if, indeed, Putin goes nuclear? We put these questions and more to Jon Wolfsthal a longtime nuclear policy professional and aid to then Vice President Joe Biden who currently serves as senior advisor to Global Zero and as a board member for Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
On October 2nd, Brazilians headed to the polls for the first round of national elections. At the top of the ticket were two very familiar names in Brazilian politics: incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known best simply as Lula.
These two men are starkly different kinds of politicians. Bolsonaro is very much a right wing populist, often compared in style to Donald Trump. Lula is former union leader who served as Brazil's president from 2003 to 2010 and later served 580 days in prison before his conviction was annulled.
After the first round of presidential ballots were cast, Lula won 48.4% of the vote and Bolsonaro, 42.2%. Since no candidate won over 50%, the election will go to a run-off on October 30.
This election is deeply consequential for the future of democracy in Brazil and also carries important international implications, which we discuss with today's guest, Matthew Taylor, professor of international studies at the School of International Service at American University.
We start off by discussing the first round results and electoral dynamics heading into the second round, before having a deeper conversation about what this election means for Brazil and the world.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine the United States and its European allies signaled strongly that they would impose crushing sanctions if Russia, indeed, invaded. Russia invaded anyway. The threat of sanctions were not a deterrent.
After surprisingly heavy sanctions were imposed, Russia did not moderate its behavior and cease its attack. Just the opposite. The imposition of sanctions were not, therefore what is known in International Relations speak, a means of compellence.
So what have the sanctions accomplished? And why might these sanctions and countermeasures by Russia be leading to a war of economic attrition between Russia and the West?
To answer these questions, we are joined by Bruce Jentleson, a professor of political science at Duke University former senior state department official, and author of the new book Sanctions: What Everyone Needs to Know.
There are over 100 health emergencies in Africa each year -- including outbreaks of infectious and deadly diseases like Yellow Fever, meningitis, and ebola. And it is sometimes the case that diseases endemic only in parts of Africa, like MonkeyPox, can spread globally precisely because of limited local capacity to contain an outbreak.
A new African Regional Strategy for Health Security and Emergencies commits African countries to concrete steps to strengthen disease surveillance, response and preparedness.
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Abdou Salam Gaye, WHO Regional Emergency Director for Africa to discuss this new African health security plan and Africa's role in global pandemic preparedness and response.
China first tested a nuclear weapon in 1964. And since then, Chinese authorites have been content with a relatively small nuclear arsenal.
That was, until very recently. There is now mounting evidence that China is substantially expanding its nuclear capabilities.
In this episode, we speak with Tong Zhao, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a Visiting Researcher at Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security, to explain what is driving Chinese nuclear strategy.
We kick off with a brief history of China's nuclear weapons program before having an in depth discussion about the intentions and motivations behind China's expanding nuclear arsenal. We also discuss what steps China's main rival, the United States, could take to assuage at least some of the concerns driving Chinese nuclear strategy.
One of the key events during UN High Level Week in the New York is a major fundraiser for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, hosted by President Biden. This is the topic of our first segment with Francoise Vanni, the Global Fund's Director of External Relations and Communications.
Our second segment features an interview with Susan Ruffo, Senior Advisor for Oceans and Climate at the United Nations Foundation who discusses a meeting of foreign ministers and civil society leaders focused on the clean energy transition.
This episode also leads off with a discussion about a unique meeting of the Security Council about war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
Today's episode was recorded on Wednesday, September 21 and under normal circumstances the President of the United States, as host of the UN, would have addressed the General Assembly yesterday. But because of the Queen’s funeral in London at the start of the week, the United States traded speaking slots with Senegal. Meaning today was the day of President Biden’s much anticipated address to the General Assembly.
Shortly after President Biden’s speech concluded, we spoke with Richard Gowan, the UN Director of the International Crisis Group and Anjali Dayal professor of International Relations at Fordham University and Senior Scholar in residence at the US Institute of Peace. We kick off discussing highlights from Biden’s address before turning to other key speeches and events driving the diplomatic agenda at UNGA this week.
Next, we speak with Kate Dodson, Vice President for Global Health at the United Nations Foundation. She had just come from a key meeting on Pandemic preparedness and response, which we discuss.
A key focus of events at the United Nations and around New York this week is on food security and food access. On Tuesday, world leaders held a major Food Security Summit to combat soaring food prices and food insecurity around the world. This is the topic of our first segment today, featuring Rob Vos, director for Markets, Trade and Institutions at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
In the second segment, I speak with the Assistant High Commissioner for Operations at the UN Refugee Agency, Raouf Mazou about how refugee issues are being addressed at UNGA this year.
The annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly is always a key moment on the diplomatic calendar. Hundreds of world leaders head to New York to address the General Assembly and participate in various meetings and events around the city. Each day this week, we will bring you the key highlights from the 77th United Nations General Assembly.
Today's epsode kicks off with an UNGA77 curtain raiser featuring Elizabeth Cousens, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation. She discusses the key storylines, events, moments and speeches that will drive the diplomatic agendaduring UN Week.
Next we hear from Thaís Queiroz, Youth Representative for the World Organization of the Scout Movement and United Nations Foundation Next Generation Fellow. She participated in the Transforming Eduction Summit convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres-- a major meeting of heads of state and civil society leaders focused on improving education access and outcomes.
Energy prices are soaring in Europe, driven largely by the uncertainty surrounding Russian gas exports. Making matters worse was an announcement in early September that Russia would not re-open its Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which is a major supplier of gas to Europe.
As winter looms, European governments are scrambling to devise policies to minimize the impact of rising energy costs to both their economies and individual consumers.
Putin is very deliberately using gas and energy exports as a way to hit back at Europe and break Europeans' steadfast support for Ukraine. Needless to say, Europe's ability to manage this crisis could have a significant impact on European countries approach to the conflict in Ukraine.
In this episode, we are joined by Ben Cahill, Senior Fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. We discuss Europe's energy crisis, the EU's response thus far, and the political impact of rising energy costs in Europe, as well as the potential remedies and consequences of energy shortages and price spikes.
United Nations officials issued fresh warnings that parts of Somalia are on the verge of famine. Half the country is in need of food assistance and if present trends continue famine could hit Somalia by October.
In this episode, we are joined by Tjada McKenna, CEO of Mercy Corps, a large international humanitarian organization with operations in Somalia. She recently visited the country to witness this unfolding crisis first hand. We kick off discussing what she saw on her trip, before having a broader conversation about the causes and consequences of this food crisis. We also discuss what can be done to avert a full blown famine from taking hold in Somalia in the near future.
In lay July, the military Junta in Myanmar carried out its first executions in decades. Four activists were killed, including very prominant pro-democracy leaders. The military carried out these executions despite widespread international and regional pressure.
These executions come a year and a half after the February 1 2021 coup that ended Myanmar's experiment in democracy. The military has imprisoned much of the civilian political leadership of the country, including the country's de-facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The February Coup was met by widespread civil disobedience and, eventually armed resistance. Today, Myanmar is in the midst of a multi-pronged civil war in which the military is fighting various armed groups organized along ethnic lines of Myanmars many minority ethnic groups; as well as militias backed by the toppled civilian leadership.
In this episode, we are joined by Gregory Poling, who directs the Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he is also a senior fellow.
We discuss the recent executions in Myanmar and have a broader discussion about the changing countours of the conflict and what, if anything, the United States and broader international community can do to influence events in Myanmar.
On August 16, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. This legislation is a $750 billion dollar health, tax and climate bill. Indeed, the inflation Reduction act is the single most significant climate legislation ever passed in the United States.
So what impact will this legislation have internationally, Including in ongoing international climate diplomacy?
In this episode, we are joined by Casey Katims, executive director of the US Climate Alliance, a coalition of US Governors representing states that account for over half the US Population.
We kick off by discussing several of the key climate related provisioning included in the Inflation Reduction Act. We then discuss how this new legislation may impact diplomacy, including at a key international climate summit, known as COP27, which is being held in Egypt in November. We also discuss the unique roll that US states can play on climate related issues--something that was underscored recently when California announced that it would be phasing out the sale of gasoline powered cars.
In this episode, we are joined by Zuhra Bahman, the Afghanistan country director for the peacebuilding NGO Search for Common Ground. She is based in Kabul.
A year ago, when the Taliban captured Kabul and became the de-facto authorities, Zuhra Bahman happened to be out of the country on a previously scheduled business trip. Yet when she and I spoke for the podcast last September she told me that she was determined to return home and get back to work. And when she and I last spoke for the podcast, back in March, she had finally made it back to Kabul.
In our conversation, Zuhra Bahman reflects on her life and work in Afghanistan as a female civil society leader one year on from the Taliban's takeover of the country. Contrary to what people might think, she is still able to do her work and lead her team. And in our conversation she argues that the most effective way to preserve the space still open for civil society, including those that support women and marginalized communities is regular engagement with the de-facto authorities.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine is Europe's largest. In March, Russian forces captured the plant and a crew of Ukrainians are maintaining operations at the plant -- effectively at gun point.
In recent weeks, fighting around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power plant has intensified, causing some damage to the plant and raising the prospect that in the context of armed conflict a catastrophic nuclear accident becomes a very real possibility.
In this episode, we are joined by Jon Wolfstol, senior advisor at Global Zero and a member of board of Science and Security at Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. We kick off by discussing how Zaporizhzhia operates in normal circumstances and how the fighting may have impacted current plant operations. We then discuss what a catastrophic event at the power plant may look like. This includes the global impact of a nuclear meltdown at Zaporizhzhia.
In this episode, we are joined by Ali Wyne, senior analyst with Eurasia Group's Global Macro-Geopolitics practice, focusing on US-China relations and great-power competition, and author of the new book "America's Great-Power Opportunity: Revitalizing U.S. Foreign Policy to Meet the Challenges of Strategic Competition," which is generating a great deal of buzz in foreign policy circles.
Ali Wyne offers a critique of using competition with China and Russia as an organizing principle for US foreign policy. Great power competition, Ali Wyne argues, is inherently reactive and should not be the blueprint that drives US strategy. Rather, in an era of a resurgent China and revanchist Russia, the US can leverage certain comparative advantages it has to pursue a pro-active and forward looking agenda on the world stage.
When national security professionals discuss "missile defense" they are are typically referring to technologies that can intercept an in-coming nuclear missile and blow it out of the sky.
In 2002, the George W. Bush administration unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty the US signed with the Soviet Union in 1972. Since then, there has been a sharp increase in the development of missile defense technologies around the world. This has seriously complicated nuclear deterrence
Sanne Verschuren is a Stanton Nuclear Security post doctoral fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. She is working on a book about why missile defense developed and takes the forms that it does today. The book is built from her dissertation on the topic, which was awarded the prestigious the Kenneth Waltz Award for Outstanding Dissertation in the field of International Security Studies.
Why have some countries experience durable economic progress while other countries remain left behind?
This basic question has vexed development economists for decades -- and for decades economists have tried to reverse engineer one country's economic successes story to discover a blue print that could be applied elsewhere.
Stefan Dercon, was one of those economists when he had an insight that forever changed his approach to the field of development economics. He explains this insight in his new book: Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose.
Stefan Dercon is professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford and a former senior official in the UK government, including as the senior economist of the United Kingdom's premier overseas development agency.
Longtermism is a moral philosophy that is increasingly gaining traction around the United Nations and in foreign policy circles. Put simply, Longtermism holds the key premise that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority of our time.
The foreign policy community in general and the the United Nations in particular are beginning to embrace longtermism. Next year at the opening of the UN General Assembly in September 2023, the Secretary General is hosting what he is calling a Summit of the Future to bring these ideas to the center of debate at the United Nations.
Will MackAskill is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. He is the author of the new book "What We Owe the Future" which explains the premise and implications of Longtermism including for the foreign policy community, particularly as it relates to mitigating catastrophic risks to humanity.
Rapidly identifying an emerging infectious pathogen is critical to prevent a disease outbreak from becoming an epidemic -- or even a deadly pandemic. But right now, there is no agreed international mechanism to do so. Veteran UN diplomat Angela Kane is trying to change that. She is working to create a new UN body to strengthen UN capabilities to investigate high-consequence biological events of unknown origin.
Angela Kane, is the Sam Nunn Distinguished Fellow at the Nuclear Threat Initiative. She is a veteran diplomat who has held several senior positions at the United Nations, including Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Under-Secretary-General for Management, and High Representative for Disarmament.
Kenya's Ambassador to the United Nations Martin Kimani gave a viral speech at the UN Security Council on the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Months later, Ambassador Kimani reflects on the impact of that speech and why Russian aggression against Ukraine is so resonant to Africa's own experience with colonialism.
Our conversation was recorded live at the Aspen Security Forum in Mid July and Ambassador Kimani also discusses the impact of the war in Ukraine on Kenya and what opportunities still exist for multilateralism in a divided world.
Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Middle East was heavily dependent on importing food from Ukraine and Russia. The disruption of grain exports from the Black Sea region has had a profoundly negative impact on food security in the Middle East.
I'm joined today my Arnaud Quemin, Middle East regional director for Mercy Corps. We kick off discussing what the food security situation in the region looked like before the war and then have an extended conversation about how the global food crisis is impacting people and politics in the Middle East.
On May 9th, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was elected President of the Philippines. If that name sounds familiar to you, it is because he is the son of Ferdinand Marcos Senior, the brutal kleptocrat who ruled the Philippines for nearly 20 years.
Marcos Jr., who is commonly known as “Bongbong,” took office on June 30th succeeding Rodrigo Duterte, whose six year term was marked by a sharp deterioration of human rights in the Philippines, including a so-called “war on drugs” in which several thousands of people were extrajudicially killed by state security forces. Bongbong Marcos’ vice president is Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte.
To help explain this new chapter in Philippines politics is Dr. Tom Smith, Principle Lecturer in International Relations for the University of Portsmouth, and the Academic Director to the Royal Air Force College.
Kenyans will go to the polls on August 9th to elect a new president. The current president, Uhuru Kenyatta, is term limited from seeking re-election and the two main candidates are both very familiar figures in Kenyan politics.
William Ruto is currently the Deputy to President Kenyatta. But the two men had a falling out and now President Kenyatta is backing Ruto's main rival, Raila Odinga. For his part, this is Odinga's fifth time running for president.
Kenya has a recent history of highly competitive elections that are sometimes accompanied by violence. Disputed elections in 2007 lead to over 1,000 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes.
On the line with me to help make sense of all this political intrigue and explain the significance of these elections is Caroline Kimeu. East Africa Correspondent for The Guardian.
I caught up with Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Pryzdaz at the Aspen Security Conference in mid July.
Poland is a front line state to the crisis in Ukraine and has been directly impacted by Russia's invasion, including hosting millions of Ukrainian refugees. Poland was also and early target of Vladimir Putin's efforts to use gas exports as a kind of blackmail; and when Poland refused to pay for Russian gas in Rubles, Russian gas was abruptly cut off.
I kick off my conversation with the Deputy Foreign Minister with a discussion about the refugee situation in Poland. We have an extended conversation about how Poland responded to Russia's abrupt suspension of gas exports and what lessons from that episode Poland might impart on other countries in Europe. We then have a broad conversation about how Poland's proximity to the fighting in Ukraine is shaping its approach to that conflict.
Official and unofficial pronouncements from many sectors of the American foreign policy and political establishment routinely portray China as a major military threat to the United States --even claiming that this threat is existential.
This is part of a pattern that my guest today calls "threat inflation" which he argues leads to policy decisions that paradoxically leaves the US less secure.
Michael D Swaine, is director of the east asia program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is the author of a new report titled "Threat Inflation and the Chinese Military" which shows how US officials may be exaggerating the military threat from China and what he argues are problematic policies that stem from inflated threat perceptions.
In November 2021, a rebel group known as M23 carried out a series of surprising attacks in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. By the spring and summer of 2022, M23 had captured even more territory in this region.
These attacks caught many by surprise because the M23 was believed to be largely defunct But nearly 10 years later, the group is now engaged in battles with the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo for control of strategic locations in eastern DRC.
My guest today Kwezi Mngqibisa is a Research Associate at the Center for African Diplomacy and Leadership at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. We kick off discussing the background of the M23 rebel group, before having a broader discussion about its apparent re-formation and why a persistent failure to address the legitimate grievances of people in the eastern DRC are fueling conflict in the region.
Joe Biden is traveling to the Middle East for the first time as President, with stops in Israel, Palestine -- and most notably Saudi Arabia.
As a candidate for president, Biden called the Saudi government a "pariah." Just weeks after taking office, he released an assessment from the US intelligence community revealing that US intelligence believes that Mohammad bin Salman approved of the operation that lead to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Yet in the face of high oil prices and the perceived need to re-calibrate US alliances in the region, Biden apparently feels compelled to make this trip.
Kristin Diwan is senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, DC . We kick off discussing the recent history of US-Saudi relations -- going back through key moments of the Obama and Trump administrations before having a broader conversation about what this trip says about both Biden's approach to the Middle East and the Saudi government's key foreign and domestic policy priorities.
Food prices are soaring around the world, and along with it so are rates of food insecurity and the risk of famine.
As my guest today, Sir Mark Lowcock explains, this is only partly due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which exacerbated an already worsening situation.
Mark Lowcock is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development and author of the new book Relief Chief: A Manifesto for Saving Lives in Dire Times. He served as the top United Nations humanitarian official from 2017 to 2021 and prior to that had a long career in the British government, including as the top civil servant in the Department for International Development.
We kick off discussing what we know about the worst global food crisis in several decades before having a broader conversation about its causes, consequences -- and specific actions that can be taken to prevent this crisis from getting worse.
As the Syrian civil war escalated, the Syrian government began obstructing access to humanitarian relief in rebel held parts of the country. So, in 2014 the UN Security Council took the extraordinary step of allowing the United Nations to deliver humanitarian relief to parts of Syria without the consent of the Syrian government and in violation of Syrian sovereignty.
Since then, humanitarian aid has been able to reach besieged parts of Syria through border crossings, mainly from Turkey into Northern Syria. But in recent years divisions at the Security Council, namely Russian objections to this arrangement, have significantly limited this aid operation. There is now just one border crossing in which aid is delivered from Turkey to rebel held parts of Idlib province in northern Syria. And on July 10th, that last border crossing may close.
Today's episode is in two parts. First, you will hear from Vanessa Jackson the UN representative for Care International. She explains the broader diplomatic context in which this last border crossing may be forced shut by Russia. Then, you will hear my conversation with Ismail Alabdullah who is a volunteer in Idlib with the White Helmets, a local humanitarian relief and rescue organization. He discusses at length the humanitarian situation in Idlib and the implications of severing the last cross border lifeline of humanitarian aid.
Brittney Griner is an American basketball superstar. On February 17th, she was arrested in an airport outside of Moscow allegedly for possession of cannabis oil. She has been held in a Russian jail ever since and her trial is scheduled to begin on July 1.
Brittney Griner's case is a text book example of what my guest today calls "Hostage Diplomacy." Dani Gilbert is an Assistant Professor of Military and Strategic studies at the US Air Force Academy. She is a leading researcher and expert on the causes and consequences of hostage taking in international security.
We kick off discussing the circumstances of Brittney Griner's arrest and detention in Russia and then have a conversation about how the US government approaches situations in which an American abroad is wrongfully detained. This leads us to a broader discussion about trends in hostage diplomacy around the world.
Sweden and Finland have both formally requested to become members of the NATO alliance. To admit new members to NATO requires the approval of all existing NATO members and so far, Turkey is objecting.
My guest today, Sibel Oktay, is associate professor at University of Illinois at Springfield and non-resident senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
We kick off with a discussion about Turkey's specific grievances with Sweden and Finland and then have a broader conversation about how this dustup between Turkey and the rest of NATO fits into broader patterns in Turkish foreign policy. This includes a long discussion of Turkey's approach to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
On June 19th, reports began to emerge of a mass atrocity in the Ethiopian region of Oromia committed against members of the Amhara ethnic group. This latest attack fits into a broader pattern of ethnic violence in Ethiopia since the outbreak of civil war in November 2020.
Laetitia Bader is the Horn of Africa Director at Human Rights Watch. She contributed to a joint Human Rights Watch-Amnesty International report titled "We Will Erase You from This Land: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone." The report finds evidence of an organized campaign of ethnic cleansing against Tigrayan people, which is occurring in the context of Ethiopia's ongoing civil war.
In early June, Iran took the dramatic step of turning off some monitoring cameras in key nuclear facilities that had been installed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The move came in reaction to a vote by the IAEA board of governors to censor Iran over its lack of cooperation with IAEA inspectors.
This latest turn in the ongoing saga of nuclear diplomacy with Iran is further indication of just how precarious the 2015 Nuclear deal seems to be.
Laura Rozen is a veteran reporter who has closely followed the contours of Iran nuclear diplomacy over many years. She is a member of the Just Security editorial board and writes the "Diplomatic" newsletter on Substack
We kick off discussing the state of the JCPOA as Biden inherited it in 2021 before discussing how nuclear diplomacy with Iran in the past two years has unfolded, leading to this latest crisis over the removal of IAEA monitoring cameras.
On June 5th, armed men attacked worshipers at a Catholic Church in the city of Owo, Nigeria. Scores of people were reportedly killed and many more injured.
My guest today, Idayat Hassan, is director of the Center for Democracy and Development in Nigeria. We kick off discussing this church attack as well as another high profile recent attack on a train in northern Nigeria. Idayat Hassan then describes how these attacks fit into broader patterns of insecurity in Nigeria.
The increasing insecurity in parts of Nigeria today comes less than a year ahead of major national presidential elections scheduled in February 2023. But as Idayat Hassan explains the candidates are not emphasizing getting to the root cause of insecurity -- which she forcefully argues stems from a broken judicial system.
At time of recording there have been over 1,000 confirmed cases of Monkey Pox across 29 countries -- mostly in Europe and North America. The actual number of cases circulating in the population is likely much higher. We are in the midst of an outbreak of Monkey Pox, which is rarely found outside of West Africa.
My guest today, Dr. Eric Toner is a Senior Scholar at The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. We kick off discussing what exactly Monkey Pox is and how spreads before having a broader conversation about ongoing efforts to contain this outbreak. As Dr. Toner explains, many of the unique qualities of Monkey Pox -- including that we already have an effective vaccine against it, suggests that this outbreak is very much containable.
Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience at a side event of the International Migration Review Forum. The episode is produced in partnership with CGIAR and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
The event was titled "Climate-related mobility and conflict: Pathways to peace and human security" and includes some extended expert commentary on this topic.
You will first hear from Sheggen Fan, system board member CGIAR followed by remarks from Shukri Ahmed, Deputy Director Office of Emergencies and Resilience at the FAO. I then moderate a panel discussion featuring:
Prof. Dr. Vally Koubi, a Professor at and the Director of the Center for Comparative and International Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Zurich.
Dr Bina Desai, Head of Programs with the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center
Pablo Escribano, Regional Thematic Specialist for the Americas: Migration, Environment and Climate Change with the International Organization for Migration.
and
Prof Dr. Marisa O. Ensor, Adjunct Professor with the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University.
After they take some questions from the audience, some concluding remarks are offered by Katrina Kosec, Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University.
Colombia held the first round of its presidential elections on May 29th and it is hard to overstate just how surprised most analysts were by the results. For generations, Colombia has been dominated by a small political establishment that ranges from the center right to the hard right. Unlike other countries in the Latin America, Colombia has never elected a President from the left wing; nor has Colombia ever experienced a right wing populist.
Yet this be the choice as Colombians head to the polls in a run-off presidential election on June 19th.
The left wing politician Gustavo Petro earned about 40% of the vote in the first round; and defying all expectations a 77 year old right wing populist Rudolfo Hernandez bested the establishment candidate to come in second place, with about 28% of the vote. His personal wealth, bluster, and clever use of social media have earned comparisons to Donald Trump.
My guest today Elizabeth Dickinson is Senior Analyst for Colombia at the International Crisis Group. She breaks down the first round election results and explains why these results are so surprising. We take a deep dive into the interesting biographies of these candidates then have an extended conversation about what these elections mean for the worsening security situation in Colombia and a landmark 2016 peace deal that ended Colombia's long running civil war with the FARC insurgency.
The United Nations Environment Program, UNEP, turns 50 years old this year. And in early June world leaders are gathering in the city where UNEP was born to commemorate this milestone in a conference known as Stockholm+50.
Maria Ivanova wrote the book on the absolutely fascinating history of the United Nations Environment Program. She is a professor of Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts Boston and author of the book "The Untold Story of the World's Leading Environmental Institution: UNEP at 50."
We kick off discussing the historical context in which UNEP was born before having a broader conversation about some of the key decisions and key moments from the 50 year history of the UN's first global environmental body.
Dr. Joanne Liu is a professor at the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University and a practicing physician at the University of Montreal. She is the former international president of Medicines Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders and for the purposes of this conversation she served on the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
This panel was co-chaired former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. It was formed by the World Health Organization in 2020 to provide an audit of how both the WHO and its member states were responding to COVID-19 and what steps need to be taken to prepare or prevent the next pandemic.
As Dr. Joanne Liu explains, world leaders need to be approaching pandemic preparedness and response as if it were a potentially existential threat to humanity, on par with a nuclear catastrophe. This requires far greater levels of political attention than it currently receives. We discuss at length why global cooperation around pandemic preparedness is lagging and what steps need to be taken in the near term to change course.
Today’s episode of Global Dispatches is a promotion for a podcast that I think many of my listeners will find valuable. The podcast is called “Inside Geneva,” in which host Imogen Foulkes puts big questions facing the world to the experts working to tackle them in Switzerland’s international city. Inside Geneva is is produced by Swissinfo, a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland.
In this episode, Imogen Foulkes talks to human rights defenders and investigators bringing their cases to the UN Human Rights Council. You will hear from a diverse array of human rights defenders, investigators and victims of human rights abuses as they pursue justice at the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.
President Biden has authorized the deployment of hundreds of American Special Operations forces to Somalia to assist the Somali government in its fight against al-Shabaab. According to the New York Times President Biden has also authorized a Pentagon plan to step up airstrikes against al-Shabaab leadership.
This increased US military engagement in Somalia comes at a time of transition in Somalia. After years of political wrangling, Somalia's Parliament has elected a new President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who took office on May 15th. Meanwhile, the African Union's about 20,000 strong peacekeeping force in Somalia is beginning a process of winding down.
My guest today, Harun Maruf, is a veteran journalist and editor at VOA Somali Service. I kick off by asking him how news of increased US military involvement in Somalia is being received in Mogadishu and beyond. We then have an extended conversation about the security situation in Somalia today.
The idea that China engages in so-called "Debt Trap Diplomacy" is almost apocryphal. There is a persistent media narrative that China makes big infrastructure investments oversees as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, and when countries cant replay those loans China seizes infrastructure.
My guest today, Deborah Brautigam, is the director of the China Africa Research Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She has done extensive research on Chinese-financed infrastructure investment projects in Asia and Africa and has definitively shown that the narrative of Chinese Debt Trap diplomacy is not supported by facts.
We kick off discussion the origin of this myth, which stems from media commentary around Chinese investment in a port in Sri Lanka. We then discuss other examples of the perpetuation of this myth and have a broad conversation about how China (and other lenders) actually seek repayment of loans.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has posed a major test for the United Nations. And while some parts of the UN system have admirably risen to the occasion, the Security Council has not.
On the line with me to assess the UN's response to Russia's invasion is Richard Gowan, the UN Director for the International Crisis Group. We kick off discussing a recent diplomatic mission by UN Secretary General to both Moscow and Kyiv before having a longer conversation about how his major international crisis is impacting diplomacy at the UN. Towards the end of the conversation Richard Gowan discusses a recent paper he wrote outlining the opportunities that this crisis may present for reforms at the UN.
Ukraine War and UN Reform -- International Crisis Group
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan resigned on April 10th, following a no-confidence vote in Parliament. The former cricket star turned politician had served as Prime Minister since 2018, but in recent months he had increasingly fallen out of favor with Pakistan's powerful military establishment, which has long been a dominant force in Pakistani politics.
My guest, Michael Kugelman, is Senior Associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center. We kick off discussing how Imran Khan leveraged his celebrity as one of the greatest cricket players of all time to a career in politics. We then discuss how he governed as Prime Minister and the circumstances that lead to his downfall. Finally, we have an in-depth conversation about how this political transition in Pakistan may impact US-Pakistani relations and regional dynamics between Pakistan, India and China.
Of all the countries that border Ukraine, Moldova is arguably the most vulnerable to Russian aggression. Since 1992, Russian troops have been present in a breakaway region of Moldova called Transnistria. This is a majority Russian-speaking region that receives considerable support from Moscow.
In late April there were a series of explosions in Transnistria, the perpetrators are unknown but the explosions further heightened concerns that Russia's invasion of Ukraine would spill over into Transnistria and possibly even Moldova proper.
My guest Paula Erizanu is a journalist and author from Moldova and also based in the UK. I caught up with her from Chisinau, Moldova's capital city. We kick off discussing the general mood of people in Chisinau as Russia targets the nearby Ukrainian port city of Odessa. We then discuss the history of the Transnistria conflict before having a broader conversation about how Russia's invasion of Ukraine is impacting Moldovan politics and Society.
Libya is a popular point from which Africa refugees and migrants set off for Europe. However, if caught, these migrants and refugees have been subject to indefinite detention in hellish conditions in Libya.
Journalist Sally Hayden first caught wind of this story when she unexpectedly received a Facebook message from an Eritrean migrant stranded in a Libyan jail. This lead her on a reporting journey that resulted in her new book, "My Fourth Time We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World's Deadliest Migration Route."
We kick off discussing how it is that she first started receiving messages from migrants trapped in a Libyan prison before having a broader conversation about the lives she profiles and how the European Union is partly responsible for this human rights disaster.
Sri Lanka is in the midst of an economic catastrophe.
The government is low on foreign exchange reserves and struggling to pay off its debts. The Sri Lankan rupee has plunged in value over the last several weeks. Inflation is soaring. Fuel is scarce, and there have been widespread blackouts in major parts of the country.
This sharp economic downturn is sparking a major political crisis for the government, long controlled by a single family. But now widespread protests are posing the most significant challenge to the Rajapaksa family's grip on power in decades.
My guest today, JS Tissanayagram, is a Sri Lankan journalist and human rights activist living in the US. He kicks off describing how this crisis is impacting the daily lives of people in Sri Lanka before we have a longer conversation about the roots of this economic crisis and is political implications.
Sweden and Finland are both historically neutral countries. Though both are members of the European Union, they are decidedly not members of NATO
But that may soon change.
In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden have signaled a desire to join the US-lead western military alliance.
On the line with me to explain the significance of Sweden and Finland joining NATO is Ivo Daalder, President of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and former US Ambassador to NATO.
We kick off discussing Sweden and Finland's historic neutrality before having a longer conversation about the process of NATO membership and what impact adding these two countries to the alliance may have both militarily and diplomatically.
Yemen remains the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. More than 17 million are food insecure with over 150,000 people experiencing famine like conditions. In late March the heads of all the main UN humanitarian agencies said Yemen was “teetering on the edge of outright catastrophe.”
But after nearly eight years of war, the United Nations brokered a truce to coincide with Ramadan and last two months. So far, over two weeks in, this truce is holding. Can it lead to a broader peace agreement?
On the line with me to explain how we got to this ceasefire agreement and what happens next is Annelle Sheline, a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute.
The economist Chris Blattman is well known in academic and policy circles for his research and writing on peace, conflict and economic development. Chris Blattman is a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and he is out with a brand new book, Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace.
The book boils down decades of social science around peace and conflict, using examples throughout history, to explain why groups resort to war. This book is a highly accessible way for the general public to understand what many academics know about war and peace.
On May 3rd, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation will host a book event with Chris Blattman both virtually and in person in New York City. If you are interested in attending this event, you can register here.
Emmanuel Macron and the far right wing politician Marine Le Pen will face off in the second round of the French presidential elections on April 24.
Macron and Le Pen last faced each in 2017, and back then Macron absolutely trounced her, defeating Le Pen by more than 30 points. But this time around the vote promises to be much closer, with many polls putting Le Pen within striking distance of Macron.
On the line with me to explain what happened in the first round of voting and what to expect ahead of the final vote on April 24 is Art Goldhammer. He is a writer and translator of over 125 books from French to English and a senior affiliate at the Center for European Studies at Harvard.
We kick off discussing the results of the first round before having a longer conversation about the implications of the fact that the far right wing candidate Le Pen is surging in the polls.
As Russian forces retreated from areas around Kyiv, the whole world became aware of the scope of atrocity crimes committed in areas under Russian control. Meanwhile, the brutal bombardment of cities like Mariupol in the south of Ukraine continues. And civilians are being targeted in deadly airstrikes, included a crowded train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, which was crammed with civilians seeking to flee that region ahead of a Russian military advance.
As my guest today, Dr. Liana Fix, explains, these apparent war crimes will meaningfully impact both the trajectory of the conflict and any progress towards some sort of partial truce or ceasefire. Liana Fix is the program director of the International Affairs department at Koerber Foundation, which is a Berlin based think tank. She discusses the latest developments in the conflict in Ukraine and how Russian war crimes are changing the contours of this war.
Every six to eight years the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, undertakes a massive review of the latest science around climate change. Right now, we are near the end of one of these cycles of scientific review.
My guest today, Ryan Hobert, is the managing director of the United Nations Foundations climate and environment team. We kick off discussing the process behind these IPCC reports before diving deep into some of the specific findings of the latest report, released Monday.
How do media narratives shape people's perception of the business environment in Africa?
This question is at the heart of an innovative research project by Africa No Filter called The Business in Africa Narrative Report.
The report identifies and defines several dominant frames that western and African media invoke when covering issues on the continent. It shows how these frames lead to narratives that are often distorted from reality and harmful to the business ecosystem across Africa.
Joining me from South Africa is one of the authors of the report, Moky Makura, executive director at Africa No Filter.
This February marked the third anniversary of the Algerian street protests and movement that lead to the ouster of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Bouteflika was a fixture of Algerian politics and served as President since 1999. This was a huge turning point in modern Algerian history.
The movement that lead to his ouster is called The Hirak. Joining me to discuss the impact of the impact and legacy of this movement three years on are two scholars of Algeria's politics and economy.
Andrew Ferrand is a senior fellow with The Atlantic Council and author of the book The Algerian Dream.
Tinhinane El Kadi is the cofounder of the Institute for Social Science Research in Algeria and a doctoral student at the London School of Economics.
We kick off discussing the circumstances that lead to the ouster of Bouteflika three years ago before having a broader conversation about Algeria's politics and economy today.
As listeners to Global Dispatches know, in many parts of the world war is a growing threat – or a harsh reality. But who are the peacemakers working to change this?
This week, we are featuring an episode of The Mediator’s Studio podcast, which offers a glimpse into the normally hidden world of peace diplomacy. In this episode, one of the world's most distinguished conflict mediators, Lakhdar Brahimi, reflects on the hopes and failures of peacemaking in Afghanistan and his search for a peaceful solution to the war in Syria.
If you are a regular listener to Global Dispatches you will no doubt benefit from subscribing to The Mediator’s Studio on any major podcast platform. I've posted a link to the Mediator's Studio in the show notes of this episode. And this absolutely fascinating conversation with a legendary diplomat will no doubt inspire you to subscribe to that podcast. So here is an episode of the Mediator's Studio featuring Lakhdar Brahimi.
Link: The Mediator's Studio
The Paris Agreement set a target to limit global warming to "well below 2 degrees, but preferably to 1.5 degrees celsius compared to pre-industrial levels." However, if present trends continue the world is set to blow past those international targets.
This has lead scientists, the policy community and ethicists to consider strategies on climate change that assume the Paris Agreement targets will not be met in time. This includes the technological innovation called "Solar Radiation Modification," which can include the injection of aerosols into the atmosphere to essentially block heat from reaching the earth.
And to that end, my guest today, Janos Pasztor has done some important work on Solar Radiation Modification for global governance and climate justice. He is the executive director of Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative and we kick off discussing what me mean by a global warming overshoot scenario that may necessitate the use of this potentially controversial Solar Radiation Modification Technology.
Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, one major diplomatic variable has been the stance of China. So far, China has played its cards sort of close to its chest, neither firmly denouncing Russia's aggression, nor providing Russia with meaningful support.
My guest Kaiser Kuo calls China's stance thus far a kind of "pro-Russian neutrality." He is host of the Sinica Podcast in the SUP China Network and we have a long conversation about what is informing China's approach to this international crisis. We kick off discussing the history of China-Russia relations and then dive deep into China's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Sinica Podcast https://supchina.com/series/sinica/
War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity are being committed nearly every day in Ukraine. We can see it on our TV. Russian forces are apparently deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in ways that violate international humanitarian law.
So what opportunities might exist to hold perpetrators of atrocity crimes accountable for their actions? Joining me to discuss this question and more is Mark Kersten. He a researcher at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the Global Justice Lab at the University of Toronto, founder of the excellent blog Justice in Conflict and works at the Wayamo Foundation.
We kick off with an extended conversation about the role of the International Criminal Court. We also discuss other potential opportunities and venues for justice and accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
Ukraine is a major exporter of key food staples around the world. Even before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the prices of food commodities like wheat were near all time highs. Since the outbreak of armed conflicted, these prices have soared even higher.
What impact is this war having on global food supply, food prices and food security? I put this question and more to Joe Glauber, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington and formerly the chief economist at the United States Department of Agriculture.
I caught up with Michelle Milford Morse on International Women's Day and as the war in Ukraine entered its second week.
Michelle Milford Morse is the United Nations Foundation’s Vice President for Girls and Women Strategy. I wanted to speak with her to both better understand gender dynamics in armed conflict and how these dynamics are playing out today in Ukraine.
Also, we spoke about a week before the Commission on the Status of Women kicked off at UN headquarters in New York. The Commission on the Status of Women is the second-largest annual gathering at the UN and I was keen to learn from Michelle Milford Morse what to expect from this meeting and how, if at all, the war in Ukraine will impact CSW this year.
It has been a very intense few weeks of diplomacy at the United Nations. Even before Russia mounted its full scale invasion of Ukraine there were several meetings at the Security Council intended to deter and dissuade Russia from doing so. And it was in the middle of one such Security Council meeting on February 23rd that Vladimir Putin declared war and began the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Two days later, Russia predictably vetoed a Security Council resolution denouncing the invasion and from there, the action went to the entire UN General Assembly and its 193 member states.
Anjali Dayal is an assistant professor of International Politics at Fordham University and a longtime UN watcher. We kick off discussing the significance of this General Assembly vote before having a broader discussion about how Russia-focused diplomacy is playing out at the United Nations.
It was 7pm Ukraine time on the evening of Friday February 25 when I caught up with my guest today, journalist Catia Bruno.
She had recently arrived in Lviv, a city in Western Ukraine not far from the Polish border. She was there to report to bear witness to the growing refugee and displacement crisis caused by the Russian attack on Ukraine, which began three days prior.
This conversation provides a valuable perspective on the choices facing Ukrainians as many seek to leave the country while others are forced to remain.
I caught up with Ambassador Karen Pierce in the middle of a very intense day of diplomacy on February 22.
She is the United Kingdom's Ambassador to the United States and earlier that morning Boris Johnson announced new British sanctions on certain Russian oligarchs and financial institutions. This was followed by similar sanctions announcements by the European Union and the United States later in the day.
These new sanctions come after Vladimir Putin's government formally recognized the independence of two regions of Eastern Ukraine, and Luhansk. This specific set of sanctions from the UK, EU and USA seem to be a very calibrated and coordinated response to this provocation, which we discuss at the outset of this interview.
overran Kabul a few weeks prior.
Despite the apparent danger and uncertainty, Zuhra Bahman told me that she was eager to get back home and return to work as the Afghanistan country director for the peace building NGO Search for Common. Ground.
Today, she is back in Kabul, which is where I caught up with her for the conversation you are about to hear
And she kicks off explaining why and how she returned home.
We then have a long conversation about how she navigates her life and work as a professional woman in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and how her work on peace building issues continues under the new political order in Afghanistan.
Over the last few days, there has been a flurry of diplomatic activity between Russia, Ukraine, the United States, Germany and France -- among others.
Meanwhile, the messaging coming from the White House indicates that they believe a Russian attack on Ukraine is imminent.
I am joined by Melinda Haring of the Atlantic Council who offers some context and analysis of the recent diplomatic maneuvering. We spoke via Twitter Spaces just after President Biden concluded remarks from the White House.
After I ended my interview with Melinda Haring, I noticed that the former US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder was in the audience listening in, and he graciously agreed to take a few questions from me, impromptu.
There have been a spate of coups in Africa over the last 18 months. Most of these coups have taken place in West Africa, but not all. This includes Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad, Sudan and two coups in Mali. This is not to mention some attempted coups, most recently in Guinea Bissau. On the line with me to discuss why there have there been so many coups recently, and whether or not this is a trend is Solomon Dersso. He is the founder of Amani Africa, an Adis Ababa based think tank with a focus on the African Union and African Union Affairs.
For about two weeks now, truck driving protesters have snarled traffic and otherwise disrupted daily life in downtown Ottawa, ostensibly to protest covid related restrictions and vaccine mandates. These protests have spread elsewhere in Canada and for a time, forced the closure of the busiest border crossing between the United States and Canada. Meanwhile, right wing media in the US are now cheering on these protests. Canadian journalist Justin Ling explains what exactly is happening in Canada, and the broader political implications of this protest movement in Canada and the United States.
The 2022 Winter Olympics have kicked off in Beijing. Meanwhile, in the northwestern Xinjiang region of China, the government is implementing policies that many human rights organizations and foreign governments have determined amount to crimes against humanity and even genocide against the Uyghur people. The juxtaposition of this internationally celebrated Olympics in the midst of an ongoing human rights calamity is what drives our conversation today, with four different speakers. Rushan Abbas is the founder and executive director of the campaign for Uyghurs Teng Biao is a Chinese human rights lawyer and the Pozen Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago. Yaqiu Wang is the senior china researcher for human rights watch Sean Roberts is a professor at the Elliot School of International Affairs at the George Washington University and author of the book The War on the Uyghurs. We recorded our conversation live on Twitter Spaces just before the opening ceremony.
On January 31, the United Nations Security Council held a meeting about Russia's military buildup on the border of Ukraine. Here to help understand what happened at this meeting and any potentially significant outcomes is Ashish Pradhan, who covers Security Council affairs for the International Crisis Group.
We kick off discussing this procedural vote before having a broader conversation about the international and geopolitical dynamics informing diplomacy around this crisis.
North Korea has already launched more than six missile tests since the start of the new year.
Why is North Korea is suddenly launching so many new missile tests -- and what can be done about? Three experts weigh in:
Jeffrey Lewis is a Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterrey and an open source researcher at the James Martin Center for non proliferation studies
Ankit Panda is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Michelle Kae is the Deputy Director of the 38 North Program at the Stimson Center
On Monday January 24th, mutineers in Burkina Faso overthrew the democratically elected president, Roch Kabore.
This was the fourth military coup in the region in the past 17th months, including two coups in Mali and a coup in Guinea.
To better understand the significance of the coup in Burkina Faso and its broader international and humanitarian implications, I am joined by three guests.
Brice Bado is a political scientist and Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Center for Research and Action for Peace (CERAP)/Jesuit University, Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Andrew Lebovich a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Alexandra Lamarche, the senior advocate for West and Central Africa at Refugees International.
After nearly eight years, the conflict in Yemen is getting worse.
Scott Paul, the senior manager for humanitarian policy at Oxfam America, explains the significance of a recent attack in Abu Dhabi and the latest bombardment of Yemen's capital before having a broader discussion about the trajectory and impact of this years long crisis.
The likelihood that Russia will invade Ukraine seems to be growing by the day. If Russia indeed attacks Ukraine, how should the United States and Europe respond? Joining me to take on that question and more are four excellent speakers: Andrew Weiss of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Nina Jankowicz the Woodrow Wilson Center Jim Goldgeier of Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation. Melinda Haring of The Atlantic Council Recorded live via Twitter Spaces. Follow me @MarkLGoldberg to be notified of the next live taping.
Hong Kong used to have one of the most vibrant media ecosystems in all of Asia. But not today.
There is an ongoing crackdown on independent media in Hong Kong. Outlets large and small are being shut down, ostensible for violating newly enacted laws intended to suppress the pro-democracy movement.
On the line with me from Hong Kong to discuss the plight of independent media there is Austin Ramzy of the New York Times.
"For the Love of Hong Kong: A Memoir from My City Under Siege" by Hana Meihan Davis
Austin Ramzy's New York Times story
Bosnia is facing its deepest political crisis since the civil war in the 1990s. In 1995, the United States helped broker an agreement between the waring parties known as the Dayton Accords. This agreement created a new political order in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has been an uneasy agreement, certainly tenuous at times, but it has held. Now, the agreement is unraveling -- and very quickly. On the line to explain why and how Bosnia is on the verge of potential political disintegration is Jasmin Mujanovic, a political scientist and analyst of southeast European and international affairs.
David Miliband is the president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, one of the larger global humanitarian organizations with relief operations around the world.
At the end of 2021 David Miliband, the former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, delivered a lecture at the Council on Foreign Relations identifying and defining what he called a "Systems Failure" in global crisis response. This is the topic of much of our conversation today.
For the last week, massive protests have swept across the large Central Asian country of Kazakhstan. The spark was a decision by the government to increase fuel prices in the country, which is a major fuel producer. But as my guests today explain, though the fuel price hike was the proximate cause of the protests, they are rooted in deep and widespread disaffection with Kazakhstan's ruling class.
Three Kazakstan political and security experts contribute to this episode:
Dr. Erica Marat, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington, DC.
Dr. Diana T. Kudaibergenova, a professor at the University of Cambridge
Dr. Jen Brick Murtazashvili a professor at the University of Pittsburgh
Just before the start of the new year, Somalia's President Mohammad Abdulahi Farmaajo sought to arrest and remove from power Somalia's Prime Minister Mohammad Hussein Roble. This move added a layer of instability on top of an already fragile political and security situation.
Somalia is both in midst of elections and fending off an insurgency by al Shabaab, which controls much of the countryside. On the line from Mogadishu is journalist Sakariye Cissman, who explains the current state of Somalia's political, constitutional and electoral crises.
As 2021 comes to a close, I thought it may be worthwhile to gather some veteran United Nations watchers to reflect on the key events that shaped the work of the United Nations this year.
I'm joined in this conversation by Margaret Besheer, the UN Correspondent for Voice of America, Anjali Diyal, Assistant Professor of International Politics in the Political Science Department at Fordham University, and Louis Charbonneau, UN Director for Human Rights Watch.
We recorded our conversation live via Twitter Spaces
Turkey is in the midst of a currency crisis. The Lira hit a new record low in December, trading about 15.5 lira to the US dollar. This compares to a year ago when the rate was about 7.5 lira to the dollar. In other words, the value of the currency had declined by about 50% in one year. Meanwhile, inflation is soaring -- at a current rate of more than 20%. On the line to explain the domestic and international implications of Turkey's tanking Lira is Sibel Oktay, associate professor and chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Illinois, Springfield, and a nonresident Senior Fellow of Public Opinion and Foreign Policy at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network. It is part of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security.
Today's episode takes a deep dive into how the transition to low carbon energy economies impacts security. The episode kicks off with introductory remarks by Jesús Quintana-Garcia () Director General, CIAT, Managing Director of the Americas, Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT, CGIAR
I then moderate a panel discussion featuring a diverse group of experts on this issue, whom I introduce I the top of the moderated session.
https://climatesecurity.cgiar.org/
Libya is poised to hold its first presidential elections in the post-Gaddafi era. This was supposed to be the culmination of a year long peace process. However, there is mounting doubt that these elections will be held on time, amid a brewing political crisis that could lead to a return to armed conflict. Podcast guest Mary Fitzgerald is a longtime Libya analyst and non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute. She explains why these elections are so fraught with peril and what the international community can do to reduce the prospects of a return to civil war in Libya.
Afghanistan is in a humanitarian and human rights tailspin. Since the fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban in August, the Afghan economy has been in a tailspin. A major liquidity crisis is causing widespread suffering among the Afghan people including severe foos insecurity. Meanwhile, a new report from Human Rights Watch details a spate of summary executions and violence meted out by the newly installed de-facto Taliban government.
Guest: Patricia Gossman, Associate Asia Director for Human Rights Watch.
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On December 6, Aung San Suu Kyi was handed down a prison sentence by a court loyal to Myanmar's military junta.
Until February of this year, Suu Kyi was the de-facto civilian leader of Myanmar. Her party, the National League for Democracy, had just won re-election in a landslide victory -- the results of which were rejected by the military, which mounted a coup.
The military junta were not swayed massive protests throughout the country and began violently suppressing dissent. Now, violence seems to be escalating, prompting the UN's top human rights official to warn that Myanmar may be sliding into a civil war.
My guest today, Matthew Smith, is the co-founder and CEO of Fortify Rights, a human rights organization long active in Myanmar. We kick off discussing the circumstances of Aung San Suu Kyi's criminal conviction before having a broader conversation about the escalating crisis in Myanmar.
Our conversation was recorded live on Twitter using the new Twitter Spaces platform. Twitter is partnering with the podcast to produce episodes recorded as Twitter Spaces. If you would like to participate in one of these live recordings, the best thing to do is follow me on Twitter @MarkLGoldberg.
Robert Jervis passed away on December 9th at the age of 81. He was one of the major figures of International Relations scholarship -- in the entire history of International Relations as a field of study.
In October 2015, Robert Jervis sat down with me for a long interview about his life and career in which he discussed how his upbringing shaped his worldview from a young age.It was a long and thoughtful conversation about both his personal history and the origins of some of the big ideas that he brought into this world.
This episode was behind a paywall of archived content, available at https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches
Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network. It is part of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security.
Today's episode takes a deep dive into how gender impacts and is impacted by climate-security. The episode kicks off with introductory remarks by Nicoline de Haan, director of CGIAR GENDER platform.
I moderate a panel discussion featuring a diverse group of experts on this issue, whom I introduce I the top of the moderated session.
For only the second time in its, the governing body of the World Health Organization met in a special session. WHO, the World Health Assembly, gathered for a special session. The question at hand: Should member states of the WHO seek to create a new treaty, convention, accord or some sort of international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response?
The meetings occurred just as the new Omicron variant of COVID-19, was popping up in countries around the world, prompting travel bans focused on Southern Africa.
On the line to help us understand what happened at this special session of the World Health Assembly and what it means for progress towards an international agreement of some sort on pandemic preparedness and response is Kate Dodson, Vice President for Global Health at the United Nations Foundation.
Russian military forces are massing on the border of Ukraine. This has prompted widespread concern that Russia may once again seek to invade Ukraine.
On the line with me to discuss this unfolding crisis is John Herbst, Senior Director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council and Former US Ambassador to Ukraine. We kick off with a conversation about what this military buildup may signal - or not - about Vladimir Putin's intensions on Ukraine before having a discussion about what diplomatic and military options exist to deter Russian aggression.
Links:
John Herbst's article on the Atlantic Council's website.
Access to a premium subscription and the crypto and global development podcast series.
The most innovative cryptocurrency projects today are being built in the developing world (Sub-Saharan Africa in particular) to address real-world obstacles to economic development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Cryptocurrency and the blockchain technologies they power carry big implications for global development, but are generally off the radar of the global development and foreign policy community. That may soon change as these technologies become more widely adopted.
Guest Garry Golden demystifies the world of crypto and explains the implications of this emerging technology for emerging economies and the business of global development.
This is a free episode of the new Cryptocurrency and Global Development podcast series and newsletter from Global Dispatches, which profiles crypto projects built to address common global development challenges.
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U.S. Senator Chris Coons is one of Congress's leading voices shaping U.S. policy on Africa. For many years he was the top Democrat in the Senate Sub-committee on Africa and earlier this year, President Biden tapped Senator Coons to be his special envoy to Ethiopia. (There is now a full time envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman)
I caught up with Senator Coons in person at the Halifax International Security Forum, not long after governments around the world advised their citizens to leave Addis Ababa, ahead of a possible battle for control of Ethiopia's capital.
Along with fellow journalist Robbie Gramer of Foreign Policy, we asked Senator Coons to explain U.S. policy towards the Ethiopian conflict, including whether or not the time was right to impose sanctions on government and rebel leaders.
When Joe Biden came to office the Iran Nuclear Dead was on life support.
Known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, the Obama-era deal lifted US and UN sanctions on Iran in return for Iran placing verifiable limits on its nuclear program.
The deal was rejected by the Trump administration which re-imposed sanctions; and Iran has responded in kind by re-starting certain aspects of its nuclear program.
Here to explain where things stand with nuclear diplomacy between the United States and Iran is Kelsey Davenport, director for non-proliferation policy policy at the Arms Control Association. We spoke ahead of planned talks in Vienna between the United States and Iran, scheduled for the end of November and early December.
The Halifax International Security Forum is a major annual meeting dedicated to fostering closer ties among the world's democracies.
The Forum is organized by HFX, an independent public policy organization based in Washington DC dedicated to strengthening strategic cooperation among democratic nations. And on the line today, is Peter van Praig Founding President of Halifax International Security Forum, HFX to preview this year's forum, which runs from November 19 through 21st in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
We kick off discussing this history of the Halifax International Security Forum and why it was created 13 years ago before having a longer discussion about the issues, topics and provocations expected at this year's meeting.
The major United Nations climate conference, known as COP26, went into overtime in Glasgow, Scotland. But on Saturday, November 13th agreement was reached on the text of an outcome document.
Pete Ogden, Vice President for Energy, Climate and the Environment at the United Nations Foundation explains the key outcomes from COP26, what was accomplished -- and what was left on the table -- at this major UN climate conference.
Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience and produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network.
It is part of a series of episodes that examine the relationship between climate and security.
I moderate a panel discussion in which experts discuss how climate science can encourage and support peace in the Middle east and north Africa. The episode kicks off with some introductory remarks by Aly Abousabaa Regional Director for Central and West Asia and North Africa CGIAR, and the Director- General of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas.
I then introduce the panel and moderate a lively discussion about climate security and peace in the Middle East and North Africa.
To view other episodes in this series, please visit climatesecurity.cgiar.org
The UN Peacekeeping Mission in Cyprus is one of the world's oldest peacekeeping missions. Yet to this day, it is still serving a valuable role in preventing conflict between Greece and Turkey -- two NATO allies.
On the line to explain why this peacekeeping force is still needed after all these years is Peter Yeo, President of the Better World Campaign and Senior Vice President of the United Nations Foundation. We kick off discussing the history of the mission before having a broader conversation of its still relevant work after all these years.
In Madagascar thousands of people in the southern part of the country are experiencing famine-like conditions. Over a million more are considered to be on the brink of famine.
The crisis in Southern Madagascar is a direct consequence of climate change. This region has experienced successive droughts -- the rainy season is shorter, the lean season is longer and farmers are unable to plant their crops. This is widely considered to be the world's first climate-change induced famine.
On the line with me to explain the link between climate change and the famine like conditions in Southern Madagascar is Mandipa Manchacha, human rights researcher at Amnesty international's souther Africa regional office.
We kick off with a discussion about Madagascar more broadly and the impact of climate change on the island before having a broader conversation about the brutal intersection of climate change and famine in Southern Madagascar.
COP 26 is the most important international climate conference since the Paris Agreement of 2015.
On the line with me to offer a preview of what to expect from this major UN climate meeting is Pete Odgen, Vice President for Energy, Climate, and the Environment at the United Nations Foundation. He is a veteran of many previous COPs and in our conversation he discusses the key issues up for negotiation in Glasgow and the broader geopolitics of climate change diplomacy. This includes a deep dive into how both China and the United States are approaching COP26 and thorny questions around climate finance.
Today's episode was recorded live in partnership with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) ahead of COP26 in Glasgow. I moderate a panel discussion that takes a deep dive into the Nationally Determined Contributions as they relate to food and agriculture. The Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, are the backbone of the Paris Climate Agreement. They are what each country brings to the table in terms of their own contribution to climate action. Collectively, it was the goal of the Paris Agreement that the NDCs would add up to put the world on track to limit global warming to under 2 degrees celsius. We are not there -- yet. But in today's panel discussion a diverse group of experts helps to explain what more can be done in agriculture, land use and food systems to drive ambition in climate change and give a needed boost to the NDCs so they can achieve the Paris goals.
Since the overthrow of the genocidal dictator Omar al Bashir in 2019, Sudan has been lead by a transitional governing council made up of civilians and the military. On Monday October 25th 2021 the Sudanese military purged the civilians from their leadership positions, including arresting the prime minister.
On the line with me to discuss this coup and what comes next is Cameron Hudson. He is a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former chief of staff in the office of the special advisor to Sudan at the US State Department.
We taped our conversation live using Twitter Spaces. This is a new platform that Twitter has rolled out allowing audio conversations to take place on its platform. Follow me on Twitter to join the next live taping
In early October, a group lead by the investment arm of the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia purchased Newcastle United, the English Premier League soccer team.
The purchase caused a great deal of speculation that it was motivated by a desire to burnish the image of the Saudi ruler. What is not speculation is that overnight Newcastle United became the richest soccer team in the world.
On the line with me to explain the significance of Saudi Arabia's purchase of Newscastle United is Alex Ward, national security reporter at Politico and anchor of the National Security Daily newsletter.
Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience and produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network.
It is part of a series of episodes that examine the relationship between climate and security. I moderate a panel discussion in which experts discuss and explain the need for a coherent approach to climate security across multiple policy sectors. Introductory remarks are given by Rob Vos Director of Markets, Trade and Institutions Division, CGIAR who frames the conversation before I moderate the panel.
To view other episodes in this series and to participate in a future live taping of the podcast please visit climatesecurity.cgiar.org.
On October 6, the World Health Organization endorsed a malaria vaccine for the first time ever. After years of testing, the vaccine was shown to be safe and effective at preventing the deaths of thousands of children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The WHO's backing of this Malaria vaccine is both a breakthrough in scientific research and an important moment in human history.
Margaret McDonnell, executive director of Nothing But Nets at the UN Foundation, explains why this new malaria vaccine is so promising
The government of Ethiopia has expelled seven top UN officials from the country. This move comes as the federal government launches a new military offensive against the TPLF -- the Tigray People's Liberation Front.
William Davison of the International Crisis Group explains how the civil war in Ethiopia has evolved in recent weeks and describes the ongoing calamitous humanitarian impact of the conflict in Ethiopia.
The process by which China makes its foreign policy is often considered to be something of a black box, or at least very difficult for outsiders to discern.
Suiseng Zhao is a professor of International Studies and director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at the University of Denver. He has written extensively about the tapestry of Chinese institutions that inform foreign policy decision making, and in this conversation explains the key players that shape how Chinese foreign policy is made.
Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience and produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network. It is part of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate variability and security.
In today's episode, I moderate a panel discussion in which experts discuss the relationship between climate variability, migration and security in Latin America.
To participate in future live tapings of the podcast as part of this series, please visit ClimateSecurity.cgiar.org
The massive Chinese real estate company Evergrande is unable to pay its debts. This has sparked some rare protests in China and is spooking international financial markets. A key question now is whether or not the government of China will let Evergrande collapse -- and whether or not the collapse of this real estate giant will have knock on effects throughout the region and the world?
Richard Vague is Secretary of Banking and Securities for Pennsylvania and an author who has written extensively about global financial crises. He explains how debt has fueled economic growth in China and discusses the potential international implications of Evergrande's insolvency.
We kick off discussing how Evergrande got buried in such deep debt and what that says about the role of debt in fueling China's massive economic growth over the past decade. He then explains some policy options available to the Chinese government and some of the potential international implications of Evergrande's insolvency.
Richard Vague's article in Democracy
On September 5th, a special forces unit of the Guinean military attacked the presidential palace in the capital Conakry, and deposed President Alpha Conde.
This was the third coup in West Africa in the last 12 months.
David Zounmenou, senior research consultant at the Institute for Security Studies, explains the circumstances that lead to this coup. He also explains how events in Guinea fit into a broader regional trends in which once duly elected presidents become authoritarian and are deposed in a coup.
Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience and produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network.
The podcast has partnered with CGIAR for a special series that examines the relationship between climate and security and in today's episode we explore how Africa is experiencing and approaching the climate security nexus -- in particular how institutions in Africa and beyond are responding to climate security crises.
The episode kicks off with some introductory remarks from Harold Roy Mcauley, Regional Director, East and Southern Africa, One CGIAR, and Director General of the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice).
I then moderate a panel discussion. To participate in a future live taping as part of this series, please visit climatesecurity.cgiar.org
The United Nations General Assembly is always one of the most important weeks of the diplomatic calendar. Each day this week we are bringing you live coverage featuring the latest news and analysis from UNGA, in partnership with the UN Foundation.
Today's episode was recorded Friday afternoon, September 24.
Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, discusses ongoing diplomacy on the crisis in Afghanistan.
Elizabeth Cousens, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation, discusses her key takeaways from this week in diplomacy.
Kanika Chawla, Programme Manager with UN Energy, Sustainable Energy For All explains the significant outcomes from a major meeting on Energy and Energy transitions called the High Level Dialogue on Energy.
Link mentioned:
https://ourfutureagenda.org/report/
The United Nations General Assembly is always one of the most important weeks of the diplomatic calendar. Each day this week we are bringing you live coverage featuring the latest news and analysis from UNGA, in partnership with the UN Foundation.
Today's episode was recorded Thursday afternoon, September 23.
Dr. Jemimah Njuki, Director for Africa at the International Food Policy Research Institute, discusses the significant outcomes from a much-anticipated Food Systems Summit.
Ireland's Ambassador to the United Nations Geraldine Byrne Geraldine Byrne Nason explains why Ireland chaired a unique meeting on climate security at the Security Council and Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group discusses the key outcomes from this meeting.
The United Nations General Assembly is always one of the most important weeks of the diplomatic calendar. Each day this week we are bringing you live coverage featuring the latest news and analysis from of UNGA, in partnership with the UN Foundation.
Today's episode was recorded Wednesday afternoon, September 22.
Kate Dodson, vice president for global health at the United Nations Foundation explains the big outcomes from a major COVID Summit convened by the White House. Also, Panama Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the work of a senior diplomat during UNGA.
The United Nations General Assembly is always one of the most important weeks of the diplomatic calendar. Each day this week we are bringing you live coverage featuring the latest news and analysis from of UNGA, in partnership with the UN Foundation.
Today's episode was recorded Tuesday afternoon, September 21.
Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group and Anjali Dayal of Fordham University discuss the key takeaways from speeches by world leaders, including Joe Biden and Antonio Guterres. We also discuss some important stories to follow from the United Nations during the week ahead.
The annual opening of the UN General Assembly is always one the most important weeks on the diplomatic calendar.
The podcast has partnered with the United Nations Foundation to provide listeners with daily news and expert analysis about what is driving the diplomatic agenda at the United Nations during this key week.
Today, we speak with UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed who articulates her priorities for #UNGA76. We then turn to climate diplomacy expert Yamide Dagnet of the World Resources Institute who explains the significant moments in climate diplomacy this week.
This episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience in advance of a key meeting at the United Nations known as the Food Systems Summit.
This episode is produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network and features a panel discussion examining the links between food systems and action needed to confront climate change.
Angela Merkel steps down this month after having served as chancellor of Germany since 2005. Her time in office coincided with a number of major world events, including the global financial crisis; the 2015 refugee and migrant crisis; Brexit, Crimea, Trump, COVID, and much more. Throughout it all, Angela Merkel has been the de-facto leader of the European Union.
On the line with me to discuss some of the significant moments in Angela Merkel's 16 years as Chancellor of Germany is Constanze Stelzenmüller, the Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and Transatlantic Relations at the Brookings Institution.
As Afghanistan enters a perilous and uncertain future, the United Nations has promised to "stay and deliver." The country's humanitarian emergency is getting more acute by the day, taxing UN agencies like the World Food Program. Meanwhile, the Security Council's role in managing the political transition in Afghanistan is unclear, and many of the Taliban's senior leadership are still under UN sanction
On the line with me to discuss the UN's role in the new Afghanistan is Mark Malloch Brown. He is the President of the Open Society Foundations and had long career at the United Nations, including as administrator of the UN Development Program and as the Deputy UN Secretary General.
Zuhra Bahman was out of the country on a business meeting when the Taliban took control of Kabul.
She is the Afghanistan country director for Search for Common Ground, an NGO that engages in community based peace-building work. I was eager to speak with her because it is very unclear to me and to the entire international community the extent to which NGOs will be able to operate under Taliban rule.
As Zurha Bahman explains, she is eager to get back to her work and life in Afghanistan -- but only if certain conditions are met. To that end, she is urging engagement with the Taliban to enable development and humanitarian NGOs to work in the country on behalf of the Afghan people.
Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network, as part of a series of episodes examining the links between climate variability and security.
The episode features a discussion amongst a panel of experts who explore the relationship between security and land use, including forestry.
Visit https://climatesecurity.cgiar.org/ to register for the next live event in this series.
Zubaida Akbar is an Afghan human rights activist living in Washington, D.C. She is desperately trying to get vulnerable people out of the country, including a group of female journalists who are almost certainly marked for execution by the Taliban.
We kick off discussing what she is hearing from her friends in Kabul as people attempt to flee the Taliban's retribution. We then have a very heavy conversation about the tragedy unfolding in Afghanistan.
Back in 2008, in the midst of both a global economic catastrophe and stalled progress on climate diplomacy, a unique multilateral platform called the Climate Investment Funds was born.
The G-8 created the Climate Investment Funds to support developing economies as they shifted to a less carbon intensive future. The Climate Investment Funds supports the development of clean energy markets and invests in projects and programs the enable clean energy transitions and adaptation to climate change.
The CEO of the Climate Investment Funds, Mafalda Duarte is on the podcast today to explain the significance of this multilateral platform to the common global effort to confront climate change.
The Global Peace Index is an ambitious effort to measure peacefulness around the world using quantitative data. Now in its 15th year, the Index has offered policymakers and analysts a useful way to measure key trends in peace and conflict.
Steve Killilea, founder and executive director of the Institute for Economics and Peace, is on the podcast to discuss the report's findings and what it suggests about trends in peace and conflict around the world.
This episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience and produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world’s largest agricultural innovation network, as part of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security.
In today's conversation we discuss the key question of how one measures the relationship between climate variability and peacefulness or insecurity.
Sign up for the next live taping!
Yemen has two rival central banks. These banks have their own priorities and fiscal policies -- and were set up, in part, to help defeat the other and control the Yemeni Rial.
The result has been runaway inflation and food prices that are increasingly out of reach for ordinary Yemenis.
Annelle Sheline of The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft explains how Yemen came to have rival central banks and how this situation fits into the broader conflict in Yemen.
On July 25th, Tunisian President Kais Saied fired the prime minister, dismissed parliament, and assumed dictatorial powers . This was a self-coup in which the president invoked an emergency clause in the constitution allowing him to rule by decree.
Tarek Megirisi, Senior Policy fellow at European Council on Foreign Relations, explains what happened in Tunisia and the broader domestic and international implications of this power grab.
United States Senator Chris Murphy wants to radically reign in the President's ability to use military force abroad. Chris Murphy is a Democrat from Connecticut and along with Independent Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont and Republican Senator Mike Lee from Utah is a co-sponsor of the new National Security Powers Act.
This legislation would give Congress far more say in matters of war and peace than it currently enjoys. This includes placing strict limits on the ability of the executive branch to conduct military operations abroad without congressional approval; increased Congressional oversight on international arms sales; and reforming how the President is able to declare a national emergency.
Senator Chris Murphy is on the podcast today to describe the problem he sees this legislation as helping to solve; and why he thinks increased congressional oversight over war powers is important for renewing and sustaining American democracy.
In March 2020, when countries around the world started imposing COVID-19 lockdowns Kashmir was just emerging from a lockdown of its own. Several months prior, in August 2019 the government of India revoked the special status that Kashmir had enjoyed since the partition of India in 1947. This sparked mass protests, violence and a heavy handed government response -- including curfews and an internet shutdown.
But just as restrictions were slowly being lifted in the early part of 2020, COVID emerged and the Indian government opted to invoke COVID to impose new restrictions on the people of Kashmir. This includes new citizenship laws and restrictions on press freedom.
My guest today, Adnan Bhat is a journalist in Kashmir who has documented how COVID-19 has served as a pretext to advance policies that abrogate the rights of people in Kashmir. His article on this was published as part of the Stanley Center's "Red Flags or Resilience Series?" that uses journalism to explore the connections between the coronavirus pandemic and the factors for risk and resilience to mass violence and atrocities around the world.
This episode is produced in partnership with the Stanley Center. To view Adnan Bhat's article and other stories in this series please visit https://resilience.stanleycenter.org/
Unique among countries in the world, Mexico considers Femicide as a crime distinct from homicide. Sometimes known as "Feminicide," this is the crime of murdering a woman or girl on account of her gender.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, the documented numbers of Femicide in parts of Mexico have skyrocketed. This includes a part of the State of Mexico, near Mexico City, known as The Periphery.
It is here that my guest today, Caroline Tracey, has reported on the increased frequency of femicide and actions that local groups are taking to fight back against this trend.
Caroline Tracey is a writer and doctoral candidate in Geography at the University of California-Berkeley. Her article was published as part of the Stanley Center's "Red Flags or Resilience Series?" that uses journalism to explore the connections between the coronavirus pandemic and the factors for risk and resilience to mass violence and atrocities around the world.
This episode is produced in partnership with the Stanley Center. To view Caroline Tracey's article and other stories in this series please visit https://resilience.stanleycenter.org/
Protest, looting, and riots have plunged South Africa into a deep crisis. Scores of people have been killed in this unrest which was sparked by the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma on July 7th. At time of recording, the government was dispatching 25,000 troops to bring order--and unprecedented military mobilization in the post-apartheid era.
On the line with me from Johannesburg is journalist Geoffrey York, the Africa Bureau Chief for the Globe and Mail.
Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland) is a small country in Southern Africa nestled on the border between South Africa and Mozambique. It is notably Africa's only absolute monarchy -- the king rules by decree, with no meaningful checks or balances.
Today, the country in in the midst of its most intense and significant protests against that monarch in recent history. The protests began in May and accelerated in June. The monarchy's response was violent, with many protesters killed and disappeared.
Journalist Mako Muzenda explains these unprecedented protests and the broader significance of the ongoing crisis in Eswatini.
Colombia has been rocked by the most significant protests in recent memory. In late April and May Colombians took to the streets across the country initially to protest a proposed new tax law. But what began as a a protest against this new tax bill swiftly morphed into a broad based protest movement against systemic inequality.
Colombia is one of the most unequal countries in the world and these protests are seeking to upend the political system that has entrenched this inequality in Colombian society. From Bogota. Elizabeth Dickinson of the International Crisis Group explains where this protest movement is headed.
In the early morning hours of July 7th, unknown assailants assassinated the President of Haiti Jovenal Moise.
Haiti was already facing an uncertain political future. And now, the line of succession is not at all clear.
Journalist Jonathan Myerson Katz explains the tumultuous political context in which this audacious assassination occurred and what the assassination of the president means for the future of Haiti.
The Okavango River is a major river system in Southwest Africa. It begins in Angola, passes through Namibia and ends in a vast delta in Botswana.
This river system, its ecological and social impact is the subject of a breathtaking new podcast called Guardians of The River.
Guardians of the River won the best narrative non-fiction podcast award at the Tribeca Film Festival -- and after listening to the pilot episode you will understand why. It is produced by the House of Pod, Wild Bird Trust and National Geographic, and available wherever you find podcasts.
The crisis in Syria is at a crossroads. Millions of displaced people trapped in northern Syria may soon face a near complete cutoff of the humanitarian aid upon which they rely. This is because Security Council must vote to keep this aid flowing, but Russia is threatening a veto. On the line to explain how we got to this point and the implications of restricting aid access is Vanessa Jackson, UN Representative and Head of Office for CARE International at the United Nations.
On June 18th, Antonio Guterres was re-appointed United Nations Secretary General for a second and final five year term.
Richard Gowan, the UN Director of the International Crisis Group, looks back at the highlights and lowlights of Guterres' first term and discusses some of the key challenges and opportunities that will present themselves over the next five years.
Global Dispatches debut book: For The Love of Hong Kong
Climate variability can cause the mass movement of people -- but does the mass movement of people fleeing climate shocks undermine political and human security? A diverse panel of experts who explores the relationship between security challenges and climate induced migration -- both across and within borders.
This episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience and produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network.
The government of Sri Lanka is using COVID-19 as a pre-text to assert control over ethnic minority populations. This is particularly troubling because the government has a history of atrocity crime. The leaders of the country today are they very same people responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against ethnic tamils 11 years ago.
Journalist JS Tissainaygam explains how Sri Lanka's history of atrocity crimes is plaguing its response to COVID-19 and puts it at risk for a return to atrocity.
By all accounts, the situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia is extremely grim and about to get much worse. The United Nations now says that famine has struct parts of the region. The civil war in Ethiopia continues without and end in sight. Meanwhile, fraught national elections are scheduled for June 21.
Ethiopian journalist Zecharias Zelalem explains how we got to this point and where the conflict may be headed next.
Ban Ki-moon served as the eighth Secretary General of the United Nations from 2007 to 2016. He is out with a new memoir titled Resolved: Uniting Nations in a Divided World.
We cover quite a bit of ground in this interview, including his perspective on what the covid crisis revealed about the strengths and weaknesses of the United Nations, what can be done to bolster multilateralism today, his frustrations with the Security Council and what advice he might offer to his successor Antonio Guterres. We also spend a good deal of time talking climate change diplomacy, which was Ban's signature issue as Secretary General.
Resolved: Uniting Nations in a Divided World, by Ban Ki-moon
For The Love Of Hong Kong: A Memoir From My City Under Siege, by Hana Meihan Davis
President Biden has nominated Sarah Margon as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. This is the top American global human rights watchdog and the most important human rights position in the US foreign policy bureaucracy.
In 2015, Sarah Margon came on the podcast for a long conversation about her life and career in human rights. Listen back to this conversation to learn the events that shaped the worldview of Biden's pick for top human rights official.
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Our Debut Book: For The Love Of Hong Kong
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Hana Meihan Davis comes from a long line of democracy activists in Hong Kong. Today, they are all either in exile, facing arrest, or somewhere in between.
Hana Meihan Davis is the author of the new book For The Love of Hong Kong: A Memoir From My City Under Siege, which tells the story of Hana's family and friends who have been on the frontlines of an epic struggle to defend democracy, freedom of speech and human rights in the face of increasing repression by Chinese government authorities. This is the first book under the new Global Dispatches publishing imprint.
On Sunday May 23rd a Belarusian fighter jet intercepted a civilian Ryan Air flight and forced it land in Minsk, Belarus. Authorities promptly arrested a dissident journalist onboard and his girlfriend.
Often described as "Europe's Last Dictator," this incident was an audacious example of the lengths that the regime of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko would go to silence opposition voices and dissidents.
Guest: Sofya Orlosky, senior program manager for Europe and Eurasia at Freedom House.
As the world turns towards greener economies there will be a surge in demand for natural resources that enable a less carbon intensive future. This includes the mineral cobalt, which is key component of batteries.
Most of the world's supply of Cobalt is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This raises the prospect that increasing demand for Cobalt might contribute to insecurity in the DRC.
On the line to explain the link between mineral extraction and conflict in the DRC and how cobalt mining can lead to peace and sustainable development is Laurent Kasindi, Program Quality Specialist at Search for Common Ground.
Elected in 2019 as a 37 year old third party candidate, the president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele is a political phenom. He has a hipster's disposition, but an authoritarian's proclivities. a
On the line to explain the rise of Nayib Bukele and the demise of democratic checks and balances in El Salvador is Frida Ghitis, She is a world affairs analyst and columnist for World Politics Review. We kick off discussing the sudden rise of Bukele in Salvadorian politics before entering into a discussion about the implications of his authoritarian tendencies.
Conflict in Israel and Palestine is escalating in ways we have seen before: an Israeli military assault on Gaza as rockets fly from Gaza to Israel. But what distinguishes this latest iteration of the Arab-Israeli conflict is that violence is spreading within Israel. Over the last several days there have been multiple incidents of mob attacks between Jews and Arabs in towns in Israel with mixed populations between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Jews. The threat of widespread communal violence is now very acute.
On the line with me to help me understand the events leading up to this latest conflict and where it may be headed next is Dana el-Kurd. She an assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and a researcher at the Arab Institute for Research and Policy Studies.
The last time World Food Program Chief Economist Arif Husain came on the show to discuss global trends in food security was 15 months ago. Needless to say, since January 2020 and the onset of the pandemic food insecurity and hunger around the world have gotten much worse. We kick off this conversation discussing a new report on global hunger and food security before have a longer discussion about what, exactly, is driving a current surge in food insecurity and hunger around the world today -- and what can be done about it.
It was a combination of imperial ambition and white supremacy that inspired the advent of the field of global health in the 19th century and that colonialist legacy can still be seen in the practice of global health today.
Guest: Dr. Ashti Doobay-Persaud is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at Northwestern University where she co-directs the Center for Global Health Education and is the Faculty Director of the Master of Science in Global Health program. Learn more about the MSc in Global Health https://sps.northwestern.edu/global
The longtime ruler of Chad, Idriss Deby, died from wounds sustained while visiting troops on the battlefield. Deby had been the president of Chad for over 30 years and was considered a stalwart ally of the United States and France, who viewed him as the lynchpin of regional counter-terrorism efforts.
On the line to discuss what the death of Chad president Idriss Deby means for regional and international security -- and for the future of Chad is Reed Brody, Counsel for Human Rights Watch.
When COVID-19 forced countries to impose widespread lockdowns last year, there was a concurrent surge in gender based violence and domestic abuse. The United Nations has called this a "shadow pandemic" in which lockdowns everywhere lead to a sharp increase in gender based violence.
This includes Poland, where even before the pandemic levels of gender based violence were extremely high. During the first month of the lockdown in March 2020, the country's largest women's rights center received a 50% increase in calls to its emergency domestic abuse hotline.
This COVID-induced spike in gender-based violence in Poland comes as the country is deep into a democratic backslide. The government of Poland is controlled by the ruling Law and Justice Party which has eroded media freedom and eviscerated the independence of the judiciary, among other anti-democratic moves. The government is also reactionary in its worldview, including on issues related to gender. It has imposed a near-total ban on abortion and is seeking to withdraw from a key treaty to combat violence against women known as the Istanbul Convention.
My guest today, Annie Hylton is an independent investigative journalist who examined the increase in gender-based violence in Poland in the context of the country's vulnerability to atrocity crimes. "Atrocity crimes" is generally understood to encompass genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
As she explains, there is research suggesting that the erosion of women's rights precedes atrocity crimes. We discuss her reporting from Poland at length in this conversation.
Today's episode is produced in partnership with the Stanley Center for Peace and Security whose project "Red Flags or Resilience?" examines COVID-19's impact on atrocity risks. The project uses journalism to explore the connections between the coronavirus pandemic and the factors for risk and resilience to mass violence and atrocities around the world. You can view Annie Hylton's article on Poland and other works of journalism as they are published by visiting resilience.stanleycenter.org.
India is currently in the midst the single worst spike in COVID cases experienced anywhere in the world since the start of the pandemic.
On the line with me to explain how and why the COVID crisis got so bad so quickly in India is Michael Kugelman, Asia Program Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center. We kick off discussing the current humanitarian emergency in India before having a broader conversation about the political and international implications of India's spiraling health crisis.
On April 22 and 23rd, the White House hosted the Climate Leaders Summit which featured more than 40 world leaders. Joe Biden kicked off the summit with a major announcement that the United States has set a target to reduce by 50% its carbon emissions by the year 2030
On the line with me to discuss the significance of the White House announcement and its implications for climate diplomacy is Pete Ogden, Vice President for Climate and the Environment at the United Nations Foundation.
The American foreign policy tradition has been recently dominated by just a few ideologies: neoconservatism of the Regan and George W. Bush eras and the liberal internationalism of the Clinton and Obama administrations.
Robert Wright, has helped to introduce and popularize a new kind of intellectual tradition to the public square called "Progressive Realism." He explains some key principals of a progressive-realist foreign policy and how this ideology might be applied to some key foreign policy challenges, including competition with China and conflict in the middle east.
Guest: Robert Wright is the author of several books, including NonZero: The Logic of Human Destiny and runs a newsletter of the same name.
On April 14th President Biden announced that American Troops will be leaving Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, formally ending US military engagement after twenty years of war. What contributed to this decision? What impact will it have on internal dynamics in Afghanistan and does this mean the Taliban will gain control?
On the line with me to discuss the implications of the decision to end US military presence in Afghanistan is Adam Weinstein, Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
The COVID-19 pandemic is just the latest iteration of what Charles Kenny calls an unending war between humanity and infectious disease. His new book "The Plague Cycle" documents and describes how the course of human history has been shaped by infectious disease from thousands of years ago to early 2021.
Guest: Charles Kenny, senior fellow with the Center for Global Development and author of The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease Get a premium subscription!For the last several months Niger has experienced a surge in attacks against civilians by violent extremists. This region of West Africa, the Sahel, has experienced profound and growing security challenges in recent years. What distinguishes this new upsurge in violence in Niger is that civilians are being targeted -- and on the basis of their ethnicity.
Guest: Ornella Moderan the Sahel Program Head for Institute for Security Studies.
When economies started tanking last year as COVID-19 spread rapidly around the globe, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund mounted their crisis response. Now, one year later we can assess some of the impact of the response of these institutions, and what comes next as countries continue to try weather this economic storm.
On the line with me to discuss how the World Bank and IMF have responded to the COVID-19 crisis is Scott Morris, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development.
On March 30th, leaders from 23 countries plus the heads of the World Health Organization and the European Union called for a new international treaty to confront the next pandemic. Global health expert Kate Dodson explains what would be included in a new international treaty on pandemic preparedness and response; how might a pandemic treaty be negotiated among world powers; and asks if a new global pandemic treaty even a good idea? (It is)
Guest: Kate Dodson, Vice President for Global Health at the United Nations Foundation.
Benin is a geographically small country in West Africa, located between Nigeria and Togo. Since the 1990s Benin has earned a reputation as a strong and stable multiparty democracy.
However, that has all changed in recent years and Benin is in the midst of democratic backsliding ahead of elections in which opposition parties have been sidelined.
On the line with me from Benin is Jose Biaou, the spokesperson for the Alliance Patriotic de Nouvelle Espoir -- The New Hope Patriotic Alliance.
In mid-March, the government of Turkey announced that is was withdrawing from a key human rights treaty known as the Istanbul Convention. Turkey took this move right in the middle of a major annual united nations conference called the Commission on the Status of Women.
Needless to say the unfortunate irony of Turkey withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention during the Commission on the Status on Women was not lost on many observers, including my guest today Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins, President and CEO of PAI, an international non profit working on universal access to sexual and reproductive health.
Globalization was always presumed to have a flattening effect; power in a globalized world would be more diffuse and less centralized. A groundbreaking idea, called "Weaponized Interdependence," flips that idea on its head and demonstrates how governments have exploited economic integration to pursue their foreign policy goals and compel foreign adversaries.
Guest: Daniel Drezner, professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts and co-editor of the new book The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence
Health systems in Brazil are collapsing. Hospitals are running out of beds and oxygen as COVID cases in that country are soaring. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has long downplayed the severity of COVID and now deaths are spiking in South America's largest country.
Meanwhile, Bolsonaro's rival, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is poised for a comeback in elections next year after a stunning court decision.
Guest: Leticia Casado, a journalist and stringer for the New York Times who is based in Brasilia.
Several American allies have pledged to pursue an explicitely feminist foreign policy. But what does this mean in practice?
In today's episode, we explore what a feminist foreign policy would mean for the United States and how a feminist foreign policy is one that necessarily must also embrace multilateralism.
Guest: Devon Cone, Senior advocate for women and girls at Refugees International.
The pandemic has been described as a mass extinction event for journalism. This is true in the United States, Europe and the developed world but even more so in poorer countries.
A free and independent media is a key guardrail for a free and open society -- yet many media organizations in the developing world are struggling to stay afloat.
Guest: Nishant Lalwani, managing director of Luminate, and driving force behind a new International Fund for Public Interest Media.
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In early November, a civil war broke out in the Tigray region in Ethiopia. The conflict pitted the federal government and its allies against the regional government of Tigray, known as the TPLF.
Since then the fighting has gotten worse and the humanitarian impact for people living in Tigray has been catastrophic.
Guest: William Davison, a senior analyst for Ethiopia for International Crisis Group discusses how and why this conflict started, and where it may be headed next.
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On February 1st, the Burmese military mounted a coup, deposing and detaining the civilian leadership of the country. The military arrested the de-facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other key members of her ruling party.
This coup is a major setback for Myanmar's transition to democracy and a key foreign policy challenge for the new Biden administration.
Why was there a coup in Myanmar and what happens next?
Guest: John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director Human Rights Watch.
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On February 24 the very first shipments of a COVID-19 vaccine from COVAX arrived in Ghana. COVAX is the international cooperative effort around the development and distribution safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. Ghana became the first country to receive COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX when 600,000 doses landed at the airport in Accra.
On hand to receive these doses was an old friend of mine, Owusu Akoto. He is the founder and CEO of a Ghanian cold chain logistics company called Freezelink.
It was an historic day for COVAX, a hopeful day for Ghana and an exciting moment for my friend who started this company just a couple years ago as a social enterprise to combat food waste in Ghana. He explains the sometimes unheralded role that cold chain technologies and logistics play in a country's economic and social development.
The conflict in Yemen is entering a new phase. The Houthi rebel group that controls much of the country is launching a new offensive in an oil rich region of the country. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has breathed new life into international diplomatic efforts to end the war by ending US support to the Saudi Arabia lead military campaign. This episode examines how the Yemen conflict has evolved over the years and where it may be headed next.
Guest: Gregory D. Johnsen, Brookings Institute and former member of the UN Security Council's Panel of Experts on Yemen.
We know that countries around the world sometimes favor coal because it is cheaper. But new research from my guest today Jan Steckel aims to pinpoint some of the political forces that drive investment in coal.
Steckel along with his research collaborator Michael Jakob are coordinating a series of global case studies to understand the non-economic factors associated with investment in coal-fired power. This episode, produced in partnership with the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative (SETI) examines how politics drives new investments in coal in the developing world.
Their framework is published online here, and a case study on Vietnam is published here.
President Biden must soon make a key decision about American troop levels in Afghanistan. There are currently about 2,500 American troops in Afghanistan, but under a deal negotiated last year between the United States and the Taliban all American troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by May 2021.
This deal was negotiated by the Trump administration and it is unclear whether or not the new Biden administration will honor it.
Guest: Jessica Donati of the Wall Street Journal, author of Eagle Down: The Last Special Forces Fighting the Forever War.
2021 will be a consequential year for multilateral diplomacy on climate change. A number of key meetings are on the diplomatic calendar and they come just as the new Biden-Harris administration in the United states is seeking to leave its mark on international climate action. The geo-politics of this moment in climate diplomacy are complex and the new administration must skillfully navigate a path forward in order to make good on its promise to treat climate change like the priority it is.
Guest: Rachel Kyte, Dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Today’s episode is produced in partnership with the Better World Campaign as part of a series examining the opportunities for strengthening multilateral engagement by the new Biden-Harris administration and the incoming 117th Congress. To learn more and access additional episodes in this series, please visit http://getusback.org/
Over the last several weeks farmers in India have staged mass demonstrations to protest new government agricultural policies. The farmers say these new laws would be financially ruinous and allow large corporations to dictate the price of agricultural goods. Now, the apparently ever growing size of these farmer protests, particularly around New Delhi, have brought worldwide attention to these mass protests.
Guest: Michael Kugelman, the Senior Associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
The United States Agency for international development, USAID, is the premier global development agency of the United States government and one of the largest global development organizations in the world.
As USAID goes, so goes global development. As Samantha Power prepares to lead USAID, this episode examines the global development priorities the new administration may pursue.
Guest: Sarah Rose, policy fellow at Center for Global Development.
With the peace process between Israel and Palestine seemingly intractably stalled, a new peace building plan that is modeled on Northern Ireland seeks to build grassroots support for peace.
Peace-builder and advocate Joel Brunold explains how the Middle East Partnership for Peace Act, recently passed by US Congress, can build momentum for a lasting resolution to longstanding conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
A military coup in Myanmar (also called Burma) has toppled the civilian government lead by Aung San Suu Kyi.
In this 2019 episode, former deputy National Security Advisor to Barack Obama Ben Rhodes explains Aung San Suu Kyi's rise to prominence in Burmese politics and how she ultimately fell from grace as a human rights icon, once revered in the West. The episode covers the political dynamics and recent history of Myanmar that lead to the January 31 military coup (hence the re-release.)
The security and humanitarian situation in the Central African Republic has rapidly deteriorated over the last several weeks. Rebel group control a key road from which goods, food and humanitarian supplies is imported to CAR from neighboring Cameroon. The capitol city, Bangui is under an effective siege.
On the line to discuss what is happening in the Central African Republic is Hans de Marie Heungoup, the Central Africa senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.
On January 23, protests erupted in several cities and town across Russia in support of Alexey Navalny, the anti-corruption activist who was poisoned in an assassination attempt last August. Navalny returned to Russia and was promptly arrested.
On the line with me to discuss the significance of these protests and what they signal about politics in Russia today is Michael McFaul, who served as US Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014.
Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people. It is the largest country in Africa.
The country is now in the midst of a second wave of COVID infections which is straining an already fragile health system. But Nigerian officials have not been able to secure any doses of any COVID-19 vaccine for their frontline health workers--let alone general population.
My guest today, Dr. Faisal Shuaib heads Nigeria's National Primary Healthcare Development Agency and a member of the country's COVID-19 task force. He explains the impact of the COVID--19 in Nigeria and the difficult task of securing doses of the vaccine.
On January 14th, Uganda held national elections for president and parliament. The incumbent was the 76 year old Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986. His main challenger was a 38 year old music star turned politician who goes by the stage name Bobi Wine. Museveni claimed victory and his security forces have laid siege to Wine's home.
On the line to help me understand the current state of play of the fraught election and its aftermath in Uganda is Rosebell Kagumire. She is a writer and editor at a the publication African Feminism and I caught up with her from Kampala, Uganda.
A treaty to ban the use of nuclear weapons becomes international law on January 22, 2021. The treaty seeks to do to nuclear weapons what previous international treaties have done to chemical and biological weapons -- that is, prohibit their use on humanitarian grounds.
Nobel Peace Prize winning Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, discusses exactly this treaty obliges of its member states and also the broader politics surrounding the effort to get countries to sign onto the treaty.
Beatrice Finh -- exec dir of int'l camp to abolish nuclear weapins
Ambassador Klaus Scharioth, who served as German Ambassador the United States from 2006 to 2011, discusses the implications of the Pro-Trump insurrection on US foreign policy and international relations.
Loujan al-Hathloul is a 31 year old Saudi women's rights activist in prison for challenging laws that inhibit women in Saudi Arabia. In early January 2021, she was handed down a nearly six year prison sentence, though much of the sentence was suspended and she may be released as early as February or March.
On the line to discuss her case and what the persecution of Loujan al-Hathloul can tell us about the future of Saudi Arabia, is Sari Bashi, a consultant with the advocacy group DAWN -- Democracy for the Arab World Now.
There is a worsening Jihadist insurgency in a province in Northern Mozambique called Cabo Delgado. The insurgency began in 2017, but in recent weeks the fighting has intensified substantially. Over half a million people have been displaced -- most over the last few months. And in early January 2021, the French energy company Total announced it was suspending operations on a massive $3.9 billion natural gas project in the region amid concerns about the safety of personnel.
Zenaida Machado is a senior researcher with the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. I caught up with hear from Maputo, the capitol of Mozambique. She explains the history of this insurgency, including how this group has shifted tactics from targeted assassinations to more recently capturing territory, including strategically important cities and corridors.
One of the most visible tools of international cooperation on peace and security are UN Peacekeepers -- Blue Helmets. Today there are about 95,000 uniformed personnel deployed to to 13 missions around the world.
Though the United States deploys very few boots on the ground to peacekeeping missions, it is the single largest funder of UN Peacekeeping. And, as a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, it also determines where peacekeepers should be sent. This means that the United States hold tremendous potential to determine the effectiveness of UN peacekeeping.
Victoria Holt has spent a career studying what makes UN Peacekeeping effective and designing policies to strengthen American support for UN Peacekeeping. Victoria Holt is Vice President at the Henry L Stimson Center and served as Deputy Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Security during the two terms of the Obama administration.
Today’s episode is produced in partnership with the Better World Campaign as part of a series examining the opportunities for strengthening multilateral engagement by the new Biden-Harris administration and the incoming 117th Congress. To learn more and access additional episodes in this series, please visit http://getusback.org/
The last four years have altered the global human rights landscape in some pretty significant ways. The Trump administration by and large abandoned multilateral forums for advancing a human rights agenda, like the UN Human Rights Council, while at the same time China began to more proactively engage in those platforms.
Suzanne Nossel, makes the compelling argument that the time has never been more urgent for the United States to re-assert itself at multilateral human rights platforms like the UN Human Rights Council.
Suzanne Nossel is the CEO of PEN America and author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary State for International Organizations during the Obama administration where she helped design and implement US policy towards the Human Rights Council.
Today’s episode is produced in partnership with the Better World Campaign as part of a series examining the opportunities for strengthening multilateral engagement by the new Biden-Harris administration and the incoming 117th Congress. To learn more and access additional episodes in this series, please visit http://getusback.org/
With Trump leaving office, the incoming administration has an opportunity to reset America's approach to refugees, asylum seekers and international migration more broadly. On the line with me to discuss some of the concrete steps the incoming Biden-Harris administration may take on these issues is Nazanin Ash, vice president for global policy and advocacy at the International Rescue Committee
We kick off discussing the ways in which refugee and asylum policy have historically enjoyed bi-partisan consensus before discussing the ways in which the incoming Biden-Harris administration can re-assert US leadership on these issues, including through some key multi-lateral platforms.
Today's episode is produced in partnership with the Better World Campaign as part of a series examining the opportunities for strengthening multilateral engagement by the new Biden-Harris administration and the incoming 117th Congress. To learn more and access additional episodes in this series, please visit http://getusback.org/
On December 10th, Donald Trump upended over 30 years of US diplomacy with a tweet in which he declared American support for Morocco's claims of sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Since the 1970s, Morocco and a local group called the Polisario Front have fought for control of Western Sahara. In the early 1990s the United States brokered a ceasefire agreement which called for the people of Western Sahara to vote in a referendum to determine their status as an independent country. A UN Peacekeeping mission was deployed to region to help maintain the ceasefire and prepare for the vote.
Now, the United States has abandoned its previous support for self-determination of the Sahrawi people and simply affirmed that Western Sahara is part of Morocco. In exchange, Morocco has begun to establish formal diplomatic ties with Israel.
On the line to help make sense of the significance of this move is Intissar Fakir, fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and editor of Sadaa, a publication that focuses on political, economic and social developments in the Middle East. We spend a good deal of time in this episode discussing the recent history of the Western Sahara conflict from the 1970s to today. We then discuss the implications of the United States' sudden reversal of its long held diplomatic position.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has made global health a top tier issue in Washington. In today's episode we explore what opportunities might exist for the incoming Biden administration and Congress to advance a global health agenda premised on strengthening international cooperation to take on common health challenges
Loyce Pace is President and CEO of the Global Health Council. We kick off discussing how the Trump administration's approach to global health was something of departure from typical bi-partisan support for health and development around the world before discussing in depth how a Biden administration and new Congress may advance a global health agenda, including what a global response to COVID-19 might look like.
Today's episode is produced in partnership with the Better World Campaign as part of a series examining the opportunities for strengthening multilateral engagement by the new Biden-Harris administration and the incoming 117th Congress. To learn more and access additional episodes in this series, please visit http://getusback.org/
December 12 2020 is the five year anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement. And on that day a number of governments, non state actors and other world leaders will convene virtually for a Climate Ambition Summit hosted by the United Nations, the United Kingdom, and France, in partnership with Chile and Italy.
Ahead of this summit, the podcast partnered with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) for a live taping that explored ways countries can take on climate change while also improving human health and spurring economic development. We use Chile as a starting off point for a broader conversation about ways countries can design policies to take on climate change that have knock-on benefits for health and the economy.
Panelists:
Marcelo Mena Carrasco, Director, Center for Climate Action, Catholic University of Valparaiso, and the former Environment Minister of Chile
Dr. Laura Gallardo Klenner, a Professor at the Center for Climate and Resilience Research at the University of Chile
Graham Watkins, Chief of the Climate Change Division, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
Chris Malley, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
Links:
Jobs in a Net-Zero Emissions Future in Latin America and the Caribbean
Ambassador Thomas Pickering is a legendary retired US foreign service officer. He had a four decade career in diplomacy, including serving as ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, Nigeria, El Salvador, among key postings.
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed him US Ambassador to the United Nations where he played a critical role in marshaling broad international support against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The diplomacy that accompanied the international effort to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the early 1990s is considered to be a high water mark for US multilateral engagement.
This is why I was curious to learn from Ambassador Pickering about what opportunities may exist for the incoming Biden administration to re-establish US global leadership and multilateral engagement?
We kick off discussing the Trump administration's approach to multilateralism before having a broader conversation about the changing nature of the UN and ways the Biden administration can productively work with with allies and adversaries to advance American interests and the global good.
Today's episode is produced in partnership with the Better World Campaign as part of a series examining the opportunities for strengthening multilateral engagement by the new Biden-Harris administration and the incoming 117th Congress. To learn more and access additional episodes in this series, please visit http://getusback.org/
The first 100 days of any new presidential administration offers a key inflection point, signaling the policies that the new administration will prioritize and champion. It is during those first 100 days that the new administration gets the most leeway from congress, the media, and the general public to set their agenda.
Setting that agenda often includes a mix of new executive actions, supporting specific pieces of legislation, and releasing a federal budget request to congress which demonstrates the new administration's funding priorities.
This is the opportunity for the Biden administration when it takes office on January 20. In today's episode, we take a deep dive into what a Biden-Administration's first 100-day agenda may look like when it comes to re-setting America's relationship with the United Nations and other multilateral organizations.
Peter Yeo is the President of the Better World Campaign and Senior Vice President of the United Nations Foundation. He has had a long career in congress, the federal government and advocacy; and he explains the various executive actions and legislative priorities that the Biden administration will likely pursue to signal the United States' renewed commitment to multilateralism.
Today's episode is produced in partnership with the Better World Campaign as part of a series examining the opportunities for strengthening multilateral engagement by the new Biden-Harris administration and the incoming 117th Congress. To learn more and access additional episodes in this series, please visit http://getusback.org/
Linda Thomas-Greenfield will be nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. She is a veteran diplomat who most recently served as Assistant-Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Obama administration. Prior to that she served as the US Ambassador to Liberia during a critical time in that country's transition to democracy.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield left the State Department in 2017, amid a wider purge by the Trump administration of senior career diplomats. Not long after, she sat down with me for a long interview about her life and career. We cover a lot of ground in this interview, which alternates between a discussion about policy and her own fascinating life story.
When President Trump came to office in 2017, he inherited from President Obama the Iran Nuclear Deal. Trump rejected the deal and embarked on a fruitless "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran.
Such is the state of relations between the United States and Iran that Joe Biden will inherit when he takes office in January. Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute discusses whether or not it is even possible for a Biden administration to revive the nuclear deal; and what steps a Biden administration can take to get diplomacy with Iran back on track.
On November 9th the warring parties in Nagorno-Karabakh signed a ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia. The agreement comes after weeks of very heaving fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia which killed and displaced thousands of people.
On the line with me to discuss these recent events Anna Zamejc, a freelance journalist who has covered this region for years. We spend a few minutes discussing the recent history of Nagorno-Karabakh before having a longer conversation about the regional and international implications of this ceasefire agreement.
On November 4th, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched military operations against the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the TPLF, which is the group that controls the Tigray region in Northern Ethiopia.
Tensions have been simmering for some time between the Federal government, which Abiy controls and the TPLF. Now, one year after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Abiy has launched a military campaign that could very well spark a widespread civil war.
On the line with me to discuss recent events in Ethiopia and offer some analysis of why the country is on the brink of civil war is Mastewal Terefe, an Ethiopian policy analyst and lawyer.
We kick off discussing the events of November 4 before having a broader conversation about the causes of escalating tensions between Abiy and the TPLF. As you will see in this conversation, there is a great risk right now that this conflict between the federal government and TPLF spreads to other armed groups that are organized along ethnic lines.
Gerard Araud is the former French Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations. We recorded this conversation on the Friday following the Tuesday of election day, when the result was all but certain. Ambassador Araud offers his take on how the election of Joe Biden will impact transatlantic relations and the ways that a Biden administration can repair some of the damage done to US-European relations these past four years.
At time of recording, votes in the United States election were still being counted. It appears that the vote totals so far are highly favorable to Joe Biden. Boston Globe columnist Michael Cohen discusses the results, such as we know them, and what they reveal about the American electorate and what, if anything, the results mean for America's role in the world.
Protests in Thailand took an unexpected turn in October when young Thais began demanding reforms to the Monarchy, a traditionally revered institution. This added to demands that the prime minister, who took over in a coup in 2014 immediately resign.
Benjamin Zawacki, Senior Program Specialist at the Asia Foundation and author of the book "Thailand: Shifting Ground between the US and a Rising China," explains what is driving protests in Thailand. We kick off discussing the role of the monarchy in Thai society and politics before having a longer conversation about what this protest movement means for the future of Thailand.
Rethinking Humanitarianism is a new podcast for anyone with an interest in the future of humanitarianism, from donors to NGO executives, frontline responders to policy wonks — basically if you’ve got an eye on the aid sector, this podcast is for you.
The podcast is co-hosted by Heba Aly, director of the independent newsroom The New Humanitarian, and Jeremy Konyndyk, senior policy fellow at the non-profit think tank the Center for Global Development. Today's episode features the debut of "Rethinking Humanitarianism"
It's the late summer, and an unexplained influenza virus is killing international travelers. Researchers quickly identify the virus as a genetically engineered flu-strain. Intelligence agencies find irrefutable evidence that the virus was created in a secret bioweapons laboratory in a middle income country. It was accidentally released. By the end 50 million people are killed by this pathogen.
This was the scenario presented to a group of experts at the Munich Security Conference in February who participated in what is known as a "tabletop exercise" to understand how key international players might respond to a situation like this--and identify ways that such a scenario might be prevented from unfolding in the first place.
My guest today, Jaime Yassif, helped to design and implement this table top exercise. She is a senior fellow at NTI for Global Biological policy and programs. And in our conversation we discuss what this fictional scenario reveals about very real gaps in international policies to prevent a catastrophic biological weapons event.
Today's episode was taped live in front a virtual audience as part of a series of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security, produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network.
The episode today, which is the eighth and final in our series, examines the relationship between climate security and inequality in Indonesia. The episode kicks off with Grazia Pacillo, senior economist CGIAR Climate Security, explaining the results of a report about the impact of climate variability on inequality in Indonesia. I then moderate a discussion with a diverse array of panelists who dive deeper into the ways in which climate variability impacts economic and social inequality in Indonesia and what can be done about it.
In early October a video began to circulate on social media in Nigeria depicting a gruesome act of police brutality. The perpetrators of the police violence were from a notorious police unit called the Special Robbery Squad, or SARS.
As this video went viral, Nigerians voiced their own stories of being victimized by this police unit. The hashtag #ENDSARS was born.
But the story does not end there.
Olorunrinu Oduala, helped to transform this hashtag into a massive youth-led protest movement against police brutality in Nigeria. What started as a hashtag has become a concrete set of demands for police reform and accountability, around which millions of young people in Nigeria have mobilized.
Today's episode was taped live in front a virtual audience as part of a series of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security, produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network.
The episode today, which is the seventh in our series, examines the relationship between climate security and inequality in Vietnam. The episode kicks off with Grazia Pacillo, senior economist CGIAR Climate Security, explaining the results of a report about the impact of climate variability on inequality in Vietnam. I then moderate a discussion with a diverse array of panelists who dive deeper into the ways in which climate variability impacts economic and social inequality in Vietnam and what can be done about it.
In the short history of modern humanitarianism, great crises have often inspired reform in how the international community approaches emergency situations.
Jessica Alexander wrote a sweeping review of how big crises over the last thirty years have compelled the humanitarian aid sector to change how it operates. Her article culminates with a discussion of how the current COVID crisis is forcing a new kind of reckoning in the aid sector.
Jessica Alexander is a longtime humanitarian worker and editor of The New Humanitarian's Rethinking Humanitarian Series, which is where her article appears. She is also the author of Chasing Chaos: My Decade in and Out of Humanitarian Aid
We kick off our conversation discussing how the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide in the mid 1990s gave rise to a more formalized humanitarian aid sector. We then discuss how big crises like the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake forced changes to how international humanitarian relief operates, before having a conversation about how COVID might force some fundamental changes in the aid sector.
Today's episode was taped live in front a virtual audience as part of a series of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security, produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network.
The episode today, which is the sixth in our series, examines how to achieve climate security through strengthening partnerships across sectors, disciplines and geographies.
Panelists:
Robert Malley, President & CEO, International Crisis Group Claudia Sadoff, Executive Management Team Convener and Managing Director, Research Delivery and Impact, CGIAR Hans Olav Ibrekk, Policy Director - Section for Energy, Climate and Food Security, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Franck Bousquet, Senior Director, Fragility Conflict and Violence Group at the World Bank
Cote d'Ivoire president Alassane Ouattara is seeking a constitutionally dubious third term in office in elections scheduled for October 31. Opposition supporters have taken to the streets, and several people have been killed in clashes. Cote d'Ivoire has a history of election-related violence and a chaotic situation in the run-up to these elections suggests that the country may erupt in violent conflict.
Mohammad Diatta, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, explains the high-risk political crisis unfolding in the Ivory Coast
Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous region in the south caucuses that is claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Since 1994, the sides have been locked in stalemate, with periodic fighting. Now, the worst fighting in decades has erupted. In a matter of days, this has become a major international crisis with big geopolitical implications.
Olesya Vartanyan is a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, working in the South Caucuses. I caught up with her from Tblisi, Georgia. We kick off discussing the history of conflict in this region, before she gives her analysis of why such intense conflict is erupting right now. We also discuss the broader regional and geopolitical implications of this fighting.
In rural Ethiopia women are more likely than men to collect firewood and cook over stoves that emit harmful smoke. Meanwhile, men are more likely than women to control how household income is spent. Accordingly, men are less likely than women to purchase improved cooking stoves that emit fewer pollutants while cooking.
This is the case in rural Ethiopia and also across rural communities throughout much of the developing world.
Dr. Sied Hassan, sought to dig deeper into this phenomenon. He designed an inventive field experiment to uncover the willingness of men versus the willingness of women to pay for an improved cookstove. Dr. Sied Hassan is a research fellow at Ethiopian Policy Studies institute, a think tank in Ethiopia. He discusses his experiment and the very big policy implications of his findings. We also discuss a related experiment in which he tested various methods to increase the willingness of rural households to pay for solar lighting.
Today’s episode is part of series of episodes that showcase the research and work of the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative. SETI is an interdisciplinary global collaborative that aims to foster research on energy access and energy transitions in low and middle-income countries. Currently, SETI is housed at Duke University, where it is led by Professors Subhrendu Pattanayak and Marc Jeuland. To learn more about SETI, follow them on Twitter @SETIenergy.
This episode was taped live in front of a virtual audience and featured four panelists discussing the intersection of climate and security in Colombia.
The experts and policymakers featured in this conversation bring diverse backgrounds and perspectives on the links between climate variability and security in an historically conflict-prone country.
This episode is part of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security, produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network.
Panelists include:
Governor Luis Fernando Suarez, is acting governor of the Antioquia department, Former Secretary of Government during several periods and a key player in the efforts city and regional governments deployed since the 90’s to counter different waves of political and criminal violence in the Department.
Angelika Rettberg, professor of Political Science at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. She was part of the government delegation that tried to negotiate with the ELN, which is one of the older insurgent groups that has not signed a peace agreement with the government.
Frank Pearl, former Minister of Environment of Colombia, the High Presidential Commissioner for Reintegration, and Senior Lead Peace negotiator during the peace talks between the Colombian Government and the FARC, which lead to the Peace agreement of 2016. He was also chief negotiator with the ELN
Juan Lucas Restrepo, Director General of the Alliance between Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture with CGIAR
On Monday, September 21 the United Nations officially commemorated its 75th anniversary. The centerpiece of this commemoration is a declaration from all 193 member states of the United Nations that reaffirming their commitment to international cooperation to advance peace and security, human rights and development.
The 75th anniversary of the UN provides a good opportunity to reflect on the changing role of the United Nations and of multilateralism more broadly in international relations. On the line with me to discuss these questions and more is Ambassador Elizabeth Cousens, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation. We kick off discussing the significance of the UN 75 Declaration before having a broader conversation about the role of the United Nations and multilateralism in international relations today.
It will be a United Nations General Assembly like no other. Typically this is the time of year where world leaders gather in New York to deliver speeches at the UN and participate in all manner of diplomatic events at the United Nations. But this year UNGA goes virtual.
UNGA Week is always a highlight of the diplomatic calendar, though of course it will look much different this year. A great number of heads of state and world leaders are delivering video-messages, with the exception of Donald Trump who has said he would like to deliver his address in person.
On the line with me to preview some of the storylines for this most unusual UNGA is Richard Gowan, the UN Director of the International Crisis Group.
Related Links: Crisis Group report on "Snap Back" Sanctions on Iran.
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On August 27th Paul Rusesabagina flew from his home in Texas to Dubai. Three days later, he mysteriously appeared in Kigali, Rwanda, where authorities proudly proclaimed his arrest.
He would not be the first person whom the Rwandan government has targeted this way -- but he is arguably the highest profile.
Paul Rusesabagina was the manager of a high-end hotel in Kigali, Rwanda as the genocide unfolded. His heroism was dramatized in the film Hotel Rwanda.
On the line with me to discuss this situation is Lewis Mudge, the Central Africa Director of Human Rights Watch. We discuss how this government action against Rusesabagina's fits into larger patterns of how the regime of Paul Kagame has targeted dissidents abroad.
The Sahel region of Africa is one of the regions of the world that is worst impacted by climate change. It is also a region beset by instability, insecurity and conflict. This episode, which was taped live in front of a virtual audience, examines the relationship between climate and security in a discussion featuring five panelists. This episode is part of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security, produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network. This episode was taped live in front of a virtual audience and featured five panelists discussing the intersection of climate and security in the Sahel region of Africa. https://climatesecurity.cgiar.org
When a COVID-19 Vaccine is available, most of the world will have access to it thanks to a unique platform for international cooperation called The COVAX Facility.
The COVAX Facility is a platform for pooled investments in the development, manufacture and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. At time of recording, 172 countries have entered into an initial agreement with COVAX, representing about 70% of the world's population. The goal of the COVAX Facility is to provide 2 billion doses of a vaccine to cover 20% of the population of all participating countries by the end of 2021.
GAVI--The Vaccine Alliance administers COVAX and on the line with me today to explain how COVAX works is the Managing Director for Country Programs at GAVI Thabani Maphosa
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or the GERD, is a major hydroelectric project that is being built on the Blue Nile river near the border with Sudan. The dam promises to bring a much needed source of electricity to the people of Ethiopia. But the dam sits on what is the main tributary to the Nile River. Egypt, which is downstream from Ethiopia, has been vehemently opposed to its construction. Egypt contends that the dam will restrict water flow and undermine its rights to the Nile waters.
Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan are now locked in a fight over water and who gets to benefit from the Nile River.
On the line with me to explain the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is Mekdelawit Messay, an independent water science researcher based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Today’s episode is supported in part from a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to showcase African voices in peace and security issues.
When a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, chances are that the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will have played a big role in bringing it into the world.
CEPI is a partnership between governments, philanthropies and civil society organizations to support the development of vaccines and medicines for infectious diseases that have the potential to become pandemics. When COVID-19 emerged, CEPI made early investments in vaccine research and development and in building infrastructure around the mass production of a vaccine.
In this episode, the CEO of CEPI Richard Hatchett explains how this platform for international cooperation is supporting the development of a COVID-19 Vaccine that will be made available worldwide as a public good.
This episode is Part 1 of of a series examining how international cooperation and "vaccine multilateralism" is accelerating an end to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Central African Republic is near the bottom of every major economic or development indicator. Out of 189 countries ranked in the UN Development Program's Human Development Index, the Central African Republic is second to last. When it comes to life expectancy at birth, the country ranks dead-last. It is also a country that is emerging from civil war.
Despite these challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic is not raging out of control in CAR. This is in large part due to the work of the World Health Organization, UN Peacekeeping, the Government of CAR -- and specifically Dr. Marie Roseline Belizaire. She is a Haitian epidemiologist with the World Health Organization who was deployed to the Central African Republic early in the pandemic to assist the country with COVID -19 preparedness and response plan.
We kick off discussing how her work fighting ebola across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo has informed her response to COVID in the Central African Republic. We then discuss some of the strategies she developed in partnership with the government and the UN peacekeeping mission which has helped to contain the spread of COVID in the Central African Republic.
Joe Biden formally accepts the Democratic party's nomination for US President this week at the Democratic National Convention. The convention is always a key moment in the presidential election calendar so I thought this would be a good opportunity to have a discussion about what a Joe Biden administration's foreign policy agenda would look like? And whether or not there is something that could be credibly called a "Biden Doctrine?"
Other than Joe Biden himself, Steve Clemons is the perfect person to discuss this question -- not least of which is because in August 2016, he wrote an article for the Atlantic called "The Biden Doctrine." Steve Clemons is the Editor at Large for The Hill, which is a media outlet that focuses on Congressional affairs. He has also had a career in which he has straddled journalism and insider foreign policy circles, which gives him a unique perspective as a foreign policy analyst.
If you’re interested in hearing more about topical global issues, check out Rising to Respond… a podcast that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes for humanitarians to fight COVID-19 around the world. Brought to you by World Vision. They’re covering stories you’re not seeing in the news. Hear from global leaders, frontline workers and children about the realities they’re facing during this global pandemic. You can find Rising to Respond on your favorite podcast player
Belarus is sometimes referred to as Europe's last dictatorship. Since 1994 it has been ruled by just one man -- Alexander Lukashenko, and he has ruled the country with an iron fist.
In early August Belarusians went to the polls for presidential elections in which Lukashenko was declared the winner by a wide margin. Belarusians, however, did not accept the results and took to the streets in record numbers. Government forces cracked down hard and the main opposition candidate was apparently detained and then removed from the country.
Belarus is bordered on one side by Russia and the other by the European Union. The fate of Lukashenko is of profound importance to Russia and Europe -- and increasingly the United States.
On the line to provide some context for understanding these recent events in Belarus is Stephen Nix. He is the regional director for Eurasia at the International Republican Institute and a longtime policy hand focusing on former Soviet Republics
China is the world's largest consumer of coal, though in recent years the government has sought to reduce the country's reliance on coal for energy. This includes transitioning away from coal for home heating.
In 2014, the government launched what is known as the household heating energy transition program. This program sought to replace household coal heating units with electricity, natural gas, or cleaner burning coal. Like many Chinese infrastructure projects it was a massive undertaking. It was also directed by the government, top down, and mandatory for homes that used dirty burning coal.
My guest today, Lunyu Xie is Associate Professor at the School of Applied Economics, Renmin University of China. She conducted a unique cost-benefit study of this program that analyzed both the effectiveness of the household heating energy transition program. Dirty burning coal from home heating units is a major pollutant, particularly in northern China that both causes significant harm to individual health and also contributes to climate change. What makes Lunyu Xie's study so significant is that she uses data from household surveys to see how this major government program benefits end users--or not.
Today’s episode is part of series of episodes that showcase the research and work of the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative. SETI is an interdisciplinary global collaborative that aims to foster research on energy access and energy transitions in low and middle-income countries. Currently, SETI is housed at Duke University, where it is led by Professors Subhrendu Pattanayak and Marc Jeuland. To learn more about SETI, follow them on Twitter @SETIenergy.
The story of a leaky oil tanker stranded off the coast of Yemen is, in part, the story of the country's civil war. There are about a million gallons of oil stored in this tanker, which has not been operational since 2015. That is when Yemen's civil war escalated into an international conflict pitting Houthi rebels who overthrew the government against an international coalition lead by Saudi Arabia.
Since then, the condition of this old oil tanker has deteriorated and is threatening to cause what would be the world's worst-ever oil spill, causing immense environmental, economic and humanitarian damage throughout the Red Sea. The Houthi rebels control access to this tanker and so far, they have not permitted UN experts or an international team to inspect the tanker, nor take steps to safely remove the oil from it.
On the line to discuss is Gerry Simpson, Associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. He has been following the situation with the tanker closely and We kick off discussing the history of this tanker before having a broader conversation about the possible damage that a leak may inflict and its broader relationship to the conflict in Yemen.
The situation with the tanker is something that has been on the radar of the UN Security Council, and even US Congress. The damage from an oil spill would be at a scale that is hard to comprehend.
It's a crisis waiting to happen and so far there has been very little progress in securing the tanker.
Mali is in the midst of its worst political crisis in years. Since June, protesters have gathered in the streets of the capital city of Bamako demanding the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. On top of this, a conflict in the northern part of the country, to which the UN has deployed a large peacekeeping mission, is continuing to drive instability throughout the country.
My guest, Dr. Amadou Bocoum, is the Mali Director for the NGO Search for Common Ground and I caught up with him from Bamako, the capital city which is in the South.
In our conversation, Amadou Bocoum describes how these protests were sparked by a court decision to annul the results of parliamentary elections. But as he explains, the discontent that is driving these protests runs much deeper.
This is a useful conversation about a crisis that is very much unfolding at the present time -- and is one that is of profound regional and international significance.
Today’s episode is supported in part from a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to showcase African voices in peace and security issues.
Billions of dollars are spent each year on foreign aid and global development. In the past, the exact amount of aid that is being spent, where is it is being spent, by whom it is being spent--and to what end is the aid serving has been very difficult for outsiders to parse. But that has been changing in recent years. Aid agencies in government and multi-lateral institutions like the World Bank and the United Nations are becoming increasingly transparent -- not least because they have been spurred to do so by my guest today, Gary Forster.
He is the executive director of Publish What You Fund -- the global campaign for aid and development transparency. The organization publishes an annual index of 47 aid agencies from the public sector and private philanthropy which assess how open each entity is in regards to its operations.
In our conversation, Gary Forster explains why transparency in aid is so important and identifies some of entities that rank highest and lowest on the aid transparency index. The data compiled by Publish What You Fund also offers a very good birds-eye view of aid and development spending, so we also discuss some of the broad trends that he has seen in recent years among donors. This includes the impact of COVID-19 on foreign aid and development assistance.
Rais Bhuiyan has an absolutely incredible and very moving story. In the days after the September 11th attacks in the United States, Bhuiyan -- an immigrant to the US from Bangladesh -- was working behind the counter at a gas station in Texas when he was shot in the face by a white supremacist who was on a killing spree and looking for foreigners to murder.
After surviving the attack, Bhuiyan embarked on an improbable journey of peace and reconciliation, seeking to prevent his attacker from the death penalty.
He is the founder of the NGO World Without Hate and this episode was recorded in 2014.
As the Coronavirus Pandemic tore through the world this spring, it resulted in sharply lower demand for oil, driving down prices. Added to this, Russia and Saudi Arabia got into an oil price war that brought the price of oil to near historic low levels. Needless to say, the low price of oil has deeply impacted countries in the region who rely on oil wealth. This includes not only oil-rich gulf countries, but also governments and other groups that rely on aid derived from oil largesse. My guest today, Mohammed Soliman is a Non-Resident Scholar with the Middle East Institute and a member of the McLarty Associates MENA Practice. We kick off discussing how wealthy Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar used their oil wealth in the wake of the Arab Spring to shore up domestic stability and pursue their regional foreign policy goals. We then have an extended conversation about the ways in which COVID-19 and slumping oil prices are shaking up the foundations of the geopolitics of the Middle East. This episode was recorded as a live taping of the podcast, produced in partnership with Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, YPFP. https://www.undispatch.com/
Since the Kosovo War of 1999, the status of Kosovo as a country independent of Serbia has not been resolved. Many countries, including the United States and most of Europe, recognize Kosovo as an independent country. But others do not--including Russia, which has blocked Kosovo's aspirations to join the United Nations.
This has been the status quo for many years. But in recent months there has been some renewed momentum in diplomacy intended to find an agreement that would satisfy both Serbia and Kosovo and lead to Kosovo's formal independence.
To that end, on June 24th, The president of Kosovo set off for Washington, D.C. for high level talks at the White House. But mid-air, the flight turned around when a special court unsealed an indictment against him for war crimes committed decades ago during the war.
This indictment is the latest wrinkle in the long effort to secure an international agreement over Kosovo's status. Another key issue is ongoing protests in Serbia and that country's ongoing democratic backsliding.
On the line with me to explain the significance of these recent events in the Balkans is Jasmin Mujanović . He is a limited term professor of political science and policy studies at Elon University and host of the Sarejevo calling podcast.
We kick off with discussing the Kosovo-Serbia talks and then have a conversation about the implications of rising authoritarianism in Serbia
Chile is one of the most air polluted countries in the world. This is partly a matter of geography -- many cities are in valleys that trap pollution. But it is also the consequence of how many Chileans heat their homes. Wood burning home heat stoves are very common in much of Chile, and these stoves burn dirty and emit harmful pollution. My guest today, Carlos Chavez, is professor of economics at the School of Business and Economics at Universdad de Talca in Central Chile. His research has focused on the use of wood burning heating stoves in chile and government policies that could reduce the prevalence of wood burning stoves and improve air quality. In our conversation we discuss why so many people in Chile heat their homes this way and how he was able to create a research project that suggests some effective policy remedies. Chile is a higher income country, yet the way that many households create energy by burning wood is something far more common in poorer countries -- it is generally not associated with countries at Chile's level of wealth. This makes Chile an interesting case study that I am glad to bring you today. This episode is part of a series of episodes that showcase the research and work of the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative. SETI is an interdisciplinary global collaborative that aims to foster research on energy access and energy transitions in low and middle-income countries. Currently, SETI is housed at Duke University, where it is led by Professors Subhrendu Pattanayak and Marc Jeuland. To learn more about SETI, follow them on Twitter @SETIenergy.
In recent years, as China has become more powerful on the world stage, the Chinese Communist Party has sought to erode Hong Kong's political independence. In fact, on June 30th, the Chinese government passed a so-called National Security Law that criminalized free speech and political activity in Hong Kong.
Additionally, last year at this time there were massive peaceful protests against a law that Beijing sought to impose on Hong Kong that would permit the extradition of people from Hong Kong to China. In the year since, police and pro-Beijing authorities have cracked down on protests. And now, with this fully new law, people are being arrested for the signs they are waving. "This law," says my guest Victoria Tin-Bor Hui, "means the One China, Two Systems model is dead."
Victoria Tin-Bor Hui is an associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. We discuss the content of the new National Security Law before having a broader conversation about its political and social implications of this new era for Hong Kong.
This episode is part three of a six-part series examining the relationship between climate and security, produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network. This episode was taped live in front of a virtual audience and featured five panelists discussing how sustainable finance can support peace and climate security. In the context of our conversation, sustainable finance is something of an umbrella term for harnessing private sector capital in the service of social and environmental goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals. The conversation that unfolds over the course of about 50 minutes includes examples of innovative financial products, a discussion of the role of traditional development aid, and a broad conversation about what else needs to be done to scale up private sector investment in climate security. https://climatesecurity.cgiar.org
Burundi's longtime ruler Pierre Nkurunziza died suddenly on June 8th, quite possibly from COVID-19. Nkurunziza has been president of Burundi since 2005, and in recent years his rule became firmly authoritarian. His death sent shockwaves across Africa and the world
On the line with me today is Yolande Bouka, a professor of political studies at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. We discuss the legacy of Pierre Nkurunziza and what this chaotic moment means for Burundi and the surrounding region.
We kick off discussing the circumstances surrounding Nkurunziza's death. We then discuss his fraught time in power, including a key moment in 2015, when he engineered for himself a constitutionally dubious third term in office and survived a coup attempt. The conflict surrounding that episode lead to the displacement of 400,000 people -- the impact of which is being felt across the region today. We also discuss the background of the new president of Burundi, Évariste Ndayishimiye and what his rule may bring for the country.
Today's episode is part three of a three-part series that gives you an inside look at how the United Nations is commemorating its 75th anniversary this year. This episode includes a 15-minute interview with Kate Dodson, Vice President for Global Health at the United Nations Foundation. We of course discuss the COVID-19 pandemic -- specifically how the World Health Organization and other United Nations entities are responding. We also discuss what reforms might make the WHO more effective at responding to future global health emergencies.
After that interview concludes, the consultation begins. And for the podcast, I edited this down to include some of the questions and answers discussed.
A big thank you to the UNA-USA for partnering with the podcast around these consultations. (Part one and part two of the series.)
On June 26, 1945, after months of negotiations in the city of San Francisco, representatives from 50 countries signed the Charter of the United Nations. In October that year, after the requisite number of countries ratified the charter, the United Nations was born.
To mark the 75th anniversary of the signing of treaty that created the United Nations, I am re-leasing a conversation I had with author Stephen Schlesinger who wrote the definitive book about the 1945 San Francisco Conference, Act of Creation.
Stephen Schlesinger and I recorded this conversation exactly five years ago, when the UN turned 70. We discuss the history of the UN Charter and the post war diplomatic intrigue that lead to its signing.
Mary Fitzgerald a researcher specializing in Libya. When we last spoke, the Libyan conflict was intensifying very rapidly. For months, a renegade general named Khalifa Haftar had been attacking Tripoli, the seat of the UN-backed government. That assault was locked in a stalemate until Russia increased its support of Haftar’s forces, seemingly turning the tide. But then, Turkey announced that it was going to ramp up its support for the Tripoli government, setting the stage for a proxy war between Russia and Turkey -- among others.
That was the state of play as we entered 2020. Then, in June, forces backed by Turkey finally ended Haftar’s offensive on Tripoli. Haftar’s forces are now on the retreat.
This dramatic turn of events in a civil war has profound international implications. In addition to Russia, the UAE, Egypt, and France have given political or military backing to Haftar, at least until now. Meanwhile, the position of the United States has not been consistent, at times seemingly encouraging Haftar and backing a UN-peace process.
I am glad to have Mary Fitzgerald back on the show to discuss these latest events in Libya and their broader international impact.
This episode is part two of a six-part series examining the relationship between climate and security. I moderated this session with Grazia Pacillo of CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network. Today we had four panelists from diverse fields grapple with how data and technology can be put to better use in the service of peacebuilding, resilience, and other aspects of climate security. Panelists: Elisabeth Gilmore, Associate Professor in the Environmental Science and Policy Program in the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment at Clark University. She is also a Senior Associate Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo PRIO and Visiting Scientist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development COMOD Andy Jarvis, Associate Director General, Research Strategy and Innovation, The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT Enrica Pocari, Chief Innovation Officer and Director of Technology at the UN World Food Programme Maarten van Aalst, Director of the International Federation of the Red Cross Climate Center https://climatesecurity.cgiar.org/ https://www.undispatch.com/
The Black Lives Matter movement has spread quickly around the world. Over the last several weeks, there have been BLM demonstrations in nearly every major city in Europe. Tens of thousands of people showed up for protests in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, and London, just to name a few. There were also many protests across Latin America, Australia--even Asian cities like Seoul and Tokyo saw Black Lives Matter protests.
So how did the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota spark an anti-racism and civil rights movement that extends far beyond the United States?
My guest today, Dominique Day, is in a unique position to analyze that question. She is an American who serves as vice-chair of the "Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent," a UN human rights entity that monitors anti-black racism around the world.
We kick off with a discussion of how the Working Group operates and how anti-black racism manifests itself differently around the world. We then have a broader conversation about what is motivating the Black Lives Matter movement outside the United States.
Today's episode is part two of a three part series that gives you an inside look at how the United Nations is commemorating its 75th anniversary this year.
Rather than holding a big party or jubilee, the UN is instead embarking on a listening tour. The UN is seeking feedback from as many people in as many communities as possible, all around three big questions: What Kind of World do We Want to Create? Are We on Track? And What is Needed to Bridge the Gap?
Here in the United States, the United Nations Association is hosting what are called global consultations around these questions. They are gathering groups to solicit input that will be relayed to leadership at the United Nations ahead of a major meeting in September to mark the UN's anniversary.
In part one of this series, I moderated a global consultation that discussed those big questions, but using the lens of gender equality. In today's episode, I moderate a consultation about climate change and the environment.
This episode kicks off with my 15 minutes interview of Julie Cerqueira who is the Executive Director of the U.S. Climate Alliance, which is a coalition of US states committed to climate action. That conversation focuses on the Paris agreement and specifically what sub-national groups, like individual states, can do to advance the climate change agenda in the face of inaction at the federal level. After that interview concludes, the consultation begins. And for the podcast, I edited this down to include some of the questions and answers discussed.
A big thank you to the UNA-USA for partnering with the podcast around these consultations.
In late May a confrontation between Indian and Chinese soldiers in a remote border region of the Himalayas descended into what appears to be a massive fistfight. Most accounts describe a giant brawl between as many as 100 soldiers with no shots fired and no deaths. But soon after the fight, India and China mobilized heavy guns and artillery to the region threatening a major escalation of hostilities between two regional heavyweights. Since then, tensions seemed to have eased between the two countries. Still, this incident underscores the very tense relationship between India and China and the very tenuous situation concerning India and China's border. On the line to explain this mini-crisis between India and China is Michael Kugelman. He is the senior associate for South Asia and Asia program deputy director at the Woodrow Wilson Center. We kick off discussing what exactly happened in Ladakh, the border region where the fight occurred. We then have a conversation about what this incident says about India, China, and the relationship between the two.
UPDATE: At least twenty Indian soldiers were killed in the confrontation.
The podcast has partnered with CGIAR, the world's largest global agricultural innovation network, around a series of live tapings on the topic of climate security.
For today's episode, we are examining the link between food security, climate and conflict. My guests include a leading food systems scientist, Dr. Sonja Vermeulen, Director of Programs, CGIAR System Organization and Dan Smith, the director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI.
The episode was taped on June 4th.
We unpack some of the linkages between climate, climate change, food systems science, conflict and peace building. This is clearly a very big topic, but not one you see often discussed in key policy making circles. The idea behind this conversation was to identify some aspects of that relationship that demand further study by researchers and attention from policymakers.
I'll be hosting a total of six of these live tapings in partnership with CGIAR over the next several months. The next will be on June 18th.
Register for future events in the climate security series
In the Caribbean, where many country's depend on tourism to sustain their economy, COVID-19 is exacting a particularly heavy toll. Millions of people are out of work, and governments that were already deeply in debt are now in even deeper economic and budgetary distress.
My guest today, Geneive Brown Metzger, is the former Consul General of Jamaica in New York. She is also President of the American Caribbean Maritime Foundation. And she is the host of the new Caribbean affairs podcast, Diplomatically Speaking.
In our conversation, she explains how COVID-19 is impacting the Caribbean. This includes not only the domestic affairs of the various countries in the region, but also foreign policy. In particular, Geneive Brown Metzger explains how China is using this moment to advance its interests in the Caribbean -- at a time when the United States under the Trump administration has been generally neglectful of the region.
Barbara Saitta is a nurse with Doctors without Borders who specializes in vaccination campaigns, primarily in poorer countries. She tells me that because of supply chain interruptions, a number of countries are running out of routine childhood vaccines. This includes vaccines for measles, polio, and the all-important pentavalent vaccine that protects against five common diseases. What is so alarming about the interruption of routine childhood vaccines is that there is a direct correlation between mass immunization and avoiding mass death.
We kick off with a discussion of how vaccine campaigns generally operate in a developing country with poor infrastructure, before having a broader conversation about the impact of COVID-19 on routine childhood immunizations.
Just over 52% of households in Rwanda have access to some form of electricity. This access is not evenly distributed across Rwanda. In rural communities, where most Rwandans live, energy access rates are far lower. Furthermore, the country's geography severely limits the reach of Rwanda's electric grids.
This means Rwandans are increasingly turning to off-grid energy solutions, namely solar power.
My guest today, Rebecca Klege, is a Ghanian economist whose research focuses on the intersection of clean energy access and female entrepreneurship. She is a researcher at Environmental Research Policy Unit who is completing her PHD studies at the School of Economics, University of Cape Town in South Africa.
What makes Rebecca Klege's work so unique is that she flips a common study question on its head. Rather than asking how energy access empowers women, she examines how empowered women can promote energy access, and whether or not they do a better job of it than men.
At the center of her research is a for-profit social enterprise called Nuru Energy. This company provides re-chargeable solar lighting to village level entrepreneurs, who then sell the lighting to others in their community. Using sales data from Nuru Energy, Rebecca Klege was able to compare the effectiveness of female salespeople versus their male counterparts. She finds that female entrepreneurs of this solar energy product are significantly more successful than male entrepreneurs.
There are broad implications of this finding, which touches on questions around sustainable development, clean energy access, and women's empowerment. These questions and more are being put to the test in an on-going randomized control which Rebecca Klege also discusses in this episode.
And on a very similar note, I want to draw listeners attention to a recently concluded Virtual Workshop on Gender & Energy Access, hosted by Duke University and featuring 200 practitioner-scholars from over 30 countries. You can find a link to that workshop and white paper on globaldispatchespodcast.com.
Today’s episode is the third installment in a series of episodes that will be published over the next few months that showcase the research and work of the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative. SETI is an interdisciplinary global collaborative that aims to foster research on energy access and energy transitions in low and middle-income countries. Currently, SETI is housed at Duke University, where it is led by Professors Subhrendu Pattanayak and Marc Jeuland. To learn more about SETI, follow them on Twitter @SETIenergy.
My guest today, Dr. Mosoka P Fallah is helping to lead Liberia's fight against COVID-19. He is an infectious disease and public health expert and is the Director General National Public Health Institute of Liberia.
Dr. Fallah was a key player in Liberia's successful suppression of Ebola in 2014, for which he was named as one of Time Magazine's Persons of the Year. I mention this because, as Dr. Fallah explains, Liberia's experience with Ebola is very much informative of how both government and society approach COVID-19. I kick off by asking him about the role of regional cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 before we dive into the situation in Liberia.
Today's episode is supported in part from a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to showcase African voices in peace and security issues. To view other episodes in this series, please visit GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com
My guest, David Kaye, is the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression. He has held this position for the last three years, which has given him a unique vantage point--and unique platform--to monitor trends in the suppression of free speech.
Today we discuss a new report to the UN Human Rights Council. In this report, David Kaye identifies and explains the ways in which governments and other entities have used the coronavirus pandemic to crack down on freedom of expression, independent media, and access to information. Among other things, this includes invoking laws to punish "fake news," and broad internet shutdowns.
The United Nations turns 75 this year. But rather than have a diamond jubilee, the UN is instead embarking on a listening tour. The UN is seeking feedback from as many people in as many communities as possible, all around three big questions: What Kind of World do We Want to Create? Are We on Track? And What is Needed to Bridge the Gap?
In today's interview, I talk to Michelle Milford Morse, who is the UN Foundation’s Vice President for Girls and Women Strategy. She explains the significance of a 1995 UN meeting on women and gender equality which resulted in a key document called the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. We discuss progress and the lack there of on gender equality since that meeting, including how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting gender equality.
Then, after speaking with her for about 15 minutes, the consultation begins. This involved the audience answering a series of about 10 questions on the future of gender equality.
Lebanon is in the midst of an economic free fall, the degree to which is jaw dropping.
Inflation is out of control, commodities are hard to come by, and its currency is devaluing at a rapid clip. This all was happening months before the coronavirus pandemic. Now, in the midst of the pandemic, a deteriorating economic situation is poised to turn into a major political and social crisis.
This is arguably the worst crisis since Lebanon emerged from a 15 year civil war in 1990.
The government of Lebanon signaled that it would seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. But IMF loans come with conditions and as my guest today Maha Yahya explains, it is entirely unclear right now whether or not the government would be able to accept the kinds of conditions required for an IMF bailout.
Maha Yahya is the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center and I caught up with her from Beirut. We kick off discussing the roots of this economic crisis, which she explains can be traced to the political arrangements that ended the civil war 30 years ago. We then have a broad conversation about the impact this economic crisis is having in a country that is already fragile.
Today's episode was recorded in front of a live-online audience, and featured an all-star panel discussing how to make the economic recovery from COVID-19 sustainable, just, and resilient. In other words, as governments and institutions prepare their economic rescue and stimulus packages what can they do to ensure that the recovery is a green one? I moderated and guided the conversation which included Isabella Lovin; the Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister for Climate and the Environment; Rachel Kyte, the Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University ; Henrick Henricksson the CEO of Scania, which is a major manufacturer of trucks and buses; and Michael Lazarus, Senior Scientist Center Director of Stockholm Environment Institute US. The live taping was co-hosted by the Leadership Group for Industry Transition, in partnership with Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). It’s members are countries and companies that subscribe to the notion that energy-intensive industry can and must progress on low-carbon pathways, aiming to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. https://www.undispatch.com/
My guest, Prachi Singh, is an associate fellow at the Brookings Institution, India Center and is a PhD candidate at Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi. Her research analyzed height and weight ratios of children who were exposed, in utero, to air pollution events like crop burning and forest fires. She finds a significant correlation between low weight and low height ratios and exposure to this pollution.
But her research goes further than that. She demonstrates how low height and weight ratios stemming from this exposure impacts India's entire economy, including taking a significant toll on India's Gross Domestic Product. The peer reviewed research is cutting edge and has broad global implications. We kick off discussing the impact of what is known as stunting on children's health before having a conversation about her research methods and the significance of her findings.
Today’s episode is the second installment in a series of episodes that will be published over the next few months that showcase the research and work of the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative. SETI is an interdisciplinary global collaborative that aims to foster research on energy access and energy transitions in low and middle-income countries. Currently, SETI is housed at Duke University, where it is led by Professors Subhrendu Pattanayak and Marc Jeuland. To learn more about SETI, follow them on Twitter @SETIenergy.
If you have been following news recently out of the Korean Peninsula, you may have seen a report that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was gravely ill. He had, according to this report, undergone heart surgery and was fighting for his life. The thing is, we have no way of knowing whether or not this is true.
Patricia Kim joins me to discuss the significance of the rumor about Kim Jong Un's ill-health. She is the senior policy analyst with the China program at US Institute of Peace. We also analyze what we know about North Korea's experience with COVID-19, and what lies ahead for nuclear diplomacy between the United States, North Korea, South Korea, and China.
The bonus episode for premium subscribers this week is a conversation with Richard Haas, the longtime head of the Council on Foreign relations.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the global order was poised for disruption. Global institutions were seemingly getting weaker, the United States under the Trump administration was abdicating its traditional role as a global leader, and China was most definitely flaunting its rising power on the global stage. Now, in the midst of a pandemic all these trends are still very much present -- but they're also accelerating according to my guest, Ian Bremmer.
Ian Bremmer is President of the Eurasia Group and President of GZERO Media. And in our conversation we discuss the big geopolitical shifts that are being exposed and hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes what Ian Bremmer calls "the Great Decoupling" of China and the United States. We discuss the idea that economic and technological interdependence between the United States and China is giving way to the creation of two separate systems. We also talk about how political disruptions and the coming election in the United States will impact geopolitics.
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Congressman Ami Bera is a Democrat from California who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is chair of the subcommittee on Asia and Pacific.
He is also a medical doctor who has long championed global health issues. Last November he served on a commission on pandemic preparedness convened by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC that issued a series of recommendations that looks rather prescient today.
We spoke just a day after President Trump announced that the United States was freezing funding for the World Health Organization and, needless to say, Congressman Bera strongly disagrees with that move. He explains the WHO's critical role in preventing clusters of COVID-19 from taking hold in poorer countries to secure the US homeland.
We cover other ground too, including what the trajectory of the outbreak looks like here in the United States, and how that trajectory might shape US politics and foreign policy.
For years, the global development community has struggled over the problem of dirty burning cookstoves. These are typically rudimentary stoves that burn wood or other biomass -- and in the process emit harmful smoke indoors. Nearly three billion people around the world cook their meals this way, leading to environmental damage and illness. Indoor air pollution attributed to dirty burning cookstoves kills millions of people each year.
The solution to the problem of dirty cookstoves should be straightforward -- just replace cookstoves that emit harmful pollutants with cleaner burning, improved cookstoves. Indeed, there are a great variety of efficient and clean cookstoves available today. But so far, these improved cookstoves are not being used at anywhere near a scale commensurate with the problem. The solution might exist, but consumers are often not using these better cookstoves. My guest today, Subhrendu Pattanayak, sought to learn why people who would benefit the most from improved cookstoves are not using them. He is the Oak Professor of Environmental and Energy Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. In 2019, he published the results of a five year study with co-author Marc Jeuland of communities in rural India that offers some key insights into the barriers of increasing demand for cleaner burning cookstoves. We discuss these findings at length in our conversation. Today’s episode is the first installment in a series of episodes that will be published over the next few months that showcase the research and work of the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative. SETI is an interdisciplinary global collaborative that aims to foster research on energy access and energy transitions in low- and middle-income countries. Since 2015, the network has expanded to include over 150 researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working in the field of energy from over 35 countries. Currently, SETI is housed at Duke University, where it is led by Professors Subhrendu Pattanayak and Marc Jeuland. SETI’s research addresses the most pressing energy challenges faced by low- and middle-income countries, from clean cooking in Senegal to micro-hydro power in Nepal to coal divestment in Chile. To learn more about SETI, follow them on Twitter @SETIenergy.
On March 26th, the United States Department of Justice did something very unusual. In a press conference, Attorney General William Barr unsealed indictments against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and top regime officials, alleging drug trafficking and narcoterrorism.
Previously, when the Trump administration declared Maduro to be an illegitimate leader it was done on the assumption that such a move would inspire defections among Maduro loyalists--particularly in the military and security services. That assumption was proven incorrect. Now, Venezuela has two rival governments with Maduro still in control of most state institutions and Juan Guaidó backed by the United States and most western powers.
On the line with me to discuss this is Keith Mines, senior advisor for Venezuela and Colombia at the United States Institute of Peace. We kick off discussing the indictments, how they fit into US policy toward Venezuela and whether or not this move may succeed in helping to dislodge Maduro from power. We also discuss how COVID-19 is impacting domestic politics in Venezuela and what role the United Nations might play in helping mediate a resolution to this crisis.
During this state of emergency, some governments -- many in fact -- are using this time as a pretext to further consolidate power, crack down on a free press, and restrict civil liberties. This is happening in authoritarian countries, but also some democracies.
Philippe Bolopion is the deputy director for global advocacy at Human Rights Watch. He is on the line with me to discuss how, exactly, regimes around the world are using the coronavirus pandemic to justify crackdowns and human rights abuse. We kick off discussing the example of Hungary: a parliament controlled by the illiberal Prime Minister, Viktor Orban recently passed a sweeping measure giving Orban near-dictatorial powers. We also discuss other examples of leaders invoking COVID-19 to entrench themselves in power.
This pandemic seems to be serving as an accelerant to certain negative trends in global human rights, trends we were seeing previous to the virus. Additionally, governments are using means of population control that were initially developed to target minorities to control the entire population. We discuss both of these issues in detail.
As I record this, we are nearing the one million mark of reported cases of COVID-19. Although the spread is distributed unevenly, nearly every country on earth has now reported cases of COVID-19. It seems that certain countries, even countries with high case loads, are handling it better than others. Why is that?
Political science, specifically comparative politics, can give us a new perspective in understanding why some countries are dealing with the outbreak better than others. This is a field of study that examines how the internal political characteristics of a country explain the way a state behaves, whether it's a democracy or a dictatorship.
My guest today, Sofia Fenner is an assistant professor of political science at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and she specializes in comparative politics. Recently, Sofia Fenner wrote a really fascinating article on an academic blog, Duck of Minerva, that explains whether or not certain characteristics of a state determine how well it will respond to the coronavirus crisis. Among certain corners of the media, there is a debate as to whether or not authoritarian dictatorships are dealing with this crisis better than liberal democracies-- a question she addresses very directly in this conversation.
Before the coronavirus became a global pandemic, the world was confronting a series of humanitarian crises; ranging from wars to natural disasters. Much of the responsibility for providing emergency relief to people caught up in these kinds of crises falls on international non-governmental organizations, INGOs. Now, many of these organizations are taking on the additional responsibility of responding to the impact of the coronavirus in places already beset by crises.
So, how does a large INGO prepare its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and what will that response look like? I was glad to be able to present these questions to Susannah Friedman. Susannah is the Humanitarian Policy Director for CARE, which is one of the larger global humanitarian organizations. It has a staff of over 6,000 and works in over 100 countries.
We start by discussing the importance of a $2 billion funding appeal launched by the UN to coordinate a global response to COVID-19. We then discuss how this pandemic is impacting the day-to-day work of CARE and what CARE is doing to prepare for COVID-19 in the places where it works. This includes an extended conversation about the particular impact of COVID-19 on the health and safety of women and girls already in vulnerable situations.
Desert locusts are eating their way through East Africa on a scale not seen in decades. These migratory pests travel from field to field destroying either crops meant for human consumption or grasslands on which herders graze their livestock. It is estimated that a swarm the size of one square kilometer can eat as much food in a day as 35,000 people.
Right now, Ethiopia and Somalia are experiencing its worst locust situation in 25 years. For parts of Kenya, the swarms are larger than they have been in the last 70 years. These massive swarms are threatening to plunge this vulnerable region deeper into crisis.
On the line with me to help explain the desert locust situation is Keith Cressman of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. He has been studying desert locusts for decades -- in fact, he is the senior desert locust forecasting officer at the UN FAO. In our conversation, he explains why we are seeing this historic upsurge in desert locusts in East Africa, their impact on the lives and livelihoods of people in this region, and what can be done to control the swarms and mitigate their impact.
I encountered a study in the journal, International Security by Dr. Jacqueline McAllister that examines whether or not international war crimes tribunals actually deter and prevent war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Jacqueline McAllister is an assistant professor of political science at Kenyon College. Her article, titled "Deterring Wartime Atrocities: Hard Lessons from the Yugoslav Tribunal" examines whether or not the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, known as the ICTY, was able to deter war crimes during the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s.
She finds that, indeed, there were some circumstances in which the ICTY deterred war crimes--but for that to happen, the conditions have to be just right. We discuss what those conditions are, how she arrived at her findings, and what implications her study has for other war crimes tribunals, like the International Criminal Court.
The coronavirus pandemic could have major implications for international development.
As of now, most of the countries that have been hit hardest by COVID-19 are higher income countries; places like Italy, South Korea, and the United States. Low income countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, have not yet recorded significant clusters of the coronavirus -- but the economic consequences of the virus are being felt around the world.
How can low income countries -- including those that have been the focus of major economic and social development efforts, often backed by international institutions like the World Bank -- protect themselves from both COVID-19 and its global economic fallout?
Amanda Glassman is on the line with me to answer that question and to discuss the potential effects of the coronavirus on global development. She is the executive vice president and senior fellow with the Center for Global Development, and someone I have long turned to help me understand how international development works.
We are sort of in uncharted times here. My kids are home from school, for who knows how long. I assume most of you listening to this are practicing social distancing to the fullest extent possible. I think in times like this, community becomes important. Over the many years of doing this podcast, I really have felt that a profound sense of community has been built around the show. If there's anything I can do to help you through this time--make the social distancing a little less distant; or even just help you fill your time if you are under some sort of quarantine, please let me know. I'll just give you my personal email address (markleongoldberg at gmail com). Feel free to reach out with whatever is on your mind. Remember: You are not alone.
One thing I did do is put together a list of podcast episodes categorized by topics that are often encountered in university courses on international relations. I put this together mostly for professors of international relations and related fields to help them as they move to online instruction. Email me if you'd like it.
The coronavirus pandemic is impacting institutions around the world, including the United Nations. In fact, about an hour after I recorded this episode, the Philippines Mission said to the United Nations that one of its diplomats, who had been at meetings in UN Headquarters in New York, tested positive for COVID-19.
In this episode, I speak with Margaret Besheer, the UN correspondent for Voice of America. She helps me understand how the coronavirus is impacting the work and life of the United Nations.
We start by discussing the work of the World Health Organization before having a longer conversation about the day-to-day implications of COVID-19 on all manner of work at the United Nations. This includes UN peacekeeping, day-to-day diplomacy, and the work of the Security Council.
On February 29th, the United States and the Taliban entered into an agreement that would see the complete pullout of US troops from Afghanistan. In return, the Taliban would renounce international terrorist groups, like al Qaeda and the Islamic State, and prevent them from plotting foreign attacks from Afghan soil.
Despite how this has been characterized in some quarters of the media, "This is very much not a peace deal," says my guest, Michael Kugelman. He is the senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Kugelman communicated to me that this was a point he wanted to emphasize. In the days after the deal, the Taliban launched several attacks in Afganistan. In fact, a few hours before we spoke, there was a major attack at a political rally in Kabul.
In this conversation, we discuss what is included in this deal, what is not included, and what this agreement means for the future of Afghanistan.
On February 22nd, two long time foes, President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar signed a power-sharing agreement to formally end South Sudan's brutal six-year civil war. The accord determined that Machar and other opposition leaders would be vice-presidents in a new government of national unity.
The civil war in South Sudan broke out in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused his-then vice president Riek Machar of fomenting a coup. The fighting escalated very quickly and took on ethnic dimensions as well. Over the years there have been different attempts at peace, but each attempt has failed which is why there is so much riding on this February 22nd agreement.
On the line with me to discuss this peace agreement is Jok Madut Jok. He is a professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a senior analyst with the Sudd Institute, a public policy center based in Juba, South Sudan.
This episode is supported, in part, by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to feature African perspectives on peace and security issues in Africa.
So far, COVID-19 has mostly impacted countries with decently functioning health care systems. However, experts and the WHO have expressed a great worry. What happens should we see clusters of cases where there is no good health system? This includes poorer countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and populations in the midst of some humanitarian crisis.
To help us understand the potential impact of coronavirus on vulnerable populations around the world is Dr. Paul B. Spiegel. He is the director of the Center for Humanitarian Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he also works as a professor.
As it happens, Paul B. Spiegel was in the midst of a project to model scenarios around COVID-19 and the Rohingya refugee population in a region of Bangladesh called Cox's Bazar. We spend a good bit of time discussing that particular humanitarian crisis, while also discussing the broader implications of COVID-19 spreading to places that are already in the midst of a crisis.
The Boni Forest is a lush coastal ecosystem on the border between Kenya and Somalia. Its location and geography have made it an ideal hideout for al Shebaab -- the Somali terrorist group that has launched some devastating attacks in Kenya over the last decade.
In 2015, Kenyan security forces mounted an operation to rid the region of al Shabaab. But their heavy-handed tactics alienated the local population, disrupting lives and livelihoods of the people who ostensibly the security forces were meant to protect. The military intervention was failing and people were less secure in their livelihoods.
That was until my guest today, Judy Kimamo, helped launch a grassroots peace conference for the region, known as the Boni Enclave Stakeholders Conference. Over 130 groups attended the conference, including local leaders, government and security officials and various members of civil society.
That was in 2017. Now, nearly three years later, the positive impact of that peacebuilding effort is still being felt.
Judy Kimamo is the Kenya director for Search for Common Ground, an international non-profit specializing in peacebuilding and conflict resolution. We kick off with an extended conversation about the security problems in the Boni Forest region and the government's initial response, before having a wider conversation about what made her peacebuilding efforts so successful -- and what lessons others may draw in how to design a locally lead peace initiative. When it comes to peacebuilding, what she helped to pull off with the Boni Enclave Stakeholders Conference is quite cutting edge and I'm very glad to bring this story to you.
My conversation with Judy Kimamo is one episode in a series of supported in part from a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to feature African perspectives on peace and security issues in Africa. Please visit GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com to view and download other episodes of this series.
Also, when I spoke with Judy Kimamo she was near the Boni Forest region and our audio connection was not strong and the audio quality is not what is typical of this podcast. Still she has an incredible story to tell so I have also posted a transcript to our conversation on GlobalDispatchesPodcast.
A 2011 agreement known as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, is the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. The treaty imposes limits on the size and composition of the nuclear arsenals of the world's two largest nuclear powers. And it allows Russia and the United States to inspect each others nuclear arsenals to ensure compliance.
New START is now the only nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia because last year, the Trump administration withdrew from a Ronald Reagan era agreement called the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, that eliminated a certain class of nuclear weapons.
But New START may not last much longer. The treaty officially expires in February 2021. And so far, it is unclear whether or not the Trump administration will seek its extension. Russia has already signaled that it would extend the agreement another five years, but the Trump administration has so far demurred.
On the line with me to discuss the significance of New START is Thomas Countryman. He was a longtime career diplomat who served as the US Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation from 2011 to 2017. He is now the chair of the board of the Arms Control Association.
The President of Cameroon is named Paul Biya. He's been the president of Cameroon since 1982. Before that, from 1975, he was prime minister. Depending on how you count it, Paul Biya of Cameroon is one of -- if not the -- longest-serving world leader.
My guest today, Maurice Kamto, challenged Paul Biya for the presidency in national elections in 2018. Kamto lost in what he plausibly claimed were rigged elections. He subsequently led a peaceful protest movement against the government of Paul Biya -- until January last year when he was arrested and thrown in prison for ten months. Maurice Kamto is a lawyer and professor of law with the University of Yaounde, in Cameroon. He is the leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, which is known by its French acronym the MRC.
At the start of the year, the World Food Program issued a forecast of where it expects to find the worst hunger crises this year. The report, called the Global Hotspots 2020, identifies 15 major food emergencies that are deteriorating at an alarming rate and demand greater worldwide attention.
My guest today, Arif Husain, is the Chief Economist and Director of the Food Security Analysis and Trends Service at the United Nations World Food Programme. We kick things off by discussing what is meant by food insecurity, and also how he collects data around hunger before having a longer conversation about the relationship between climate change, conflict, migration, and food security.
4:30 The Effect Conflict Has on Hunger
6:44 Climate Change
9:02 Economic Marginalization
12:00 Migration and Displacement
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Dr. Roseanne Njiru is a sociologist at the University of Nairobi who has conducted cutting edge field research that finds a link between healthcare and peacebuilding. Specifically, she examines the role that community health workers play in preventing conflict in marginalized communities, like urban slums, around Nairobi, Kenya.
Community health workers (or what in other contexts are sometimes called health extension workers) link poor, rural or otherwise marginalized communities to a country's broader health care system. The health workers themselves are from these communities and they are given some basic level of training. Essentially, they are the eyes and ears and first point of contact between the health system and the community.
Deploying cadres of these community health workers has become increasingly popular as a public health strategy in the developing world. In my years of reporting, I've seen the key role that community health workers play in places like rural Bangladesh and Ethiopia. This strategy has been demonstrated to improve health outcomes in some of the most vulnerable communities in a society. But what I did not appreciate until I encountered Dr. Njiru's research was some of the ancillary benefits, beyond health, that community health workers can confer to their community. Namely, Dr. Njiru found through her research that community health workers are also agents of peace and conflict prevention--including helping to prevent political violence.
Her research is absolutely fascinating and I am glad to bring it to you as part of a series of episodes supported in part from a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to feature African perspectives on peace and security issues in Africa.
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For a brief period this fall, it appeared that the crisis in Yemen was de-escalating. Fighting had reached some of its lowest levels since 2015, when Saudi Arabia led an international coalition to intervene in Yemen's civil war.
But any hopes that a lull in fighting could be sustained were dashed in early 2020 with a series of high profile attacks. Today, as I record, in February 2020 fighting in Yemen is intense -- indeed as bad as it has ever been since the civil war began -- if not worse. According to the United Nations, Yemen is the single worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.
On the line with me to explain this newest iteration of the conflict in Yemen is Scott Paul. He is a humanitarian policy lead with Oxfam and we spend a lot of time discussing why the crisis in Yemen is getting worse right now. For those who are not familiar with the crisis in Yemen, Scott Paul does a very good job at the start of the conversation explaining how we got to this point.
There is a category of diseases that sickens, injures and kills the poorest people on the planet. These are called Neglected Tropical Diseases or NTDs You may be familiar with some of them, like leprosy, guinea worm disease or River Blindness; but you have probably never heard of most of them--I know I have not.
But these diseases, combined, affect nearly 1.7 billion people around the world and further add to the costs of developing economies. So, in an effort to make these diseases a little less neglected, about eight years ago governments, philanthropies, UN agencies and NGOs came together to design and implement strategies to reduce and ultimately eliminate many of these diseases.
On the line with me today is someone who has been at the very forefront of that effort. Dr. Thoko Elphick-Pooley is the director of a collective called Uniting to Combat NTDS. We discuss the progress that has been made towards the elimination of NTDs and also what strategies have been most effective in combating these diseases.
As it happens, we spoke on the first-ever World NTD Day, so I kick off asking Dr. Elphick-Pooley about the significance of having a new world day around Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Aid work can be a dangerous business. According to the latest verified data, 131 aid workers were killed in the line of duty in 2018. Many more were injured in serious attacks.
According to my guest today, Abby Stoddard, attacks on aid workers and humanitarian relief operations are both a symptom and a weapon of modern warfare. Indeed, it is the changing nature of conflict around the world that is driving increasing levels of violence against aid workers.
Abby Stoddard is a former aid worker and a longtime researcher. Along with her research partner Adele Harmer, Stoddard has compiled a dataset of verified attacks on aid workers around the world. Their research is compiled in the Aid Worker Security Database, which has tracked attacks on aid workers since 1997.
The data they compiled tell many stories and offer important insights into trends of conflict, which we discuss on the show today.
Abby Stoddard's new book in which much of this data is discussed and analyzed is called Necessary Risks: Professional Humanitarianism and Violence against Aid Workers. Abby Stoddard is a partner with Humanitarian Outcomes, an international consultancy that does research and policy advising for governments and organizations on humanitarian action.
If you have twenty minutes and want to learn how the changing nature of conflict is making humanitarian relief work more dangerous, have a listen.
7:35 Aid workers most impacted by violence
14:05 Successful humanitarian efforts
22:17 Attack in Juba as an example of recent trends
27:51 The impact on civilians trapped in the conflict
aidworkerssecurity.org
https://www.amazon.com/Necessary-Risks-Professional-Humanitarianism-Violence/dp/3030264106
At the time of recording, the coronavirus outbreak that originated in China has infected over 4,500 people -- though that number is sure to dramatically increase in the coming days. The vast majority of the people affected by this outbreak are in China, though infections have been confirmed in at least 14 other countries. And, again, the number of countries impacted will certainly increase.
There is a lot we still don't know about the coronavirus and this outbreak -- but we do know that this coronavirus outbreak is poised to become a major global health crisis. So, for this episode, I wanted to give you a sense of the kind of global health infrastructure that exists for exactly moments like this.
On the line with me to discuss the international response to this outbreak so far, including actions taken by the World Health Organization is Ambassador John E Lange. He is a retired ambassador from the United States who currently serves as a senior fellow for Global Health Diplomacy with the United Nations Foundation. Ambassador Lange also served, from 2006 to 2009 as the US Special Representative for Avian Flu and Pandemic Flu preparedness. This gives him some unique insight into how both the US government and entities like the WHO respond to these kinds of fast-moving outbreaks.
We kick off discussing the World Health Organization's role in managing the global response to an outbreak like this, including the relevance of something called the 2005 International Health Regulations. These were adopted by the international community following the SARS outbreak in 2003. We also discuss potential scenarios for the coronavirus to turn into a pandemic that could deeply impact poorer countries with weak health systems.
By the time you are listening to this, the WHO will likely have declared this situation. But when Amb. Lange and I spoke on January 28, they had not yet made that declaration. Still, anticipating it, we do discuss what is meant by the term.
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In the midst of the impeachment drama unfolding in Washington, DC a rare thing happened: Republicans and Democrats came together and in an overwhelmingly bi-partisan move, supported a bill known as the Global Fragility Act.
In brief, The Global Fragility Act is intended to address a key gap in how the US government approaches conflict prevention and post-conflict peace-building in what are known as fragile countries. The bill was broadly supported and in part conceived by advocates in the global humanitarian and relief community. And on the line with me to discuss the new Global Fragility Act is Dr. Dafna Rand, vice president of policy and research at Mercy Corps. She is also a former deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor.
The Global Fragility Act is one of those under-the-radar policy stories that has big potential to change key aspects of US policy towards parts of the world beset by instability.
0:56 The Global Fragility Act
3:52 The first exciting aspect of the Global Fragility Act
9:17 Definition of a 'fragile' state
13:41 The second exciting aspect of the Global Fragility Act
15:18 The intended results of the new law
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Burkina Faso, the landlocked country in West Africa, is in the midst of an escalating humanitarian emergency. Over half a million people have been displaced in the last year -- a 500% increase from one year ago, according to the latest data from the United Nations.
The vast majority of the newly displaced are fleeing an unrelenting series of terrorist attacks. Most of these attacks are occurring in regions near the border with Mali. But terrorist violence has also reached the capitol city Ouagadougou including high profile strikes against foreign targets, like an attack on a western hotel in 2016 and an attack on the French embassy in 2018.
As we enter 2020, the scale and pace of terrorist attacks has picked up in intensity. This includes a late December attack in the town of Arbinda, in a province that borders Mali, which saw at least 37 civilians killed. Also, earlier this year, there was a bombing of a bus carrying school children that killed 14 people.
This surge in violence in Burkina Faso comes six years after peaceful protests lead to the ouster of longtime ruler Blaise Compaoré. And according to my guest today, the increase pace of terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso might be tied to upcoming elections in 2020, which are being contested by Blaise Compaoré's political party.
Arsene Brice Bado is professor of political science at the center for research and action for peace, known as CERAP, at the Jesuit University in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. He is from Burkina Faso, and in this conversation he offers a few explanations for why his country is experiencing such violence after a rather euphoric period following the ouster of Blaise Compaoré.
We kick off discussing some recent attacks in Burkina Faso before having a longer conversation about the causes and consequences of increasing violence in Burkina Faso. We also discuss what kinds of policies and what kinds of international engagement might help reduce the prospect of further violence.
If you have twenty minutes and want to understand why Burkina Faso is experiencing a man-made humanitarian emergency, and what that means for the broader Sahel region -- and the world, have a listen.
I am very excited to announce that this episode is the first in a series of episodes supported in part from a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The grant will help the show feature African perspectives on peace and security issues in Africa. Needles to say, I am very excited for the content that will be produced from this partnership. I'll discuss it in more detail after the episode.
On January 12 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives. Millions more were made homeless. Around the world, there was a huge outpouring of support and solidarity for the people of Haiti. This included billions of dollars pledged for Haiti relief and reconstruction.
Ten years later, much of the rubble is gone. But the massive reconstruction plans have materialized to a degree commensurate with the promises that were made at time.
So what happened to the billions of dollars pledged and to the grand promises to "build back better?"
On the line with me to discuss what happened with Haiti earthquake reconstruction is Jacqueline Charles. She is a veteran reporter with the Miami Herald who has reported this story for many years. I caught up with her in Port Au Prince where she was covering events around the 10th anniversary of the earthquake. Her series in the Miami Herald, called Haiti Earthquake: A Decade of Aftershocks is an absolute must read and I'll post a link to it on the homepage. The series includes an interview with Bill Clinton, who was the major international figure raising money for Haiti reconstruction and helping to coordinate the international response. He served, for a time as the co-chair of a commission directing international relief efforts and Jaqueline Charles and I discuss the legacy of Bill Clinton's efforts to that end.
The conflict in Syria is entering a new phase. Over the last several years Syrian government forces, backed by outside powers like Russia and Iran, have steadily regained control of territory held by rebel factions. As they lay siege to opposition fighters, they forced groups, including massive numbers of civilians to retreat to a part of Syria called Idlib. This is in the Northwest of the country near the border of Turkey. Today, this is the largest rebel-held bastion. The number of fighters is relatively small compared to the some 4 million civilians trapped there.
Russian fighter jets and Syrian artillery have continued to target this area, though there has not been an all out ground invasion. Meanwhile, millions of civilians trapped here and also other rebel held parts of the country in the Northeast are dependent on humanitarian relief to stay alive.
For the last six years, the main lifeline for civilians in rebel held territory in these parts of Syria has been aid delivered across the border. What is significant about the cross border aid delivery is that it is done without the consent of the Syrian government; this is unusual because for both legal and practical reasons the United Nations and aid agencies it works with requires the host country's permission to operate. But in 2014, with humanitarian disaster mounting across the border from Turkey, and with the Syrian regime not permitting aid deliveries to rebel held parts of the country, the UN Security Council used its authority to authorize the cross border delivery of aid -- even if the Syrian government would not consent.
This was a big deal at the time, and allowed a massive aid operation to reach vulnerable populations in Northern Syria.
The Security Council resolution enabling the cross border delivery of aid requires re-authorization every year. And every year, even with Russian acceptance, it was re-authorized.
That was until this year. On January 10th Russia forced the Security Council to severely limit these aid operations. Now, says Vanessa Jackson of the humanitarian organization CARE International, cross border aid operations will be extremely limited and perhaps even cease all together in the near future.
Vanessa Jackson is the United Nations representative for CARE International. She has been following both the debate on Syria at the Security Council closely we discuss the impact of this restriction on the delivery of humanitarian aid as well as how this move fits into the broader trajectory of the conflict in Syria.
We may be in for a very turbulent year of nuclear diplomacy with North Korea
Since 2018, North Korea has had a self-imposed moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons and long range missiles, like the kind that could reach the United States. The moratorium stems from the diplomatic opening between the United States and North Korea that culminated in three meetings between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. However, even as North Korea has paused its long range missile and nuclear testing, it has continued other tests to advance its nuclear weapons program.
At the very end of 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivered remarks in a New Year's speech that suggest what this self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and missile testing was over -- and on top of that, that North Korea has a powerful new weapon in its arsenal.
So what does this all mean for nuclear diplomacy with North Korea and the prospect of more provocations, or even outright conflict? On the line with me to discuss where we are headed with North Korea is Dr. Jeffrey Lewis. He is a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterrey. He is a longtime nuclear security expert and and North Korea watcher. We kick off discussing the impact, if any, of the US killing of Iranian general Qassam Soulemani on North Korea's strategic thinking before having a longer conversation about North Korea's nuclear program and the prospects for diplomacy in 2020.
Also, last time Jeffrey Lewis was on the show we discussed his book, published in 2018, which is actually a novel that presents a very plausible scenario for a nuclear exchange between North Korea and the United States that takes place in 2020. So, naturally, we ended this conversation discussing the likelihood of whether or not the events he describes in his book may transpire.
I spoke to my guest today, Ilan Goldenberg, just a couple hours after Donald Trump addressed the nation following an Iranian missile attack on bases in Iraq. The Iranian attack, of course, was in retaliation to a US drone strike that killed a top Iranian official Qassem Souleimani on January third.
In his remarks, Donald Trump signaled that he was ready for the offramp and would not launch new military strikes in the near term. The Iranian government also said that the missile attacks on bases in Iraq had concluded their retaliation.
For the moment, the crisis is not poised to escalate. But, says Ilan Goldenberg, we can very much expect Iran to launch further reprisals in the future--and this could include terrorist attacks and assassination attempts against US targets.
Ilan Goldenberg is a former Defense Department official in the Obama administration whose work focused on Iran. He is now director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, DC.
In our conversation we discuss the events of the first week of January and what comes next. Ilan Goldenberg describes the strategic thinking underway in Iran right now that lead to this missile strike on a base holding US troops in Iraq, and also why and how he expects further retaliation. We also discuss how the US killing of Souleimani might affect Iran's compliance with the Nuclear Deal and what opportunities exist, it at all, for de-escalation.
In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya muslims were driven from their homes in Myanmar. At the time, a UN official called this a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing." And today, the government of Myanmar is being sued at the International Court of Justice for perpetrating a genocide.
These attacks against the rohingya are the most recent and extreme example of sectarian violence and discrimination in Myanmar -- which is an incredibly diverse country with a long history of ethnic conflict.
So how does one stop this trend? How do you promote tolerance and pluralism in a place in which diversity has been used to fuel conflict? On the line with me today is someone who is doing just that. Aung Kyaw Moe is the founder and executive director of the Center for Social Integrity in Myanmar. This is an organization that provides both humanitarian relief but also engages in peacebuilding and advocacy work. He is himself a Rohingya and has used humanitarian aid in parts of the country where Rohingya live to encourage cross ethnic partnerships.
Aung Kyaw Moe and his organization recently received a high honor, the Global Pluralism Award, which is conferred by the Global Centre for Pluralism, a joint partnership between The Aga Khan and the Government of Canada.
We kick of discussing diversity in Myanmar before having a longer conversation about how that how diversity has been used as a wedge to ignite conflict, and how Aung Kyaw Moe is working to reverse that trend.
Pablo Yanguas is a research fellow at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. He is the author of the new book "Why We Lie About Aid: Development and the Messy Politics of Change."
In this conversation we discuss the central thesis of his book which is that there is a profound gap between the politics of development, and how economic development is actually achieved on the ground in the developing world. The book is provocative for arguing that the former causes us to misrepresent the latter. This thesis rings true to my experience covering global development as a journalist for over a decade now. And I must say I found this conversation very clarifying--he identifies and ascribes political motives to trends that I have certainly seen covering these issues. And even if you are not a global development nerd, I think you will find this conversation very useful. (Re-broadcast from February 2018)Dr. Joanne Liu lead Medecins Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders from 2013 to this past September. Listen back to her 2017 conversation in which she discusses why she joined MSF, and how MSF has evolved to respond to recent trends like the global refugee crisis and the increasing frequency with which hospitals are targeted in warfare.
This is a powerful conversation that alternates between the wonky and the personal.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created in 2002 as a partnership between governments, philanthropies and civil society. At the time, these three diseases were completely out of control, killing millions of people each year and with no end in sight.
17 years later, thanks in large part to the Global Fund, we can imagine the end of AIDS, TB and Malaria. Deaths from these three diseases have declined precipitously. Instances of infection have also declined--though not as sharply as mortality rates.
In all, some $32 million lives have been saved through the Global Fund, which is essentially a pool of money that is strategically disbursed in select countries to reduce instances and deaths from these diseases. The way this money is raised is from contributions from donors, the most significant of which are countries. And in late October in Lyon, France the Global Fund held a pledging conference in which it sought to raise a minimum of $14 billion to cover its operations over the next three years.
And as my guest today Peter Sands explains it was something of a nail-biter in Lyon as to whether or not they would hit that goal.
Peter Sands is the executive director of the Global Fund. And in this conversation he takes us behind the scenes at that donor conference. We discuss progress against those three diseases, how the global fund works and why of those diseases Tuberculosis has been the most difficult to confront.
India's prime minister Narendra Modi was re-elected to office in May in what was a landslide victory for his BJP party. Modi is a Hindu nationalist in a diverse country that includes one of the world's largest Muslim populations. He rose to political prominence in the early 2000s as the chief minister of Gujarat during inter-communal riots that lead to the murder of over a thousand people, mostly Muslims. He was widely accused of failing to stop the riots and has used the mass murder of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 to his political advantage.
Modi was first elected Prime Minister in 2014 and since his re-election in May 2019, Modi has very much doubled down on implementing a stridently pro-Hindu agenda that is undermining secular democracy in India. This includes, most recently, the passage of a law that excludes Muslim immigrants to India of certain citizenship eligibilities.
That transparently anti-Muslim law has sparked massive protests across India, which at time of recording show little signs of abating.
On the line with me to explain how a newly re-elected Narendra Modi is using his political power to advance a Hindu nationalist agenda, what what that means in a country with nearly 200 million Muslims is Michael Kugelman. He is Deputy director of the Asia Program and South Asia senior associate at the Wilson Center. We kick off discussing this new citizenship law before having a broader conversation about how Narenda Modi is changing India, what that means for Indian democracy and international relations.
The crisis in Libya is about to get much worse. Nine months ago a renegade general named Khalifa Hiftar launched an attack on the internationally recognized and UN-backed government in Tripoli. That assault suddenly ended UN-brokered peace process that seemed to be on the brink of success.
In the ensuing months, the sides have been locked into a stalemate, with fighting mostly confined to neighborhoods on the outskirts of Tripoli. But, recently Hiftar's foreign backers have stepped up their support. This includes Russia, which has deployed troops and equipment to Hiftar this fall. Meanwhile, Turkey is raising the possibility that it will send troops to defend Tripoli from Hiftar's attack.
The situation is now extremely perilous. Outside forces, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates are fueling this conflict. Meanwhile, key diplomatic players in Europe and the United States are sending mixed signals about their preferred outcome. So, at the end of 2019 it could very well transpire that Libya descends into a crushing proxy war and civil war, of enormous humanitarian consequence.
On the line to discuss the crisis in Libya is Mary Fitzgerald. She is a longtime researcher who recently returned from Libya. In this episode of the Global Dispatches podcast she explains how we got to this point--that is, how Libya descended into chaos after the fall of Gadaffi and how a civil war in Libya became the venue for an international proxy war. If you have 25 minutes and want to learn why Libya could become the major international crisis of 2020, have a listen.
It's December at the United Nations. Just weeks before many delegates and staff take time off for the holidays. But as the year winds down, some issues are heating up. North Korea is once again dominating the Security Council. Meanwhile, the United Nations is running out of money -- literally.
On the Global Dispatches podcast to discuss what is buzzing at the United Nations at the end of the decade, and otherwise driving the agenda at UN Headquarters is Margaret Besheer, UN correspondent for Voice of America news.
We spoke in mid December and we kick off with a brief discussion about a sudden decision by the United States to back off its support for a Security Council meeting about human rights in North Korea. We then have a longer discussion about the still-new US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft, who at the time was serving as president of the Security Council. Another key topic we spend a good amount of time discussing is the impact to the United Nations of a cash flow shortage. The United Nations is seemingly barely making payroll because some key countries have not paid their UN membership dues on time and in full. If you have 25 minutes and want to learn the latest news from United Nations headquarters in New York, have a listen Margaret Besheer is speaking in her own capacity. The opinions and thoughts she expresses are her own. Unlock a premium subscription --> https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatchesOver the summer, millions of people in Hong Kong took to the streets in an unprecedented protest against a proposed law that could allow for the extradition of people in Hong Kong to mainland china. Protesters saw this as an affront to what is known as the one country, two systems policy. This is the idea that though Hong Kong is formally part of China, it also has a special political status as a former British Colony -- and that status includes a degree of autonomy and freedoms from the political system of mainland china.
But since those protests against the extradition bill over the summer, the situation in Hong Kong has changed dramatically. Protests have continued and have widened to include other demands. This includes a demand for universal suffrage for the people of Hong Kong. The protests and the police reaction to it have also become increasingly violent.
On the Global Dispatches podcast today is Victoria Tin-bor Hui, a professor of political science at Notre Dame University. She discusses the situation in Hong Kong, including how the protest movement and Beijing's reaction to it have evolved since the summer. She also discusses the concrete demands of the protesters.
The Moria Refugee Camp on the island of Lesvos, Greece is the largest refugee camp in Europe. The camp has an official capacity of just over 2,000 people. But the population is now more than 17,000, with most people living in makeshift shelters in fields and olive groves on the island.
In recent months the number of refugees arriving at Lesvos by boat from Turkey has sharply increased. This is following the breakdown of a 2016 agreement between Turkey and the European Union in which Turkey largely stopped boat departures from its shores. Now, thousands of refugees are once again arriving on the Greek Islands. Over 3,000 people have arrived in November alone.
Needless to say, the conditions on the island of Lesvos are horrendous. People are stuck there, seemingly in perpetual limbo as they asylum claims are processed and they await transfer to the mainland.
On the line with me to discuss the situation on Lesvos is Dr. Siyana Shaffi. She is the founder of the NGO Kitrinos which provides healthcare to refugees in Greece. She recently returned from Camp Moria when we spoke in November and in this conversation she gives you a real sense of the harsh conditions faced by refugees stranded on an island in Europe.
Since we spoke, the government of Greece announced somewhat nebulous plans to close the camp and transfer its residents to effective prisons on the mainland. It is unclear, though, if that will actually happen. This episode gives you a grounds-eye view of how Europe's harsh treatment of refugees.
Delegates, civil society and government officials from around the world are gathering in Madrid, Spain this week for the next big international climate change conference, known as COP 25. On the agenda are strategies to accelerate progress towards the Paris Agreement Goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius.
But to reach the Paris Agreement goals, new research shows that countries need to dramatically reduce what is called the fossil fuel production gap. This gap is the difference between the fossil fuels that countries are planning to produce in the coming years and the necessary reduction in fossil fuel production required to halt global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius.
The study was co-produced by a number of international non profit and research organizations and the United Nations Environment Program. The lead partner on this report was the Stockholm Environment Institute, and on the line with me is a scientist from the Stockholm Environment Institute, Peter Erickson.
We kick off discussing the concept of a "production gap" before having a longer conversation about the report's findings and why this report is such an important contribution to our collective understanding of actions that need to be taken in order to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
On November 12th, longtime Bolivian president Evo Morales fled to Mexico, prompting a political and security crisis in the Bolivia. Evo Morales fled his country amid protests against alleged election rigging and after being threatened by Bolivia's military and security services. The circumstances of his ouster have lead some to conclude this was a coup.
In his place, an interim and right-wing government has stepped up violent attacks against pro-Morales protesters. Several people have been killed by the security services in the protests that followed Morales' ouster.
At time of recording, the situation remained fluid, with some talks between pro-Maduro and anti-Maduro factions on potential new elections. But the prospect of more violence is very much a reality.
On the line to explain the roots of the crisis in Bolivia is Ivan Briscoe, Latin America director of the International Crisis Group. We kick off with a discussion of the unique place that Evo Morales holds in Latin American history as Bolivia's first indigenous president and a broadly effective left-wing leader. We then have a in-depth discussion about the circumstances surrounding his ouster, including what the international community can do -- and in some cases can't do -- to help bring about a peaceful resolution to this crisis.
If you have 25 minutes and want to understand what is driving this crisis in Bolivia, have a listen
Become a premium subscriber --> https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatchesThe small west African country of the Gambia has lodged a suit at the International Court of Justice against Myanmar for committing a genocide against the Rohingya people.
The Rohingya are an ethnic and religious minority in Myanmar, who have long faced discrimination and persecution. But it was not until the summer and fall of 2017 that this persecution became a mass atrocity event, and arguably a genocide. Some 700,000 Rohingya fled violence in this time, and now more than a million live as refugees in neighboring Bangladesh.
Justice for the Rohingya victims of genocide has so far been elusive. But this action at the International Court of Justice, which is a UN body based in the Hague, could be a significant turning point.
On the line with me to discuss the significance of this lawsuit is Param-Preet Singh. She is an associate director of Human Rights Watch in the International Justice Program. And in our conversation she explains what exactly this law suit alleges, why Gambia is the country bringing the suit, and how this action advance the cause of justice for victims of crimes against humanity and change how.
We kick off with a brief discussion of the International Court of Justice and how the judicial process at the ICJ works.
For the past several weeks, Washington Post reporter Mustafa Salim has had a front row view to massive protests that have erupted in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq. As he explains in this Global Dispatches podcast episode, these protests are neither centrally organized, nor do they have an explicit set of demands. Yet, they may prove to be powerful enough to bring down the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.
The protests began in early October, mostly by young men from poorer Shi'ite cities and towns angered by corruption and their own economic distress. But now, the protests have since expanded to include women and men from all walks of life.
In our conversation, Mustafa Salim describes the scene on the ground in Baghdad where I reached him a few days ago. We discuss how these protests originated, where they may be heading, why Iran is a target of the protesters, and how humble drivers of three wheel taxis that cater to the urban poor, known as Tuk Tuks, became symbolic heroes of this protest movement.
If you have 20 minutes and want both a deeper understanding of what is driving the Iraq protests and what the mood is on the ground in Baghdad, have a listen.
In 1976 Peter Piot was a 27-year-old microbiologist working in Belgium when he travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, then called Zaire, to investigate a particularly deadly disease outbreak. He took samples back to his lab and was among the team that first discovered the ebola virus.
Today, he is one of the world's leading experts on epidemics and infectious diseases. This includes HIV/AIDS. In 1995, he was the founding director of the United Nations Program on AIDS, called UNAIDS, and served in that role until 2008. He is now the director of one of the world's most prestigious health research institutes, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
And on the podcast today, we talk about epidemics and what can be done to avert and contain them. This includes the ongoing ebola epidemic in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,which is now the second worst ebola outbreak in history. And we also discuss what the world has gotten right -- and wrong about both fighting HIV and AIDS and how we define ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
We kick off though discussing the kind of nightmare scenarios that most concern Peter Piot. This includes what he calls "the big one."
One of the driving forces of international relations over the last several years has been a rivalry between Arab states. This is sometimes called the "Gulf Crisis" and put simply, it refers to tensions and hostilities between Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on the one hand; and Qatar on the other.
The roots of this rivalry run deep, but around the time of the Arab Spring these tensions came very much to the surface. The United States has historically had a profound interest in mitigating hostilities between Gulf Arab states, principally because each of these countries are key US allies. The US, for example, has a major Navy base in Bahrain and a major Air Force base in Qatar. But the Trump administration has been less adept at keeping a lid on the hostilities between these countries. Now these tensions are not only affecting relations between Arab gulf states, but are also leaving a mark in other regions.
As my guest today, Elizabeth Dickinson explains, the Gulf Crisis has been exported. The true fallout from this feud has not been felt on the Arabian Peninsula, she argues, but on battlefields across the greater Middle East and in the fragile politics of countries in the Horn of Africa, specifically Sudan and Somalia. Elizabeth Dickinson is a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group and in our conversation she explains both the roots of this rivalry in the gulf and how this crisis in the gulf is stoking instability across several regions of the world.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz is a Costa Rican jurist who serves as the United Nations Independent Expert on Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In other words, he is the UN's top watchdog for LGBTI rights worldwide
The fact that this position even exists in the UN system was, at the time, controversial. In UN lingo, his position is known as the IE SOGI, or Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. It was created in 2016 by votes in the Human Rights Council and General Assembly, the latter of which includes every UN member state. Some of these states are actively hostile to LGBTI rights, and accordingly sought to block establishing this role. They were unsuccessful, and Victor Madrigal-Borloz has now been on his job for two years.
When I spoke with Victor Madrigal-Borloz he had just briefed the General Assembly on his latest report on LGBTI rights globally so we kick off discussing that report and have a broader conversation about how he goes about his work, fulfilling his UN mandate to protect LGBTI individuals around the world.
Before we start, some quick background on one aspect of the UN human rights protection system of which Victor Madrigal-Borloz is a member. The IE SOGI is one of dozens independent experts and special rapporteurs that report to the Human Rights Council about both thematic and country specific human rights issues. So, for example there is are special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and North Korea; and there are special rapporteur covering issues like the rights of people with disabilities; or focusing on protection of the freedom of expression worldwide. There are over 50 of these positions, and taken together they are called "special procedures."
What began last week as a protest against a fare hike in for the Santiago, Chile metro system has morphed into a broad social movement against increasing economic inequality in the country. And it has been violent. So far, at least 18 people have been killed.
From an international perspective, these protests are coming at an inopportune time. Santiago is hosting the next major global climate change conference, COP25, in early December. And prior to that, in mid November, the city is playing host for the APEC summit on Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.
Needless to say, the government of Sebastian Pinera is coming under increased pressure to address the concerns of the protesters. But as my guest today explains, so far the actions taken by his government have really only exacerbated this ongoing crisis.
Estafania Labrin Cortes is a Chilean reporter for the newspaper The Clinic. When I caught up with her from Santiago on Wednesday October 23, protests were still ongoing.
We kick off this conversation discussing the series of events that lead to the spontaneous eruption of nationwide protests. We then have a longer conversation about what is driving increasing inequality in Chile -- indeed it has one of the highest degrees of wealth inequality among the world's major democracies. As Estafia Labrin Cortes explains, this is partly due to legacies from the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.
If you have 25 minutes and want to learn what caused these protests, how they spread so quickly and learn some of the broader international implications of this crisis in Chile, have a listen
https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatchesOn October 4th, the General Manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team shared a message on Twitter. It was which was an image with the words: "Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong."
The post was almost immediately deleted, but not before it caught the attention of Chinese authorities who began threatening huge sanctions on the Houston Rockets and on the NBA. The NBA quickly went into damage control mode with various officials profusely apologizing for this one tweet; and even the world's biggest NBA star, LeBron James suggested Morey was uniformed and uneducated about the situation in Hong Kong.
What has unfolded between China and the NBA is to my mind one of the biggest stories of the last several years because it is such a blatant demonstration of the power that both the Chinese communist party and middle class consumers in China have over large western companies -- and that they are willing to use that power to punish and deter free speech outside of China.
On the line with me to talk discuss what this incident with the NBA says about China's global reach, the future of freedom of expression, and the future of capitalism is Derek Thompson. He is a staff Writer at the Atlantic and host of the CRAZY/GENIUS podcast.
The "Girl Effect" is a concept that has been around international development for the better part of a decade. It refers to the community and societal benefits that can accrue when investments are made in the education and health of girls. The concept has been backed up by research over the years and is now a driving force guiding many health and development projects.
"The Girl Effect" is also the name of a non profit dedicated to catalyzing its namesake, and on the podcast today is the organization's CEO Jessica Posner.
In our conversation, Jessica Posner kicks off by explaining the concept of the girl effect, and then we have a longer conversation about the work of the organization she leads. This includes projects aimed at increasing the demand for reproductive health services and education among young women and girls in the developing world.
Dionne Searcey travelled to the Central African Republic to report on a story that has previously lead to the murder of other foreign journalists.
In July 2018 three Russian journalists were killed in the Central African Republic while investigating Russia's growing presence in the country. Their murder last year, however, has only increased international attention on Russia's shadowy aims in the Central African Republic.
Dionne Searcey is a reporter for the New York Times and her story, published in late September, exposed evidence of Russian involvement in illicit diamond mining. More broadly, though, her story explains and identifies the contours of Russia's growing political interests in the Central African Republic.
And at the center of this story is a man named Yevgeny Prighozin. He is a Russian oligarch and close ally of Vladimir Putin, and has been indicted in the United States for his role in interfering in the 2016 Presidential election. He is also the owner of a mining company that has extracted millions of dollars worth of diamonds from the Central African Republic. This was done through legal mining operations -- but also likely through illegal mines operated by armed rebel groups.
We kick off discussing Yevgeny Prighozin before having a broader discussion of Russian involvement in the Central African Republic and what this signals about Russian-African relations more broadly.
I've posted the article on Global Dispatches Podcast.com and encourage you to read it. It also includes some stunning images from photographer Ashley Gilbertson
Kurdish forces have a long history of siding with the United States. And the United States has a long history of eventually selling them out.
The latest iteration of this dynamic unfolded when Donald Trump ordered a small US military contingent to withdraw from Kurdish controlled parts of Northeastern Syria in advance of a likely Turkish military operation. The move came after phone call between Trump and Turkish President Recep Teyyep Erdogan in which Trump apparently acquiesced to a Turkish military operation against Kurdish fighters from the region.
The situation is rapidly evolving -- so what I opted to do with this episode is speak with an expert on Kurdish politics and diplomacy, Morgan Kaplan, who provides some background and context so you can understand events as they unfold. Morgan Kaplan is the executive editor of the academic journal International Security at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School We kick off discussing the YPG -- these are the Kurdish forces who were the backbone of the fight against ISIS in Syria, and who control territory near the Turkish border. The US had backed them, while Turkey long accused them of being terrorists. We then discuss some of the broader geopolitics of this situation, including Turkish interests in the region; the role of Moscow and Damascus; and of course the Unites States fraught history with the Kurds. https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatchesThe battle of Mosul began exactly three years ago this month. Iraqi government forces and allied Kurdish militias with backing from the United States and other key international partners sought to re-take Mosul from ISIS, which captured the city two years earlier.
Mosul is the second most populous city in Iraq. The fighting that ensued was the most intense urban warfare since World War Two. tThe liberating forces went neighborhood to neighborhood, house to house, to recapture territory.
It took nearly a year, but eventually ISIS was evicted from Mosul in the summer of 2017.
In a new book, the journalist James Verini embedded himself with the liberating forces and the civilians displaced by the fighting. He witnessed the fighting and its impact first-hand which he masterfully recounts in his new book: They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate.
On the podcast James Verini discusses the significance of this battle to both the fight against ISIS and the overall politics of the region. We kick off discussing the long history of Mosul and events leading up to its capture by ISIS and eventual liberation by Iraqi and allied forces.
Gulalai Ismail won't tell me how she came to New York. Doing so, she says, will put too many lives at risk.
Gulalai Ismail is a longtime human rights activist in Pakistan. Her organization, Aware Girls, helped to train the likes of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai and hundreds of other Pakistani girls, mostly in the very conservative parts of the country rife with Islamist militants. She has faced numerous death threats over the years for her outspoken promotion of the rights of women and girls, but it was not until she began speaking out against the Pakistani government that she felt compelled to flee the country. As she explains, she was put on a most wanted list for her leadership and participation in a protest movement this year seeking accountability for human rights abuses committed by the Pakistani security forces during counter-terrorism operations. This was when harassment and threats directly from the government forced her into hiding. She publicly resurfaced in New York in September, where she is now seeking political asylum. https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatchesMy guest today, Kumi Naidoo, is Secretary General of Amnesty International. He's a longtime activist and civil society leader who joined the anti-apartheid movement as a teenager and for many years lead Greenpeace.
In September, ahead of the UN Climate Summit, Amnesty International conferred its highest honor, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, to Greta Thunberg and the Friday's for the Future Movement. In this conversation I sought to draw out Kumi Naidoo's perspective as a longtime activist on this burgeoning transnational youth climate movement. That is the focus of much of our conversation in this episode.
We met in Amnesty's offices across the street from the United Nations, where days earlier hundreds of young people gathered for a Youth Climate Action summit. From a UN perspective, this was a pretty interesting and unique event. And Secretary General Antonio Guterres was very transparent that he sought this kind of youth engagement as a means to pressure government to take more meaningful action on climate change.
We kick off discussing what impact he's seen from this youth movement around the UN and beyond.
At times this conversation gets heavy. And I just want to thank Kumi Naidoo for both taking the time to speak during a very busy UNGA week and more importantly.
Around the United Nations you will often see CEOs of major companies participating in meetings and events around sustainability. Meaningful corporate participation is fairly commonplace at the United Nation these days. But this was certainly not the case ten years ago and more, when I'd regularly see Hans Vestberg around the United Nations as one of the very few corporate leaders engaging on development and sustainability issues.
Hans Vestberg is the CEO of Verizon and he is on the Global Dispatches podcast to discuss the role of 5G technologies in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.
We kick off with a discussion about what exactly 5G is, and how it can be used to advance sustainable development. We then have a discussion about his own commitment to sustainability issues and how Verizon has integrated the Sustainable Development Goals into its corporate strategies.
The United Nations General Assembly, better known as UNGA, kicks in New York this week. Hundreds of heads of state, business and civil society leaders and dignitaries of all stripes will descend on the UN for a week of events, meetings, and of course speeches.
UNGA is the single most important and action-packed week on the diplomatic calendar -- a behemoth of diplomatic events.On the line with me to preview the big stories that will drive the agenda at UNGA this year is Margaret Besheer, the UN correspondent for Voice of America, and Richard Gowan, the UN director of the International Crisis Group. We discuss a key youth summit on climate, the UN Climate Action Summit, how tensions between the United States and Iran may shape events at UNGA, and many other key moments, events, and ideas to watch during UNGA.
If you have 25 minutes and want to learn the storylines that will drive the agenda at UNGA this year, have a listen.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres discusses climate change in this special episode of the Global Dispatches podcast.
On Tuesday, September 17th Antonio Guterres sat down with Mark Hertsgaard of The Nation and Mark Phillips of CBS News for an interview conducted on behalf of Covering Climate Now. This is a global collaboration of over 250 news outlets, including the Global Dispatches Podcast and UN Dispatch, to strengthen coverage of the climate story. The interview with Antonio Guterres was conducted on behalf of all participating members of this coalition and I am glad to be able to present the podcast version of it to you.
If you are listening to this episode contemporaneously, I'd encourage you to check out the episode I posted earlier this week that gets into a little more detail about the UN Climate Action Summit; and later this week, I will have an episode that previews all the big stories that will drive the agenda around the UN Week in New York.
After the interview concludes, I'll offer some short commentary about my big takeaways. I've covered the UN for nearly 15 years and I think Antonio Guterres' remarks in this interview for reasons I explain. If you are new to the podcast: welcome. Global Dispatches is a global affairs podcast that typically features my interviews with diplomats, NGOS leaders, policy experts journalists and academics all around topics of world concern. I encourage you to subscribe the show and check out our robust archive.The UN General Assembly convenes at United Nations headquarters in New York next week. As in every year, UNGA is an annual opportunity for heads of state to come to the United Nations to meet each other and address the world.
What distinguishes the UN General Assembly this year is a series of key events and meetings focused on climate change. Of these events and meetings the most high profile is what is known as the UN Climate Action Summit. This will take place on Monday the 23rd of September, and will include top government officials, business leaders, and civil society members bringing to the table concrete action plans to accelerate progress on addressing climate change. Today's episode of the Global Dispatches podcast is dedicated to explaining just what that Climate Action Summit entails and what to expect from this major climate meeting at the United Nations. On the line with me to discuss the significance of this summit and what it hopes to achieve is Cassie Flynn, she is the strategic advisor on climate change in the executive office of the UN Development Program, UNDP. She is the someone who has very much been involved in aspects of planning the summit and in this conversation offers a curtain raiser for the summit itself, and discusses some of the broader expectations for this event. The Climate Action Summit at the UN is the capstone to several climate related events happening at the UN, including a Youth Climate Summit that will feature young leaders from around the world. In this conversation we discuss how these events relate to each other and directly to the Paris Climate Accord. If you have twenty minutes and want to better understand the UN Climate Action Summit, have a listen. This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story.In late August it appeared that the United States was very close to an agreement with the Taliban that would see US troops withdraw from the Afghanistan.
Leading the negotiations on the US-side was Zalmay Khalilzad, a widely respected former US Ambassador to the UN who is an immigrant to the US from Afghanistan. He also served as US Ambassador to Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban.
Significantly, these negotiations did not include the Afghan government, rather they were direct negotiations between the US and the Taliban.
By early September it appeared that the two sides had reached a deal. Then, on September 7th Donald Trump appeared to upend the deal in a tweet suggesting that a planned meeting between the US and Taliban at Camp David had been cancelled, apparently ending these talks. But then, days later, he fired National Security Advisor John Bolton who had largely opposed negotiating with the Taliban in the first place.
So where does this leave the peace process and negotiations for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan? And what happens next? On the line to discuss these questions and more is Daniel Serwer. He is a professor of conflict management and American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Study and a scholar at the Middle East Institute
Daniel Serwer has had a long career in and out of government participating in peace talks and peace building efforts around the world, including Afghanistan.
We kick off discussing just what Zalmay Khalilzad was negotiating with the Taliban before having a longer conversation about how those talks broke down and what comes next.
If you have 20 minutes and want to get up to speed on US diplomacy towards Afghanistan, then have a listen.
Tanzania has long been recognized as stable country, generally more advanced in its democracy than many other countries in East Africa. To be sure, democracy in Tanzania was certainly imperfect and flawed. But there did exist a degree of press freedom, a robust civil society, and multiple political parties.
Over the last few years, elements of Tanzanian democracy have been curtailed. The country is now in the midst of what scholars would call a democratic backslide. This occurs when the state uses its power to weaken institutions that sustain democracy, like civil society and a free press.
A key inflection point in this process was the 2015 election of President John Magufuli. Magufuli is very much a populist -- his nickname is "The Bulldozer." He came to power on a pledge to stamp out corruption but has also shown himself to be increasingly intolerant of dissent.
Since taking office he has enacted laws to severely restrict press freedoms; many journalists have been arrested, and political opponents silenced.
But according to my guest today, Constantine Manda, the process of democratic backsliding really began under the previous administration. Still, for reasons he explains in this episode, the erosions of have accelerated in recent months.
Constantine Manda is a Tanzanian national and a PHD candidate in the department of political science at Yale University.
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Japan and South Korea are in the throws of a dispute - and its getting worse. What was a trade war escalated to the security realm last month when the South Korean government announced that it was pulling out of a key intelligence sharing agreement with Tokyo. This agreement enabled the real-time sharing of key intelligence as it related to common threats, including from North Korea.
Needless to say, amid a growing threat from North Korea, which is regularly testing missiles that could reach both countries, this dispute between South Korea and Japan poses a big risk for international security.
So why are two key US allies that share a common adversary at such loggerheads? And what does a frayed relationship between Seoul and Tokyo mean for regional security and international relations more broadly?
On the line with me to answer these questions and more is Andrew Yeo, associate professor of politics at the Catholic University of America. We kick off talking through the World War Two era origins of this conflict before having a longer conversation about the global implications of a dispute between Japan and South Korea.
If you have twenty minutes and want to learn why historical grievances have become hyper-relevant in East Asia -- and why relations are poised to get worse between these two countries, have a listen.
People often ask me what podcasts I most enjoy listening to and top of the list for me is "First Person" from Foreign Policy magazine. The host, Sarah Wildman, is someone I have gotten to know over the years and whose work I have long admired. Each week she draws out from one guest a personal story or narrative that has some broader global significance.It's a great show and if you are fan of Global Dispatches, you'll certain enjoy First Person. First Person Homepage Apple Podcasts SpotifyGreg Stanton has spent a career researching and fighting genocide. He speaks candidly about the psychological toll of this line of work and managing the PTSD which he confronts to this day.
Stanton is a descendent of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and as you'll learn from this conversation, the human rights gene runs strong in this family. His father was a liberal preacher and civil rights activist, and Greg tells me the most dangerous place he's ever worked, to this day, was registering black voters in Mississippi in the 1960s. Greg is the founder of the NGO Genocide watch. His career as a genocide scholar and activist began in the 1980s as an humanitarian worker in Cambodia, and he recounts collecting evidence of war crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge. Greg served for many years in the State Department as well, including in Rwanda to help establish the war crimes tribunal following the 1994 genocide. We kick off discussing an ongoing genocide against the Yazidi people in Iraq and Syria. The subject matter of this episode is pretty heavy and i just want to thank Greg for being so open and honest about the emotional challenges he's faced throughout his career. This is a rebroadcast. The episode originally aired in August 2016.Fires raging in the Amazon have captured the world's attention and put focus on the policies of the Brazilian government.
The true extent of the fires is not yet known--but most sources suggest that the scale of the fires and deforestation underway is much greater than that of previous years. The reason for that is the permissive policies of the Jair Bolsonaro government.
Bolsonaro is a rightwing firebrand who was elected to office in 2018 following major scandals implicating more left wing parties. As my guest today Rebecca Abers explains, once in office Bolsonaro quickly enacted policies that reversed years of progress against forestation of the Amazon.
Rebecca Abers is professor of political science at the University of Brasilia in Brazil. And in this conversation, she describes the bureaucratic maneuvers engineered by Bolsonaro to undermine protections against de-forestation. We also discuss how and why international pressure, including an upcoming major UN Summit on Climate Change is impacting domestic politics in Brazil and forcing Bolsonaro to more productively combat de-forestation.
About 75% of the world's population live in societies that practice of form of dowry payment. This is also known as brideprice and it is essentially wealth that a potential husband must pay to the family of his would-be wife. But in this way, brideprice acts as a kind of regressive flat tax that younger, and generally poorer men must pay to wealthier, older men.
Hilary Matfess, a PHD candidate at Yale University, undertook a wide study of the impact of fluctuations in brideprice on broader issues related to conflict. She found that there is a positive correlation between changes in brideprice and the outbreak of violent conflict. In other words, when the cost of getting married increases, so too does the probability of armed conflict.
Hilary Matfess published her findings a paper published in the 2017 issues of the academic journal International Security. In it, she and her co-author Valerie Hudson identify how the cost of getting married can lead to the outbreak of violent conflict and war.
Anyone who has ever taken an international relations or security class knows that there are volumes of research on what causes the outbreak of violent conflict. Through case studies, which Matfess discusses in this conversation, the paper demonstrates how fluctuations in brideprices can lead to the outbreak of violent conflict. It is fascinating research with very real-world policy implications.
This is a re-broadcast of an August 2017 episode. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!The fish you eat may have been caught by slaves.
Most Thai fishing boats operating in the South China Sea are dependent on migrant labor. But many of those vessels are essentially floating slave ships in which migrant workers are forced into a kind of debt bondage from which they cannot escape.
Journalist Ian Urbina covered this issue for years as a reporter for the New York Times. He reported from land and sea to offer a first hand account of both the conditions on these ships and the broader economic, political and environmental forces that propel slavery on fishing boats in the South China Sea.
Ian Urbina is on the podcast today to discuss his reporting on this issue, which is included in his new book the Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier. We kick off discussing the plight of these debt-bonded laborers before having a broader conversation about the issue of slavery at sea.
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The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, released a report in August demonstrating the harmful relationship between climate change and how we humans are using land for food and agriculture.
The warnings are dire. Agriculture and deforestation account for nearly a quarter of all human made greenhouse gas emissions -- and big changes in how we produce and consume food need to take place if we are to curb the worst effects of climate change. At the same time, the world population is increasing and poverty is declining, meaning food consumption patterns, particularly around meat, are changing.
Big changes in how we produce and consume food need to take place if we are to curb the worst effects of climate change.
On the line with me to discuss how we can feed the world without destroying the planet is Timothy Searchinger. He' s a research scholar at Princeton University and fellow with the World Resources Institute. He was recently the lead author on a report by WRI Creating a Sustainable Food Future: A Menu of Solutions to Feed Nearly 10 Billion People by 2050.
We kick off discussing the IPCC report and the significance of its findings before having a solutions- focused conversation about policies that can be enacted to help better balance our relationship between food and how humans use the finite resource of land. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn how we can feed the world without destroying the planet, have a listen. Unlock Rewards. Become a Premium SubscriberIn August 2017, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya muslims from Myanmar fled across the border to Bangladesh. The Rohingya are a minority population that have long faced discrimination by the Buddhist Burmese majority. In the summer of 2017, things got very bad, very quickly.
A Rohingya militant group attacked some police outposts in Myanmar. The government and military responded by attacking Rohingya towns and villages, unleashing massive violence against a civilian population. This drove over 600,000 Rohingya to refugee camps in a region of Bangladesh known as Cox's Bazar.
Some 700,000 Rohingya refugees remain there, to this day.
The violence that drove these people from their home was certainly a crime against humanity -- a UN official called it "a text book example of an ethnic cleansing." And maybe even a genocide.
That of course demands the question: who will pay for these crimes. What does accountability look like in a situation like this. And can perpetrators of these crimes even be brought to justice in the first place? On the line with me to discuss these questions in the context of the current plight of the Rohingya refugees is Param-Preet Singh, Associate Director, International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch.
We kick off discussing the events of August 2017 before having a longer conversation about possible avenues for justice for these crimes.
This episode pairs well with my conversation last week with former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes, who discusses the fall from grace of Aung San Suu Kyi, the nobel peace prize winner who was the de-facto head of state of Myanmar while these crimes against humanity occurred--and who remained a notably silent bystander to ethnic cleansing.
In the summer of 2014, ISIS forces swept through parts of Iraq that were home to the Yazidi people. This is an ethnic minority that has lived in Northwestern Iraq for centuries -- and suddenly they were under attack. What transpired was a genocide. Men and boys were murdered for being Yazidi; women and girls were kidnapped and taken as sex slaves for ISIS fighters.
At the time, my guest today Emma Beals was reporting from Erbil, a city in the Kurdish region of Iraq near to where these atrocities were taking place. She was reeling from the news that a fellow journalist, James Foley, had been brutally murdered when she received a call from a human rights organization asking her to investigate rumors of a massacre in the Yazidi town of Kocho.
Emma Beals describes whats next in a series of powerful essays, titled Kocho's Living Ghosts.There were 19 surviving men from the town's original population of 1,888. In our conversation Emma Beals recounts the massacre through the testimony of the survivors she interviewed.
When Ben Rhodes first met Aung San Suu Kyi she exuded the all traits that made her such an international icon for human rights and democracy. It was 2012, and Ben Rhodes, who was the deputy national security advisor, was accompanying Barack Obama in an historic visit to Myanmar. As he puts it, this meeting was the high water mark for her moral authority. There was a hopefulness, surrounding her, he says.
Now seven years later, she has stripped of many international accolades, honors and prizes. At issue is the fact that as the most powerful civilian leader in Myanmar she refused to intervene against, or even publicly condemn, a genocide committed by the government against a religious and ethnic minority. Some 700,000 ethnic Rohingya have fled Myanmar amid what a UN official has called a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. All the the while, Aung San Suu Kyi was silent.
So what happened to Aung San Suu Kyi? How did a Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent decades under house arrest in an elegant pursuit of democracy and justice in Myanmar fall so from grace? And was the international community, including the Obama administration, wrong about her all along?
Ben Rhodes grapples with these questions and more in a new piece in the Atlantic that combines some of his own self-reflection with fresh reporting. He's on the podcast today to discuss the piece. We kick off setting the historic context for Aung San Suu Kyi's rise to prominence and the circumstances of her persecution and house arrest before having a longer conversation about the causes and implications of her becoming a bystander to genocide.
I do want to note that next week on the podcast, I'll be doing whole episode more directly focusing on the Rohingya genocide, including ongoing human rights abuses and the current humanitarian challenges facing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. So, stay tuned to that--it will compliment this conversation with Ben Rhodes.
Before I begin: A big thank you to premium subscribers who support the show through recurring monthly contributions on Patreon.com/GlobalDispatches. You help me do what I do and get rewards in return, including bonus episodes. The bonus episode I'm posting this week is my conversation with George Mitchell, a former US Senator from Maine and international peacemaker who is largely responsible for the Northern Ireland peace agreement. You can unlock access to that episode and many more by becoming a premium subscriber. Check out the tiers of support and the rewards you earn, including access to a daily global humanitarian news clips service I run, by going to patreon.com/GlobalDispatches.
The Horn of Africa region, which includes parts of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, is experiencing a severe drought. This region has been particularly vulnerable to droughts in recent years--but the situation this summer has become increasingly dire and is raising the prospect of a widespread humanitarian emergency.
A little background: In the summer of 2011, there was a similar drought in the region. But warnings about the humanitarian consequences of this drought went largely unheeded until the drought lead to a famine -- the first of the 21st century. Over the subsequent weeks and months over 260,000 people died, making this famine one of the worst mass atrocities of this decade.
That was 2011. In 2017, there was another drought. But this time, the international community and governments in the region responded with urgency. They were able to provide humanitarian assistance and other aid and interventions that prevented the tragedy of 2011 from being repeated.
This brings us So that is all some recent historic background to an email that landed in my inbox from Oxfam, which compared data around the humanitarian response in 2011 to the response to the current ongoing drought, which shows that compared to 2011, the humanitarian needs are greater and the international response is far less robust. This of course suggests that unless something changes, the current drought could lead to another famine.
On the line with me to discuss the current humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa is Dustin Barter, the regional drought policy and advocacy lead, Oxfam. He authored a report comparing the impact of the 2011, 2017 and current drought and the international humanitarian response.
If you have 20 minutes and want to learn why the international community ought to be paying attention to an incipient humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa, have a listen
Ethiopia is in the midst of a fairly remarkable democratic renewal. Since taking office in April 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has accelerated a process of political opening, including a greater freedom of press, the release of political prisoners, a detente with Eritrea, and other meaningful reforms.
But Ethiopia's transition to a liberal, open and multi-party democracy has faced some significant challenges in recent weeks. On June 22, an a general tried to orchestrate a coup attempt, which resulted in two high profile assassinations. That coup attempt, which failed, came on the heels of inter-communal clashes that forced nearly 3 million people from their homes.
Now, the transition underway in Ethiopia is very much being challenged.
On the line to help explain why Ethiopian politics is at such a pivotal moment right now William Davidson, senior Ethiopia analyst with the International Crisis Group. He offers listeners some helpful context and background for understanding the current situation, including what is driving change and the counter-reactions to the process of democratic renewal. To that end, argues William Davidson, it is crucial to understand how rivalries within the ruling coalition, known as the the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, are driving politics.
Thank you to all the premium subscribers who have filled out the survey I sent about discounts you'd like to receive to publications, products, membership organizations and the like. I'll be reaching out to those in the coming few weeks to see what kind of group discounts we can secure for you guys.
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One of the largest cities in India is running out of water. Is this our climate future?
Monsoons typically provide the bulk of water for Chennai, which is one of the largest cities in India. It is on the south eastern coast of the country, in the Tamil Nadu province which is an area that relies on seasonal monsoons to supply the bulk of water.
But last year's monsoons were exceptionally weak, causing aquifers and other water sources to run dry.
Now, in some neighborhoods if taps run at all, only a trickle comes out. Many neighborhoods are reliant on water trucks-- if they can afford it. Meanwhile many people are fleeing the city while this crisis persists.
The proximate cause of this crisis is poor rains. But according to my guest today, Meera Subramanian, deeper political and social factors have exacerbated this crisis. This includes poor city planning and a focus on massive infrastructure projects of limited utility.
Meera Subramanian is a freelance journalist and independent author. She is the author of a book about water issues in India titled: A River Runs Again: India’s Natural World in Crisis, from the Barren Cliffs of Rajasthan to the Farmlands of Karnataka.
In July she authored an op-ed piece in the New York Times which makes the case that disaggregated water resource management could be far more effective in combating crisis like the one we are seeing in Chennai today.
If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the implications of the fact that one of the largest cities in one of the most populous countries is running out of water, have a listen.
Since taking office the Trump administration has taken unprecedented steps to sharply reduce both the number of refugees who are resettled in the United States and also the number of people who can claim asylum.
This has included significantly lowering what is known as the "ceiling" on refugee admissions to the smallest number ever and placing onerous restrictions on exactly who can be admitted as a refugee. Meanwhile, the administration is implementing several policies of dubious legality that would effectively make it impossible for people entering the southern US border to claim asylum.
The Trump administration's restrictive policies toward refugees and asylum seekers are reaching a new phase.
In this episode one of the world's leading experts on refugee and asylum policies is on the line to both discuss the mechanics of what the Trump administration is doing.
Eric Schwartz is the president of Refugees International and also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration in the Obama administration. He has deep experience working on humanitarian and refugee issues, which he summons in our conversation to help put this administration's assault on refugees and asylum seekers in context.
We also discuss the very real global implications of the fact that the United States can not be meaningfully relied on to advocate for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers around the world.
If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the implications of the Trump administration's increasingly hostile approach to refugees and asylum, have a listen.
North Korea is under the world's most stringent set of international sanctions. This includes, since 2006, a ban on exporting of luxury goods to North Korea.
This has not stopped Kim Jong Un from amassing a fleet of high end cars. He is regularly seen in Mercedes and Rolls Royces both in North Korea and on his trips abroad.
And now a fascinating report in the New York Times offers some key insights into how Kim Jong Un smuggles his luxury cars into North Korea.
Reporters from the New York Times teamed up with researchers at the non profit Center for Advanced Defense Studies to track two Mercedes Maybachs from their manufacture in Germany to the streets of Pyongyang. The route was a circuitous one, involving multiple shipping vessels docking in at least five countries over the course of several months. But using open source data and satellite imagery, the reporters and researchers were able to paint a pretty clear picture of how those cars ended up in North Korea. And in so doing, they reveal how the North Korean regime is able to evade some sanctions.
On the line with me to discuss his reporting is one of the journalists on the story, Christoph Koettl. He is a visual investigations journalist with the New York Times video team, specializing in geospatial and open-source research.
We spend most of this conversation discussing the step-by-step journey of these cars. And I think going through each leg of this trip is important because this story reveals a weakness in international sanctions in general and on North Korea in particular. And that's this: which is that that are only robust to the extent that countries are willing and able to enforce them.
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In 2015, the world adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. These are 17 goals around improving health, welfare and the environment that members of the United Nations agreed to achieve by 2030. The "SDGs," as they are known, built upon a previous set of global goals, called the Millennium Development Goals, which expired in 2015.
The idea behind the SDGs was to create an ambitious but achievable set of quantifiable targets around which governments, civil society organizations and the UN can organize their development and environmental policies. These targets include things like eliminating extreme poverty, as defined by people who live on less than $1.25/day; reducing maternal mortality to less than 70 per 100,000 live births; ending the aids epidemic; significantly reduce ocean acidification; among many others. In all there are 162 targets built around those 17 goals.
This week at the United Nations there is an major meeting called the High Level Political Forum on the SDGs in which top government officials and civil society participate in a stock taking of where we stand in terms of progress on these goals. A number of foreign ministers and other officials are in New York to discuss progress--or lack there of -- on the SDGs, so I thought this might be a good moment to have a conversation that examines where the world stands four years into the sustainable development goals.
On the line with me to discuss progress on the SDGs and how, four years in the SDGs are affecting global affairs and international relations is John McArthur, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Senior Advisor to the UN Foundation.
Ash Carter served as President Obama's Secretary of Defense from 2015 to 2017. What made Ash Carter so unique among his predecessors was that by the time he became the Secretary of Defense, he'd already spent nearly 30 years working at the Pentagon. This included stints as both the deputy Secretary of Defense and as the number three in the department, a position often referred to as the acquisitions Tsar.
Ash Carter is out with a new book "Inside the Five-Sided Box: Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership in the Pentagon." This is not your conventional Washington, DC memoir. Rather, what I found so valuable about the book is that offers a grounds-eye view of how the world's largest national security bureaucracy operates. Decisions made at the Pentagon -- from the kinds of weapons bought, to the bases that are opened, to personnel decisions -- really do have world-shaping implication. This book takes you inside that decision making process.
In our conversation, we kick off discussing the sheer vastness of the pentagon. The annual budget of the pentagon is about half of all discretionary spending in the US--that is, money spent on government programs excluding things like social security and medicare. This comes to over $700 billion. For comparison's sake the budget of the State Department is about $50 billion; and UN peacekeeping budget is under $7 billion.
We then discuss what he thinks the US--and world--get for that huge investment. We also discuss his views of the role of the United Nations and UN Peacekeeping; and also the significance of the fact that the US has not had a secretary of defense since Jim Mattis left on December 31.
If you have 25 minutes and want to learn insights from the former Secretary of Defense, have a listen.
When Reccep Tayyep Erdogan party, the AKP, won a landslide victory in Turkey's 2002 general elections he became a very different kind of Turkish leader from his predecessors. The AKP is a religious party in what was an avowedly secular political tradition.
For a time, Erdogan presided over a booming economy and was hailed for being a modernizing muslim leader in a troubled region. His relations with Europe and the United States were strong, and he sought to play a stabilizing role in the middle east.
But all the while, Erdogan was consolidating his power. It started slowly at first and in recent years the degradation of Turkey;s independent institutions has accelerated. This includes clampdown on media and the corruption of the courts and a massive political purge following what Erdogan alleged was an attempted coup in 2016.
Erdogan was become the quintessential example of a new kind of leader around the world--the illiberal authoritarian democrat. That is, someone who is democratically elected, but then systematically uses the power of the state to entrench himself in power.
This brings us to recent events in Turkey. On March 31, an opposition leader Ekrem Immoglu won election as Mayor of Istanbul, a position incidentally that Ergoan held before he became Prime minister. Election authorities, clearly at Erdogan's request, invalidated those results and called for a re-run of the election and weeks later, Immoglu won again--this time by a wider margin.
So what does this election tell us about Ergodan's hold on power and the trajectory of Turkish politics? On the line with me to explain the global significance of municipal elections in Turkey is Howard Eisentstat, he is an associate professor of middle eastern history atSt Lawrence University and senior non-resident fellow a the Project on Middle East Democracy.
Events are unfolding rapidly between the United States and Iran. At time of recording, it was reported that Trump ordered and then called off a military strike against Iran in retaliation for the downing of a US surveillance drone over the gulf of Oman. Meanwhile, Iran is threatening to take actions that would put it in direct violation of the nuclear deal, otherwise known as the JCPOA and Europe is trying is darndest to hold the deal together.
There are a lot of moving pieces right now, so I wanted to bring you an episode that gives you some context and background for understanding and interpreting events as they unfold in the coming weeks and months. To that end, I could think of no better interlocutor than Laicie Heeley. She is the host of a fantastic podcast called Things That Go Boom. She just wrapped up her second season, which was all about the Iran Nuclear Deal. The podcast tells the story behind the Iran nuclear deal in a really interesting and entertaining way, and I'd urge people to check it out.
In our conversation today, we kick off discussing Europe's efforts to salvage the deal and the tough position Europe finds itself in. And then we have a forward looking conversation about some of the key decisions that Iran, the United States and Europe will be forced to make that could determine whether this crisis leads to war.
Congressman Mike Gallagher is a Republican representing the eighth district of Wisconsin, which includes the city of Green Bay.
Congressman Gallagher has an interesting profile, which includes a PHD in International Relations. He's very thoughtful and I think this conversation offers listeners some key insights into how an emerging leader in Republican foreign policy circles considers the US role in the world, the value of multilateralism and international institutions, and more.
We kick off discussing Iran, before having a broader conversation about US foreign policy writ large.
If you are a regular listener to the show my own foreign policy and political views are fairly apparent. You also know that I don't do adversarial interviews--I don't debate people. Rather, I find more value in drawing out the perspective of the person I'm interviewing. And I think that is why you will find this conversation with Congressman Gallagher useful in terms of understanding how a key Republican foreign policy maker sees the world.
The bonus episodes I've posted this week for premium subscribers includes my conversations with Joseph Nye and Carolyn Miles. Joseph Nye is the international relations theorist who coined the term "soft power" and Carolyn Miles is the longtime CEO of the global humanitarian organization Save the Children. In both conversations they trace their career path with me and tell stories from their life and career. To access those episodes, and other rewards like complimentary subscription to my news clips service, please visit Patreon.com/GlobalDispatches or follow the links on GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com
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Donald Trump's pick to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations is unlike any other previous nominee for the US-UN role. Kelly Knight Craft currently serves as the US Ambassador to Canada, a position she was conferred for the fact that her family are billionaire Republican donors. Her family owns a major coal company with deep roots in Kentucky.
It is not at all unusual at all for Democratic or Republican administrations to reward major donors with plum ambassador roles. For better or worse that is part of US diplomatic tradition. But this is the first time that the UN ambassadorship is going to a major donor.
This sets up some interesting political dynamics that were on display during Ambassador Kelly Craft's confirmation hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. On the line with me to discuss how Kelly Craft may fit in the role of UN Ambassador is Richard Gowan. He is the UN director for the International Crisis Group and recently wrote a piece in Politico examining some of the key debates and diplomatic dynamics that the next US Ambassador may face
Coming into this job, Kelly Craft did not have much a foreign policy profile, particularly on issues relevant to the UN. This conversation provides a useful introduction to her and the issues into which she'll be thrust.
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According to the latest estimates from the World Health Organization, an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed over 1400 people. This makes it the second worst ebola outbreak in history, following the 2014 outbreak in West Africa that killed over 11,000 people.
The current outbreak in the DRC is so far confined to the eastern part of the country, which has long been beset by insecurity and violence. There were, however, two cases reported over the border of Uganda from a family that contracted the disease while attending a funeral in the DRC. This marked the first time that this outbreak crossed an international border which brought this long festering outbreak back into the news.
On the line to discuss some of the international efforts to halt the spread of ebola is Ambassador John Lange. He is a retired US Ambassador and currently serves as the senior fellow for global health diplomacy at the United Nations Foundation. We kick off discussing why this outbreak has been so hard to contain and then have a broader conversation about strategies the international community, including the World Health Organization, are using to halt this outbreak.
The protests in Hong Kong represent a key turning point for China, Hong Kong, and the world.
Hong Kong is in the midst of the most significant protest movement since China assumed sovereignty in 1997. These protests were sparked by a proposed law that could permit people in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China to face trial. Protesters fear that this law could be used by authorities in Beijing to erode the rights and liberties currently enjoyed by people in Hong Kong.
At the heart of these protests is the longterm viability of Hong Kong's Independence from China When sovereignty over Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to China in 1997, there was embedded in that agreement the principle of one country, two systems. In other words, while Hong Kong is formally part of China, the political and judicial system, civil liberties and rights enjoyed by the people of Hong Kong would be respected by authorities in Beijing. However, as my guest today MK Tam explains, that principal of one country, two systems has been eroding in recent years. China has been steadily encroaching on civil and political life in Hong Kong and this protest movement is a profound demonstration that the people of Hong Kong are willing to defend their rights. Man- Kei Tam is the director of Amnesty International Hong Kong, which puts him very much at the forefront of this fight. We kick off discussing the proposed extradition law itself, which is up for a potential vote in the Hong Kong legislative assembly, before having a longer conversation about the causes, consequences and implications of the shrinking space for civil rights and political freedom in Hong Kong This conversation is obviously very timely. It will give you the context you need to understand what is driving these protests from someone who is directly impacted by Beijing's encroachment on rights and liberties in Hong Kong. Support the Show! Become a Premium Subscriber!Sudan is at a crossroads. In April, popular protests lead to the ouster of the country's longtime ruler, Omar al Bashir. He was toppled in a coup -- but the peaceful protests did not stop. Rather, the protesters held their ground and rallied outside the headquarters of the military junta demanding that civilians -- not military leaders -- lead the transition to democracy.
The standoff between the military council and civilian protesters held firm until early June, when a paramilitary group known as the Rapid support forces, or RSF, attacked the protesters, killing over 100. At time of recording, the situation remained fluid. The protesters had called for a general strike and are now reportedly back in negotiations with the Junta.On the line with me to discuss the situation in Sudan is Zachariah Cherian Mampilly, a professor of political science at Vassar College. We last spoke in early January, just as the protest movement was beginning to pick up steam. And that is where we pick up the story today. We kick off discussing the circumstances that lead to the ouster of Sudan's longtime ruler Omar al Bashir and then have a longer conversation about the political and geo-political dynamics that are shaping events in one of Africa's largest and most strategically significant countries.
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In 2003, before the US invasion of Iraq, there were an estimated 1.2 million Christians living there. Today, that number is less than 250,000 -- an eighty percent drop in less than two decades. If this trend continues, a religious minority that has been in Iraq for centuries will be gone entirely. A recent article in The Atlantic by reporter Emma Green describes the plight of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic community and the incredible pressure that they have been under since the fall of Saddam. This not only includes ISIS's reign of terror, but day-to-day discrimination against Christians that is causing so many to seek to leave the country.
Emma Green is a staff writer at The Atlantic covering policy, politics and religion. We kick off discussing the history of Christianity before having a broader conversation about the causes and consequences of the fact that a religious minority is fleeing Iraq in droves.
The plight of Iraq's Christians has key geo-political consequences as well as serving as an indicator of the healthiness and strength of Iraqi democracy itself. This conversation explains why what happens to Christians in Iraq matters to the entire world. ***Become a Premium Subscriber. Support the Show. Access Rewards. *** Over the course of six years of running this podcast, I have interviewed hundreds of astounding people who have lived fascinating lives and had storied careers in international affairs. This includes foreign ministers, diplomats, famous academics, journalists, social entrepreneurs and more. I've decided to collect the very best of these interviews and offer them exclusively to premium subscribers. I have already posted several of these interviews Premium Subscribers unlock the growing archive of these unforgettable interviews. Each week, I will be posting one or two of these episodes, exclusively for premium subscribers.Over the course of six years of running this podcast, I have interviewed hundreds of astounding people who have lived fascinating lives and led storied careers in international affairs. This includes foreign ministers, diplomats, famous academics, journalists, social entrepreneurs and more.
I've decided to collect the very best of these interviews and offer them exclusively to premium subscribers. Premium subscribers unlock the growing archive of these unforgettable interviews. Each week, for the next year, I will be posting one or two of these episodes, exclusively for premium subscribers.
To access these episodes and unlock other rewards, like a complimentary subscription to my daily global news clips service DAWNS Digest, please click here.
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According to the latest data, over 41 million people were internally displaced last year due to conflict and violence, according to a new report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. This is a record high and excludes an additional 17 million people who were internally displaced due to a natural disaster. When we say "internally displaced" we mean people who are forced to flee their homes, but do not cross an international border. This distinguishes internally displaced people, or IDPS, from those would be considered international refugees. This distinction is significant because, among other reasons, while there is a robust international law obligating governments to treat international refugees in a certain way, there is not much that international law or norms governing internal displacement. My guest today, Alexadra Bilak, is director of the Internal displacement Monitoring Center which just released its flagship report on global displacement. In our conversation, Alexandra Bilak describes the drivers and trends in internal displacement and also explains why cities are becoming a major focal point for interventions to support potentially vulnerable people who are internally displaced.
In 2020 the West African Country of Ghana will conduct a census. This is a massive undertaking. Some 60,000 people will be deployed across the country in an effort to count every single person in Ghana.
Last week, in a reporting trip to Ghana, I got a sense of what this process entails. Along with a few other journalists, I shadowed census takers, known as enumerators, as they tested their systems in a few places around Accra. This included a mental health hospital and an urban slum. The idea is to ensure that even marginalized groups are counted in this census. On the line with me to discuss how the census will be conducted, the kinds of questions that will be asked, and how census data can be harnessed to advance national goals around sustainable development is Omar Seidu. He is the head of demographic statistics and coordinator for the sustainable development goals at the Ghana Statistical Service. This conversation offers an interesting perspective on the kind of herculean effort that is required to conduct a census in a developing country like Ghana, and also offers a really good grounding in why a census is such a valuable undertaking to advance development goals.Sherwin Bryce-Pease is the United Nations Bureau chief for South African Broadcast Corporation, SABC News. We have a wide ranging discussion about happenings at the United Nations, including debates and discussions at the Security Council about the deteriorating situation in Libya, why the dispute in Western Sahara is at a key inflection point, how the ongoing ebola outbreak in the Congo is being discussed at the UN, and why the Trump administration's Middle East peace Pplan will likely shape debates at the UN in the coming months. This episode is the third installment of my series of chats with in-house UN correspondents about what's buzzing in Turtle Bay. The idea is to touch base with a UN reporter every six weeks or so to take the temperature around the UN and learn what issues are driving the agenda. We kick off discussing the recent appearance of Ghassan Salame, the Secretary General'a special envoy for Libya, before the Security Council. Sherwin Bryce-Pease was in the room during that briefing and he describes the scene. Support the show. Become a Premium Subscriber!
Air pollution results in the premature death of 7 million people around the world each year. It is a major global killer harming people in nearly every corner of the globe.
My guest today, Beth Gardiner is a journalist who traveled the world examining the impact of air pollution. Her new book is called Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution. In our conversation she shares stories from her reporting, which includes not only detailing the harmful impact of air pollution but also an examination of policies that are working toward cleaner air for all.Several countries have laws on the books that enables governments to freeze the assets of corrupt foreign officials. Canada is one of those countries, and now one Canadian Senator is trying to take that law one step further by redistributing the frozen assets to those harmed by the actions of the corrupt official.
Ratna Omidvar is an independent Senator from Ontario to the Senate of Canada. She is the author of legislation that is starting to make its way through the Canadian Parliament called the Frozen Assets Repurposing Act. The bill would seize the assets of corrupt and abusive foreign officials and redeploy those assets to the very people harmed by those foreign officials. This includes people displaced by the actions of corrupt and violent regimes.
We kick off discussing Senator Omidvar's personal history of displacement before having a longer conversation about the contours of this legislation. This includes an extended discussion about how legislation in Canada can influence other parliaments of liberal democracies around the world. Support the show and become a premium subscriberOver the last several weeks an estimated 140,000 people have been displaced by escalating fighting in Idlib, Syria.
Syrian regime forces, backed by Russia, have scaled up their attacks in what is the last part of Syria controlled by rebel forces. Idlib is the only remaining rebel held territory. As regime forces re-captured parts of Syria under rebel control, rebels and their families fled to Idlib, which the key players in the conflict agreed would be a "de-escalation zone." There are now 3 million people in Idlib. Most are displaced and the vast majority are civilian non-combatants. But there are also al Qaeda affiliated militants and other jihadis. My guest today, Dareen Khalifa is the senior Syria analyst with the International Crisis Group. She explains this escalating crisis and what the situation in Idlib says about the broader trajectory and trends of the Syria conflict. This includes some key geo-political forces that are now very much driving events on the ground. The escalating fighting in Idlib, which had experienced a period of relative calm since an agreement between Russia and Turkey, is a powerful reminder that the conflict in Syria continues to drag on even as international attention is fading. -- Become a Premium Subscriber --The spread of child sexual abuse material on the internet has grown at an exponential pace in the last fifteen years, since the advent of social media. This is truly a global problem, affecting every country on earth.
The tools of technology can be harnessed to combat the spread of images and videos depicting child abuse and one non-profit is leading the way.
Thorn is a technology driver non-profit founded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore that develops tools to combat online child abuse and child sex trafficking. On the line with me to discuss some of these tools and strategies is Julie Cordua, the CEO of Thorn.
In this conversation, Julie Cordua describes the scope of the problem, which she refers She also describes how emerging technologies developed by Thorn are being used to detect when this material is being uploaded and is aiding law enforcement around the world.
We kick off discussing a recent announcement that Thorn was one of the winners of the Audacious Project, housed at TED, and will share in $280 million prize to eliminate Child Sexual Abuse Material from the Internet. We discuss how Thorn will work toward that goal and we have a broader conversation about how global efforts to combat the spread of child sexual abuse online have evolved since the early days of the internet and social media.
This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.
There is an escalating humanitarian crisis in Cameroon where more than half a million people have been displaced by conflict.
This conflict erupted in earnest in late 2017 and early 2018 in a series of attacks and reprisals between Anglophone separatists and the French dominated government. In international affairs circles, this is known as the "Anglophone Crisis" in Cameroon. As my guest today, Jan Egeland says, when hundreds of thousands of civilians are displaced, it usually sets off international alarm bells. But this is not the case with Cameroon. There is virtually no international mediation, very little media attention, and the humanitarian response has been woefully inadequate. Jan Egeland is the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a large humanitarian relief organization. He has spent his career in humanitarian affairs, including serving as an under secretary general of the United Nations and as a humanitarian relief advisor for the UN in Syria. He is one of the world's most high profile humanitarian relief experts and he is sounding the alarm on this crisis. He recently returned from a fact finding trip to the crisis affected regions of Cameroon and a few days after we recorded this conversation, he's briefing the Security Council on this humanitarian crisis. You can consider this conversation a preview and extended version of the message he'll be sending to the Security Council. This episode does a good job explaining what is driving this crisis. However, if you want a deeper explanation of the origins of the Anglophone crisis, I will point you to a podcast episode from January 2018, recorded just as this crisis was erupting, that goes more in depth into the historical roots of the anglophone crisis. Also, if you want to learn more about Jan Egeland himself, I'll point you to episode number 52 of Global Dispatches, from back in 2015 in which Jan Egeland discusses his life and career in more detail. Support the show. Become a Premium Subscriber. Unlock RewardsMy guest today Supriya Vani interviewed every living female Nobel Peace Prize winner for her 2018 book Battling Injustice: 16 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.
In this conversation we discuss some common traits that she found across these women and she tells some stories from her interviews and reporting across the globe. Supriya Vani is a journalist and activist in India, and I caught up with her from New Delhi Quick note before we begin: thank you to all of you who are supporting the show through patreon. When you make a contribution to the show, I'll add you to the subscriber roles to my daily news clips service, DAWNS Digest. You will also unlock a host of bonus episodes and other rewards. Support the Show!Today's episode is a cross over promotion with the new podcast: How to Fix Democracy.
How to Fix Democracy is an interview series in which prominent thinkers, writers, politicians, technologists, and business leaders discuss some fundamental questions about the fate and trajectory of democracy today.
This episode features an interview with Michael Ignatieff by the host of the show, Andrew Keen. Michael Ignatieff is a former Canadian politician and author of several books about world affairs. He is now serving as the president and rector of the Central European University. This is a Hungary-based graduate school founded by George Soros that the illiberal government of Hungary, lead by Victor Orban, has sought to shut down. In this episode, Ignatieff discusses the challenge to democracy posed by illiberal "democrats" like Viktor Orban. After listening to this episode, be sure to subscribe to the entire series, which features some really interesting guests and discussion. The series is presented by the Bertelsmann Foundation, in partnership with Humanity in Action. I am a Humanity in Action senior fellow and am glad to present this crossover episode to you.According to the World Health Organization 800,000 people die due to suicide every year. My guest today, Bob Filbin is helping to pioneer a way to sharply reduce that number.
Bob Filbin is the Chief Data Scientist of Crisis Text line. This is a text based mental health crisis intervention platform, operational in the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Individuals in crisis are able to text trained mental health workers anonymously, who can then help them through their emergency. Hundreds of millions of texts have been exchanged since the launch of crisis text line, which is providing researchers with key insights into how to prevent self harm. This is a really interesting conversation about a crucial health issue that is, indeed, a global heath issue. It is also scalable--and Bob Filbin does discuss crisis text line's global plans.This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.
Battles are raging in Tripoli between forces aligned with the UN-backed government and a renegade general named Khalifa Haftar. Haftar and his militias had controlled eastern parts of the country, including the city of Benghazi, but in recent weeks he has marched his troops westward, toward the capitol Tripoli, in an effort to oust the Libya's internationally recognized government. Several hundred people have been killed in this fighting. Thousands have been displaced, and the situation is now very much on the precipice of descending into a full blown civil war. On the line with me to discuss what is happening in Libya and why we need to be paying attention to this escalating crisis is Mary Fitzgerald, a former journalist and researcher who has been studying on Libya since 2011. In this conversation she breaks down the complex dynamics of this conflict in ways that I found very understandable. This episode is an excellent explainer on this currently unfolding crisis in Libya. We kick off discussing a rather unusual turn of events. On April 19th, I and every other reporter who subscribes to the White House email list, received a note in our inbox that was a White House summary of a phone call between Donald Trump and Khalifa Haftar. In the call, the President offered his support behind the renegade general. This statement seemed to reverse US policy on Libya, which is to support the UN-backed government. Support the show! Become a premium subscriber!
In mid march, Cyclone Idai struck southern Africa, ravaging parts of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Of these countries, Mozambique was hardest hit. The storm struck the port city Beira and surrounding areas, creating a massive inland flood plane. At the time, the World Meteorological Organization called it one of the worst weather related disasters to ever strike the southern hemisphere.
One month on, I wanted to get a sense of the how the recovery efforts were progressing, so I called up Dorothy Sang of Oxfam, who is on the line with me today from the city of Beira in Mozambique. Dorothy Sang is Oxfam's humanitarian advocacy manager and in this conversation she describes the scale of the damage wrought by Cyclone Idai and how international relief agencies like Oxfam are responding to this crisis. One thing that struck me about this conversation is how over one month since this crisis, relief agencies are still finding communities that have been totally cut off from access. Before we start: I do want to ask again for you to email me stories, anecdotes about how listening to this podcast impacted you in some way. Did you take some action based on this podcast? Did it affect your work one way or another? Did it inspire you to send an email? Make a call? Buy a book? Donate to a cause? Please email meSome truly remarkable events are unfolding in Sudan, where protesters have secured the ouster of longtime ruler Omar al Bashir. After nearly thirty years as an authoritarian president and dictator, he was deposed in coup on April 11.
But the protesters have not dispersed and are rallying against the cadre of military officials who have assumed control.
On the line with me to discuss these events is Payton Knopf. He is a former US diplomat and UN official who has worked on Sudan issues for many years. He is currently an advisor to the US Institute for Peace We kick off discussing the events that lead to the ouster of al Bashir. But we don't dwell too much on that because I actually did a whole other episode about the protest movement and about al Bashir; I published that episode in January, just a few weeks after these protests began. Rather, we spend the bulk of the conversation discussing this unfolding and fluid situation. Payton Knopf explains who these military rulers of Sudan are--and why it is significant that some of them have trained and deployed militias to Yemen and Libya. We also discuss the implications of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for al Bashir and the unfolding geo-political dynamic that may influence how this political crisis is resolved. Before we start, I have a question for you all. One dynamic I have noticed having done this show for so long is how I, as a, journalist often bring you stories from parts of the world less covered by mainstream outlets or on topics that are globally important but really don't get much coverage--but then you, as a listener have taken some concrete action based on what you have heard. This action could be something as direct as buying the book of the author I interviewed or using your professional connections to follow up on an idea or issue raised in the show. I hear stories of this real world impact from time to time, but I would really love to collect them. So, could you please email me and let me know if an episode inspired you to take some real world action--whatever that may be? These stories of impact are very valuable to me so thank you in advance, You can send me an email using the contact button on Global Dispatches Podcast.com. I'll also post a link to my email in the description field of the podcast if you are listening on your phone. Email me!Among the many barriers to quality healthcare in the developing world is the high cost of medicine. This is due, in part, to frequent disruptions in the supply chain. Customers who visit a pharmacy to purchase medicine can't be guaranteed that the medicine will be something they can afford-- or even if the medicine will be there at all.
My podcast guest today, Gregory Rockson, is a social entrepreneur who is pioneering a way to make medicine in several African countries more affordable and access to that medicine more reliable. He is the c0-founder of a social enterprise called mPharma, which uses data analytics and supply chain management to help small and independent pharmacies control their costs. This is crucial because unlike here in the United States where big pharmacy chains are ubiquitous, in the places mPharma operates small and independent pharmacies are serve the vast majority of people.
mPharma essentially manages the drug supply of participating pharmacies, and assumes the financial risk if drugs are over or under stocked -- sharply driving down the costs.
This is an absolutely fascinating business model and it's already revolutionizing access to medicine in five African countries and is poised for further expansion.
If you have twenty minutes and want to learn why drug prices in many countries are so high and what can be done to drive down those costs, have a listen.
South Africa is experiencing what demographers call a "youth bulge." This occurs when young people make up a very large percentage of the entire population. There are youth bulges similar in many countries in the developing world, including in Africa and Asia.
One key challenge facing societies experiencing a youth bulge large is what happens when these young people become of working age, and there are too few jobs. In South Africa and in many countries with similar demographics, unemployment rates among young people is orders of magnitudes greater than the over all unemployment rate. As my guest today Nicola Galombik explains, when large numbers of young people are unemployed, the knock-on effects for society in general can be extremely negative. So, Nicola Galombik has embarked on a strategy to reduce youth unemployment in her native South Africa. She is the co-founder of the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a social enterprise that is not only helping to find young people jobs at scale, but is changing mindsets around employing young people. Youth unemployment is a key driver of instability in many countries around the world, and as you will see from this conversation the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator has found a formula to take on what is essentially a demographic challenge. This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.
The world has never been safer, wealthier or healthier. So why is it that our foreign policy is dominated by fear and inflated perceptions of threats that can harm us?
My guest today, Michael Cohen, and co-author Micah Zenko seek to answer that question in their new book Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans. The book makes the convincing argument that fear mongering has distorted US foreign policy and distracted us from recognizing impressive gains in human development. This is a very refreshing conversation. One trend that Cohen and Zenko identify an define is something they call the Threat-Industrial-Complex and we spend a good deal of time discussing how that serves to shape US foreign policy priorities. If you have 20 minutes and want a good corrective on US foreign policy, have a listen. Support the show and become a premium subscriber!Not long ago, the social entrepreneur Bright Simons had a lofty goal of restoring social bonds between farmers and consumers. He tried to create a platform to pair organic farmers in Ghana with consumers of organic products. That project failed -- but in failure he made an important discovery that is now revolutionizing the fight against fake and counterfeit goods in the developing world, including potentially deadly counterfeit medicines
Bright Simons is the co-founder and lead of mPedigree, a social enterprise that combats the problem of counterfeit and fake goods -- everything from medicines, to seeds, to auto-parts and more.
As Bright Simons explains, mPedigree takes a systems-wide approach to fighting counterfeits. It's core innovation is a unique product identification marker, called the GoldKeys Platform. Think of it as a scratch off label that reveals a code which people can use a phone to instantly validate the authenticity of a product.
Through this validation system, mPedigree has not only helped stop counterfeiting across many industries, but as Bright Simons explains it's changing the behavior of individuals consumers, industries and even government.
This conversation with Bright Simons will change how you think about counterfeit goods and the systems required to stop this problem and restore consumer confidence and trust.
This episode is presented in partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.
The White House confirmed that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi is to meet President Trump at the White House on April 9. The invitation to the White House was offered amid a deepening crackdown on human rights and a further erosion of the rule of law in Egypt, nearly six years after al-Sisi ousted President Mohammad Morsi.
The White House visit comes as Egypt is facing yet another inflection point that could further ensconce al Sisi in power. At issue are a series of constitutional amendments that would effectively make al Sisi president for life and create what analyst Amy Hawthorne calls a "personalist dictatorship."
Amy Hawthorne is the deputy director for research at the Project on Middle East Democracy and co-author of a recent Foreign Policy piece on the current tumult in Egyptian politics.. After years of crackdowns on political opposition, she explains why Egyptian politics is poised to enter a potentially more dangerous phase.
We kick off with an extended conversation about the circumstances that brought al Sisi to power, including the events of Egypt's Arab spring and its aftermath. We then discuss the implications of recent moves by al Sisi to further consolidate power.
We recorded this conversation a few days before it was announced that al Sisi was to visit Washington, DC on April 9th. If you are listening to this episode contemporaneously, Amy Hawthorne does a good job of setting the scene for that visit. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn how al-Sisi has subverted democracy and undermined human rights in Egypt over the last six years, have a listen.
Global trade is changing how women work.
Supermarkets and major brands source much of their materials and manufacturing in the developing world as part of a "Global Value Chain." This is a way of obtaining raw materials and bringing goods to market that has become more and more common among major global brands in recent years. One consequence of this trend in global trade and global sourcing has been to upend traditional dynamics around gender and work.
Stephanie Barrientos is a professor of global development at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester who studies the intersection between gender dynamics and global trade.
Her latest research examines how norms around work and jobs in the developing world are being changed by global sourcing from major brands. As Professor Barrientos explains, companies' Global Value Chains are having profound implications for women and gender dynamics around work and employment in the developing world.
This conversation is a great introduction to key shifts in global trade over the past decade and some of the downstream effects of how large multinational companies operate. If you have twenty minutes and want to learn how a brand like Cadbury Chocolates is affecting gender roles in places like Ghana, have a listen.
This episode is part of a content partnership between the podcast and the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. Experts from the Global Development Institute discuss their research and also the pressing news of the day as it relates to global inequalities and development. If you’d like to learn more about the Global Development Institute you can go to GDI.Manchester.ac.uk
The second worst Ebola outbreak in history is currently unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since August last year there have been nearly 1,000 confirmed cases and over 600 deaths.
The DRC is a very large country and these cases are so far confined to the eastern part of the country. This is also the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo that has long been mired in conflict and insecurity. In recent weeks, Ebola treatment centers have been attacked forcing medical staff to suspend operations. Meanwhile, new ebola cases are confirmed on a nearly daily basis.
On the line to discuss is Karin Huster, the field coordinator for Medicins Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Border in the DRC. She spoke to me from the city of Goma, the largest city in the eastern part of the DRC. We kick off discussing recent attacks on two Ebola treatment centers run by Doctors Without Borders, and then have a longer conversation about the trajectory of this outbreak and what can be done to halt its spread.
One thing that comes though in this conversation is that this outbreak is not under control. Karin Huster explains why the current strategy has not be able to stop the transmission of Ebola and explains how this outbreak can be halted.
The Ebola outbreak in DRC has fallen from the headlines. This episode provides you with a grounds-eye view of why this outbreak continues to fester.
Quick note before we begin. If you are listening to this show contemporaneously, I wanted to let you know that we have some available slots for advertising. This is a great way to get your message in front of tens of thousands of global affairs professionals, including leaders at the UN, the NGO community, government, academia and think tanks. Send me an email using the contact button on globaldispatchespodcast.com and I can tell you about our rates, availability and impact.Getting bitten by a poisonous snake is not just an individual injury -- rather it is now recognized as a global health hazard. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that between 80,000 and 136,000 people die from snakebite in each year. To put that in perspective, that is more than the number of people who died from meningitis and within the range of the number of people who died from Measles.
Getting bitten by a poisonous snake, or as it's known snakebite envenoming, is now included in the WHO's list of Neglected Tropical Disease On the line with me is one of the world's leading experts on Snakebite, Dr. Gabriel Alcoba. He is a pediatrician who has treated snakebite as a doctor with MSF, or Doctors Without Borders. He is also a public health expert who works with the Geneva University hospitals. This episode provides a very good introduction to snakebite as a global health hazard. Dr. Alcoba explains the link between poverty and injury and death from snakebite and why the pharmaceutical industry has been somewhat slow to develop proper anti-venoms.Today's episode is the second installment of my new series "UN Correspondent Chat." As the name suggests, this series includes wide ranging conversations with in-house reporters at the United Nations who discuss what is driving the agenda at Turtle Bay.
On the line today is Carole Landry, who is a veteran UN Correspondent with Agence France Presse, AFP. We float between topics that have been buzzing around UN in recent weeks including: how Brexit will impact diplomacy at the UN; some of the latest geopolitical intrigue at the Security Council; the ongoing Commission on the Status of Women conference; how the Secretary General has lived up to his pledge to have greater gender parity among senior staff at the UN; and more! This new series is a great way to feel the pulse of the UN and learn what is driving the diplomatic agenda at United Nations Headquarters in New YorkI caught up with CNN's Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward not long after she returned from reporting inside Taliban controlled territory in Afghanistan. She is one of the only western journalists to access Taliban territory to see what life is like under their control. She interviewed both civilians and Taliban officials and is on the Global Dispatches podcast to discuss her reporting.
We kick off discussing the story behind her story: that is, how an unprecedented reporting project like this can be carried out in a volatile security environment? We also discuss how she and her team navigated gender dynamics inherent in a female journalist interviewing Taliban officials. We then talk through some of her key findings about how the Taliban have evolved over the last 17 years.
Her report comes at a vital time as the US and Taliban officials are negotiating face to face, and as Clarissa Ward explains, the fact of those ongoing negotiations helps provide some context for her reporting.
In late January, the Trump administration began a pilot program on the border between Tijuana and San Diego in which migrants who claim asylum are sent back to wait in Mexico as their asylum claims are processed. This is known formally as the Migrant Protection Protocols and informally as the "Remain in Mexico" policy.
The result has been to turn back individuals, mostly migrants from central America, before they can even present claims of asylum; and even if they are able to make a formal claim, they must wait in Mexico as their case proceeds through the US court system. Needless to say, this is almost certainly in contravention of US law regarding asylum and a test case involving the American Civil Liberties Union is due to be heard in a few weeks. In the meantime, this policy is causing profound harm for asylum seekers. My guest today, Kerri Kennedy recently returned from a fact finding trip to Tijuana in which she interviewed people turned away at the border due to this policy. Kerri Kennedy is the associate general secretary for international programs with the American Friends Service Committee, this is of course the Quaker peace and justice organization. She spent a week in Tijuana, speaking to people impacted by this policy and visiting what are effectively homeless shelters that provide for migrants stranded in this limbo. The picture she paints is pretty grim. And conforms with what we already know about the Trump administration's policies of inflicting harm on migrants as a way to deter people from making asylum claims. At time of recording, it appears that the Trump administration is seeking to expand this pilot from Tijuana to other key border crossings, like the Juarez - El Paso border. If you are a regular listener to the show, you know I have a fairly even tempered disposition. This conversation, though, got me upset and pretty riled up. If you have the same reaction as I did, you can help raise awareness of this issue by sharing this episode on social media and beyond. And I will also post a link on Global Dispatches Podcast that tells you how to get involved with the world the American Friends Service Committee is doing on this issue.For the past several weeks Algeria has been rocked by mass protests that harken to the Arab Spring. The protests were triggered by the decision of longtime ruler Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run for another term in office in elections scheduled for April.
Bouteflika came to power in 1999 as the architect of a peace accord that ended Algeria's brutal civil war that killed as many as 200,000. But Bouteflika is now 82 years old and has not been seen in public since suffering a stroke over five years ago. His decision to stand again for elections (or, probably more accurately, the decision of those around him to have him stand for elections) is being widely rejected by these protesters. Also fueling the protests is Algeria's languishing economy and a looming fiscal crisis, propelled by falling prices of oil and natural gas. On the line with me to discuss this unfolding situation in Algeria is Dr. Dalia Ghanem, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, which is where I caught with her. We kick off with the basic question on the minds of many Algerians: Where is President Bouteflika currently? We then discuss the politics of who is running the state while Bouteflika is possibly incapacitated. We then have a longer conversation about what is driving these protests and where these may be headed."Sometimes you gotta walkaway," That is how Donald Trump described the failure of he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to come to an agreement during their summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. So now that this meeting has ended in failure what comes next for nuclear diplomacy with North Korea? On the line with me to discuss the events in Hanoi and talk through possible scenarios for future engagement with North Korea is Kelsey Davenport, the director of non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association. We kick off discussing why this summit ended without any agreement. We also go over the events leading up to this Hanoi meeting, including the first summit between these two men in Singapore eight months ago. We then have a longer conversation about what the next iteration of diplomacy between the United States and North Korea may look like. This conversation does a good job both explaining what happened in Hanoi and setting the context for understanding what may come next between the US and North Korea. Support the show on Patreon and become a premium subscriber!
Tensions are rapidly escalating between India and Pakistan, following a suicide bombing in India controlled Kashmir that killed scores of Indian security forces. In retaliation, India bombed what it called a terrorist camp inside Pakistani territory.
The situation is still unfolding--as I'm recording this there is word that an Indian Air Force pilot has been captured after his plane was shot down over Pakistan.
On the line to discuss this ongoing crisis, and explain why Kashmir has become such a flash point between India and Pakistan is Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center. We kick off discussing the events leading up to this escalation of hostilities before having a longer conversation about the history of Kashmir and India-Pakistani relations.
One thing I particularly found helpful in this conversation was Michael's description of the domestic political logic in India and Pakistan that propels conflict over Kashmir. Needless to say, India and Pakistan have gone to war with each other--the last time was in 1971. But now, they both have nuclear weapons so any hot crisis like the one unfolding now has the potential to descend into the worst-case scenario.
Energy Poverty conventionally refers to the lack of household electricity. Over 1 billion people live without reliable sources of electricity -- but a new group seeks to change how we think about energy poverty.
My guest today, Todd Moss is the founder and executive director of the Energy for Growth Hub, a new think tank. The Energy for Growth Hub seeks large scale solutions to end the kind of energy poverty that can stifle industrial and commercial development in the developing world.
We kick off talking about energy poverty--specifically why the traditional definition of that term may be an inadequate understanding of the problem. We then have a lengthy discussion about the link between big scale energy solutions, global development and climate change.
As I am recording this, the United States is deep into negotiations with the Taliban over some sort of political arrangement that would enable the Taliban's entrance into Afghan politics while the US drew down its troop levels. The specifics of these negotiations are opaque--not much is known about what is on the table.
What we do know is that there are precisely zero Afghan women at the table. And what we also know, thanks to research done in part by my guest today Anna Tonelli, is that the exclusion of women from peace negotiations is a predictor of failure for peace negotiations. When women are excluded from peace talks, those peace talks are less likely to result in any durable success. Anna Tonelli is the inclusive peace and security senior policy advisor wth Oxfam International. In this conversation we discuss some of the research that links the success of peace talks to the inclusion of women. We discuss examples from around the world, but kick off discussion the situation in Afghanistan.We have known for years that vaccinations, including routine childhood vaccinations for diseases like measles, mumps and rubella prevent children from dying on a fairly massive scale. We also know that as a health intervention, most vaccines and vaccination programs are relatively inexpensive.
What was not well known, at least until recently, was the relationship between vaccine preventable illness and poverty. Dr. Angela Chang lead a ground breaking study that shows how vaccines can be an effective tool to prevent individuals in the developing world from slipping down the income latter and into extreme poverty. Dr. Angela Chang is a post doctoral fellow at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The study was published in the journal Health Affairs while she was a doctoral candidate at Harvard School of Public Health. It examines the relationship between what is known as "medical impoverishment" and vaccinations. We kick off the conversation discussing what we mean by medical impoverishment before having a longer conversation about her findings.Thousands of Haitians have taken to the streets in anti-government protests that quickly turned violent. Several people have been killed and a great amount of property has been damaged in these protests.
Haiti, of course, is no stranger to political crisis. But this crisis feels different, according to veteran reporter Jacqueline Charles.
Jacqueline Charles is the Haiti Caribbean reporter for the Miami Herald and in this conversation she explains the origins of this new protest movement and how it may play out over the coming weeks.
As she explains, these protests began, in part, over allegations of corruption surrounding a Hugo Chavez-era Venezuelan oil subsidy program, known as Petro Carbibe. But what began as an anti-corruption protest movement has morphed into something much broader that now threatens to bring down the government of President Jovenel Moise.
This crisis in Haiti has potential to unleash great instability in a very fragile country, which could have big international implications. This conversation does a very good job of giving you the background and context you need to understand events as they unfold.
The riddle of how to avoid the so-called "resource curse" has bedeviled a generation of policy makers, economists and academics. Resource curse refers to the negative consequences that befall a country when it discovers a valuable natural resource, like oil. Often times the discovery of oil does not propel a country's economic development, and can even set a country back. My guest today is engaging in ground-breaking research that suggests some ways that a government may avoid the resource curse. Sam Hickey is a professor of the politics and development at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester . And in this capacity he is engaged in some long term research into how governments in Africa are approaching their oil sectors.This includes a fascinating study comparing how democratic Ghana and authoritarian Uganda have approached their relatively recent oil discoveries. Responsible resource extraction is a key element in the development of many countries around the world and I found this conversation an extremely enlightening explanation about what academic research says about what works--and what does not -- in avoiding the resource curse. We kick off with an extended discussion of the curse, before discussing his research.
This episode is part of a content partnership between the podcast and the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. Experts from the Global Development Institute discuss their research and also the pressing news of the day as it relates to global inequalities and development. If you’d like to learn more about the Global Development Institute you can go to GDI.Manchester.ac.uk or click on the add on globaldispatchespodcast.com
About a decade ago, Simon Moss co-founded Global Citizen with a few friends in Australia. It has since grown into a behemoth of global advocacy on issues related to ending extreme poverty around the world.
I've known Simon for years and have watched Global Citizen evolve over the years. So, I thought it might be useful and interesting to learn from him how an advocacy group like Global Citizen is adapting to broader geopolitical shifts. How does a group focused on ended extreme poverty respond to China's increasing influence in the global development space? How does it adapt to the withdrawal of the United States from its traditional role as a champion of global health and anti-poverty programs? I put these questions and more to Simon Moss in this enlightening and lively conversation about the future of global advocacy on issues related to sustainable development and fighting extreme poverty.
We kick off discussing the origin story of Global Citizen before having a longer conversation about new trends in global advocacy work.
Global Citizen is probably best known for its annual music festival in Central Park in New York that takes place during UN week, bringing together music stars, NGO leaders and government officials on stage in an effort to catalyze action on key global issues like polio eradication or girls education. Simon Moss explains the pros and cons of using a major event like a rock concert to leverage concrete policy outcomes.
If you have 25 minutes and want to learn where international advocacy is headed in the Trump era, have a listen.
Zimbabwe was rocked by protests in mid-January in the most significant public display of dissatisfaction with the government of Emerson Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa you will remember deposed longtime Zimbawe ruler Robert Mugabe in a coup in November 2017 -- an this past summer he further ensconced himself in power through an election in which he was declared the winner. The proximate cause of these protests were a sudden increase in the price of fuel. The government's response was exceedingly violent and repressive. Thousands of people are now languishing in jail. On the line with me to explain what caused these protests and why the once promising reign of Mnangagwa is now looking more and more like a facsimile of the Mugabe era is Mako Muzenda. Mako Muzenda is a freelance journalist from Zimbabwe. --and I have had the pleasure of editing her contributions to UN Dispatch. She is currently finishing her post graduate work at university in South Africa, which is where I caught up with her for this episode. We kick off discussing the fuel tax hike that lead to these protests before having a longer conversation about the ups and downs of the Mnangagwa era in Zimbabwe.
My guest today, Dr. Sharifullah Dorani is the author of the new book America in Afghanistan: Foreign Policy and Decision Making from Bush to Obama to Trump’ as the title suggests, the book examines the history of US involvement in Afghanistan from 2001 through the first two years of the Trump presidency. And in this conversation we discuss what both what has stayed the same and what has distinguished the Trump administrations approach to Afghanistan from his predecessors. We recorded this conversation just a few weeks after Trump, via Tweet, suggested a precipitous withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, which is of course America's longest war. So we do discuss what role American troops are currently playing in Afghanistan and what some of the debates about troop levels have been. We also discuss the ongoing diplomatic efforts led by Trump's envoy to Afghanistan, former US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad.
Today's episode is the launch of a new series: UN Correspondent Chatter. From time to time I'll check in with an in-house reporter at the United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss the latest news, buzz, and intrigues around Turtle Bay.
I'm pleased to launch this new series with Margaret Besheer of the Voice of America. She has covered the UN since 2008 and has a been a great source of news and insight to me over the years. We cover a lot of ground in this conversation, including how the UN is responding to the situation in Venezuela, the significance of a breakthrough on Yemen in the Security Council, the implications of Palestine taking over as the chair of a key group of countries, what to expect from the US at the UN in the coming months, and whether or not other diplomatic breakthroughs may be possible in the coming months. Join the referral program!On January 23rd, the 35-year-old head of the Venezuela's National Assembly Juan Guiado declared himself president of Venezuela, promising to would serve in that role on an interim basis before free elections could be held. He was quickly recognized as the legitimate head of state by the United States, Canada, the Organization of American States and many countries in Latin America.
Of course, de-facto president Nicolas Maduro is rejecting this claim. At time of recording he still controls the government -- and most importantly the security services. Maduro is backed by other countries in the region and also other key international players like Russia.
There is an extremely dangerous standoff underway in Venezuela, the outcome of which is very far from certain.
On the line to provide some context to help you understand this crisis is Ivan Briscoe. He is the regional director for Latin America with the International Crisis Group. We kick off discussing the political context of this situation, including how a relatively unknown politician came to declare himself President. We then discuss the crucial role of the military and security services in determining the political future of Venezuela and whether or not it was a mistake for the US and other countries to quickly rally behind Guiado.
This is obviously a very rapidly unfolding situation and I am confident that this conversation will give you the context and background you need to interpret events in the coming days and weeks.
Dr. Aaron Davis, has one of the greatest titles of anyone I have ever interviewed in the last four years of doing this podcast. He is head of coffee research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. And in that role, he co-authored of two new scientific papers which demonstrate that many species of what is known as "wild coffee" are threatened with extinction, and that is in large part due to climate change. As Dr. Davis explains, we coffee drinkers do not generally consume wild coffee. Rather, there are two species of coffee that are not "wild" that most of us drink, called Arabica and Robusta. But you will learn, the fate of the two species of coffee we drink and that of the 124 species of wild coffee are closely linked. Aaron Davis also holds the title of Senior Research Leader at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. And we kick off talking more generally about the science of coffee before having a longer conversation about the broader broader social and economic implications of his research into climate change and coffee excitation. Support Mark's Coffee Habit (And Also Unlock Some Rewards for Yourself!)
The Democratic Republic of Congo held elections on December 30th that would mark the country's first peaceful transfer of power since its independence in 1960. The long serving ruler, Joseph Kabilla had effectively delayed these elections for years, but finally promised to step down and cede power to the winner of these elections.
Votes were cast. Ballots were counted. A winner declared--and according to several reports a massive fraud was perpetrated. The Catholic Church, which served as independent election monitors, said that the declared result do not match their data. And on January 15th the Financial Times newspaper obtained the raw data from electronic voting machines, which demonstrated a wide margin of victory for opposition candidate Martin Fayulu. On the line with me to discuss what appears to be industrial scale election fraud in the DRC is Ida Sawyer. She is the deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division and a longtime observer of politics in the DRC. In this conversation she explains who the main candidates are; why this election is so significant, and what it means that Over the next several weeks and perhaps months this election related drama will unfold in the DRC. This conversation gives you the context you need to understand and interpret events as they unfold. Join our referral program! Before we begin, I wanted to let you know about a way you can share this podcast with others who are similarly interested in global issues beyond the headlines. I'm launching a referral program in which for the simple act of telling people about the show, you can earn some freebies and rewards. If you tell just one person about the show, I'll send you my specially curated list of over 50 Twitter handles and Instagram accounts that every global affairs nerd should follow. The rewards get better from there, including a podcast mug and tote bag, and a free trial of my DAWNS Digest news clips service. To learn more and enter this limited time promo, you can go to Global Dispatches Podcast.com or click on the link in the description field of this podcast episode.A protest movement in Sudan is posing the biggest challenge to the genocidal regime of Omar al Bashir in decades. The protests began just before Christmas, ostensibly over an increase in the price of bread and they quickly spread. Predictably, the regime has responded with violence but nevertheless, these protests persist.
On the line with me to discuss the origins of this protest movement, how it spread and whether or not it may take down the nearly thirty year reign of Omar al Bashir is Zachariah Cherian Mampilly. He is a professor of political science and international studies at Vassar College and in this episode we discuss both what has made the regime of Omar al Bashir so enduring, and how this protest movement may evolve over the coming weeks and months. Join our referral program! Before we begin, I wanted to let you know about a way you can share this podcast with others who are similarly interested in global issues beyond the headlines. I'm launching a referral program in which for the simple act of telling people about the show, you can earn some freebies and rewards. If you tell just one person about the show, I'll send you my specially curated list of over 50 Twitter handles and Instagram accounts that every global affairs nerd should follow. The rewards get better from there, including a podcast mug and tote bag, and a free trial of my DAWNS Digest news clips service. To learn more and enter this limited time promo, you can go to Global Dispatches Podcast.com or click on the link in the description field of this podcast episode.World Bank president Jim Yong Kim is stepping down at the end January. He made that announcement on January 7th, surprising most observers for the fact that he is resigning from his post with three years left in his second term.
This coming vacancy presents a key inflection point for the World Bank, according to my guest today, Scott Morris. Scott Morris is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and longtime observer and analyst of the World Bank. In this conversation we discuss Jim Kim's legacy at the Bank and why his departure now sets the stage for a potential clash between the Trump administration and other governments over who will next lead the Bank. An American has always headed the World Bank. This is owing to a deal struck between the United States and Europe in which the US backs the European nominee for head of the International Monetary Fund while Europe back the US nominee for head of the World Bank. But as Scott Morris explains, that longstanding tradition may now come to an end.You would not really know it from the headlines, but more irregular migrants and refugees are arriving to Europe via Morocco than are arriving to Italy via Libya or to Greece via Turkey. In fact, as the numbers of migrants arriving to Europe declined overall in 2018, the migrant route from Morocco to Spain experienced a sharp increase. On the line with me to explain why the Morocco-to-Spain route has become so popular, and what this change in migration routes says about Europe's shifting attitudes towards migrants and refugees is Joe Wallen. Joe Wallen is a freelance foreign correspondent for the Telegraph newspaper, the Guardian and al Jazeera. He's reported extensively from sub-saharan migrant communities in Morocco who seek to make the journey across the straight of Gibraltar. In the process, he has reported on human rights abuses that are being visited upon this community by both traffickers and Moroccan security forces backed by the European Union. We kick off with a discussion of the evolving migrant routes from Africa and the middle east before having a longer discussion about the current situation in Morocco.
On December 1st, a business executive named Meng Wanzhou was arrested while transferring through the Vancouver airport at the request of US authorities. Ms Meng is the CFO of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei and now faces extradition to the United States. About ten days later, a former Canadian diplomat and analyst with the International Crisis Group named Michael Kovrig was mysteriously arrested in China. His arrest was followed by the arrest of another Canadian, businessman Micheal Spavor, under similarly opaque circumstances. These incidents have plunged Canada into a diplomatic crisis -- and this crisis has implications far beyond Canada, according to my guest today Stephanie Carvin. Stephanie Carvin is an assistant professor of International affairs at Carlton University in Ottawa. She is also the host of a Podcast called Intrepid. In this episode we discuss both the details of this diplomatic crisis and why what is happening right now between China and Canada is something to which every observer of international affairs ought to be paying close attention.
One of the worst mass atrocities in recent times took place in Sri Lanka during the final days of that country’s long civil war. In May 2009, tens of thousands of people were killed by Sri Lankan armed forces over the course of just a few days as the military sought to deal a final blow to an insurgent group known as the Tamil Tigers. In the process, they killed as many as 40,000 civilians.
No one was brought to justice for this crime against humanity. And the lack of accountability for those crimes is a key factor in that my guest, Kate Cronin- Furman, argues is contributing to political instability in Sri Lanka today.
Kate Cronin-Furman is an assistant professor of Human Rights in the Department of Political Science, University College London. In this conversation, she explains what happened during the final days of that civil war when this massacre occurred. We then discuss how the forces that carried out that crime against humanity are posing a big challenge to the political life of Sri Lanka, which entered an extremely tumultuous period this fall in which two people claimed to be prime minister at the same time.
We kick off discussing the Sri Lankan civil war and its brutal end days before having a longer discussion about the ways in which the lack of accountability for those events are undermining the political stability of Sri Lanka today.
This massacre of 40,000 people was second only to the genocide in Darfur as the worst mass atrocity event of the first decade of the 21st century. As you will learn in this episode, Sri Lankan politics is still defined by this atrocity in ways harmful to a healthy democracy.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert is Donald Trump's nominee to serve as the next US Ambassador to the United Nations. If confirmed, she will replace of course Nikki Haley, who served in the role for nearly two years.
Heather Nauert is a former journalist and Fox News personality before joining the State Department in April 2017. As State Department spokesperson, Heather Nauert held regular briefings with the State Department press corps, so I thought it would be a good idea to invite a veteran member of that press corps on the show. On the line with me is reporter Matt Lee of the Associated Press. Matt Lee has covered the State Department for nearly 20 years and has seen many State Department spokespeople come and go. In this conversation, we discuss what distinguished Heather Naurert from her predecessors and what her performance as sState Department spokesperson might suggest about how she would approach the job of UN Ambassador. We also discuss the implications of a decision by the White House to downgrade the position of UN Ambassador from a cabinet level position, which is was during Nikki Haley's tenure. The UN ambassador will no longer serve on the National Security Council and we discuss what that means in terms of foreign policy decision making. Support the show!Massive infrastructure projects like the building of ports, roads and railways are becoming more and more commonplace in the developing world. According to my guest today, the reason we are seeing more of these projects is a burgeoning global rivalry between China and the United States.
Seth Schindler is a senior lecturer in urban development and transformation at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. He studies large scale infrastructure projects and as he explains were are on the cusp of an infrastructure "arms race" between the US and China for connecting the developing world. He predicts that geopolitical rivalry between China and the United States will be the key factor driving the development of these massive projects.
In our conversation we talk through the implications of this trend, which has accelerated since China launched a massive global infrastructure-building strategy known as the Belt and Road Initiative. It was in response to this Chinese strategy that the US Congress passed a law known as the US BUILD ACT, which established a new International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC)
We kick off this conversation talking about both the Belt and Road Initiative and the new US International Development Finance Corporation, before having a broader discussion about the ways this rivalry will manifest itself around the world and its impact on global development.
This episode is part of a content partnership between the podcast and the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. Experts from the Global Development Institute discuss their research and also the pressing news of the day as it relates to global inequalities and development.
A protest movement in France known as the Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Vests, has become a political crisis for French President Emmanuel Macron. The protest movement began over a hike in a fuel tax, but has grown into something much more and is now threatening to further weaken Macron, who was already deeply unpopular in France.
On the line with me to discuss the origins of this movement and its political significance both in France and throughout Europe is Arthur Goldhammer, a senior affiliate with the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. He is also a translator of French works into english. If you are one of the many people who read Thomas Picketty's book Capitalism in the 20th Century, you read Art Goldhammer's translation. We kick off discussing the origins of this protest movement, then have a wider discussion about the roots of Macron's unpopularity in France and the implications of his unpopularity for Europe, the European Project and liberal democracy more broadly. Become a premium subscriber!Over 180 countries are endorsing what is known as the Global Compact for Migration. The text of this non-binding agreement was finalized over the summer, and countries are meeting in Marrakech Morocco on December 10th and 11th to formally launch the Compact.
There is a great deal of misinformation being spread, mostly by right wing governments in Europe and here in the US, about what this agreement entails. This agreement is not a treaty. Rather, it is an agreed set of principles and creates a kind of platform for multilateral and bilateral cooperation around issues of international migration.
On the line to explain the Global Compact for Migration, better known around the UN as the "GCM" is Alice Thomas of Refugees International. I caught up with Alice Thomas from Marrakech where she was participating in civil society forums around the Compact. We discuss both the content of the Compact and its potential impact on destination countries, origin countries and migrants themselves. We also discuss the impact of the non-participation of a few countries in this compact, including the United States and some countries in Europe. If you have 20 minutes and want to a primer on the Global Compact For Migration, then I think you will very much appreciate this conversation. Access Your Rewards By Becoming a Premium SubscriberThe Kingdom of Bahrain is the smallest country in the Middle East. It is an island in the Persian Gulf connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway. And it is home to a very large US naval base, that houses the Navy's fifth fleet. Bahrain is also in the midst of a years long crackdown in which political opposition figures, human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers have been languishing in jail. And it was in this context that last month Bahrain held elections that were a total sham, according to my guest today, Brian Dooley.
Brian Dooley is a senior advisor at Human Rights First and as he explains, the politics and international relations of Bahrain can teach us a lot about broader trends in the Middle East. In our conversation, we discuss why these recent elections in Bahrain matter and what the international community can do to restore a semblance of representative democracy to Bahrain.
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Diplomats, scientists, advocates and other concerned parties are gathering in Katowice, Poland for a major international climate conference that is serving as a followup to the Paris Climate Agreement. The meeting is formally called the 24th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is better known in UN lingo as COP24 and it stretches from December 2nd to the 14th. This conference is a big moment in international diplomacy and a key inflection point for the implementation of the goals set forth in the Paris Accord. On the line with me to discuss what is happening at this conference and why it matters is Yamide Dagnet, a senior associate at the World Resources Council. And as she explains there are three main tasks before delegates to this conference, which together are intended to facilitate global cooperation toward the Paris agreement goal of limiting the pace of global warming. We also discuss how the United States fits into these negotiations given that it is both a major emitter and that President Trump has decided the US will pull out of the Paris Agreement.
Michelle Gelfand is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland and author of the new book Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire our World. The book, which is written for a popular audience, is based on a scientific study conducted by Gelfand in 33 countries in which she examines cultural norms around rule following.
As she explains, certain countries have a higher tolerance for norm and rules breaking behavior than others--and these discrepancies can have important consequences for international relations.
Dr. Gelfand's study is a groundbreaking way to look at key cultural differences between countries.
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My guest today, Diana Mitlin, is a professor of global urbanism at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester.
Much of her work focuses on issues surrounding informal urban settlements, commonly known as slums. In this episode we discuss why slums present such a profound challenge for global development--and how getting policies around slums right can lead to big progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
We kick off this discuss talking more broadly about the scope of the challenges surrounding the nearly 1 billion people around the world who live in what might be considered a slum. We then discuss what policies work to uplift people who live in these informal urban settlements and how successful policy is being implemented by some cities and local governments around the world.
This episode is part of a content partnership between the podcast and the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. For the next several months we will be featuring from, time to time, experts from the Global Development Institute who will discuss their research and also the pressing news of the day as it relates to global inequalities and development. If you'd like to learn more about the Global Development Institute you can go to GDI.Manchester.ac.uk or click on the add on globaldispatchespodcast.com"
Harold Hongju Koh is one of the America's leading scholars of international law. He is the Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, where he formerly served as the dean. He's also served as the Legal Advisor in the State Department and was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Professor Koh is the author of the new book that examines the Trump administration's relationship with international law. His book, called "The Trump Administration and International Law" surveys issues in which the Trump administration has clashed with international law, including immigration and refugees, human rights, and climate change. Professor Koh concludes that forces of international law are far more resilient than we might expect, and in fact, Trump's power has been constrained by international law. Professor Koh explains the process through which international law has so far been able to blunt some of Trump's more aggressive impulses.
On October 31, South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar entered the capitol city of Juba for the first time in two years to attend a peace ceremony. The ceremony in Juba was intended a confidence building measure toward the implementation of the peace deal. Earlier this summer, Machar and South Sudan's president Salva Kiir signed a peace deal, formally ending a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced over a million more.
On the line with me to discuss the peace deal is Alan Boswell. He is a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group who has been following events in South Sudan for years. We discuss the roots of the conflict, what lead to this peace agreement, and whether or not this new peace agreement can succeed.In mid September, I was sitting next to the journalist Sally Hayden while attending a press briefing near the United Nations when phone started buzzing with WhatsApp messages. Refugees and migrants stranded in a prison in Libya had gotten her number and were sending her messages describing awful details of their confinement.
These refugees were stranded in prison because of a deal worked out between the Libyan Coast Guard and Italian government. Thousands of refugees and migrants, mostly from Eastern and Sub-saharan Africa, are languishing indefinitely in confinement in Libya after having been captured by Libyan coast guard units as they tried to make their way to Italy. This has resulted in an ongoing human rights catastrophe as prisoners are left alone in jail cells, often without food or water.
As Sally Hayden explains, this has resulted in an unbelievably awful human rights calamity that is not getting the attention it deserves. In this episode, Sally Hayden explains this unfolding crisis.
As was expected, Republicans have held onto control of the Senate while Democrats have won a solid majority in the House of Representatives. So what does this mean for foreign policy and global affairs? On the line with me to talk through some of the international implications of the US Mid term elections is Heather Hurlburt. She is the director of the New Models of Policy Change project at the New America Foundation and is a longtime player and analyst of US foreign policy. And in this conversation, which was recorded a day after the midterms, we talk though some of the fallout from the elections as it pertains to foreign policy.
Mark Lowcock is the top humanitarian official at the United Nations, serving as the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator.
When a manmade or natural disaster strikes, his UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which is known by its acronym OCHA, is the focal point for managing and coordinating the international humanitarian response, including getting food, shelter, medicines and other life saving needs to people affected by the crisis. As Mark Lowcock explains, the UN and the constellation of NGOs that coordinate their actions through his office are very good at responding to crises. Keeping people alive who have been displaced or affected by manmade or natural disaster is something the UN excels at. The challenge is that there are a multitude of crises competing for a finite amount of resources and much of our conversation focuses on the challenge of funding these humanitarian operations, including some interesting new funding models that are emerging. We kick off, though, discussing the situation in Yemen. We recorded this conversation on November 1st. The week prior Mark Lowcock briefed the Security Council on the deteriorating situation in Yemen and issued an extremely dire warning about a famine that looms over the country. Lowcock explains what compelled him to issue this warning about famine and we also discuss recent moves by the United States government to call for a ceasefire in Yemen.For 27 years, the question of what to formally call the country informally known as "Macedonia" has been a diplomatic thorn in the side of Europe and the Balkans.
Macedonia became independent upon the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia in 1991. Immediately, though, the question of what to call this new country became a diplomatic and political crisis. Macedonia borders Greece and the region of Greece that borders Macedonia is called..."Macedonia." So, for decades Greece has systematically blocked Macedonia from calling itself "Macedonia." In fact, at the United Nations, of which Macedonia is a member state, it is known as FYROM, which stands for "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia." This name dispute has had some real and profound international implications, as my guest today Damon Wilson, explains. Damon Wilson is the executive vice president of the Atlantic Council and he also served for a time at the White House and at NATO where he helped oversee negotiations between Macedonia and its neighbors. As he explains the inability of Greece and Macedonia to resolve the name dispute has left Macedonia unable to join the EU and NATO, as many of its neighbors have. But now, negotiations over the summer between the Prime Ministers of Greece and Macedonia lead to a big breakthrough. The issue now is with the Parliaments of both countries, where ratification of this agreement is in a precarious state.The International Criminal Court is likely to open an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Afghanistan. Much of the focus of the investigation would be crimes committed by the Taliban, but actions by Americans could also come under scrutiny. This raises the prospect of the first real collision between Americans and the International Criminal Court. On the line with me to discuss the implications of this probable ICC probe of the Afghanistan conflict is Mark Kersten. He is a fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto and one of my favorite go-to ICC experts. We kick off discussing the circumstances around this ICC investigation and that segues into a conversation about the history of US-ICC relations and we have a broader discussion about the current work of the ICC around the world--and why many of its cases seem to be faltering.
The challenge was immense
About twenty years ago, India accounted for over 60% of all polio cases worldwide -- in fact it was considered a "hyper" endemic country. Then, the Indian government teamed up with the United Nations and other partners, including through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, to tackle polio head on.
India's vast population, its geographic diversity, and pockets of extreme poverty seriously complicated this effort. But the Indian government and its partners adapted, innovated and above all persisted until they could reach the very last child with the polio vaccine.
In 2014, India was officially declared polio-free. There has not been a single case of wild polio in India in over eight years. Today, only three countries remain polio endemic. And as of October, there were fewer than 20 wild polio cases worldwide in 2018.
The world is now tantalizingly close to the total global eradication of polio, and India's success in defeating polio within its borders is a big reason why total eradication is within reach
Through interviews and archival material, this special episode of Global Dispatches tells you the story of how, against all odds, India eliminated polio.
This episode is produced in partnership with the the United Nations Foundation as part of a series that examines successes in multilateral cooperation to tackle great global problems. Previous episodes in this series include how the world closed the hole in the ozone layer, and how the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia successfully completed its work in 2015.
On October 17 Canada became the second country in the world to legalize the recreational use of Cannabis. The first was Uruguay, which decriminalized Cannabis a few years ago. But Canada's move is arguably more significant to international relations for the fact that it is a member of the G7; and is a country that has a longstanding commitment to international law and the rules based international order
But, as my guest today Ambassador David Johnson explains, this move puts Canada squarely in violation of its international treaty obligations. David Johnson is a former US assistant secretary of state of international narcotics and law enforcement affairs. He is also currently a member of the UN's International Narcotics Control Board. As he explains, this is a body that oversees country's compliance with international treaties relating to drugs, including what is known as the 1961 Single Convention. We discuss the implications of Canada's apparent violation of this treaty; and what it means for global efforts to control illicit drugs trafficking. More broadly,though, we discuss what happens when progressive policies like the decriminalization of cannabis run afoul of the rules of the international system. And I think you can tell that I am kind tortured here. On the one hand, I strongly support the decriminalization of cannabis. On the other hand, I strongly support a rules based international order--and Canada's move puts these two in direct conflict.An ongoing Ebola Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sickened over 250 people, and resulted in over 130 deaths as of October 18. Now, the DRC is experienced in handling Ebola outbreaks. A separate outbreak in the country's Equateur province was rather quickly and effectively contained. 33 people died, but it could have been much worse. That outbreak was declared over this summer. What makes this current outbreak so potentially dangerous is the fact that it is occurring in a conflict zone. Ebola has been confirmed in two provinces, North Kivu and Ituri, that have long been a hotbed for various armed groups. As my guest today, Heather Kerr of Save the Children explains, this insecurity is seriously undermining efforts to bring this outbreak under control. Heather Kerr is the country director for Save the Children. I caught up with her from Kinshasa, the capitol of the DRC where she was just emerging from a meeting on the ebola outbreak. Heather Kerr describes what Save the Children is doing in response to this outbreak, as well as the activities of other groups. She explains how insecurity in the city of Beni is disrupting the activities of health workers, such as contact tracing, to bring this outbreak to heel.
On October 2, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, seeking to retrieve some marriage documents relating to his upcoming wedding. He never came out. Turkish authorities believe he was tortured and murdered by Saudi intelligence officers sent to kill him. This incident has profoundly shaken Saudi Arabia's relationship with the United States. Khashoggi was well known and well-liked by journalists and others in policy circles in Washington DC. He was a columnist for the Washington Post and had a residence in Northern Virginia. Yet, despite his connections, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammad Bin Salman apparently ordered a hit job. On the line with me to discuss the international implications of this incident is Simon Henderson He is the Baker Fellow and Director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He was a friend of Khashoggi's and he explains who Khashoggi was, and how his murder may impact Saudi Arabia's relationship with both Turkey and the United States. This conversation does a good job of putting this incident in a broader context of Saudi Arabia's transitions under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Details from the incident in the Saudi consulate are still emerging. We recorded this conversation on Friday oct 12. And I think that Simon Henderson provides some useful context that will help you understand how we reached a point where the Saudi government was willing to so brazenly murder a high profile critic of the Crown Prince.
My guest today Ivo Daalder served as the United States ambassador to NATO under President Obama from 2009 to 2013. He is now the president of the Chicago council on foreign relations and he is the co-author, with James Lindsey, of the new book, The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership.
The book offers a comprehensive accounting of the first two years of President Trump's foreign policy and in so doing, it offers an unsparing criticism of what the authors argue is a grand strategic failure of the Trump administration. Now, for those of you who have been around the foreign policy world for a while, you may recall that Ivo Daalder and James Lindsey last teamed up for the 2005 book America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy. This book won all sorts of awards and rightly so--it was the first book to really offer a full picture of the immense scope of the foreign policy failures of the first term of the George W Bush administration. So, we kick off this conversation comparing that era to the one we are currently in.My guest today, Nicola Banks, is a lecturer in global urbanism and urban development at the University of Manchester. She has conducted some pioneering research on the role of the NGO sector in global development.
Some of her findings, including that development NGOs be more politically engaged, are being adopted and tested by some major aid agencies. Dr. Banks is also undertaking an ambitious project, along with Professor Dan Brockington of the University of Sheffield, of mapping the UK's NGO sector and we discuss some of her findings from that study.
This episode is part of a new content partnership between the podcast and the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. For the next several months we will be featuring from, time to time, experts from the Global Development Institute who will discuss their research and also the pressing news of the day as it relates to global inequalities and development. If you’d like to learn more about the Global Development Institute you can go to GDI.Manchester.ac.uk or click on the add on globaldispatchespodcast.com
I met the Foreign Minister of Kosovo Behgjet Pacolli in a hotel lobby not far from the United Nations where the foreign minister had spent several days during the UN General Assembly last week.
I was interested in learning from the foreign minister both some of the substantive issues on his plate--that is, what are Kosovo's foreign policy priorities today, and also just what life is like during UN week for the foreign minister of a small state like Kosovo. So, the conversation you about to hear veers between those two threads. Kosovo is in a unique diplomatic situation. About 116 countries recognize Kosovo as an independent state. This includes major powers like the United States and most of Europe. Russia and many other countries however, do not consider it an independent country, but rather a breakaway region of Serbia. The quest for formal and full admittance to the United Nations hits a roadblock at the Security Council, where Russia holds a veto. As you'll see from our conversation Foreign Minister Pacoli's paramount is to gain full status for Kosovo at the UN and secure bi-lateral recognition from as many states as possible and it was interesting to hear from him how he goes about doing that.If you want a glimpse of a dystopian future in which authoritarian leaders harness the power of social media to carry out human rights abuses and suppress their political opponents, you need to look no further than the Philippines today. There are few countries in the world as hyper connected on Facebook as the Philippines. And here, President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies are using Facebook to advance their so-called war on drugs which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, mostly through extra-judicial killings. All the while, so called Facebook "influencers" are spreading false information -- even a faked pornographic image to undermine leaders in the Philippines who are critical of Duterte. It is a nightmare situation and one in which Facebook is an accomplice. On the line with me to discuss the deleterious effect of Facebook on democracy in the Philippines is Davey Alba. She is a reporter with Buzzfeed who wrote a deeply reported longform article examining the mechanics of how Duterte and his allies have harnessed Facebook to advance an authoritarian agenda while undermining domestic political opposition. Facebook has very much become a tool of Duterte's drug war and what is happening in the Philippines right now should serve as a warning about Facebook's potential to undermine democracy.
Every year during UN Week there are a number of substantive and important issues discussed, new initiatives launched and new partnerships formed, typically around some big important global issues. It is a week in the diplomatic calendar in which a lot of problem solving gets done. The problem is, this aspect of UN Week rarely gets covered by the mainstream media, which so often chases the big headlines in general--and Donald Trump in particular.
But there is so much happening beyond Trump, so today I wanted shine a spotlight one particular initiative launched this week to help the international community and countries of the developing world collect better data around agricultural productivity. The initiative is called 50x2030, the 50 refers to 50 countries from the developing world which will participate in this data collection initiative and 2030 refers to the end date in which the Sustainable Development Goals are due.
Key partners on the initiative include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United States Agency or International Development (USAID), Government of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Government of Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and International Fund for Agricultural Development. It was launched at the United Nations this week.
I attended the launch and it included something very different. In advance of a panel discussion, two individuals told powerful personal stories that helped make this discussion very real. These individual were trained by the Moth Global Community Program. So to kick off this episode, we are going to hear a seven minute personal story from Edward Mabaya, a development economist from Zimbabwe who told his story from the floor of the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations.
That story provides important grounding for my longer conversation about strengthening the quality if data around agricultural productivity with Claire Melamed, who is the CEO of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.
All eyes turn to the New York and the United Nations as world leaders gather for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, better known UNGA. This is always the busiest week of the diplomatic calendar and on the line the help make sense of it all is Richard Gowan. He is a Senior Fellow at the UN University Centre for Policy Research, and a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
This year, like last year, much of the oxygen in Turtle Bay and beyond will be sucked up by the Donald Trump, who is scheduled to be in New York for three consecutive days. We discuss some of the key moments to watch, including a scheduled Security Council meeting over which Donald Trump will preside.
We also discuss some of the other events and issues that probably wont make headlines, but are nonetheless important outcomes of this year's UN summit. This includes a key high level meeting on UN Peacekeeping, which we discuss at length.
If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the key stories to follow this UN Week, have a listen.
Links mentioned Action For Peace Delta8.7
In this special episode of Global Dispatches Podcast we are bringing you the story of how UN Peacekeepers partnered with the people and government of Liberia to help transform the country from one of the bleakest places on the planet, to one of the more hopeful today.
When peacekeepers were first deployed to Liberia in 2003, the west African country had just experienced a devastating civil war. Fifteen years later, the last Blue Helmets left the country.
Through interviews and archival audio, you will hear from Liberians, UN officials and experts who explain how the UN Mission in Liberia, known as UNMIL, was able to work itself out of a job.
This episode is produced in partnership with the United Nations Foundation as part of the special series that examines success stories of multilateral engagement. When the world works together, powerful and lasting change can take place.
UNMIL is a success of UN Peacekeeping. This episode tells its story.
My guest today, Anand Giridharadas, is the author of the new book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. The book is a piercing examination of how the global elite have co-opted our mechanisms of social change. This trend manifests itself in many ways, including the belief that market forces are more important than government in affecting change.
The book is an extremely challenging, and at times discomfiting, critique of a trend that I've witnessed and certainly been on the periphery of. Conferences like the World Economic Forum, Aspen Ideas Fest, or the Clinton Global Initiative, the book argues, exemplifies an approach to social change that ends up entrenching a highly inequitable status quo. The book has a chapter dedicated to UN Week when heads of state come to New York for the opening of the UN General Assembly, and also attend all manner of side events. And we kick off discussing the significance of many of these events to his overall thesis. I must say, this book has definitely struck a nerve. At time of publication it's number 6 on the New York times best seller list-- and I think this conversation will help you understand why we expect this book to be so impactful.The world is experiencing a dam building boom. According to research by my guest today David Hulme there are plans underway around for the construction of over 3,700 new dams around the world. And this explosion in dam building comes after a period in which there was a lull in the construction of new dam projects.
So what accounts for this new interest in dams? Where are these new dams being built? Do dams contribute to sustainable development or do they detract from it? We discuss these questions and more in the episode you are about to hear. David Hulme is an academic who leads the FutureDAMS consortium at the University of Manchester's Global Development Institute. And in this capacity he helps policy makers make better informed decisions about dam projects, and we discuss at length what academic research can teach us about what makes dam projects succeed or fail in their stated goals. "This episode is part of a new content partnership between the podcast and the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. For the next several months we will be featuring from, time to time, experts from the Global Development Institute who will discuss their research and also the pressing news of the day as it relates to global inequalities and development. If you'd like to learn more about the Global Development Institute you can go to GDI.Manchester.ac.uk or click on the add on globaldispatchespodcast.com" I'm excited that this is the discussion on which we will kick off this partnership."1.5 million Syrian refugees are in Lebanon today. But as the fighting quells in areas of Syria, some of these refugees are considering returning home. Who gets to return, the places to which they will return, and the circumstances under which refugees move back to Syria are intensely political decisions. As journalist Charlotte Alfred explains, the return of refugees, albeit in small numbers, has begun. And it is becoming a tactic of the civil war. Charlotte Alfred is the managing director of the news website Refugees Deeply. Her recent longform article "Dangerous Exit: Who Decides How Syrians in Lebanon Go Home" explains the geopolitical calculations and the tactical military considerations behind these refugee returns; and on an individual level she explores the deeply personal dillemas facing individual refugees as they make this decision. It should be noted: the UN Refugee Agency is not aiding in the return of refugees to Syria. They have concluded that the situation in Syria is not safe enough to guarantee the security of returning refugees, and in fact, they have warned countries against returning refugees. But Lebanese and Syrian forces are working together to facilitate some returns. The return of refugees and the politics around may define the next phase of this civil war and Charlotte Alfred has written the most important explanation of what that means.
In mid-August a UN human rights body called the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said that up to 1 million ethnic Uighurs in China were imprisoned in massive internment camps. Subsequent reporting in places like the Wall Street Journal offered a degree of confirmation that Uighurs were being rounded up, seemingly at random, and sent to "re-education" centers where they are forced to chant communist party slogans, study the speeches of Xi Jinping and also subjected to torture. Uighurs are a religious and linguistic minority in China. The majority practice a form of sunni Islam and most live in Xinjiang province in the far northwest of China. They have been the subject of discrimination for decades, but abuses against this community seem to be accelerating. On the line with me to discuss this situation is Sophie Richardson, the China Director for Human Rights Watch. She explains the methods by which the Chinese government is repressing this community, including mass internment at these so-called re-education centers. We also discuss the history of China's repression of ethnic minorities, including against Tibetans and finally, we discuss what the rest of the world can do to help protect vulnerable Uighurs.
Ambassador Princeton Lyman passed away on August 24th at the age of 83. In January 2017, he came on the podcast to discuss his remarkable life and career, which included serving as the US ambassador to South Africa during the end of apartheid and transition to democracy. We listen back to that interview.
The Syrian war may be entering its final phase. Rebel fighters, from various factions, are now concentrated in Idlib, in northern Syria. Idlib is the place to which civilians and members of armed groups were permitted to escape as part of evacuation deals from places like Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta as they fell to government forces. Millions of displaced Syrians and some armed groups are now concentrated there. But now there is every indication that Syrian forces, backed by Russia, are preparing for battle. My guest today is trying to warn the world how disasterous such a battle would be for civilians caught in the crossfire. Jan Egeland is a senior advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria and heads the UN's humanitarian task force for Syria. As such, it is his job to negotiate access to besieged populations for relief workers and facilitate humanitarian relief in war zones. A battle over Idlib would be a bloodbath, he says, that could jeopardize the lives of 3 million people. In our conversation, Jan Egeland describes the significance of Idlib to the trajectory of the war , and the geopolitics underpinning a potential decision by the Syrians to lay siege to it. We also discuss what NGOs in Idlib are doing to prepare for a potential attack. Jan Egeland is a longtime humanitarian professional. He is current the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council and served as the top UN humanitarian relief official from 2003 to 2006. This meant he reported directly to Kofi Annan so we kick off with a brief conversation about the late Secretary General's legacy before discussing Syria at length.
On March 21, 2020 North Korea shoots down a South Korean civilian airliner, mistaking it for a US bomber. This sets off a series of events that leads to the launching 13 nuclear armed ballistic missiles towards the United States. Several of these missiles miss their target. But not all. One bomb levels Manhattan, another hits Northern Virginia and a third lands near Mar a Lago, in Florida. 1.4 million Americans are killed.
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States by Jeffrey Lewis explains how this tragedy transpired. The book, of course, is fiction -- Jeffrey Lewis calls it a "speculative novel." But it is all too believable. nd that's because Jeffrey Lewis is a nuclear security expert who has spent decades studying the North Korean nuclear program. He is the director of the Center for Non Proliferation Studies at the Monterrey Institute and is a pioneer in open source intelligence gathering and geospatial analysis. He and his team famously identified the location of North Korean missile test sites using tools available to ordinary citizens. And 'm sure many you know him as the host of the excellent Arms Control Wonk podcast. But now, he has taken his hand at fiction -- and his book, which takes the perspective of a government report explaining the series of mistakes and miscalculations that lead to this nuclear attack, is one of the most vital international relations books of many years -- despite the fact that it's fiction. I suspect it will be standard on international relations syllabi. That is because the scenario he lays out is entirely plausible and the politics that enable this tragedy are very real. We discuss the plot at length, including the miscommunications, misperceptions and just plain mistakes that lead to the events of March 22 2020.Dr. Vanessa Kerry is the Co-founder and CEO of Seed Global Health. This is an international NGO that works in five sub-Saharan countries to bolster the education of medical professionals.
We kick off discussing the newest ebola outbreak in the DRC. This is a very alarming outbreak for the fact that it is occurring a region of the DRC that is very much a hot conflict zone. We then have a broader conversation about the challenge of strengthening health systems in poorer countries and we of course discuss the specific work of Seed Global Health to that end. Dr. Kerry came to national attention in 2004, when she introduced her father, John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention, and she describes how her interest in global health issues was sparked by a trip to Vietnam many years ago, with her father. If you are a global health and development nerd -- and I know many of you are -- I think you will very much appreciate this episode.On August 19th 2003 the United Nations headquarters in Iraq at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, was hit with a truck bomb. At least 22 people lost their lives in this attack, including the UN's top official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
In subsequent years, August 19th has been commemorated at the United Nations as World Humanitarian Day, in which the sacrifices of humanitarian workers are honored. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the attacks on the UN headquarters in Iraq, which ushered an era in which the United Nations, and humanitarian workers more broadly, are more and more often the targets of terrorist violence. On the line with me to discuss the 2003 bombing and its legacy today is Ambassador Elizabeth Cousens. She knew many of the victims of this attack, having worked with the UN in the middle east. She is a former top ranking official at the US mission to the United Nations and is now the deputy CEO of the United Nations Foundation. We kick off discussing her experiences the day of the bombing and have a broader conversation about how this terrible event forever changed how the UN operates around the world.In 2014, I spoke with New Yorker writer Robin Wright about her life and career as a foreign affairs journalist.
On August 7th, 1998 my guest today John Lange was the acting United States Ambassador to Tanzania when a truck bomb exploded outside the embassy in Dar es Salaam. He did not know it at the time, but this bombing was part of a coordinated attack on US embassies in the region. Minutes early in Nairobi, Kenya the US embassy was bombed as well.
Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks that killed over 200 people. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of these attacks, I invited Ambassador Lange on the show to share his experiences from that day and also reflect on how those attacks changed US diplomacy. Today, Ambassador Lange is a senior fellow for global health diplomacy at the United Nations Foundation. and he is a contributor, along with 40 other survivors of these attacks to a special commemorative issue of The Foreign Service Journal. The US embassy bombings were a pivotal moment for US diplomacy and world history. It was very much a pre-cursor to the September 11th attacks that drew the United States into conflict in Afghanistan that is ongoing to this day. And I want to thank Ambassador Lange for being so candid about his experiences and his reflections on the meaning of these attacks 20 years later.Michael Scott Moore spent 977 days as a hostage of Somali pirates. He is a journalist and in 2012 he set out for the Somali coast on a reporting trip when he was kidnapped. What followed was a two and a half year ordeal that he masterfully recounts in his new book: "The Desert and the Sea."
The book is beautifully written-- it's a page turner and he really puts you in his shoes as he struggles to survive. In our conversation we discuss his capture and time in captivity, as well as broader issues surrounding piracy off the coast of Somalia. And one thing that does come through is that the gang that held Michael was part of an organized crime network whose business was kidnapping for ransom. The foot soldiers of this gang are far from what we might typically consider as "pirates." Become a premium subscriber!David Kaye, is the author of the UN's first ever report on the regulation of user generated online content. That is, how governments and companies like Facebook and Twitter police their users.
David Kaye is the UN's special rapporteur for the freedom of expression and a law professor at UC Irvine, and in our conversation he explains how human rights principles can inform debates about how to approach "fake news," disinformation and online extremism all while maintaining a fidelity to the ideals of free speech. I'll a post a link to the report on global dispatches podcast.com and I really recommend people take a look at it because it is so unique. It examines policies in both more authoritarian countries and more liberal countries, as well as the disparate policies of social media platforms and is really the first global examiniation of this issue.Ivan Duque won a run-off election on June 17th to become the next president of Colombia. Duque is a right of center politician who has been a sharp critic of the peace deal negotiated by president Juan Manuel Santos that ended a half century long conflict with the FARC rebels. Duque will be sworn in on August 7th, and that of course raises the question: what happens to this peace deal now that the president of Colombia is on the record opposing it. Can the deal survive? And what comes next for the country? On the line with me to answer these questions and more is Provash Budden, the America's regional director for the NGO Mercy Corps. We kick off discussing the unique political history of Ivan Duque and then have a longer conversation about what his election means for the peace accords.
The year is 1985. Ronald Regan is president. Margaret Thatcher is prime minister of the United Kingdom. Michael Jackson, White Snake and George Michael are dominating the billboard charts. Back to the Future is a smash hit at the box office.
And scientists have just discovered a giant hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica.
Scientists were warning that if left unchecked, this hole in the ozone would grow ever larger, letting through harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun that would wreak havoc on human health. Skin cancer rates would skyrocket, as would cataracts. In cities like Los Angeles and Washington, DC going outside for just a short period of time in the summer would be dangerous. Meanwhile, the basic ecology of the world’s oceans could change as plankton that make up the bottom of the food chain would die off.
But in two years time, before even Universal Pictures released the sequel to Back to the Future, the international community had come together to create a binding international treaty that would lead to the healing of the ozone layer.
That agreement is known as the Montreal Protocol. It is widely considered the world’s most successful global environmental treaty.
In this special episode of Global Dispatches podcast, produced in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, we bring you the inside story of how the world came together to create an internationally binding treaty to protect the ozone layer-- and ultimately human health.
You will hear from scientists who discovered the link between cloroflorocarbons and ozone depletion; key diplomats and government leaders who pressed for the international regulation of CFCs in 1987; and academics and civil society leaders who explain why this 31 year old agreement is as relevant today as it was the day it was signed.
The Montreal Protocol is a success of multilateral cooperation. This podcast episode tells its remarkable story.
At the United Nations in mid-July officials gathered for an annual checkup on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs, as they are known, are a set of 17 anti-poverty, health and environmental goals that in 2015 the world agreed to achieve by 2030.
We are now two and a half years into these goals, and this gathering at the United Nations, which is known as the High Level Political Forum, is a moment in which top officials take stock of both global and domestic progress towards these goals.
On the podcast today, we ask the question: how are we doing? We examine how far we have come and how much more the world needs to do to achieve the goals it set for itself three years ago.
On the line with me to discuss this all is John McArthur, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and senior adviser to the United Nations Foundation.” We kick off discussing areas where progress has been most pronounced and most lacking. We then discuss the High Level Political Forum itself, and also what comes next for the SDGs.
Sunitha Krishnan literally rescues girls from sex slavery. She is the founder of the Indian NGO Prajwala which both physically removes girls from sexual bondage and provides social, medical and psychological support for their rehabilitation.
She's been beaten. She's been jailed. But nevertheless she persists. And as she tells me in our conversation what motivates her in this dangerous work is anger. And that anger stems from her own experience with sexual assault at the age of 15, when she was the victim of a gang rape. I met Sunitha Krishnan in June in Yerevan, Armenia where she was being recognized for her heroic work by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. She was one of three finalists for the 2018 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. And though she did not end up winning that award, it went to a Rohingya human rights lawyer named Kyaw Hla Aung, her work in the slums of of India gained wider attention. Sunitha Krishnan is a true hero and it was an honor to get to know her.Nicaragua is in the midst of a deepening political and security crisis. Over the last three months the government has been increasingly violent in its response to a growing protest movement.
Over 240 people have been killed since April, when protests against a social security reform measure began. Those protests have morphed to a broader political challenge against the longtime Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega.
On the line with me to discuss recent events in Nicaragua and explain why the country is facing its most profound crisis in decades is Jason Marczak, Director, Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Atlantic Council. He explains the roots of the current crisis and offers some suggestions for how some key players in the region, including the United States, might use diplomacy to prevent this crisis from escalating further, All in all, this is a useful conversation about a crisis that is not getting the attention it deserves, but is one that could most certainly have big implications across the region--including the United States. Nicaragua is not currently a large source country of migrants and asylum seekers at the southern US border, but if things continue as is, Nicaraguans could start to flee in large numbers.Parfait Onanga-Anyanga is the Special Representative of the Secretary General in the Central African Republic. This makes him the top UN official in CAR, which includes overseeing a UN Peacekeeping mission of over 14,000 personnel. That mission is known as MINUSCA and in recent weeks it has suffered a series of casualties as armed groups vie for control of the country's natural resources. The peacekeeping mission was first deployed in 2014 as part of an international effort to prevent CAR from sliding into deeper conflict that, at the time, experts warned could descent into genocide. Thanks in part to this international intervention, a genocide was averted, but much of the country remains unstable. The central government I caught up with the SRSG, as the position is known in UN lingo, just as he was leaving New York to return to the Central African Republic.
The World Health Organization estimates that around 7 million people die every year from the air they breathe. Air pollution is a major killer around the globe and one that disproportionately affects low and middle income countries. There are two kinds of air pollution. The first is called ambient air pollution, and that is basically the air we breathe when we are outside. The second is called household air pollution, and this is air pollution driven by the use of dirty burning stoves inside the home. The WHO recently released a report about the global burden of air pollution, and what communities around the world are doing to combat it. Here to discuss that report and the challenge of air pollution more broadly is Dr. Maria Neira, director of the department of public health, environment and social determinants of health at the WHO. We talk through some of the big data and root causes of air pollution and have a longer conversation about global and local strategies to improve air quality around the world.
Something truly remarkable in African history and global affairs occurred on June 26 when Eritrean leaders flew to the capitol of Ethiopia for peace talks.
In the late 1990s the two countries fought each other in a brutal war, and despite a peace agreement they have remained actively hostile to each other. But that seems to be changing. And quickly.On the line with me to discuss this detente between two previously irreconcilable foes is Michael Woldermairam, an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Political Science at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University
We discuss the roots of the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and why this easing of tensions appears to be happening now.Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997. She then served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and has since undertaken a variety of roles at the UN system, focusing on human rights, gender equality and, as is the focus of our conversation today, climate justice.
Mary Robinson and I have an extended conversation about what climate justice means and what it entails--and this was a concept, I admit, that I was unaware of until Mary Robinson began to champion it. We spoke a couple of weeks ago in Yerevan, Armenia, where Mary Robinson was serving as part of the jury pool to select the winner of this year's Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. This is an honor that was bestowed on a Rohingya human rights lawyer named Kyaw Hla Ang. And if you want to learn more about the Aurora Prize and the Aurora humanitarian initiative, i'd encourage you to visit AuroraPrize.org. And I should say, I'll have an interview with one of the finalists coming up in the next few weeks. Mary Robinson and I had a tight 15 minutes between panel sessions at the conference--and I was glad she made time for this interview. I think you'll like it.My guest today, Kari Hong is an assistant professor at the Boston College law school and an expert on US asylum policy and law. As you can imagine, we have an extended conversation about the tragedy unfolding at the Southern US border, where the Trump administration has mandated the separation of migrant children from their parents in order to deter them from claiming asylum and expedite their removal from the country.
This is inhumane, barbaric and as Kari Hong explains, not in compliance with both the laws and tradition around seeking asylum in the United States. She does a good job of putting this new family separation policy in the context and history of how the US has typically handled claims of asylum. And a little more than halfway through this conversation we get to what I think is the heart of the matter: that separating children from their parents at the border is designed to force parents to enter a guilty plea to a misdemeanor offense which cuts off their ability to claim asylum.For many years Tom Catena was the only doctor in the Nuba Mountain region of Sudan. This is an area on the border between Sudan and South Sudan. In 2011 it was the site of intense fighting between government forces and local groups aligned with the South.
Throughout this fighting, which lasted for years, Tom Catena ran the Mother of Mercy Hospital. He saw thousands upon thousands of patients every year under the most difficult of circumstances. His hospital was bombed, his house was targeted, but Tom Catena never left. And he is still working there to this day. I caught up with Tom in Yerevan, Armenia where he was on hand to participate in events around the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. Last year, Tom won this prize, which is conferred by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. This is a group established by Armenian and Armenian-American philanthropists in honor of the survivors of the Armenian genocide. The idea behind the prize is to honor individuals who are standing up for human rights, often without much recognition and in extremely difficult circumstances. The winner this year was a Rohignya human rights lawyer named Kyaw Hla Aung. I had the honor of participating in events around Yerevan last week and collecting some great interviews with fascinating people that I look forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks.When I last spoke with my guest today, Kelsey Davenport, the saber rattling between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un had reached a fever pitch. North Korea was launching nuclear and missile tests; the United States was undertaking aggressive military drills, with Donald Trump routinely threatening war via Twitter.
Then this meeting in Singapore happened.
Now things look much different, so I invited Kelsey Davenport back on the show to help explain the significance of this meeting and what we may expect next from this diplomatic opening between the United States and North Korea.
Kelsey Davenport is the Director for Non Proliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association and a longtime analyst of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
She does a very good job explaining both what happened in Singapore -- beyond the optics. She also offers some helpful analysis to help us understand how this diplomatic process may shake out in the coming months.
If you have 20 minutes and want to learn what comes next in high stakes diplomacy with North Korea then have a listen.
Before we begin, I wanted to let you know that I have just released a new bonus episode of the show that is exclusively for premium subscribers to the podcast--these are the amazing people who make a monthly recurring contribution to the show via the Patreon platform. The bonus episode features Samantha Power and the activist John Prendergast, who was the co-founder of the Enough Project. I participated in a short but sweet press roundtable with them last week and decided to share with premium subscribers part of that conversation. You'll hear Samantha Power talk about examples of democratic renewal around the world in the context of democratic backsliding; and you'll hear John Prendergast address questions about being perceived as a "white savior." It was quite and interesting conversation and I am glad to be able to serve it to my premium subscribers, who really do help keep the lights on around there. If you want to become a premium subscriber to unlock this episode and other bonus episodes, and also receive a complimentary subscription to my daily email news clips service then please sign up. I'll post a link in the description field of the podcast and you can also find a link at GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatchesI spent the last weekend of May at a conference in Stockholm called the New Shape Forum. This was an ideas festival and prize competition and workshop all around new ideas for better organizing the world to confront catastrophic global risks.
The Global Challenges Foundation, which convened this, solicited new ideas for global governance and received several thousand ideas from all over the world. Of these submissions, 14 finalists were selected to present their ideas at the New Shape Forum. And then those of us invited to the conference all got down to work. We identified the ideas we thought we could help refine and spent two days building upon them. At the end of the conference, three of those 14 ideas were selected as winners, and the winning ideas got $600,000 each. My guest today, Natalie Samarsinghe is one of those winners. She is the executive director of the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom--though she wants to stress that this episode was recorded in her personal capacity, as was the idea she submitted. She came up with a proposal for a novel kind of UN Reform -- not a reform of the Security Council, or the General Assembly. Rather, it is a proposal for how UN agencies can better design and implement programs and projects around the world. You can find the other two winning ideas and other finalists at Global Challenges.org This episode is presented by the Global Challenges Foundation, which recently convened the New Shape Forum in Stockholm. This was a platform where over 200 leading thinkers and experts discussed fresh ideas for improving global governance to tackle the world's most pressing problems. Next, the Global Challenges Foundation is partnering with the Paris Peace Forum in November to present further developed and more holistic ideas for confronting global catastrophic risks. Visit GlobalChallenges.org to learn more.My guest today, David Beasley is the executive director of the World Food Program. We caught up not long after he visited both the Sahel region of western Africa and from North Korea, where the World Food Program is actively engaged.
We kick off discussing the situation in the Sahel, where food security conditions are rapidly deteriorating because of a combination of lower than normal rainfall and insurgent activities. Beasley describes the situation there, and also the link between food security and extremism. We then discuss a trip he took to North Korea a few weeks ago, including his overall impressions of food availability in North Korea and how nuclear diplomacy with North Korea may impact the humanitarian situation there. David Beasley took over as executive director of the WFP one year ago. He's a former politician who previously served as Governor of the state of South Carolina.Amy Israel is the global health thought leadership and policy director for the health and pharmaceutical company, Lilly.
In that role, she's recently launched a new pilot project to combat high rates of diabetes in three neigbourhoods of the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. But this is a global health story, because the pilot project is using a model for health intervention that was pioneered in the developing world. This is often called the community health worker model, and global health nerds will be familiar with its basic outlines. But in short, it is the idea of training people of the community to be first points of contact between their neighbors and the health care system. In our conversation, Amy discusses how the pilot project will work with three poorer neighborhoods of Indianapolis, where rates of diabetes are exponentially higher than in wealthier parts of the city and state. We discuss the link between diabetes and poverty and also, more broadly, how health ideas created in the developing world are being applied here in the United States.Kristine McDivitt Tompkins made history earlier this year when she completed what is said to be the largest ever transfer of land from a private entity to a government.
In a ceremony in Chile with President Michelle Bachelet at her side, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins formally handed over 1 million acres of land of while President Bachelet designated 9 million more acres to create vast new national parks.
This created areas of protected wilderness about the size of Switzerland.
That ceremony was the culmination of decades of work by Kristine and her late husband Doug Tompkins. Kristine was the longtime CEO of the outdoor apparel company Patagonia. Doug, who died in a kayaking accident in 2015, was the co-founder of the clothing companies North Face and Espirit. Together, the created the non-profit Tompkins Conservation.
In this conversation, Kristine Tompkins discusses the origins of her work as a conversationist and as a pioneer of corporate social responsibility. She also describes the process of creating wilderness areas in partnerships with governments.
We caught up while she was in New York to receive an award from the United Nations Environment Program.
The ebola outbreak ongoing the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most severe ebola outbreak since the 2014 calamity in west Africa that killed over 11,000 people. Citing figures about this outbreak is a bit tricky because the situation remains extremely fluid.
By the last week of May, there a have been over 20 deaths linked to this outbreak and over 50 suspected cases. But by the time you are listening to this that will inevitably change. So what I wanted to do with this episode is to offer you some broader context for understanding this particular outbreak and also explore how the international response to this outbreak is so profoundly different from the response back in 2014. I could have no better person discuss outbreak than my guest today Laurie Garret. She is a global health expert, pulitzer prize winning journalist and former fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. We kick off discussing the origins of this new outbreak. We then have a longer conversation examining how the response to this outbreak is so profoundly different than the devastating outbreak in West Africa four years ago. This conversation, I think provides you important context for understanding this ongoing emergency in the DRC and how it may evolve.I was a bit skeptical when my guest today told me that every person on the planet, in any 24 hour period, is somehow impacted by the work of the UN and other international entities in Geneva.
Still, Michael Møller would be in a position to know. He is the Director General of the UN Office in Geneva, which makes him a very senior UN official. And I must say, he was convincing. As the director general explains, the mundane routines of life -- everything from brushing my teeth in morning to calling my grandmother in Montreal -- is touched by work done in Geneva.
We also discuss the work of the UN Conference on Disarmament, of which Moller is the titular hear.
I will be seeing Michael Møller in Stockholm next week where he will be delivering a keynote address to the New Shape Forum. This is a conference and ideas festival convened by the Global Challenges Foundation.
We kick off this conversation discussing what Michael Møller is looking forward to from the New Shape Forum and also he previews some of the remarks he'll be delivering at his keynote address.
This episode is presented in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation, whose aim is to contribute to reducing the main global problems and risks that threaten humanity. Last year, the Global Challenges Foundation held an open call to find new models of global cooperation better capable of handling the most pressing global risks. In May this year at the New Shape Forum in Stockholm, the top proposals will be presented publicly and further refined through discussions with key thought leaders and experts.
For this episode, I wanted to explore a different way to understand the crisis in Yemen. Yemen has two main ports, Hodeidah to the north, on the Red Sea and Aden to the south, on the Gulf of Aden. Of these two ports, Hodeidah is by far the bigger one. But Hodeidah is under the control of forces aligned with the Houthi rebels. Aden is controlled by forces aligned with the internationally recognized government of Yemen -- a government that is militarily backed by a Saudi-led coalition. Both the politics and the basic logistics of getting goods into these two ports offers key insights into the dynamics of the conflict in Yemen and why Yemen is experiencing such a profound humanitarian crisis--indeed it is one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. My guest today, Scott Paul is the humanitarian policy lead at Oxfam America. He recently returned from a fact finding trip to the Port of Aden and some of its surrounding towns. He wrote about that experience in a piece on the website Just Security, which I will post a link to on the website.
It's been a tumultuous week in Israel and Palestine. On the same day that the United States formally opened its embassy in Jerusalem, dozens of Palestinians were shot to death by Israeli soldiers along the border between Gaza and Israel.
That incident along the border fence was part of a broader Palestinian protest movement that has gained steam in recent months. The movement is known as the Great Return March. In it, Gazan protesters approach and seek to breach the border fence that separates Gaza from Israel -- ostensibly to return to lands that were expropriated by Israel during the country's founding as a jewish state. Clashes have ensued, including the shooting deaths of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. On the line with me to help put this latest protest movement in context is Yousef Munuyyer. Yousef brings a unique perspective to this issue. He is the executive director of the US Campaign Palestinian rights. He is also and Israeli citizen, and American citizen and a Palestinian. Yousef explains why this protest movement is unique and resonates deeply beyond Gaza. We also discuss the complex issue of the the "Right to Return" before turning to a conversation about how the Israel-Palestine issue is interpreted through domestic American politics. This conversation is a helpful explanation of what these Gaza protests are all about--and how they may evolve.No journalist covered the ins and outs of the negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal as closely as Laura Rozen. She is a reporter with the middle east news website Al Monitor and in the negotiations that lead up to the July 2015 deal, her reporting and high volume Twitter feed were an essential resource to anyone wanted to know the pulse of these negotiations. Now that the pulse may be turning to a flatline after Donald Trump's announcement that the United States is withdrawing from the nuclear deal, I wanted to reach out to Laura to get a sense of what happened and what comes next? In this conversation we discuss the demise of the JCPOA, how Iran and Europe are reacting to this development and how diplomacy on this issue may evolve. This was not terribly unsurprising that the Trump administration would pull out of the agreement. But it is still a shock to the international system for reasons that Laura and I discuss.
Dr. Tom Frieden lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2009 to 2017. He now has a new role: President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative of Vital Strategies.
And in this role he has an audacious goal: to save 100 million lives.
In our conversation, Dr. Frieden explains why he believes that he can achieve that goal by focusing on two health issues: cardiovascular disease in the developing work and shoring up our global defenses against pandemics.
To those ends, he has some major backers including the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
In this episode, Dr. Frieden discusses these two issues in depth and some strategies his organization is using to confront them. He also explains why, of all the issues in global health, he chose to focus on these two.
My guest today, Elizabeth Economy, is the author of the new book The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State. The book examines the transformative changes ongoing in China today under the leadership of Xi Jinping.
Xi Jingping has consolidated power in a fairly unprecedented way, and as Elizabeth Economy explains he is fundamentally shifting China's domestic and foreign policies. We spend the bulk of our conversation focusing on Chinese foreign policy, including China's massive foreign development program called the Belt and Road initiative, it's attempt to create an ostensible rival to the World Bank and its assertive policies in the South China Sea. This is a great conversation about a newly emerging force in international affairs.In the hierarchy of the State Department the Secretary of State, of course, sits on top. Below the Secretary of State is the Deputy Secretary of State and below the Deputy Secretary is the number three post at the state department, the Under-secretary of State for Political Affairs.
According to a recent report in Bloomberg by the journalist Nick Wadhams, Paula Dobriansky has be tapped to serve in that number 3 spot. Wadhams cites three sources "familiar with the decision," though neither Dobriansky nor the white house have commented at time I'm recording this.
If, indeed, Paula Dobriansky becomes the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs she will be the highest ranking official in the Trump administration who has appeared on this very podcast, so I thought it would be worthwhile to revisit my conversation with her.
We spoke in June 2015. At the time, Dobriansky was at Harvard having having served in the George W. Bush administration as Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs.
In our conversation, we spend a good deal of time discussing her background, her academic interests, and her career serving in four administrations. She is of Ukrainian descent and entered college interested in studying the Soviet Union. She earned her PHD writing about Soviet foreign policy and was a well regarded Sovietologist and later Russia expert. We kicked off discussing what at the time was an escalating situation in Ukraine before having a longer conversation about her career.
What I find interesting looking back at this interview in the context of her possibly joining the Trump administration is that she comes from a fairly traditional Republican foreign policy background. She's consistently opposed Russian aggression and has embraced the value of spreading democracy and human rights as in the national interests of the United States. She could probably be fairly considered to a neo-conservative. She certainly is very thoughtful and was very gracious with this interview.
My guest today, Paul Stares, is the author of the new book Preventative Engagement. How America Can Avoid War, Stay Strong, and Keep the Peace.
The book identifies what Stares calls "the American predicament" in which United States remains the principal guarantor of global peace and security, but that in the process of maintaining global peace and security the United States becomes overly extended and prone to costly military entanglements.
Stares offers a way out of this predicament that does not involve retreating from the world, but rather embraces what he calls "preventative engagement." We discuss what that concept entails and why even the trump administration might be willing to implement it.
This is a good, high minded conversation about US foreign policy and about the value of the United Nations and multilateral engagement to US national security interests.
Latin America is experiencing its worst-ever refugee crisis. By most estimates, several thousands of Venezuelans are fleeing the country every single day. In recent weeks the pace and scale of this refugee crisis has sharply increased. There is no end in sight. My guest today, Andrei Serbin Pont, explains why Venezuelans are leaving their country in such profound numbers. He is the research director of the regional think tank Cries and recently undertook a study of the Venezuelan refugee crisis with the Stanley Foundation As Andrei explains, most of these refugees are fleeing to Colombia and Brazil and those countries are having a difficult time handling the influx. Still, many are fleeing elsewhere, including to nearby Caribbean Islands which have virtually no capacity to handle a sharp increase in population. The bottom line is that this is becoming a very intense regional crisis and it is accelerating. Support the show by becoming a premium subscriber
We are in a period of profound domestic turmoil here in the United States. I clearly don't need to run down the list of everything out of the ordinary that is happening in DC -- you know full well this is not normal. But I am curious to learn how some of America's longstanding allies in Europe are interpreting this unique moment of US history and I was also curious to learn how diplomacy with the United States has changed over the last year and half since Trump took office. So, I could not think of anyone better to whom I should put some of these questions than Klaus Scharioth. He is a veteran German diplomat, having served in the ministry of foreign affairs since the 1970s. He was the German ambassador to the United States from 2006 to 2011, so spanning both the Bush and Obama administrations. He is now a professor of practice at the fletcher school at Tufts University. The Ambassador is also a member of the board of directors of Humanity in Action-Germany. We kick off with a conversation about the ways in which the day-to-day practice of diplomacy with the United States has changed since Trump took office. We then have a wider discussion about the evolving nature of transatlantic relations and how the fundamental worldview of Europe is clashing with that of the Trump administration. I recorded the conversation a couple of days ago and one thing that has stuck with me about our conversation was the Ambassador's emphasizing that America's capacity for self-correction is among its most widely admired attributes in Europe. Support the show!
Suzanne DiMaggio specializes in what is called Track Two diplomacy with countries that have limited or no diplomatic relations with the United Stats. In practice, this has meant that she's spent countless hours over the last nearly twenty years in meetings with North Koreans and Iranians and those encounters have lead to some major diplomatic breakthroughs. We kick off defining our terms. She explains what Track Two diplomacy means, as opposed to, say "back channel" diplomacy. We then preview an upcoming major summit between the Kim Jong UN and South Korean president Moon Jae-in. And that meeting, of course, will lay the groundwork for the Trump-Kim meeting, which we discuss in detail. As diplomacy with North Korea intensifies in the coming months, Suzanne DiMaggio is someone you will see quoted often on TV and radio and so I also wanted to use our conversation to learn how she first got involved with this kind of unique diplomatic endeavor. She has some great stories to tell.
What happened to Iraq's oil wealth? That is the central question of the book: Pipe Dreams: The Plundering of Iraq's oil Wealth by my guest today Erin Banco.
Erin Banco is an investigative reporter at the Star Ledger in New Jersey, where she covers the intersection of money and government. She has reported from the middle east for years and puts her investigative skills to use by examining documents and cultivating sources who explain the sordid tale of corruption surrounding Iraq's oil wealth, particularly in the Kurdish region. Iraq sits on the world's fifth largest oil reserves, but oil wealth has not trickled down to the Iraqi people. Erin Banco explains why.My guest today is the renowned journalist Steve Coll. He is a staff writer at the New Yorker, dean of the Colombia School of Journalism and former president of the New America Foundation think tank.
In 2005 he wont he Pulitzer for his book Ghost Wars, which examines the secret history of the CIA in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to right before the September 11 attacks. It is the foundational text that provides the history and context for understanding America's involvement in Afghanistan in the era leading up to the September 11 attacks. It took DC by storm when it was published and its basically a canonical text. Needless to say, official Washington and beyond was eagerly anticipating his sequel to Ghost Wars, which was published just a few weeks ago. The book, Directorate S: The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan picks up where Ghost Wars leaves off, spanning from the September 11th attacks to the first few months of the Trump administration. We kick off with an extended discussion of these two books and what went so wrong for the United States in Afghanistan. We then discuss his own life and career as a journalist, including how an accident of assignment lead him to South Asia at a very critical time. Links: Ghost Wars Directorate S Support the show!A few weeks ago I was having lunch with a former high ranking US diplomat whose work focused on Russia and Europe. I asked him where he thought Vladimir Putin might target next to sow instability and without missing a beat he said: Bosnia.
A scattering of recent think tank and press reports offer some insights into Russian meddling in Bosnia. It is an extremely under-covered global story, but one that has the potential to cause unrest not only in the Balkans, but across Europe.
On the line with me to discuss this situation is Michael Carpenter. He is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Eastern Europe and the Balkans and is now Senior Director for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the Penn Biden Center
Carpenter explains some of the motivations driving Vladimir Putin -- above all, he describes how fomenting unrest in Bosnia is Putin's best insurance policy against perceived threats by the West. Bosnia, as Carpenter puts it, is the soft underbelly of Europe that is ripe for exploitation.
If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the implications of Russian meddling in Bosnia for all of Europe, have a listen.
Links:On September 21, 2001, Rais Bhuiyan was working behind the counter at a gas station outside Dallas, Texas when a man named Mark Stroman walked in brandishing a sawed-off shotgun.
Stroman was a self-proclaimed white supremacist in the midst of a deadly hate crime spree. Seeking revenge for the recent September 11th attacks just days earlier, he roamed the area looking for what he believed to be Arabs to kill. In that killing spree Stroman took the lives of an Indian immigrant named Vasudev Patel and Waqar Hassan, a Pakistani immigrant. Stroman shot Rais in the face. But Rais, who was a former Bangladeshi air force pilot, survived the attack. Stroman was eventually arrested, convicted of murder and sent to death row.
As Stroman awaited execution, Rais embarked on an improbable campaign to spare the life of his attacker. This story was masterfully told in the 2014 book "The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas" by Anand Ghirdiharas. A major hollywood movie based on the book is currently in production. Today, Rais is the founder and president of the NGO, World Without Hate. When we caught up, Rais had recently returned from a trip to Canada, sponsored by the US State Department, where he told his story. That trip also included a visit to the Islamic Center of Quebec City which was the scene of a mass shooting hate crime just one year ago. We kick off discussing this trip and Rais' work with the State Department before entering into a long and powerful conversation about Rais' experience.
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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, is facing a crisis. This is the humanitarian agency that provides relief for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. This includes running hospitals and schools that serve about half a million children.
Typically, the United States has provided about one third of UNRWA's overall budget, judging the organization to be a source of stability in an otherwise volatile region. The Trump administration, however, has frozen US payments to the humanitarian agency. It did so in retaliation to a vote at the UN General Assembly in which member states overwhelmingly condemned the Trump administration's decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel and move its embassy there. Withholding promised funding for humanitarian relief for Palestinian refugees was the Trump administration's payback for this vote.
On the line with me to discuss what this budget crisis means on the ground for Palestinian refugees is Peter Mulrean, Director of UNRWA's Representative Office in New York. We also discuss the history of UNRWA, the role is serves in Palestinian society and in the politics of the region, and how it might overcome this funding crisis imposed by the Trump administration.
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I got my start in journalism covering John Bolton when he was the US Ambassador to the United Nations. At the time, I was a reporter for the political monthly The American Prospect. I sometimes quip that I owe my career to Bolton because covering his time at the UN was my entry point into covering the United Nations more broadly.
My reporting at the time culminated in a cover story that was published in January 2006 that detailed Bolton's tenure thus far at the UN and broke a few scoops about his conduct.
In this special episode of the podcast I am going to share a few anecdotes from my reporting at the time that might shed some light on how he will conduct himself as the National Security Advisor to Donald Trump. I’ll also survey some key issues around the world, including North Korea, Iran, Trans-Atlantic Relations and the United Nations to see what Bolton’s past interactions with these issues might suggest for the future of US policy. I’ll also explain the position of National Security Advisor to help you understand where, exactly, Bolton will fit in in the bureaucratic politics of US foreign policy making.
That this is a different kind of Global Dispatches episode. This podcast is typically an interview-based show in which I have conversations with experts about topical issues, or I have longer discussions with people who have had interesting careers in foreign policy. In these conversations, I’ll occasionally interject my own views. But for the most the other person is talking.
But this time around, I am something of the expert. And I think other people see me as such, based on my past reporting. I was on BBC’s Nightly News program last Friday after the news about Bolton broke. And I also had a piece up on The Daily Beast.
So this episode is just me talking.
Links:
My Iran Deal episode with Spencer Ackerman
Wanjira Mathai is a Kenyan environmental and civic leader. She is the chair of the Wangari Mathai Foundation, which is named after her mother who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Much of Wanjira's work focuses on the intersection of women's empowerment and environmental sustainability. We kick off with a discussion about her work with a group called the Partnership on Women's Entrepreneurship in Renewables (wPOWER). Much of our conversation discusses the challenges and opportunities around renewable energy in the developing world.
We also discuss the work of her mother, the environmental justice pioneer who founded the Green Belt Movement.
This episode is presented in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation, whose aim is to contribute to reducing the main global problems and risks that threaten humanity. Last year, the Global Challenges Foundation held an open call to find new models of global cooperation better capable of handling the most pressing global risks. In May this year at the New Shape Forum in Stockholm, the top proposals will be presented publicly and further refined through discussions with key thought leaders and experts. US$5 million will be awarded to the best ideas that re-envision global governance for the 21st century. Wanjira Mathai is a Global Challenges Foundation ambassador and in the conversation we discuss this prize and why new ideas for global governance are important for the future of environmental sustainability.
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By the end of this month the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia will no longer exist. The mission, known as UNMIL, is closing shop after nearly 15 years in operation, and its closing this is a major milestone and success for both Liberia and the United Nations.
In 2003, it was hard to imagine this day would ever come. Around 250,000 people had been killed in a singularly brutal civil war, the infrastructure that existed in the country was decimated and most Liberians who had the opportunity to leave country had fled.
Fifteen years later, thanks in large part to this UN Peacekeeping Force, Liberia is a stable democracy with a rapidly developing economy.
In 2006 it was the first country in Africa to elect a female head of State, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and after serving two terms she stepped down peacefully and ceded power to her political rival, George Weah. To be sure, Liberia is still a very poor country. But these last 15 years have seen tremendous progress.
On the line with me to discuss how UNMIL was able to work itself out of a job is retired Col. Christopher Holshek. Col. Holshek was one of the few Americans to serve in UNMIL and he explains just how the UN's role in Liberia transitioned from peace keeping to peace building. And because there are so few American military officers who serve in UN peacekeeping missions, his perspective on this question is very unique.
The folding of the UN Mission in Liberia is a good news story coming out of the UN and I am glad to share it with you.
Maggy Barankitse is the founder of Maison Shalom, an orphanage and school that was created in Burundi in the wake of the Civil War there in the 1990s. Like in neighboring Rwanda, the conflict in Burundi involved acts of genocide pitting ethnic groups against each other.
The conflict came to Maggy's town on October 24th 1993. At the time, Maggy was working as a secretary in the local catholic diocese in her hometown of Ruyigi, Burundi. What happened was an act of unspeakable cruelty and I am going to read directly the description of events from the website of Maison Shalom. "In the autumn of 1993, an atmosphere of uneasiness had settled over the country. In Ruyigi, disaster struck on 24 October. To exact vengeance for the killing of members of their ethnic group, the Tutsi hunted the town’s Hutus, who were hiding in the diocese buildings. Maggy was also there. She tried to reason with the group of Tutsi driven mad by hatred. She tried to convince them not to use violence. Her efforts were in vain. To punish her for what they considered a betrayal on the part of a Tutsi “sister”, they decided to strip her and tie her to a chair. They forced her to remain in that position and watch as they first set fire to the diocese building to force those hiding there to come out, then as they mercilessly hacked her friends to death with machetes." As Maggy tells me, it was this experience that lead her to create an oasis of peace and hope in the midst of such conflict and tumult. Maison Shalom has served tens of thousands of children since its founding. Unfortunately, Maggy today lives as a refugee in Rwanda. She was forced to flee the country after she spoke out against an illegal power-grab by the country's president. But even from Rwanda, Maggy is continuing her mission and has established a Maison Shalom to serve refugees and others in Rwanda. For her work, Maggy was awarded the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, which is a $1 million prize awarded to individuals who commit extraordinary acts of humanity. The prize is awarded by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, which was founded by the decedents of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and a few weeks ago I published my conversation with Noubar Afeyan who is one of the co-founders of this initiative.I am still catching my breath over the news that Rex Tillerson was fired and CIA Director Mike Pompeo has been nominated as his replacement as Secretary of State. That happened, of course, just days after a South Korean diplomat announced a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, scheduled for May.
I was just getting my head around that news and its broader implications when, of course, the firing-by-tweet occurred. Fortunately for all of us, I had on my schedule an interview with Uri Friedman, a staff writer at the Atlantic who covers global affairs and US foreign policy. He has written extensively about US diplomacy and North Korea and in this episode he and I just talk through this news. I think you will find this conversation useful. I know I did. I learned some interesting things about Pompeo's background and also the implications of having a Secretary of State who, unlike Rex Tillerson, is personally close and more on the same page as the President. Uri recently published an article on Pompeo and North Korea, which we reference in this conversation and I'll post a link to that on the website. Remember to leave a review of the podcast, my people! I'll mail you a sticker in return!Joseph Kaifala was just a child when civil war broke out in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The war came to his town in 1989 and as a seven-year-old was imprisoned with his father. They were eventually released and Joseph and his family spent much of the next decade on the run from a brutal civil war that seemed to follow them everywhere.
Kaifala recently published a memoir of these experiences titled Adamalui: A Survivor's Journey from Civil Wars in Africa to Life in America. He is also the subject of a documentary film titled Retracing Jeneba: The Story of a Witness, which is poised to debut at film festivals.
Joseph Kaifala is a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow and the story of how he went from that prison in Liberia to this prestigious fellowship, and then onto law school in the United States is truly extraordinary.
We kick off discussing an NGO he started long with another Humanity in Action Senior Fellow Liat Krawczyk called The Jeneba Project. This is an organization dedicated to providing high quality education for children in Sierra Leone. Liat Krawczyk is also the co-director and co-executive producer of the documentary film, along with Anthony Mancilla.
This is a very powerful episode. We discuss Joseph's unique personal journey and have digressions about the causes and effects of the civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
As the United States enters its next election cycle, our democracy is still extremely vulnerable to disinformation campaigns from Russia. Other democracies, particularly in Europe, are also vulnerable to this kind of threat and, indeed, have also been the target of Russian meddling. A new report from The Atlantic Council identifies some concrete ways that the United States and Europe can better protect themselves against propaganda, disinformation, and election related hacking. On the line with me to discuss this report and its findings is one of the report's co-authors, Ambassador Daniel Fried. He was a longtime US diplomatic who's career largely focused Russia and central and eastern Europe. The report was co-authored by Alina Polyakova of the Brookings Institute The report provides a useful heuristic for understanding the problem: it breaks down and categorizes the various kinds of election meddling we've seen thus far. Also what makes this report unique is that the authors' propose that countering this kind of election meddling can be a platform for transatlantic cooperation; that is, in response to this Russian meddling Europe and the United States have an opportunity to form a new kind of strategic alliance. It can be a catalyst for cooperation.
Noubar Afeyan is a business leader, entrepreneur and philanthropist. In 2015, along with other decedents of survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide, he co-founded the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. This initiative, as Noubar explains, seeks to empower modern day survivors of genocide and mass atrocities through a variety of projects the most high profile of which is a $1 million prize for individuals who are saving lives and promoting humanitarian values in the face of extreme adversity.
Noubar's own family history and life story is one of survival. He was born in Beirut in the early 1960s, but his family took a circuitous route to get there, escaping the genocide and then subsequent persecution. Much of this history was relayed to him by his great aunt,with whom he lived growing up in Beirut. This is a very interesting conversation not only about Noubar's life journey and that of his family, but also how communities remember and honor historic atrocities visited upon them.My podcast guest today Pablo Yanguas is a research fellow at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. He is the author of the new book "Why We Lie About Aid: Development and the Messy Politics of Change."
In this conversation we discuss the central thesis of his book which is that there is a profound gap between the politics of development, and how economic development is actually achieved on the ground in the developing world. And the book is provocative for arguing that the former causes us to misrepresent the latter. This thesis rings true to my experience covering global development as a journalist for over a decade now. And I must say I found this conversation very clarifying--he identifies and ascribes political motives to trends that I have certainly seen covering these issues. And even if you are not a global development nerd, I think you will find this conversation very useful. I have a fun little announcement to make. I just some ordered stickers with the podcast logo on it and I would love to send one to you. But first I need you to do something for the show, which is to tell everyone why you listen to the show in a review on iTunes. Leave a review, then send me an email using the contact button on GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com and I will mail you a sticker. To leave a review go here. If you are using the podcast app, follow these stepsSulome Anderson was in utero when her father, the journalist Terry Anderson, was kidnapped in Beirut. She met him for the first time as a six year old, when he was finally released by his Hezbollah linked captors. Her book The Hostage's Daughter investigates the circumstances of her father's kidnapping and also serves as a memoir of her own experience dealing with her trauma and the trauma of her family. The book was published about 18 months ago to critical acclaim and it's since been optioned for a movie. In our conversation Sulome, now a journalist herself, discusses what it was like to write and report this book. She also opens up about the impact her father's kidnapping had on her childhood and adolescence, and she describes the catharsis she experienced after having interviewed one of her dad's kidnappers for this book. We kick off discussing something a little different: Sulome has been working as a freelance journalist in the Middle East for many years and she was recently the subject of a article in the Colombia Journalism Review that describes the challenges of working as a freelance foreign affairs journalist in a world obsessed with Trump.
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The conflict in Syria has entered a new phase. ISIS has been defeated, yet in many ways the war is metastasizing.
In places like Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus, the war is as brutal as ever. After days of extremely heavy bombing, the UN secretary general called Ghouta "hell on earth." Meanwhile, in another part of Syria, in the northern town of Afrin, you have a situation where the US-backed Kurdish forces that were instrumental in defeating ISIS are now under attack by America's NATO ally, Turkey. Meanwhile, in recent weeks, an Israeli fighter jet was downed over the country and the United States reportedly killed dozens of Russian mercenaries in a bombing. On the line with me to help put what is happening in Syria in the broader context of the trajectory of this nearly seven year old conflict is Raed Jarrar who is the Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa for Amnesty International, USA.
We kick off discussing the situation in Ghouta which is setting off international alarm bells as an ongoing mass atrocity event. We then discuss some of the broader trends of the conflict and what advocacy organizations like Amnesty are doing to keep pressure on the international community to reduce the toll this conflict is taking on civilian populations. Overall, this conversation serves as a helpful explanation of how the Syria conflict has evolved over the last several months and where it may be heading.
Djibouti is the only country in the world that hosts military bases for both the United States and China. The US base, Camp Lemmonier, hosts US special forces and its only a few kilometers from China's only military base outside of Asia. France, the former colonial ruler, also has a base in the country.
That so many countries would want their military stationed in tiny Djibouti is partly due of the country's geography. It is strategically located in the horn of Africa, bordering Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea at the exact point where the Gulf of Aden meets the red Sea, across the straight from Yemen.
But in part as a consequence of its strategic location its longtime leader President Ismael Omar Guelleh has had a stranglehold on power since 1999, cracking down on civil society, thwarting any potential political rivals and subverting democratic institutions.
One person trying to restore democracy to Djibouti is Daher Ahmed Farah, who is on the line with me today. He is the leader of the country's main opposition political party, the Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development (MRD). He is currently in exile, living mostly in Brussels after the government issued a warrant for his arrest. We caught up as Farah was visiting Washington, DC for meetings at the state department and elsewhere.
Djibouti is obviously not much on the news radar and I found this conversation an interesting explanation of how a government that is a strategic ally of many world powers can use that position to consolidate power at home at the expense of democracy.
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It's budget season in Washington, DC. And this year (like last year) the White House has requested massive cuts to foreign affairs spending in general, and to the United Nations in particular. The Fiscal Year 2019 budget request from the White House asks for about a 30% overall cut in non-military international affairs spending over current spending levels. Congress, which ultimately controls the purse strings, has largely pushed back against these more draconian spending measures.
On the line with me to discuss how the United Nations fits into the US budget and spending debates ongoing in Washington, DC is Peter Yeo. He is the President of the Better World Campaign and Vice President for Public Policy and Advocacy at the United Nations Foundation. He was a longtime congressional staffer and knows the ins and outs of the foreign affairs budget and the UN budget process as well as anyone in DC.
Peter explains the UN budget process and demonstrates how American funding for the United Nations ends up being a pretty good deal for the United States.
This is a good, explanatory episode about one of the most important financial relationships in world affairs.
To the people of Kiribati, climate change is an existential threat. This is an Island nation in the pacific -- it is a string of atolls about halfway between Australia and Hawaii. It has a population of about 100,000 and is known for its vast Tuna stocks. But climate change and rising sea levels are making much of Kiribas uninhabitable--it is a country that is facing extinction. And not in some distant future. This is happening now. My guest today, Anote Tong served as President of Kiribas from 2003 to 2016. President Tong is well known in international circles for being a powerful advocate on behalf of people living in small island states that are on the front line of climate change. What I found so interesting about this conversation was learning how President Tong's advocacy in international forums has evolved over time--and how this existential threat contributed to President Tong's decision to create what is the world's largest marine sanctuary--the Phoenix Islands Protection Area. This episode is presented in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation, whose aim is to contribute to reducing the main global problems and risks that threaten humanity. Last year, the Global Challenges Foundation held an open call to find new models of global cooperation better capable of handling the most pressing global risks. In May this year at the New Shape Forum in Stockholm, the top proposals will be presented publicly and further refined through discussions with key thought leaders and experts. US$5 million will be awarded to the best ideas that re-envision global governance for the 21st century. President Tong is a Global Challenges Foundation ambassador and in the conversation we discuss this prize and why new ideas for global governance are important for the future of small island states like Kiribati.
Last week, the Polish Senate passed a law that would make it a criminal offense to claim that Poland was complicit in Nazi crimes. The Israeli government strongly opposed this measure, as do most people who care about honest academic discourse. Nevertheless, the measure was passed and now awaits the signature of the president to become law. When I caught up with my guest today, Monika Mazur-Rafał, Poland's lower house had recently passed the law and as Monika explains the public debate and discourse about it was heavily colored by invocations of ethnic nationalism and hate speech. Monika is the director of Humanity in Action-Poland, which is an organization that seeks to promote pluralism and cosmopolitan values. As she explains the use of hate speech around this particular public debate is just one manifestation of a trend that has increased sharply in recent years.
In fact a public survey, which Monika describes in detail, finds that Polish people's exposure to hate speech has increased dramatically with the coming to power of the far right wing Law and Justice party. She explains that dynamic, and the relationship between anti-semitism, homophobia, islamophobia and racism and the electoral success of the ruling Law and Justice Party. Needless to say, there are some interesting and disturbing parallels to what is happening in Poland and what happened during the 2016 election in the United States. Finally, Monika explains what organizations like Humanity in Action are doing to counter this disturbing trend.Max Boot is a foreign policy commentator and historian. Just this week he was named a contributing writer to the Op-ed page of the Washington Post.
He is the author of several books; his most recent is The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam
Lansdale was a CIA officer who was the inspiration behind the title character of the famous Graham Green novel, The Quiet American. As Max explains Lansdale pioneered a "hearts and minds" approach to the Vietnam quandary and sought to avoid a massive American military buildup in Vietnam, but was ultimately overruled.
We discuss this history in detail and also the relevance of Lansdale to American foreign policy today. We then have an extended conversation about Max's background, including his own intellectual evolution. And here, Max explains how the Trump administration is causing him to re-think certain assumptions he once held as a movement conservative and Republican.
You've may of the Doomsday Clock. This is a rubric created by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists at the dawn of the nuclear age to demonstrate how close humanity is to nuclear annihilation. Midnight symbolizes doomsday -- and the closer the clock moves to midnight, the closer we are to nuclear war.
Well, on January 25th, the scientists behind the nuclear clock moved it a tic closer -- to two minutes before midnight. This is the closest the clock has been to the doomsday scenario since 1953. They cited the impetuousness of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un as their rational. But adding to the growing concern over the possible use of nuclear weapons is also a new nuclear weapons policy that is being rolled out by the Trump administration.
The world caught a glimpse of what this policy might be when a draft of a document called the Nuclear Posture Review was leaked to the press. The nuclear posture review is a document that tends to be released in the early stages of an administration to set its over all nuclear weapons policy. And here, you will probably not be surprised to learn that Trump's nuclear policy review is likely to deviate from his predecessors in important ways.
On the line with me to discuss the Trump administration's emerging approach to nuclear weapons, nuclear deterrence and other key nuclear policy issues is Tom Countryman. He was a career diplomat who served for decades in various postings at the State Department and around the world. He most recently served as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation until the very early days of the Trump administration. He is now the chair of the board of the Arms Control Association.
Countryman does a very good job explaining what is the same--and what is so different about Donald Trump's approach to the bomb. And in so doing, I think he offers some important insights into how some of the underlying logic of nuclear policy planners might rest on some faulty assumptions.
--- Please leave a review on iTunes. You can click this link or follow these instructions ---Over 10,000 people have fled from English speaking regions of Cameroon to neighboring Nigeria in recent weeks. They are escaping an ongoing crackdown by Cameroonian security forces against a movement that is demanding greater autonomy for English speaking regions from the French dominated central government.
In Cameroon, the struggle for more equal political rights and power by English speaking regions is a longstanding issue. It's commonly known as "the Anglophone problem." Over the past couple of years an Anglophone protest movement has gained increased strength and visibility. And over the past several months the government response to this movement has become increasingly violent and draconian. Meanwhile, some fringe splinter groups have decided to take up arms against the government. This ongoing crisis and potentially brewing conflict is an off-the-radar crises that does not attract a great deal of attention, but has both significant regional and global implications. On the line with me to explain what is going on in Cameroon and why we should be paying attention to these developments is Yonatan L. Morse, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut. He explains how this crisis is rooted in Cameroon's unique post-colonial history and why these long simmering tensions are now boiling over. This is a great conversation--and I was happy to be able to shine a spotlight on this important, but perhaps overlooked issue. --- Please leave a review on iTunes. You can click this link or follow these instructions ---Tancintaro, Mexico claims to be the "avocado capital" of the world, selling one million dollars worth of the fruit per day. But what makes Tancitaro truly interesting is that the orchards--and the town itself--is under the protection of a militia funded by the avocado growers. In a fascinating piece in the New York Times, Amanda Taub, Max Fisher and Dalia Martinez use the towns of Tancitaro, Neva and Monterrey to demonstrate a trend in Mexico: cities are effectively seceding from the state. As they write in their piece, "These are acts of desperation, revealing the degree to which Mexico’s police and politicians are seen as part of the threat." In this conversation Amanda Taub describes what her reporting from Mexico reveals about state fragility and the enduring presence of what can best be described as warlordism. We discuss these three case studies in detail--and each are totally fascinating on their own. But what distinguishes this piece is the way in which it draws on social science literature to help explain this ongoing trend--which is present not only in Mexico but in other parts of the world as well. This combination of original reporting backed by academic research is what you can expect regularly from the most excellent Interpreter column in the New York Times, which is written by Amanda Taub and Max Fisher. I also want to note before we begin that Amanda was a recent speaker at a Humanity in Action event, where she told some behind the scenes stories of her reporting and explained her reporting process.
Shanti Bhavan is a school in the Tamil Nadu state of southern India that serves children from the Dalit community. These are the some of the poorest children in the country. Systemic inequality has kept many members of this community in extreme poverty. (The Dalits were sometimes referred to as the "untouchables" in India's now-illegal caste system.)
Shanti Bhavan seeks to break that cycle by offering high quality education and other life skills to its students. And for its successes to that end it has begun to earn a great deal of attention. Last year a documentary on Netflix, called Daughters of Destiny, profiled young girls at the school and offered some insights into Shanti Bhavan's unique strategy for breaking cycles of poverty.
The school was founded in 1997 by the Indian-American businessman Abraham George. His son, Ajit George, is the director of operations and joins me on the podcast to discuss how his father decided to start the school and how this school fits into a broader theory of change to upend the caste system and extreme poverty it engenders.
If you have 20 minutes and want to learn about one unique strategy to end extreme poverty, have a listen.
Robert Malley is the new president and CEO of the International Crisis Group. He took over on January 1st. The International Crisis Group, of course, provides the public and policymakers with analysis of conflicts and potential ways out of conflict around the world. As regular listeners probably know it is one of my go-to resources for understanding crises and conflicts around the world and analysts from the Crisis Group are regular guests on the this show.
(I did not realize this when I reached out to Malley for the interview, but I've now had every single president of the International Crisis Group as guests on this show, including Gareth Evans, Louise Arbour and Rob's immediate predecessor Jean-Marie Guehenno.) We kick off discussing some of the priorities he'll emphasize as the group's new president and also some of the major conflicts and crises he's monitoring as we enter the new year. We then discuss his unique upbringing. As Rob describes it, his father was a Jewish Egyptian Arab nationalist who became a public intellectual and advocated on behalf of colonized people around the world. Rob served in the National Security Council staff of both the Clinton administration and the Obama administration. And his last post in the White House was as the so-called ISIL Czar, coordinating policy against the Islamic State.At the very end of last year I had the opportunity to moderate a panel at the United States Institute of Peace that served as the launch of a new report called the Global Terrorism Index.
This is a one-of-its kind quantitative examination of the impact of terrorism around the world. It includes a look at the number of terrorism deaths, the geographic distribution of terrorist attacks (including the countries and regions where terrorism is on the increase or decrease) and importantly, it puts all this data into a broader historic context in which you are able to compare the data year-by-year.
The Global Terrorism Index is researched, compiled and published by the global think tank the Institute for Economics and Peace.
On the line with me to discuss the 2017 Global Terrorism Index, and explain what big data can tell us about terrorism around the world is Daniel Hyslop, research director at the Institute for Economics and Peace.
In the conversation we also reference another flagship report from the Institute called the Positive Peace Report, which takes a quantitative approach to measuring attitudes, institutions and structures that “create and sustain peaceful societies.”
Both the Global Terrorism Index and the Positive Peace Report are some cutting edge research in global affairs.
If you have 20 minutes and want to learn what long-term data can teach us about terrorism, have a listen.
Iran is in the midst of its most significant protest and popular uprising since 2009, when the so-called Green Revolution was quashed by the government. Now, since December 28th, tens of thousands of people -- possibly more -- have taken to the streets in several different cities in demonstrations against both the more moderate elected President of Iran Hassan Rouhani and the more hardline supreme leader Ali Khameni. As my guest today Ariane Tabatabai explains, these protests began largely as a response to worsening economic conditions and the rising cost of consumer goods. And unlike the 2009 protests, the people taking to the streets are mostly drawn from groups that have historically supported more conservative elements in the Islamic Republic. So this poses a serious political challenge the ruling authorities in Iran. In our conversation Ariane discusses the roots of these protests, how the spread so quickly and how the Iran nuclear deal is an important factor in the politics and economy of Iran. Ariane Tabatabai is the Director of Curriculum of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University
Since 2013, the government of Australia has enforced a policy of sending any refugee or migrant who arrives who arrives by boat to detention centers in Papua New Guinea or the remote island nation of Nauru. They do so without exception.
Daniel Webb is an Australian lawyer who is fighting that policy. He is the Director of Legal Advocacy at Australia's Human Rights Law Center and he represents asylum seekers who are stranded indefinitely in Nauru and in Papua New Guinea. In 2016 Daniel helped lead a campaign called Let Them Stay, which petitioned the government to allow a few hundred of these asylum seekers who were transported from these islands to Australia for medical treatment to remain in the country. For his work on behalf of these asylum seekers Daniel received the 2017 Global Pluralism Award. He was one of three finalists. The award, "celebrates the extraordinary achievements of organizations, individuals and governments who are tackling the challenge of living peacefully and productively with diversity." It was conferred by the Global Pluralism Center, which is a partnership between the Government of Canada and the Aga Khan, the religious leader and philanthropist and head of the NGO, the Aga Khan Development Network. He and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada were on hand to present this award at a ceremony in Ottawa a couple months ago. I was in the audience, and after seeing his acceptance speech and learning more about his work I knew I had to get him on the show. It's a powerful conversation that shines a light on a profoundly unjust and ongoing situation.On Thursday, December 21 the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning the United States' decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The resolution passed 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions, despite the fact that in the days leading up to the vote Donald Trump and Nikki Haley threatened to cut off US aid to any countries who voted against the United States. Meanwhile, a day earlier, the High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al Hussein announced that he is stepping down next year and not seeking another term as High Commissioner. This was a shock. Zeid is universally admired in the human rights community as a blunt voice unafraid of speaking truth to power -- indeed he has been sharply critical of Donald Trump. That could be why he's stepping down. In a letter to staff, he cited an in hospitable geo-political environment for human rights advocacy as his reason for leaving the post. On the line to discuss these issues, plus have a look back at the big stories that drove the UN agenda in 2017 is Richard Gowen, a UN expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations. This is a lively conversation that examines how some big trends that started in 2017 will shape world affairs and diplomacy at the UN in 2018.
Munira Khalif is the US Youth Observer to the United Nations. This is a position created in partnership between the State Department and the United Nations Association of the United States to help give youth a voice in official and semi-official diplomatic settings. Munira is a student at Harvard, though she is taking some time off to focus on this new role, in which she will serve for a year.
And in this conversation Munira discusses her work and what is involved in giving youth a voice at the UN and in diplomatic settings and why she is using her position to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. When we spoke, Munira had recently returned from India where she participated in the Global Entrepreneurship and we kick off discussing that trip. We then have a broader conversation of what it means to engage youth around issues of importance to the broader UN-system.The International Committee for the Red Cross/Red Crescent, otherwise known as the ICRC, is a singularly unique international organization. It was founded over 150 years ago to care for soldiers wounded in battle and has evolved substantially since then. Over the years, it has helped shape what is known today as International Humanitarian Law, which are the laws of war. This includes the Geneva Conventions in which the ICRC is specifically named.
Today, the ICRC works in conflict zones around the world providing on-the-ground medical relief and other services to protect the rights and welfare of civilians and combatants in conflict. It also conducts what my guest today, Hugo Slim, calls Humanitarian Diplomacy at the United Nations and in capitals around the world.
Slim is the policy director for ICRC and we discuss what Humanitarian Diplomacy entails, and have a broader conversation about the work of the ICRC around the world, including the distinct role it plays in interesting international affairs.
Dr. Mozhdeh Ghasemiyani is a psychologist with Doctors without Borders. She is a Kurdish refugee to Denmark and recently delivered a TED Talk describing her refugee experience. In the talk she draws on her knowledge as a psychologist specializing in trauma and PTSD to explain how the traumatic experiences of refugee children can have life long effects.
Mozhdeh Ghasemiyani is someone i have known for years. We are both Humanity in Action Senior Fellows and lived in DC at the same time some years ago. The Ted Talk she delivered was at a TEDx event in Aarhus, Denmark. This episode is in two parts. First, you will hear that Ted Talk -- which is both powerful and enlightening. Then, Mozhdeh and I have an extended conversation about some of the stories she alludes to in the talk and also the broader political environment that caused her family to flee first from Iran right after the 1979 revolution, and then from Saddam Hussein's campaign of genocide against the Kurds. We also discuss her current work as a psychologist who specializes in working with refugee children. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!The United States will formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol and intends to move its embassy there from Tel Aviv — thus, decreed President Trump from the White House yesterday.
The move bucks decades of US policy, which sought to include the status of Jerusalem as part of a broader peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Meanwhile, virtually the entire world warned President Trump against this declaration, fearing that it will sow instability throughout the region and erect yet another obstacle in the way of an already failing peace process.
On the line with me to discuss the implications of this announcement to both the Arab-Israeli peace process and to regional politics more broadly is Marc Lynch. Lynch is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliot School; Director, Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) and one of my favorite middle east analysts.
He explains why previous US administration’s have held off on making this move. And, he puts this decision by Trump administration in the context of its broader policies towards the region. Lynch argues that Trump is making a high-stakes gamble with this Jerusalem gambit–the outcome of which is highly uncertain.
If you have 20 minutes and want to understand the broader implications of the US decision to declare Jerusalem the capitol of Israel, have a listen.
Dr. Joanne Liu is the International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), otherwise known as Doctors without Borders. She is a Canadian Pediatrician by training and has been with MSF for almost her entire career. She became the international head of MSF in 2013. We spoke not long after she visited MSF's operations in a stretch of land in Bangladesh called Cox's Bazar. This is where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled from neighboring Myanmar in recent months and it is the site of one of the world's most urgent global humanitarian emergencies. Dr. Liu discusses the conditions there--and the kind of unique medical needs that stem from having such a massive population displacement in such a short period of time. We also discuss MSF's history--including how it gained a reputation as one of the more fearless global humanitarian organizations. And we also discuss some of the current big challenges facing MSF, including a seeming increase in the number of attacks on humanitarian and health facilities around the world. Dr. Liu tells a few very powerful stories, including a recent visit to a detention center for African migrants in Libya a place she calls "the most inhuman incarnation of men's cruelty" We also discuss in detail a tragedy that befell MSF in October 2015 when US fighter jets bombed an MSF hospital in Afghanistan, killing many of her colleagues. This episode shifts between wonky explanations of issues in world affairs, and her own very personal experience with those issues and I just want to thank Dr. Liu and the people at MSF for making this episode so powerful. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show
Agnès Marcaillou is the director of the United Nations Mine Action Service. This is the UN agency that helps clear mine fields, defuse IEDs and clean up unexploded ordinance around the world. It is the UN Bomb Squad.
In this conversation, we discuss the problem of landmines and unexploded ordinance around the word, the work of UNMAS, and how funding shortages is preventing her agency from being maximally effective in places like Iraq, where UNMAS has received high praise for defusing a bomb-laden bridge in Fallujah to allow aid to enter the city following ISIS' defeat.
Agnès has had a long career in the UN and I think younger professionals and students who listen to this show will find some inspiration in how Agnes was able to make a very big policy impact as a relatively junior UN staffer working on the Convention on the prohibition of chemical weapons in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Last month, I saw Agnès give an acceptance speech at the Global Leadership Awards, which is an event hosted by United Nations Foundation. The way in which she both described the work of UNMAS and her own long experience in the UN system compelled me to reach out to her for an interview.
This is a great conversation with a true bureaucratic entrepreneur.
Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the showZimbabwe has had exactly one leader in its entire 37 year history as an independent country. That was, until November 14th Robert Mugabe was deposed in an apparent coup.
What happens next is still very much in the air. Right now, Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace are under an apparent house arrest, though it seems he may soon be forced into exile. Meanwhile, his recently sacked vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa seems to be calling the shots. On the line with me to discuss recent events in Zimbabwe and offer some deeper context in which to understand how, after 37 years Robert Mugabe's time in power has abruptly come to an end is Amb John Campbell, who is the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. Amb. Campbell explains how an intra-party rivalry over who might succeed the 93 year old Robert Mugabe seems to have triggered this coup. We also discuss Mugabe's history as a singularly fascinating liberation leader who for a time presided over a booming economy, until, that is, he ruined it, for reasons Ambassador Campbell explains. If you have 30 minutes and want to understand how the coup unfolded and what might come next, then have a listen. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!Over the last several weeks, ISIS has been systematically losing territory. Its last stronghold in Iraq, the city of Hawija, was liberated in early October. A few weeks later, ISIS' de-facto capitol in Raqaa, Syria fell to US-backed forces.
ISIS no longer controls any major city in the region.
With the group mostly defeated on the ground, the international community is starting to think through some difficult and fraught questions of how best to bring ISIS to justice for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during their brutal reign. On the line with me to discuss some of the options that the international community is weighing, and also some of the key obstacles for bringing to justice those who committed atrocity crimes in Iraq and Syria, is Dr. Zachary D. Kaufman. Zachary D. Kaufman is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and teaching at Stanford Law school -- he is also, like me, a Humanity in Action senior fellow.Peter Galbraith helped uncover and confront two genocides. As a staffer in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 1980s, Peter compiled evidence of Saddam Hussein’s genocide against the Kurdish people. Later, as the United States Ambassador to Croatia during the 1990s, he used his position to call for more forceful intervention on behalf of besieged populations in the Balkans. We discuss both these events, plus what it was like to be born the son of the 20th century’s most celebrated public intellectuals and liberal icons, John Kenneth Galbraith.
Peter recently wrote a piece in the New York Review of Books about how the Trump administration is approaching the Kurdish situation. In it, he discusses some recent events in Kurdish region, including the Iraqi governments decision to forcefully—and violently — respond to an independence referendum in the Kurdish region. This leads to an extended conversation that includes stories from Peter’s nearly 35 year engagement with Kurdish politics — I think you will agree its riveting and interesting stuff. we also discuss Peter’s time in the Balkans and the unique way he sought to draw attention to ongoing mass atrocities there.
Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!Saudi Crown Price Mohammad bin Salman consolidated power in a pretty dramatic fashion by detaining would-be rivals and diminishing other power centers in the country. These moves coincided with an apparent rocket attack, launched from Yemen, toward the vicinity of an airport in Riyadh. That sparked a very dramatic decision by the Crown Prince to impose a total blockade of Yemen.
That decision could have a profoundly devastating impact on the situation in Yemen, where nearly the entire population is affected by an ongoing conflict that is pitting an Iran-backed rebel group against the Saudi-backed government. The rebel group controls much of northern part of the country, including the capitol Sana’a and the largest port, Hodeidah. Saudi Arabia (with American backing) controls all sea and air lanes around the country. Yemen is already the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with 7 million facing starvation and over 900,000 sickened with cholera. If access to Yemen remained shut down, “I can’t imagine this will not be one of the most devastating humanitarian catastrophes we’ve seen in decades,” says the head of the World Food Program. On the line with me to discuss this all is Scott Paul of Oxfam America. Scott, who has spent time in Yemen and lobbies the US government on behalf of humanitarian access in Yemen, explains the situation on the ground right now--and as you'll see there is a great lack of clarity about this apparent blockade. We also discuss more broadly the political environment in the Yemen and the broader middle east that giving rise to the ongoing catastrophe in Yemen. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!Donald Trump's approach to sovereignty is not unique in American history. There is a longstanding political tradition that seeks no compromise with the world and see's all interactions with allies and adversaries as zero sum. What is different is that no American President has held these views until now.
Stewart Patrick is author of the new book The Sovereignty Wars Reconciling America with the World. The book examines how debates about sovereignty in the United States shape American foreign policy, and also the liberal international order --that is the patchwork of treaties and agreements and institutions like the United Nations that help set the rules of international relations.
We discuss the implications of Donald Trump's apparently narrow view of sovereignty on American foreign policy. It's a high minded conversation--and a good one. Stewart Patrick is a senior fellow and director of the program on international institutions and global governance at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He was a guest on the show last year for episode 116 in which he discusses his life and career. To access to this podcast episode: subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher or get the app to listen lateIf California were a country, it would be the sixth largest economy in the world. Its population is greater than countries like Poland and Canada.
So what happens in California can very much impact the rest of the world. And one fairly direct manifestation of California's global relevance is in the state's approach to climate change. Earlier this summer, California revamped its Cap-and-Trade program. This is a policy innovation intended to curb emissions by creating a market around greenhouse gasses like carbon. Companies can buy and sell permits to each other to release set amounts of greenhouse gasses. That's one way California is having a global impact. There are others as well. On the line with me to discuss California's global impact is California State Senator Ben Allen. Senator Allen represents about 1 million people in communities around Los Angeles and he has been in the State Senate since 2014. We discuss California's approach to climate change, and also some strategies that Senator Allen and his colleagues are employing to blunt some of the effects of the federal government's decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement. We also discuss some other issues of transnational concern, like ensuring the eduction of immigrant children is not interrupted should they the get deported. Ben Allen (like me) is a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!Farida Nabourema spoke from an undisclosed location in West Africa, out of fear for her personal safety. Farida is a prominent Togolese activist and these are very tense times in Togo. Several people were killed in protests in recent months amid a growing opposition movement that is calling for the re-instatement of presidential term limits. These term limits are guaranteed under the Togolese constitution, but nonetheless are being ignored by the regime.
Togo is a small country in west Africa, with a population of about 7.5 million people. It has been ruled for the last 50 years by the same family.EyadémaGnassingbé came to power in 1967 and ruled until his death in 2005, whereupon his son, Faure Gnassingbé became president. Faure is ruling to this day and is seeking to undertake some moves of dubious constitutionality that could extend his rule far into the future. It is in this volatile political environment that Farida is engaging her activism and supporting a movement to enforce president term limits and a return to democracy. We have a very interesting conversation, not only about Togo, but also about the role of anger in sustaining an opposition movement and also the strategic value of non-violence. We also discuss how she became an activist, which you will learn was something she very much grew up with. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!Safwan Masri set out with a simple question: of all the countries caught in the turmoil of the Arab Spring, how is it that Tunisia was the only country to successfully replace a long ruling despot with a more or less functioning democracy? His new book Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly takes a deep dive into that question, examining Tunisia's history, politics and, crucially some decades old educational reforms.
This is a very interesting conversation about both the Arab Spring, and Tunisia's unique experience. It is the Arab Spring success story--so far at least--and Safwan Masri helps me understand why. Safwan Masri is Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!Exactly two weeks to the day before this interview, Beatrice Fihn received a phone call from Norway. It was the Nobel Committee informing her that the NGO she leads, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
The committee cited ICAN, as the NGO is known, for its work to achieve an international treaty against nuclear weapons. The treaty is often compared to the Landmine Ban Treaty and Convention Against Chemical Weapons in that it invokes broadly humanitarian principles to ban what is an inherently indiscriminate weapon. The treaty was finalized in July and has already gained over 50 signatories from governments, with many more expected in the near future. What does this treaty hope to accomplish? What logic do Beatrice Fihn and her colleagues use to press their case against countries who include nuclear weapons as part of their national security strategies? How will winning the Nobel Peace Prize affect her organization's work? Fihn discusses these questions at length, and explains how campaigning to abolish nuclear weapons takes a kind of fearlessness and disregard for traditional power dynamics. (And it's worth pointing out that this is a treaty that is opposed, at least for now, by all nuclear weapons possessing states.) We also discuss Beatrice Finh's life and career and how she first became interested in nuclear issues. It's an inspiring conversation. We kick off with a discussion about the moment she learned her organization had won the Nobel Peace Prize.Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!
A case that is pending before the Supreme Court of the United States could have profound implications for human rights and corporate social responsibility around the world. The case is called Jesner vs. Arab Bank. It is a lawsuit in which The plaintiffs allege that Arab Bank, which is a Jordanian financial institution, facilitated payments to terrorist groups that carried out attacks in Israel, killing and injuring them. Now a case involving foreign victims of a terrorist attack carried out on foreign soil by a foreign group would typically not be the business of the US legal system. But the plaintiffs in this case are pursing damages using a law that has been on the books since the 18th century, called the Alien Tort Statute. And according to my guest today, Dr. Zachary Kauffman, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Plaintiffs this statute could influence corporate decision making and even US foreign policy. Zachary Kauffman is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and teaching at Stanford Law school -- he is also, like me, a humanity in action senior fellow. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!
Alexis Okeowo is a staff writer for the New Yorker whose debut book was published earlier this month. The book, A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa has been getting rave reviews -- rightfully so.
The book tells the story of subtle forms of resistance; how individuals, in their own way, are pushing back against injustice. In doing so, she shines a light on some important though often overlooked global stories, like slavery in the country of Mauritania or the plight former child soldiers in Uganda. Alexis traces her interest in these issues to her upbringing as an American born child of Nigerian immigrants to Montgomery, Alabama where Rosa Park's act of resistance ignited a civil rights movement. Alexis discusses her career in journalism, including some key stories she reported on like the Chibok School girls kidnapping in 2014.
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President Trump is widely expected to decertify the Iran Nuclear Deal.
But what decertification actually mean? And will this action destroy the Iran Nuclear Deal? On the line with me to discuss these questions and more is Spencer Ackerman, the Pulitzer Prize winning reporter with the Daily Beast. It's becoming increasingly clear that even if this White House action does not result in the re-imposition of US sanctions, which could kill the deal, it nonetheless undermines American credibility among both America's allies and adversaries around the world. The diplomatic fallout from this move will be far and wide. As Ackerman puts it, this action "cannot be cauterized" from any other aspect of American diplomacy. Ackerman recently wrote about the likely diplomatic fallout from this action, which we discuss in depth. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn about the broader implications of this move by President Trump, have a listen. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!The Central African Republic is facing some serious challenges right now.
Four years ago, the country was on the brink of genocide after the longtime strongman Francois Bozize was ousted in an armed rebellion. The violence quickly turned sectarian with Christian and Muslim militias attacking civilian populations and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. UN Peacekeepers along with French forces deployed to the country and prevented this crisis from spiraling totally out of control. A peace process emerged, a new government was elected and a tenuous peace took hold.
The French forces withdrew last October. Now, about 12,800 UN peacekeepers remain.
In recent months, though, violent conflict started to re-emerge -- particularly in more remote parts of the country. The trend-lines now are not as positive as they were a year ago.
This episode on the Central African Republic is in two parts.First, I speak with a member of Congress, David Cicilline of Rhode Island. He visited the country in August as part of a congressional delegation examining the work and role of UN Peacekeepers in the country. He describes what he saw in the country and makes a strong case that the peacekeepers in CAR need far more support than they are currently getting. Congressman Cicilline also discusses UN peacekeeping more broadly and why he believes Blue Helmets are an important pillar of US national security and global stability.
After my conversation with Congressman Cicilline, I play an excerpt from my conversation from last May with the photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale, whose work from the Central African Republic was included in the may issue of National Geographic magazine. Marcus has travelled extensively in CAR and covered the violence in 2013. In the excerpt, we discuss the roots of the conflict -- why it emerged and its effect on the population at the time. This includes a conversation of Marcus' journalism and photos from CAR.
Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!People in Kurdish region of Iraq have voted overwhelmingly for independence in a popular referendum that took place in late September. No country in the region wanted this referendum to happen--and neither did the United States, with whom the Kurds have been a longtime ally. Soon after the results were announced, the Iraqi government and other countries in the region like Turkey and Iran threatened retaliatory measures.
The implications of this referendum and its fallout are still unfolding, and here to help me make sense of what this referendum was all about and how it may impact the political and diplomatic dynamic of the region is Morgan Kaplan. He is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Buffett Institute for Global Studies and the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University. We discuss why this referendum was so politically significant and how it may affect the future shape of the Middle East. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!When Keith Harper was confirmed as President Obama's Ambassador to the Human Rights Council he became the first American-Indian to achieve the rank of Ambassador. The longtime attorney for native American rights soon put his knowledge of tribal culture to use in Geneva where he represented the United States on the top UN human rights body.
Keith is a Cherokee Indian. He was born in San Francisco and from an early age was animated by a civil rights movement known as "Red Power." After law school he represented a number of Native Americans and Native American causes and this culminated in a billion dollar class action lawsuit against the federal government that he successfully litigated.
We spend this first few minutes of this conversation discussing the work of the Human Rights Council, so let me give you a little bit of a background on it. This is a 47 member body in which each member state is elected by the entire UN membership to three year terms. Now, one of its flaws that critics sometimes point to is that some of the members of the council have pretty lousy human rights records themselves--and this is undoubtedly true. But the reason they get elected to is because the membership of the council is apportioned based on a UN principle known as equitable geographic representation. This means that a certain number of seats are reserved for a certain number of countries in each region. Now, there are more African countries than there are western European countries so it would stand to reason that Africa gets more seats. Now the problem arises when regions negotiate amongst themselves to nominate an equal number of candidates as there are seats so you get uncompetitive elections that result in countries like Burundi getting a seat.
Now, that is one of they key flaws of the council. But despite it, Keith makes a compelling argument for why the United States should nonetheless stay engaged. And whether or not the US will remain a member of the council is very much in question by the Trump administration. Keith also discusses at length some tangible outcomes in the service of human rights that the council achieved while he was the US ambassador there.
Apply for the Humanity in Action fellowship!
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The Trump administration this week announced sweeping new restrictions on travelers from eight countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen
Days later, the administration formally established that the United States will take in no more than 45,000 refugees fleeing conflict around the world. This is a record-low cap on the number of refugees that the United States has ever resettled since 1980. To put this in context, the previous cap authorized by President Obama was 110,000.
The travel ban and refugee cap are two separate policies, but they are related, at least politically, in the eyes of this administration.
With the exception of Venezuela, in which only government officials are targeted, the travel ban prevents nearly any national from these countries from obtaining a visa to visit, live, study or work in the United States. According to my podcast guest Mark Hetfield, there is only one historic precedent for this: the 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was an explicitely racists law barring all Chinese migration to the United States
Hetfield is President of HIAS--a jewish non-profit organization that is one of nine American agencies that resettles refugees in the United States.
In this episode, Mark discusses the travel ban, its implications for people both in the United States and abroad and also his organization's new legal strategy to confront this travel ban. We also discuss at length this new refugee cap, which is an unprecedented abrogation of the traditional American approach to refugee admissions.
Apply for the Humanity in Action fellowship!
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My guest today Meghan O'Sullivan is the author of the new book Windfall: How the new energy abundance upends global politics and strengthens American power. And we kick off our conversation with a discussion of the ways in which the natural gas boom in the united states is changing international diplomacy and geopolitics. It's fascinating stuff.
Meghan is the Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and has had a career in government and the think tank world. She served, for a time, as the deputy national security advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush administration and she was one of the first American civilian officials on the ground in Baghdad after the city fell to US forces in 2003. We discuss these events and more--including being mentored by the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
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Amid all the pageantry, hoopla and media circus that is UN week in New York there is always some interesting and substantive work being done on important global issues. Sometimes these issues are not on top of the agenda of world leaders (though they probably should be) and conversations around them do not get the kind of attention they deserve for one reason or another.
So, I was very glad to catch up with Carolyn Miles, President and CEO of Save the Children to have a conversation about the challenges of getting refugee children in quality schools. According to a new report from Save the Children, 700 million days of school have been missed by 3.5 million registered refugee children. More than half of all refugee children globally are out of school. For Syrian refugee children, the situation is particularly bleak. 43 percent of school-aged Syrian refugee children will be missing school this year. This number is an increase over the same statistic last year, when 34 percent were out of school — this means that around 730,000 Syrian refugee children are receiving no education. Earlier this week, I had a chance to meet one young Syrian girl who is trying to change this statistic. Muzoon Almellehan is a Syrian refugee who fled to a refugee camp in Jordan and quickly became a prominent advocate for both her own interrupted education and for that of her friends and fellow refugees. Earlier this year she was named a UNICEF Goodwill ambassador for this work--the youngest ever appointed UNICEF goodwill ambassador. She said something profound that stuck with me and made me want to do this episode with Carolyne Miles. She said: “As you have nourishment for your body, you also need nourishment for your mind.” And this conversation you are about to hear with the CEO of Save the Children does a good job of explaining the scope of this this challenge, and how and why the international community is failing refugee children and what it can do to succeed. We speak nearly a year to the day after leaders gathered at the United Nations and made big pledges to confront the global refugees crisis, but as Caroline explains, they are largely failing to live up to their promises when it comes to educating refugee children.World leaders gather at the United Nations this week for the annual summit at the United Nations General Assembly. This is always one of the big highlights of the international diplomatic calendar and it will be all the more interesting this year for the fact that President Trump is making his UN debut.
So what should expect from Trump at UNGA? What are some of the big issues on the diplomatic agenda in New York this week? How much oxygen will the US President suck from the room? On the line to discuss these questions and more is Richard Gowen, fellow at the European Council.
We also discuss key issues — beyond Trump — that will drive the conversations this week, including the crises in North Korea and Myanmar, how Antonio Guterres his first UNGA as Secretary General and what to expect from Emmanuel Macron’s debut.
This is a useful preview of some of the key issues of substance and style that will drive the global conversation in New York this week. It will be useful to both UN-nerds and general international relations enthusiasts alike.
If you have 30 minutes and want get learn what this UNGA is all about, have a listen.
Can Trump and the United Nations Just Get Along? -- Richard Gowan
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Nearly 400,000 ethnic Rohingya have fled Myanmar across the border to Bangladesh. By the time you listen to this, that number will almost surely be much higher.
Since late August, security forces from the government of Myanmar (also called Burma) have attacked villages and towns in a seemingly coordinated fashion to create a massive displacement crisis. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has described what is happening a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” On the line with me to discuss this current crisis is John Sifton, the advocacy director Human Rights Watch-Asia. We spoke just after he got off the phone with his colleagues on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border who have witnessed profound scenes of destruction. John also describes satellite imagery he's reviewed that depicts towns, villages and neighborhoods being burned to the ground. John gives a useful background on the plight of the Rohingya population in Burma and explains why Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,the de-facto leader of the country, has been such a disappointment and unable or unwilling to stop this onslaught against a minority community in her country. John also offers some good suggestions on how the international community might best respond to this unfolding crisis. If you are regular listener to the show, you know that I have done several episodes on this issue--which is one of those under-the-radar global issues that I like to highlight on the podcast. Now, of course the situation is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!John Shattuck is the former US Ambassador to the Czech Republic, former President of the Central European University, and served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy Human Rights and Labor During the Clinton administration. He is currently a professor at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts
John was deep in the policy debates over the US response to the Rwanda genocide and explains how and why the United States failed to mount a meaningful response to this crisis. John also played a key role in uncovering the genocide at Srebrenica in which some 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were murdered by Serb forces, and he explains how he came to help uncover this crime.
John is a board member of Humanity in Action and we kick off this conversation discussing the situation in Poland and Hungary, where pluralist values and civic institutions have come under extreme threat by right wing governments. W discuss how civic organizations and universities can push back against this creeping illiberalism.
This is a great talk with someone who has had a fascinating career standing up for civil liberties and human rights in the United States and around the world.
Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!With Houston still reeling from Hurricane Harvey, Irma causing massive havoc in the Caribbean, and more storms on the way, I thought it would be timely and interesting to speak with my guest today, Maria Ivanova Maria Ivanova is an academic who straddles the university and policy worlds to help think through the connections between human security, environmental stresses and global governance--that is, the mechanisms that the international community and beyond have designed to deal with environmental challenges.
In this conversation she helps put the onslaught of these hurricanes into a kind of broader global context that addresses how the international community might more productively organize itself to confront the realities of climate change. Maria is a Professor of Global Governance and Director of the Center for Governance and Sustainability at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at UMass Boston and a Visiting Scholar at the Climate CoLab at MIT. She is also Ambassador for the New Shape Prize of the Global Challenges Foundation. This is a $5 million prize that will be awarded next year to "the best ideas that re-envision global governance for the 21st century." Toward the end of this conversation we discuss what exactly that means.
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Helene Cooper is the Pentagon correspondent for the New York Times. She is also the author of the new book "Madame President: The extraordinary journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf" which is a biography of the Liberian president and nobel peace prize winner was was Africa's first female head of state.
Helene was born and raised in Liberia. Her family fled to the United States in 1980, when she was 13 years old, following a coup. Her immediate family was brutally targeted during this coup. She describes the trauma around these events, and also the search for her sister with whom she became separated during this time in her critically acclaimed book, "The House on Sugar Beach: In search of a Lost African Childhood." Helene discusses some of these experiences in our conversation and describes how a near-death experience covering the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 motivated her to go back to Liberia. We kick off this conversation with a discussion of upcoming elections in Liberia and her newest book about ellen johnson sirleaf before having a longer conversation about her experiences as a refugee to the United States and finding her long lost sister in Liberia. This is a great conversation. I've been a fan of her work for a long time and it was great to get to know her a little bit more. Madame President The House on Sugar Beach Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!My guest today, Hillary Matfess of Yale, has discovered that there is a link between bride prices and violent conflict. She is the co-author of a fascinating new paper that appears in the current, Summer 2017 issue of the academic journal International Security. In it, she and her co-author Valerie Hudson identify how the cost of getting married can lead to the outbreak of violent conflict and war. Brideprice is sometimes known more commonly as dowry payments, but it is essentially, as Matfess explains, wealth that would-be grooms must transfer to the family of his would-be wife. In this way, brideprice acts as a regressive flat tax that poorer younger men pay to wealthier, older men. 75% of the world's population lives in societies that practice brideprice in one form or another Anyone who has ever taken an international relations or security class knows that there are volumes of research on what causes the outbreak of violent conflict. Through case studies, which Matfess discusses in this conversation, the paper demonstrates how fluctuations in brideprices can lead to the outbreak of violent conflict. It is fascinating research with very real-world policy implications. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!
In Kazakstan this week, the international atomic energy agency is opening a new facility that will serve as a bank for low enriched uranium. This facility is known as the LEU fuel bank and its opening is the result of over a decade of work by my guest Senator Sam Nunn. Now the idea behind the, bank which Senator Nunn explains in detail is basically this. countries that want to use civilian nuclear power must either build their own enrichment facilities, or must purchase enriched uranium on the open market. the concern with the former is that facilities that enrich uranium for civilian purposes could also be used to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb. The bank is basically an insurance policy to dissuade countries from wanting to build their own enrichment facilities because if for some reason the market is disrupted and supplies cut off, the county can get their fuel from this bank, which stores enough fuel to power a mid sized city for three years. Senator Nunn is a former US senator who is co-chair of the NGO the Nuclear Threat Initiative. For years, the Nuclear Threat Initiative has been working behind the scenes to set up this bank and they got a big boost when Warren Buffet pledged 50 million to the cause. And in this episode Senator Nunn tells the story behind the LEU bank and why its advent is an important boon for international security and non-proliferation. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!
Poland is in the midst of a democratic backslide. The country's politics is dominated by the far right Law and Justice Party, which has embarked on a series of moves to curb the independence of the judiciary and free press. This has put Poland on a collision course with the European Union, of which it is a member. It has also earned the government the praise and support of Donald Trump--indeed Trump visited Poland this summer and delivered a rabble rousing speech appealing directly to right wing elements in Polish politics.
So how did we get here? And how threatened is liberal democracy in the heart of Europe? On the line with me to discuss the situation in Poland and why what happens in Poland matters to the rest of the world is Konsanty Gebert Konstanty Gebert is an Associate Fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations and an international reporter and columnist at Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s largest daily publication. He was also a speaker at the Humanity in Action International Conference in Berlin this year. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn why democracy in Poland is under threat right now, have a listen. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!Tensions are very clearly escalating on the Korean Peninsula, with the North making unrelenting progress on their nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and the United States president now overtly threatening a new war. In the meantime, the United Nations Security Council, which of course includes China, the United States and Russia, passed a new round of sanctions on North Korea intended to force Pyongyang back to the negotiating table -- but as of yet it is unclear if these new sanction will succeed in that regard. So what are the policy options right now? And if North Korea does succeed in developing the capacity to reliably hit the United States with a nuclear weapon can it even be deterred from doing so? What would happen if the United States strikes North Korea first? What diplomatic paths are still open right now? On the line to discuss these questions and more is Dr. Jim Walsh of MIT. He discusses the current situation and why deterrence might be the least bad option we face.
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After receiving dozens of emails from podcast listeners asking for career advice, I decided to put together this special episode in which your questions are answered. On the line are Paul Stronski and Alanna Shaikh, two individuals who have had varied careers in world affairs. Paul is a senior fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Alanna is a consultant who has worked with several international development and global health organizations. They were on hand to answer questions from listeners who joined a virtual conference call, or emailed me ahead of time.
Topics covered include: how to pull off an early-to-mid career shift. How to pick the right grad school program; how to network; how to land that first job; and many other topics.
Enjoy!
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Somalia is ground zero for an emerging trend in global affairs-- the nexus between climate change and conflict. My guest today, journalist Laura Heaton spent years reporting on how climate change and conflict feed off each other in profoundly destabilizing ways in horn of Africa.
She's the author of a feature story in Foreign Policy magazine that uses the work and life story of a British Scientist named Murray Watson to explain how climate change in Somalia has exacerbated conflict -- both local and international -- and how that conflict and insecurity has inhibited policies to mitigate the destabilizing effect of climate change. Watson went missing on 2008 after being kidnapped in Somalia, and it was assumed that his trove of ecological research went missing with him -- until Laura uncovered its existence in an attic in the British countryside.On July 17 a very rare thing happened in the world of humanitarian relief. Eight organizations that typically compete for donor dollars joined forces to launch a joint appeal to raise funds and awareness around a global food crisis.
Some 20 million people in four countries— South Sudan, Yemen, Nigeria and Somalia — face acute food scarcity. South Sudan even experienced a famine for a period of time this year. Facing funding shortages and relatively little popular awareness of this crisis, these NGOs formed that they are calling the Global Emergency Response Coalition.
On the line with me to discuss the reasons that this coalition formed is Deepmala Mahla, the country director for Mercy Corps in South Sudan. (Mercy Corps is one of the eight members of the coalition.) She explains the food crisis across these four countries and discusses at length the situation in South Sudan. Deepmala also describes in detail her work delivering humanitarian relief to vulnerable populations in South Sudan.
This is a valuable and timely conversation about an issue that is far too overlooked in the mainstream media.
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#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate SchoolOn June 27th, FARC rebels turned over the last of their weapons to the United Nations in a ceremony attended by both the leader of FARC and President Juan Manuel Santos. This officially marked the end of a over 50 year civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions more.
So how did we get to this point? And what are some of the big challenges that lay ahead for Colombia as peace takes hold? I put these questions and more to Kyle Johnson of the International Crisis Group. I reached him in Colombia a couple weeks after the laying-of-arms ceremony, which he attended. And we have an interesting conversation about this peace process and the conflict that lead to it.Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!
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#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate SchoolWendy Pearlman is an academic who studies the Middle East, but also writes popularly focused narratives that examines everyday life of people caught in the chaos of the region.Her latest book, We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria, is a collection of interviews of Syrians displaced by the war. That book was published by Harper Collins in June, but she used some of the research in that book for peer reviewed academic papers, that among other things examine the role of fear in revolutionary protests. And in this conversation we alternate--much like Wendy-- between her social science work and her narrative storytelling.
We get wonky, but also personal. Wendy describes how she got interested in the Middle East and how her fascination with Morocco morphed to a passion for researching and studying the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and, of course, the Arab Spring.Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!
Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate SchoolEric Schwartz served as the top refugee policy official in the Obama administration as the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration between 2009 and 2011. He was recently appointed the president of Refugees International, an advocacy organization in Washington, DC. We kick off this conversation discussing US refugee policy in the wake of President Trump's attempts to sharply curb the number or refugees allowed into the United States.
Eric has had a fascinating career. He worked in the NGO sector helping to establish Human Rights Watch's Asia branch; and also for both the United States government-- including in Bill Clinton's national security council -- for the United Nations, under the high commissioner for human rights and under the special envoy for Tsunami recovery to help countries affected by the massive 2004 indian ocean Tsunami. (That special envoy was Bill Clinton.) We also discuss at length about Eric's relationship with Sergio Vieira de Mello. He was a well known figure around the United Nations who served as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees before working for a stint as the top UN official in Iraq immediately following the US invasion and occupation of the country. de Mello was killed in a bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, along with 21 others, and Eric discusses how that impacted him personally and professionally.Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!
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#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate SchoolConflict is escalating in one region of the Democratic Republic of Congo and this conflict has the potential to become one of Africa's next big crises. At issue is a brewing situation in a region of DRC called Kasai. Now, if this is unfamiliar to you, it is with reason. This was not a region heretofore that had experienced much violence or conflict that caught international attention. (Indeed it is the far away eastern part of the country -- and this is a very large country, about the size of western Europe -- that has experienced the bulk of violence in the last several years.) To be honest, Kasai was totally off my radar until earlier this until two UN workers, including an American and Swede went missing there and were later found murdered and mutilated. On the line with me to discuss the situation in the Kasai region is Ida Sawyer, the Central Africa director of Human Rights Watch. She does a very good job of explaining how the conflict started, how it is changing and also the broader political context in which this conflict has erupted. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn why this local conflict could metastasize into something bigger, have a listen Leave a review on iTunes!
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#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate SchoolThe Supreme Court has issued a preliminary decision on Trump’s travel ban–and this decision could have a profound impact on refugees around the world.
The court upheld key portions of the travel ban pending a final ruling by the court in October. This includes a 120 day ban on all refugees coming to the United States from everywhere in the world — though with some exceptions.
On the line with me to talk through the Supreme Court ruling, including its implications for US refugee resettlement policy is Rachel Landry a Policy and Advocacy Officer for Global Protection and Resettlement with the International Rescue Committee, which is one of the largest refugee resettlement agencies in the United States. (Like me, Rachel is also a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow).
Rachel discusses the ways in which this ruling could impact how the United States takes in refugees from around the world. She also discusses the US refugee resettlement process more broadly; that is, how it works, it’s history and background.
I promise that after listening to this conversation you will learn a lot about US refugee policy and why it matters.
Rachel is speaking in her personal capacity as an expert on these issues and is not speaking on behalf of the International Rescue Committee. Leave a review on iTunes!You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate SchoolMy guest today Jeffrey Smith helps topple dictators for a living. His organization, Vanguard Africa, is very new but they already have one success under their belt--the peaceful transition of power from The Gambia's longtime ruler. He now has his sites set on Africa's second longest ruling leader, Paul Biya of Cameroon.
We kick off with a discussion of the situation in Cameroon and have great digressions about the Zimbabwe, some deficiencies of the NGO community in DC and, of course, the Gambia. Jeff discusses how and why he came to focus on issues of democracy and human rights in Africa and how he found inspiration from the hero of an anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Leave a review on iTunes!You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate SchoolPop Quiz: do you know how many people are in the world right now? The answer is 7.6 billion. That data point and much more are contained in a report called "World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision," which was recently published by the UN. The report contains all sorts of facts and figures that are both interesting on its own, but also extremely consequential to understanding the future of our species in a very literal sense. On the line with me to talk through some of the demographic trends of the world's population, is John Wilmoth, Director of the Population Division at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. We discuss the trajectory of the world's population including where the big population centers of the future will be. We also have a fascinating conversation about the relationship between contraception, child survival and population growth and why, from a policy perspective one of the more useful things you can know is the age distribution of a population -- and here, Europe and Africa represent two extremes that we discuss at length. I promise after listening to this interview you will about the world demographics and why it matters. Leave a review on iTunes!
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#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
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#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate SchoolGregory Stone once lived underwater for 30 days. He is an ocean scientist and author who has spent a career studying and advocating on behalf of our oceans. He's now with an executive vice president with Conservation International and is one of the world's leading authorities on ocean health and ocean conservation. We caught up just as a big UN conference on oceans was wrapping up in New York. This was the first-ever UN conference on Oceans and ocean health and we kick off discussing some of his takeways from that meeting. We of course discuss his life and career and where his love for the oceans all began. And we have some great digressions along the way about scuba diving in the antarctic, the first time he saw up close the effect of climate change on coral reefs and why plastic is such a nemesis for our oceans. Leave a review on iTunes!
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate SchoolMarietje Schaake was under 30 years old when she first joined the European Parliament as a representative from the Netherlands in 2009. She candidly discusses the kinds of challenges she faced as a young woman navigating what was then--and still is--mostly and old mens club.
We caught up shortly after a series of consequential elections in Europe, including the victory of Emmanuel Macron in France and the surprising near-defeat of Therese May in the UK. We kick off this conversation discussing the current state of right wing populism in Europe and the effect that Donald Trump is having on European politics. This conversation is a great explainer of how the European Parliament works--we use Martietje's efforts to create some rules of the road for digital trade as an entry point to discuss the procedures, processes and politics of the European Parliament and the EU more broadly. Marietje Schaake is someone I've known for many years. We are both alums of Humanity in Action from our University days and it was great to catch up with her and learn about her work as an MEP. Marietje's website Leave a review on iTunes!You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: How to Get a Job at the United Nations #8: How to Pick the Right International Relations Graduate SchoolHans Binnendijk is a senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic relations and a longtime DC foreign policy insider. He served in top posts in the Clinton administration, including in the National Security Council and he was the founding director of the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at National Defense University.
Hans is a senior foreign policy hand who has collected many affiliations along the way. Hans wrote one of my favorite op-eds of all-time, that made the case for robust State Department funding by comparing the number of people in military marching bands to the number of US foreign service officers. We kick off with a discussion about State Department staffing and then have a longer conversation about his life and career, including his experience as a child immigrant from post-war Netherlands and how he rose through the ranks of the DC foreign policy establishment. It's a good talk with some interesting digressions along the way. Leave a review on iTunes!You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
There is yet another crisis in the middle east. This week, Saudi Arabia and its close allies in the region moved against Qatar, cutting off sea and air travel and moving to isolate their fellow sunni Gulf country.
Like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional group of erstwhile allies that coordinate security policies against Iran and other common threats. But tensions have been brewing for many years between Qatar and other countries on the Arabian Peninsula and these tensions have apparently come to a head in the wake of Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia. Qatar is home to both Al Jazeera and the region's largest US military airbase -- which is currently the strategic nerve center of the US air campaign against ISIS. This fact did not apparently stop President Trump for issuing statements, on Twitter of course, in support of Saudi allegations that Qatar is a nemesis that supports terrorist groups. On the line with me to unpack this situation and explain the roots of these regional rivalries, which has much to do with both the Al Jazeera television station and Qatar's backing of different proxies during the aftermath of Egypt's Arab Spring is Marc Lynch. Marc has been on the show before, most recently to discus his newest book The New Arab Wars, Uprisings and Anarchy in the Middle East. He is a professor at George Washington University and someone I rely on to help me make sense of tangled middle eastern politics. You can--and should follow him on Twitter at @AbuAardvark. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn about why this spat between Qatar and its neighbors is so profoundly consequential to global politics, then have a listen. Leave a review on iTunes!You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement In the wake of this decision, I wanted to get a sense of the consequences of this decision to both the climate change goals embedded in the Paris Agreement and also to the wider diplomacy and geopolitics that surrounds global climate change. I bring you two perspectives on these very timely questions. First, I speak with Paula Caballero of the World Resources Institute who does a good job explaining the kinds of global implications of this decision. Then, I speak with Pete Ogden of the United Nations Foundation and we discuss the linkages between federal and sub-national domestic politics, like the actions of mayors and governors, to this decision. If you have 30 minutes and want a deeper understanding of the implications of the US decision to walk out of the world's most important climate change agreement, have a listen. Leave a review on iTunes!
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
One overlooked aspect of the global conversation on conflict, disaster and humanitarian affairs is internal displacement and the plight of internally displaced people, or IDPs. Like refugees, IDPs have been forced from their home by conflict or disaster. But unlike refugees, they have not crossed an international border and are not afforded the kind of legal protections embedded in widely adopted international treaties like the refugee convention.
But as my guest Alexandra Bilak a explains, the number of IDPs around the world is actually greater than the number of refugees. Alexandra is director of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and we caught up as her organization released its latest flagship annual report on Global Trends in Internal Displacement. We run through the numbers, the key policy challenges and discuss how the international community can do a better job of keeping the priorities of IDPs in the front and center of broader conversations about refugees and migration. Leave a review on iTunes!You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
Sharon Weinberger is the author of the new book The Imagineers of War:The Untold Story of DARPA. DARPA, for the un-initiated, stands for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and it is the branch of the Pentagon that is famous for developing some far-out-there technologies, some of which were total flops but others that have become central to not only modern warfare, but also daily life.
We have a fascinating conversation about the history of technology in modern warfare and the implications of having a military institution conducting research that can have big-society wide consequences. Sharon has been a journalist on my radar for many years since she founded this great national security focused section of Wired magazine called Danger Room. And we discuss Sharon's pathway into journalism and another book called A Nuclear Family Vacation, with co-author Nathan Hodge that offers something of a tourist perspective on nuclear sites around the United States and its territories. Leave a review on iTunes!You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
We are nearly six months into the year and already 9 journalists have been killed in 2017, including 4 in Mexico alone. That figure comes from reporters without borders and is part of a larger data set that my guest Sabine Carey is collecting on the murders of journalists around the world. Sabine is a political scientist at Mannheim University in Germany, and co-author with Anita Gohdes of a new study about the killing of journalists around the world.
Their research finds that the murder of journalists can predict the deterioration of human rights in a country within two years of the murder. Their study is is titled "Canaries in the Coal Mine: What the Killing of Journalists Tell Us About Future repression" and can be found in the academic Journal of Peace Research. And in this conversation Sabine walks me through her research and the broader political and policy implications of her findings. Leave a review on iTunes!You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
Jill Filipovic is author of the new book The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness. She is a Nairobi based journalist, but we caught up while she was on book tour in her hometown of Seattle. Jill is someone I've known both online and in real life for many years. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and regular contributor to the Guardian among many other publications. She is one of the original pioneers of political blogging; her contributions to the blog Feministe helped inspire the growth of a very vibrant feminist blogosphere that exists to this day. We kick off with a discussion about some her global health reporting from Ghana and Niger. Jill and I spoke a few days after the State Department issued some clarifying guidance on how the Trump administration would interpret what is known as the Global Gag Rule; and jill explains what the Global Gag Rule is and how Trump's interpretation of it is a profound deviation from how previous Republican administrations sought to prevent US global health aid from contributing to abortions. We then pivot to a conversation about her life, career, and her book--which is getting rave reviews. You can find a link to the book on Global Dispatches Podcast.com
Leave a review on iTunes!
You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
As I'm typing, the White House is busy doing damage control over revelations that Donald Trump revealed sensitive information to the Russians when he met wth the Russian ambassador and foreign minister the day after he fired the FBI director. But at the same time, the White House is also preparing for Trump's first foreign trip as president. The first stop is Saudi Arabia, followed by Israel and then to Europe, including to Brussels for a NATO summit.
On the line with me to discuss the strategic and political implications of this trip is Dave DesRoches, an associate professor at National Defense University. We discuss the significance of choosing Saudi Arabia as Trump's first foreign destination and what is on the agenda during that visit. On Israel, we discuss the lingering question over the location of the United States embassy and what potential consequences around the world could result from a decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem; and finally we discuss what to expect from the NATO summit. This episode is short but sweet--and a good overview of the key issues on the agenda during Trump's first foreign foray.You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
Dr. James Walsh of MIT is a nuclear security security expert and one of the few Americans who have travelled to both Iran and North Korea for talks on nuclear issues. To this day, Jim meets frequently with North Korean officials to discuss nuclear issues.
I spoke with Jim the day that Moon Jae-In was elected as president of South Korea, potentially setting up a very different dynamic for nuclear diplomacy with North Korea. We kick off with a discussion about this new South Korean leader and how his approach to the North differs from that of his predecessor. We then pivot to a longer conversation about how Jim became involved in nuclear issues and his decades long study of North Korea's nuclear programs. You will learn a whole lot about North Korea and nuclear security issues in this rather lively episode.You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
By now, of course, you are well aware that Emmanuel Macron won a stunning election victory in France, besting by huge margins the far right candidate Marine Le Pen. But if you are like me, you probably did not know too much about Macron -- who he is, where he came from, and how he emerged from the political wilderness to become one of the most intriguing personalities in politics today. On the line with me to discuss the election, give a biographical sketch of Macron and offer insights into the implications of his entrance to the political scene is Christopher Mesnooh a lawyer and media personality in France. I caught up with Christopher from his office in Paris just a few days after the election. If you have 20 minutes and want a deeper understanding of the domestic and international consequences of this election, including on the debate over immigration, the European Union and France's role in the world then have listen.
You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
Lisa Palmer is author of the new book Hot Hungry Planet: The Fight to Stop a Global Food Crisis in the Face of Climate Change. As the title suggests, the book examines the intersection of climate change, population growth and the politics of food all -- of which we discuss in this episode.
Lisa is a journalist who writes for both popular and academic outlets. She's been covering climate change and environmental issues for many years and she discusses how her upbringing in an agrarian community informed her career path.
We discuss how fighting food insecurity requires a very broad based approach that touches on politics, technology, women's empowerment and many, many other issues.
You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: Better Know Vladimir Putin
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)
Millions of people in Yemen are facing a potential famine. The country was already the poorest in the region and for the last several years has been beset by a civil conflict stoked by key regional players. And now, one of the lifelines into the country, the Port of Hoedeida, could be beset by intense fighting. On the line with me to discuss the conflict in Yemen and why despite the availability of food Yemen is still at serious risk of famine is Joost Hiltermann, the Middle East and North Africa Director for the International Crisis Group. We discuss how and why this conflict erupted, the role of key regional players like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran and how the United States is shaping the conflict. This is a useful look into one of the world's worst conflicts that gets the least amount of attention.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained.
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: The Sustainable Development Goals, explained (Coming soon!)
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
#9: Better Know Vladamir Putin (Coming soon!)
The internationally acclaimed and award-winning photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale has a spread in the latest issue of National Geographic magazine from his collection of photos documenting the conflict in the Central African Republic.
His work in CAR is a good demonstration of how Marcus puts his significant talents to work in the service of human rights around the world. We kick off with an extended conversation about the conflict in CAR and how he want about documenting.
Marcus started out his career as a banker in London, but the conflict in the Balkans in the 1990s inspired him to change career paths in a very dramatic way. He describes that transition as well as some of his work in the DRC and Sierra Leone. And I also want to thank Marcus for opening up about the PTSD and the emotional impact of his work to his own well-being.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. (Well, sort of -- it's complicated!)
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: The Sustainable Development Goals, explained (Coming soon!)
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
When I reached Ahmad Shuja in Kabul the country was still reeling from the deadliest single Taliban attack since the start of the insurgency nearly 15 years ago. Some 160 young soldiers--mostly recruits-- were massacred in a brazen assault on a base in the northern part of the country. That attack came after the United States dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat on what was reportedly a network of tunnels used by insurgents Shuja is an Afghan analyst and researcher who previously worked for Human Rights Watch. Now, he is affiliated with the American University of Afghanistan -- though he stresses that he is speaking in his personal capacity. He discusses the implications of this recent Taliban attack, what the US government could be doing differently in Afghanistan, and how and why the government of Afghanistan is struggling to meet some of the basic needs of its people. Ahmad also discusses the deteriorating security environment in Kabul and the effect that is having on daily life.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. (Well, sort of -- it's complicated!)
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: The Sustainable Development Goals, explained (Coming soon!)
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
Laurie Adams is president of the NGO Women for Women International which works with women survivors of war. She has had a long career in the NGO sector and as an activist, including many years with Oxfam in various parts of Africa and the NGO ActionAidInternational.
Laurie also had a career as an activist initially inspired by the anti-apartheid movement and we have a really thoughtful conversation about both the role of activism in international affairs and also just how one becomes a professional activist.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. (Well, sort of -- it's complicated!)
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: The Sustainable Development Goals, explained (Coming soon!)
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
Venezuela is at yet another crisis point. The government of Nicolas Maduro is facing steep opposition from the very people that swept Maduro's predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez to power nearly 20 years ago. But after years of sharp economic decline it appears that the "revolution's" hold on power is a tenuous as ever. On the line to explain what is going on in Venezuela is Francisco Toro, editor of the news website Caracas Chronicles. He discusses how the situation reached this crisis point and why there is such high probability of violence. Francisco has been on the show before: last year he explained how Venezuela's economy so sharply and abruptly began a downward spiral. He discusses that again, but also in the context of a new protest movement. I caught up with Francisco one day before a massive protest was scheduled in Caracas. Things were definitely heating up.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. (Well, sort of -- it's complicated!)
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: The Sustainable Development Goals, explained (Coming soon!)
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
Linda Thomas-Greenfield grew up the oldest of eight children in a small segregated town outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They were poor. Her father was not literate. Despite these circumstances, she became one of America's top diplomats, having just left her post a few weeks ago as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.
Amb Thomas-Greenfield speaks candidly about the kinds of racial animus she faced growing up and in college at Louisiana State University. She tells how she first became interested in Africa and how her career as an Africa specialist evolved, including a formative stint as a diplomat in the small country of the Gambia.
Stay for the discussion of the "Gumbo Diplomacy" she practiced as ambassador to Liberia when Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. (Well, sort of -- it's complicated!)
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea.
#6: The Sustainable Development Goals, explained (Coming soon!)
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
This is about two and a half hours for your listening pleasure. With more on the way. If there's a topic you want me to explore, please send me an email!
Micah Zenko has researched whether or not limited airstrikes -- like the kind Donald Trump ordered on Syria last week -- actually achieve their stated political and military objectives. His book Between Threats and War: US Discrete Military Operations in the Post Cold-War World examined some 36 airstrikes and finds that they very rarely do what they are intended to do. We discuss why that is--and what implications his findings have for further US involvement in Syria. We do a little name dropping in this episode, including Robert Pape who wrote a definitive book on airpower called Bombing to Win. Bob was my guest on Episode number 87 and I'd highly recommend that episode.Micah was last on the podcast about a year and a half ago to discuss his newest book, called "Red Team" which takes a look at the role of the devils advocate in international relations.
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Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. (Well, sort of -- it's complicated!)
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea #6: The Sustainable Development Goals, explained (Coming soon!)
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
This is about two and a half hours for your listening pleasure. With more on the way. If there's a topic you want me to explore, please send me an email!
Xi Jinping is headed to Mar-a-Lago for his first big meeting with Donald Trump.
The US-China relationship is arguably the most consequential bi-lateral relationship in the world so naturally this trip is garnering a lot of attention. But what is actually on the agenda? And how might US-China relations shift in the coming years under President Trump? I put these questions and more to Susan Jakes who is the editor of ChinaFile and Senior Fellow at Asia Society's Center on US-China Relations.
She discusses why the optics of this meeting are so meaningful to both sides, how the domestic politics in China inform a trip like this, and why the irksome and threatening actions of North Korea may become an increasingly important aspect of US-China relations.
If you have twenty minutes and want to learn more about the key elements of the relationship between the US and china and how they may evolve, have a listen.
Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!
Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include:
#1: International Relations Theory, explained.
#2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation
#3: A Brief History of NATO
#4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. (Well, sort of -- it's complicated!)
#5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea (Coming soon!)
#6: The Sustainable Development Goals, explained (Coming soon!)
#7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!)
This is about two and a half hours for your listening pleasure. With more on the way. If there's a topic you want me to explore, please send me an email!
Despite wide attention to the global refugee and migrant crisis, there has been little research of one key group that facilitates the movement of migrants: the smugglers themselves.
In brand new book published by Oxford University Press authors Peter Tinti and Tuesday Reitano offer an in-depth look at the individuals who make the movement of migrants possible. The book Migrant Refugee Smuggler Savior examines the people and places that are profiting from this global phenomenon. And as the title of the book suggests, these people smugglers are not all exploitative human rights violators--rather, they are making a buck (or tens of thousands) by providing a valuable service for people who demand it. Co-author Peter Tinti -- who I'm proud to say is a listener of this very podcast -- is on the line with me to discuss the book. And in this conversation Peter offers some insights into the individual smugglers, how they operate, and what motivates them. And also, how this multi-billion dollar industry is transforming the political economies of several cities along migrant routes. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn more about the shadowy smugglers who are at the center of one of the most consequential global phenomenons of our era, have a listen.--Go Premium! Support the Show! Unlock Bonus Episodes! Earn Rewards! ---
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James Goldgeier is the dean of the school for international service at American University. He's spent a career trying to bridge the gap between academic research and policy makers and he currently runs a program at American University appropriately called Bridging the Gap thats seeks to do just that. Jim is also a Russia expert-- and you might recall that he and I spoke about a month after the election to discuss Russia's key strategic goals during the Trump administration. We kick off this discussion along those same lines, but of course now armed with new information about the extent or Russian interference with the US election.
I wanted to let you all know about another reward and offer available to premium subscribers of the podcast: a 75% discount off life and career coaching sessions with Alanna Shaikh. Alanna is a TED senior fellow, writer and longtime international development professional. She is also a trained career coach. If you think this is something that may benefit you become a premium subscriber to unlock that discount--which reduces the price of an a hour long coaching session from $145 to about $40.
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Over the past several months, North Korea has engaged in a series of provocative nuclear and missile tests. It conducted nuclear tests in January and then September of last year along with several ballistic missile tests. And in 2017 alone there have been no less than 5 missile launches, most recently on March 6, when North Korea launched four missiles which landed off the coast of Japan.
Meanwhile, later in March Secretary of State Tillerson traveled to the region, in his first big foray into the vexing regional diplomacy that so far has failed to stop North Korea from advancing its nuclear weapons programs. And while visiting the region, Tillerson promised to end the Obama-era strategy of strategic patience, but has not yet articulated what kinds of policies would take its place. On the line with me to discuss the North Korea nuclear issue is Kelsey Davenport, who is the director for non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association. She discusses the strategic implications of the specific technologies that North Korea is testing, that is, why Pyongyang is conducting these kinds of tests. She also describes the policy options in the table for the Trump administration as is tries to confront North Korea's nuclear ambitions. And i must say, this conversation was very helpful to me personally and I suspect you'll learn a lot from it as well.---Go Premium! Support the Show! Unlock Bonus Episodes! Earn Rewards! ---
Elizabeth Arsenault is a professor at Georgetown University out with the new book How the Gloves Came Off: Lawyers, Policy Makers, and Norms in the Debate on Torture. The book examines how the Bush administration shattered a widely held consensus against using torture and what that means for the current debate about intelligence gathering, Guantanamo, so-called "black sites" and, crucially, executive power.
These debates, which raged during the Bush administration, came roaring back just days into the Trump administration with word that a draft executive order covering many of these issues was circulating around the White House. We kick off discussing that executive order before having a wider conversation about debates surrounding torture and also what to do with ISIS combatants captured on the battlefield.
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Julie Smith is Senior Fellow and Director of the Strategy and Statecraft Program at the Center for a New American Security. recently left her post as a top national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden. She takes me inside some of the key events, decisions and frustrations from her time in that senior policy making role.
Julie is a NATO and European policy expert who spent much of her formative years working in Europe, and Germany in particular. And we have some interesting digressions about NATO, the Balkans conflict and the relevance of German foreign policy.
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Jeremy Konyndyk recently left his post as the top US global humanitarian relief official. Jeremy lead the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance at USAID during much of Obama's second term and we discuss how the US responded to some key disasters, including the ebola outbreak.
Jeremy's been working in this field since the Balkans crises of the 1990s and I caught up with him just as he returned from a trip to northern Nigeria, which is currently beset by a major humanitarian crisis. We kick off discussing what he saw there before pivoting to discuss some of the major global crises in which his career has intersected.
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You may have seen news reports that the White House wants to substantially increase defense spending, and to offset those increases slash discretionary spending elsewhere. In particular the White House has signaled that foreign aid spending will be sharply reduced.
Foreign aid is one of those issues that is pretty widely mis-understood by the general public; and I think fairly so, because its extremely complicated. I've spent over 10 years covering issues related to foreign aid and frankly I learn new and surprising things about foreign aid all the time. So what do we actually mean when we talk about foreign aid? What are some of the real-world implications of a steep reduction of US foreign assistance? And what are the politics of it all? On the line with me to discuss these questions and more is Joel Charny, who is US director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which is a large international NGO on the front lines of some major crises worldwide. He does a good job of walking me through the big picture questions surrounding foreign aid, but also some of the specific on-the-ground implications of what cuts would mean. He also discusses why this is a uniquely bad time to be cutting back on foreign aid. ---Support the Show! Unlock Bonus Episodes! Earn Rewards! ---I've started to roll out special bonus episodes for premium subscribers. I'm calling these "Background Briefings." Through interviews with experts, we will provide you with the context you need to understand key ideas, debates, dilemmas and institutions shaping foreign policy and world affairs today. Think of these as "explainers." And you, the listener, get to assign me a topic to explore.
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The United Nations did some extremely rare in February: agencies declared that a famine was ongoing in parts of South Sudan. More than 100,000 people are affected by this famine and childhood mortality rates are already surging there.
On the line with me to discuss why this famine declaration was made, what is means on the ground for the people affected by it and the humanitarian agencies trying to contain the damage is Steve Taravella, senior spokesperson for the World Food Program in Washington. And as Steve describes "famine" is actually a technical term -- it does not mean just having no food. Rather it is a threshold that is taken from a number of indicators that taken together mean that people are dying from starvation in extreme numbers.
This famine declaration comes as the UN is also fighting intense food security crises in Yemen, Somalia and parts of Northern Nigeria. And Steve describes how this is really an unprecedented moment for relief organizations like his.
Diplomacy runs in her family. Sheba Crocker and her father Chester Crocker are the first parent-child combination to have both served as assistant secretaries of state. Crocker-the-elder was a noted Africa specialist who served in the Regan administration, and Sheba describes his how influence and the influence of her mother's family, who were Jews who fled eastern Europe to Zimbabwe, had a profound impact on her worldview.
Bathsheba Crocker recently left her post as President Obama's Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. She had served in various posts in the State Department for the entirety of the Obama administration and before that she worked in the office of the United Nations' special envoy for Tsunami Recovery and Relief-- and that "Special Envoy" was none other than Bill Clinton.
Since leaving her post, Sheba admitted says she has more time on her hands these days and you find her on twitter and also writing for foreign policy magazine's Shadow Government vertical. We kick off with a discussion about how the transition to the Trump administration is shaking up the state department.
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Greetings from the World Government Summit in Dubai! This one of those big international conferences (think: World Economic Forum in Davos) that is hosted by the government of the United Arab Emirates. It focuses on ways that governments can better serve their people and operate in the service of sustainable development. There's heavy UN participation (the Secretary General is giving an address.) The heads of the World Bank and IMF are also presenting, among many other national leaders and dignitaries.
The first day of the summit focused on the question of "happiness"-- that is, how can governments measure happiness and design policies that promote happiness? The underlying premise is that happiness is more than a personal pursuit, but actually a public good. This is obviously on the fringes of public policy discourse in the United States and most other countries, but as one panelist, who is the Ecuadorian minister for Buen Vivar, pointed out: the pursuit of happiness was literally written into the founding documents of the United States. These days other countries have taken the mantle of taking a serious look at the intersection of public policy and happiness. In addition to Ecuador, here in the UAE there is a minister for happiness, Slovenia has a similar position as well; and the government of Bhutan an indicator it calls "Gross National Happiness." With me to discuss the intersection of happiness and public policy is economist Andrew Oswald who pioneered this line of study. We discuss how one actually measures and quantifies happiness in a way that's relevant to public policy and also some of the political implications of a happy verses a discontented population. This is cutting edge stuff and I think intellectually very interesting.Crimes against humanity are ongoing in Burma and they are being committed by the state against the Rohingya people. This is a minority community in Burma that has historically faced intense discrimination, but there was some degree of hope that as the country transitioned to a democracy the situation of this community would improve. Alas, we are now nearly a year into the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and the plight of this minority community is as dire as ever.
A number of recent reports have indicated an uptick in violence against the Rohingya -- including what appears to be the systematic use of rape and sexual violence. One of those reports was published by Human Rights Watch on February 6 and on the line with me to discuss the report and the broader situation of the Rohingya in both Burma and across the border in Bangladesh is Brad Adams, the Asia director of human rights watch. This is a fairly under covered story, but one in which I've tried to highlight on this podcast from time to time.Dr. Larry Brilliant starred in a 1960s film that was a total flop. The movie was called Medicine Ball Caravan and it was a sort of documentary that followed Larry and a bunch of other hippies as they followed the touring busses of acts like the Grateful Dead. But despite the commercial failure of this film I would posit that it lead, though somewhat indirectly, to the global eradication of small pox. That's because after the filming ended, Larry kept the hippie caravan going until he reached India, and, while there, joined the World Health Organization's efforts to eliminate small pox from the country. It's a great story. Larry is now an epidemiologist with the Skoll Foundation and we have an absolutely fascinating conversation about his life and career, including how a chance encounter with Martin Luther King in 1962 forever changed his life. Many of these stories are included in his recently published memoir: Sometimes Brilliant:The Impossible Adventure of a Spiritual Seeker and Visionary Physician Who Helped Conquer the World's Worst Disease. We kick off discussing the current threat from global pandemics before pivoting to his extraordinarily unique life story.
By now, you are well aware of President Trump's sweeping ban on migrants from seven Muslim majority countries; the indefinite suspension of refugees from Syria and the suspension of all refugee resettlement into the United States for at least four months. The executive order is, of course, the subject of intense debate and discussion here in the United States, but I wanted to get a sense of how this executive order is playing out in the region so I called up one of my favorite scholars and public intellectuals who studies the politics of the Middle East, Marc Lynch. Marc describes how different countries are reacting to the executive order and the implications it has for both domestic politics in the Middle East and those countries' foreign policies. This is a useful conversation that puts into context the foreign policy and international relations implications of this executive order. If you have 20 minutes and want to understand what this policy means for Middle East, have a listen.
Princeton Lyman was a long serving US Diplomat who has become one of the leading experts on African politics and policy. He most recently served as President Obama's special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan from 2011 to 2013; but before that had an extensive career in the foreign service that included stints as US Ambassador to Nigeria and to South Africa during the negotiations that lead to the end of Apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela. And we do have an extensive conversation about his participation in those historic negotiations.
We spoke the day that news broke that Donald Trump was readying an executive order that would severely curtail refugee resettlement to the US, including from a number of Muslim majority countries. Princeton served as the top US official for refugee issues during the George HW Bush administration so we kick off discussing how those potential restrictions fit into the history of US refugee resettlement policy. We then pivot to a longer conversation about his life and career, including his rather unique first name. It's a good story. A classic one, actually.On his third day on office President Trump signed a memorandum re-instating what is known as the "Global Gag Rule" or sometimes alternatively as the "Mexico City Policy." This is a policy that Republican Presidents enact and Democratic presidents lift when they come to office. Simply put the rule places restrictions on NGOs that receive US government assistance about what they can say about abortion.
As you can imagine, this policy is very much caught up in domestic US politics about abortion, but when Donald Trump signed the order re-instating the rule, his version of it went much, much farther than the George W. Bush administration or any republican administration since the Regan era. On the line with me to discuss the Global Gag Rule, it's history and impact on women's lives is Seema Jalan, the Executive Director of the Universal Access Project and Policy, Women and Population, at the United Nations Foundation. She does an excellent job of explaining the policy why the Donald Trump version of it is a big departure from previous republican administrations and in fact may affect every aspect of US global health assistance around the world.In many ways Ambassador Khalilzad was the ideal person with whom to speak at the dawn of the next republican administration. He served in senior positions in the Bush white house, including as ambassador to his native Afghanistan and Iraq and was also someone on the shortlist for Secretary of State as Donald Trump assembled his cabinet. We kick off discussing what to expect from Trump's foreign policy and how the new president will approach some of the myriad of challenges around the world before pivoting to discuss his own fascinating personal story that took him from poverty in Afghanistan to the heights of power in Washington DC--stories I should note that are included in his recently published memoir: Then Envoy: From Kabul to the White House: My Journey through a Turbulent World" To set the scene for you a little bit, this event was taped in the event room of 1871, a tech co-working space. There were about 200 people in the crowd, most of whom were members of IVY: The Social University which organized the event. This episode is presented in partnership with IVY: The Social University. Through a robust curriculum spanning policy, entrepreneurship, social impact, and the arts — IVY members enjoy access to a lifetime of new experiences, friendships, and ideas. Whether it’s in-person talks with world-class leaders including Ambassador Cameron Munter, GE Chairman Jack Welch, and Pulitzer Prize Winner Nicholas Kristof; cultural expeditions to Cuba and Iceland; or tickets to the Opera or Ballet — IVY provides its members a lifetime of learning. Over the past three years, the IVY community has grown to 20,000 inspiring members in seven cities across the nation including New York, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Miami. Register on IVY.com to begin the application process (2 minutes, no commitment) — and you’ll receive a $100 event credit if you join IVY and mention GlobalDispatches in the referral section when registering.
The Two State Solution--the idea that a sovereign, secure and independent Palestine can co-exist with a sovereign secure and independent jewish state of Israel is arguably as far from being realized now than at anytime in the past twenty five years. With the election of Donald Trump, the unrelenting expansion of Israeli settlements and political incertitude in Palestine it appears we soon may be signing the requiem for the two state solution.
But what comes next? Are we living in the post-two state solution era? What does this mean for Palestinian rights? For Israeli security? For Israeli and Palestinian foreign policy? I put these questions and more to Michael Omer-Man, the editor in chief of the excellent 972 magazine. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn what the future holds for Israel and Palestine, have a listen.Karen Greenberg has spent the last 15 years studying the intersection of national security, terrorism and civil liberties. She's currently the director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School. She's authored several books on the subject including most recently Rogue Justice: the Making of the Security State. In 2009 she wrote the critically acclaimed Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days. We kick off discussing why was it that President Obama, having come to office eight years ago promising to shut down the Guantanamo prison, failed to do so. Karen is someone who has been on my radar since the early Bush years and the debate over the Patriot Act, but I was fascinated and interested to learn how her career in foreign policy and national security was really launched while working with dissidents from Eastern Europe during the Soviet era. It's a great conversation. Animated for sure. And I think you'll like it. Quick announcement before we start: if you are listening to this contemporaneously and are in Chicagoland come to a live recording of the podcast with special guest former US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad on January 19. Send me an email via the contact page on GlobalDispatchespodcast.com and I can get you a complimentary ticket!
This is a special episode of the podcast sponsored by the Master of Arts in Social Innovation program at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego. This is a brand new program that seeks original thinkers who are looking to make a lasting impact in the world to join the inaugural class. On the line with me to discuss the program, including the curriculum, the faculty and the kind of experience and education students can expect is the dean of the Kroc school, Patricia Marquez. Applications are due March 15. Learn more!
Turkey is in crisis. A number of terrorist attacks in recent weeks has rattled Turkish society, there is a persistent and ongoing crackdown on civil society, and President Erdogan is engineering constitutional changes to further consolidate power.
On the line with me to discuss recent events in Turkey and offer some deeper context into the political situation and the future of US-Turkey relations is Elmira Bayrasli. She is an author and the co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted which seeks to amplify the voices of women in foreign policy debates and she was also my guest in episode 81. I learned a great deal from this conversation and suspect you will as well. Before we begin an announcement: On Thursday January 19th at 7pm I will be hosting a live taping of the podcast at the University of Chicago with former UN ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. If you are in Chicago and want to attend in person please send me an email via the contact page on GlobalDIspatchesPodcast.com. This is a ticketed event and the organizers have reserved tickets for my most loyal listeners so if you are interested, send me an email and I'll send you the registration info.Maria Stephan is a pioneering academic and public intellectual who studies authoritarian regimes and how they fall. She's the co-author with Erica Chenoweth of the groundbreaking and award winning book Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict which was a first-of-its kind study that offered empirical evidence that non-violent resistance is more effective than conflict and civil war in toppling oppressive regimes. She recently lead a study with the Atlantic Council showing that authoritarianism is on the rise globally and we kick off with an extended conversation about that study and how the recent US election fits into her overall thesis.
Maria grew up in rural Vermont and we have a great conversation about the roots of her intellectual curiosity and how that took her to study and compare resistance movements around the world, including East Timor and Palestine.On the line with me to preview the big stories, ideas, trends and crises and provocations that will set the agenda at the United Nations and beyond is Richard Gowen. He's a fellow with the European Council on Foreign Affairs and a regular guest of this very podcast. We have a lively conversation about Trump's relationship with the UN, the new incoming secretary general and more. We recorded this conversation in late December, before the big vote on Israel settlements into which the president elect weighed on twitter. So that vote does not factor into this conversation, but I would say that the big implication of that vote is that it's likely makes the UN more vulnerable to moves by the incoming congress to restrict or undermine US support for the UN, including the possible withholding of funding. If you want to read my full thoughts on that, check out UN Dispatch. For now though, here is Richard Gowen and I chatting about the big stories at the UN and around the world in 2017
Russia has successfully influenced the election here in the United States in its favor. It's side is winning the war in Syria. Crimea looks like it will remain in Russia for the foreseeable future and the NATO alliance may become weakened when Donald Trump takes office.
This is pretty much springtime for Putin in Moscow. But what are Russia's grander ambitions? Why did they hack the US election? What do they want from the Middle East? From Europe and China? I put these questions and more to James Goldgeier, a Russia expert and the Dean of the School of International Studies at American University. James describes some of Putin's near term and longer term strategic goals and how a less contentious relationship with the USA--one not based on values, but on individual transactions -- may reshape Russian foreign policy and international affairs more broadly.
Amy Costello is a veteran reporter who now hosts the excellent Tiny Spark podcast that investigates what goes right and what goes wrong in philanthropy, including global philanthropy and the NGO sector. At the very end of our conversation Amy reveals she started this podcast in part as a response to a story she reported that was wildly popular, but she later learned rested on a false premise.
Amy was one of the first television reporters in Darfur during the midst of the genocide, a work for which she was Emmy nominated. She describes the kinds of scenes she saw and how that reporting project left a lasting impression upon her.We kick off in this holiday season discussing philanthropy and how individuals, perhaps you out there listening right now, can be an effective altruist by maximizing the impact of your charitable giving.President Elect Donald Trump has assembled a team of generals to fill key posts in his national security team. Former Army General Mike Flynn is his National Security Advisor, Marine General John Kelly has been tapped to serve as homeland security chief and of course recently retired marine general ames Mattis has been nominated as Secretary of Defense. Top military brass have served in civilian roles But never before have so many generals been tapped to serve at once and in top positions in the government. And this is out of the ordinary precisely because the American political system has historically shunned it for reasons that my guest Alice Hunt Friend describes. Alice Friend studies civil military relations--she's currently writing her PhD thesis on the topic. She's a former official in the Pentagon and is currently both a Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies Adjunct Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security. She offers what I find to be a very nuanced take on the kind of challenge or even threat to the American democratic system that is posed when the military takes on a greater role in civilian political life. She also discusses the kinds of policy implications that result from when generals are put in charge of civilian institutions.
Cameron Munter was the US Ambassador to Pakistan when US Special forces conducted the midnight raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. He watched the raid live and hours later was dealing with the diplomatic fallout. Munter had a career in both academia and the diplomatic corps, serving in a wide variety of posts. He's now the president of the East West Institute. And this is arguably the first podcast ever in the history of the universe in which both Otto Von Bismark and Lou Reed are each discussed.
We kick off with a brief discussion of the ways that Chinese domestic politics influence its foreign policy and what the future holds for US-Chinese relationship in the Trump era. And then of course, as we always do, we pivot to a longer conversation about his life and career with some fun digressions along the way.
There are some frightening warning signs that a genocide may erupt in South Sudan. The country has been at war with itself for the better of three years, ever since a political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his Vice Preisident Riek Machar turned into an armed conflict between those two men. The conflict took on ugly sectarian dimensions--these men hail from different ethnic groups--and peace has been elusive. In recent weeks, however, it seems that the government of Salva Kiir is readying itself to commit ethnic-based mass atrocities for reasons that my guest Cameron Hudson explains. Cameron is the director of the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. He's also a former CIA officer with extensive background in the region. And in this episode, he explains what conditions are ripe for genocide in South Sudan are ripe.
Mark Tokola is the vice president of the Korea Economic Institute of America. He's a long serving American diplomat with postings around the world and we discuss a few of them in this episode, including his first posting to Turkey where his main job was helping Americans sent to prison on drug trafficking charges. He also compares his work in the Balkans in the 1990s to Iraq after the fall of Saddam and I think makes an important point about the value of multilateralism to American interests.
We spoke a day after the Security Council passed new a sanctions resolution on North Korea following a nuclear test in September and we kick off discussing the implications of those sanctions before pivoting to a longer conversation about his globe-spanning career. Mark's last posting was to South Korea and we end with some discussion about the political upheaval underway there and whether or not my man Ban Ki Moon may run for president next year. Mark is an alumnus of the Salzburg Global Seminar which is a podcast sponsor this month and at the top of the episode we also reference a seminar about North Korean human rights in which he participatedDonald Trump's foreign policy and national security team is still taking shape. He has appointed Nikki Haley as his UN ambassador and Mike Flynn as his National Security Advisor. But at the time of recording, he has not picked a Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense. So how are you best able to interpret and understand the implications of those selections to American foreign policy? Thankfully, there is some is some emerging political science that speaks to the role of advisors in shaping national security policy, and on the line with me to discuss this research is Professor Elizabeth Saunders of George Washington University. Saunders has conducted a number of studies that speak to the circumstances in which cabinet picks and top advisors can shape public opinion and decision making on key foreign policy issues. We discuss her research and its implications for the Trump transition in this episode. And after you listen to this episode, you should have a fairly decent grounding in how to interpret the significance of these picks, no matter who the end up being.
--- Support the podcast and join our premium subscribers club! ---> https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches President elect Donald Trump will nominate Nikki Haley to be his Ambassador to the United Nations. She is a rising star in Republican politics and currently serves as the governor of South Carolina. She was sharp critic of Trump during the primaries, yet he has picked her to represent him at the United Nations. On the line with me to discuss Nikki Haley, her political background, her personal story, and her place in South Carolina and national politics is Andy Shane the Colombia bureau chief of the Post and Courier newspaper in South Carolina. We have an in-depth conversation about the woman who will next lead the United States Mission to the UN and we discuss how some experiences she had as governor may suggest how she takes on her next role. Trump's cabinet is still taking shape and it's notable that he would pick his UN Ambassador position before his Secretary of State, but I think we have come to expect the unexpected from this president elect. One other political wrinkle that we did not discuss, but is on the minds of people who follow national politics is that there may be a senate seat in South Carolina opening up in 2019, and if so, political watchers speculate that she may vie for that position. So the thinking goes, this could be a good platform for which to run for president in 2024. Now this is a long way off, but it's what the chattering class is chattering about.
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Tali Nates has a personal connection to Schindler's List. On it was the name of her father and uncle, whom Oskar Schindler saved from a Nazi extermination camp.
She is now the director of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Center in South Africa and we have a fascinating conversation about how the lessons of the Holocaust are applied and learned in post-Apartheid South Africa. Tali was born in Israel and moved to South Africa before the end of Apartheid. She candidly describes the moral compunction she experienced during that era and how teaching Holocaust history to white south africans became a method of resistance. This episode is part of a series that is being created in partnership with the Salzburg Global Seminar, which is a forum and meeting space that brings together a cross section of global leaders to take on some of the big global challenges of the day. We kick off discussing her participation on one of the Salzburg sessions before turning to her own family history and contemporary work.--- Support the podcast and join our premium subscribers club! ---
As Americans headed to the polls on election day, diplomats from around the world headed to Marrakech, Morocco for the first big global climate summit since the Paris Agreement last year. This was to be an important inflection point in the global effort to combat climate change. Just a week earlier the Paris Agreement officially entered into force after the requisite number of countries ratified it and this meeting in Marrakech would to fill in some key details and add some technical guidance to enable the implementation of the agreement.
And then, Donald Trump was elected. During the campaign he pledged to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and defund UN programs to combat climate change. So I was interested to learn the implications of the election on the ongoing negotiations in Morocco and this episode is in two parts. First, I speak with Eliot Diringer of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, who I caught up the day after the election just as he was headed to Morocco. Eliot discusses the ways domestic politics here in the USA may affect climate negotiations and also recounts the history of American leadership (or lack thereof) in international climate diplomacy. Next, I speak with Hugh Sealy, a diplomat from Grenada who is a lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, known as AOSIS in UN speak. I caught up with Hugh in Marrakech about a week after the election, and as you'll see he does not report that much has changed. He does though, also discuss the importance of American leadership and also offers some interesting insights into the role that small countries like his can play in these big negotiations. If you have not already done so, please check out the Patreon page I have created which is a way for you to support the show and also, if you are interested, take a deeper role in its production. Listeners who make a recurring monthly contribution through this platform can receive rewards for your support. So, for being a Global Dispatches premium subscriber you get a complimentary subscription to my DAWNS Digest global news clips service, sneak previews of upcoming episodes and the opportunity to have your questions posed to my guests, and also, if enough of you join the premium club I will launch a new podcast series, shaped by you, exclusively for. And stickers! Check it out.--- Support the podcast and join our premium subscribers club! ---
Maina Kiai has some profound insights into how governments abrogate the rights of people to freely assemble. He is a Kenyan human rights lawyer and activist who currently serves as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. His career was born in opposition to an oppressive government in Kenya and he discusses the kinds of tactics and strategies he used to advance human rights under an authoritarian government.He also recounts his role in helping to mediate during the disputed 2007 Kenya elections, which turned very violent and resulted in his life being in danger.
We kick off discussing the impact of a Trump presidency on human and civic rights around the world and in the United States.
This is a great conversation, which I did leave feeling inspired. --- I started a Patreon page! This is sort of like a KickStarter for internet content creators. If you make a recurring monthly contribution to the podcast I'll give you a complimentary subscription to my DAWNS Digest global news clips service; the chance to hear about upcoming shows and have your questions posed to my guests; access to a community forum; and if enough of you sign up, I will create a for-your-ears only podcast episode. Learn more: https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches--- Click here to go to the Patreon Page to earn rewards and support the show! ---
I'll get straight to the point. These are uncertain times. They are confusing times. We are entering the Trump era of American foreign policy. What does that mean for the world? For the ideals we care about? For the entire liberal international world order? I don't know. But I am going to make a pledge to you right now: I will dedicate this podcast to exploring and explaining the implications of President Trump to foreign policy, international relations and global affairs. These are uncharted waters into which we are all about to set sail. And in times like this community is more important than ever. I am going to open up Global Dispatches and offer you a chance to share your experiences, anxieties, hopes and ideas for what the future will hold. I'll give you expanded opportunities to interact with my guests, with me, and with each other. But I need help to make this work so here's my pitch: I need to spend more time putting together great shows, building community, and less time hustling to cover costs. That's where you come in. I've created this page to give you an easy way to support the podcast and earn awesome rewards in the process. Together, we can build this into a powerful community and keep the podcast going strong in these uncertain times. Patreon is a platform used by many podcasters and "content creators." It is a way for you, dear listener, to become a Patron of the show. Several listeners suggested I create one, so here goes.
The RewardsContributors at the $10/month level or above will receive: 1) A complimentary subscription to my DAWNS Digest global news clips service. Every morning you will receive in your inbox an easy-to-skim summary of the most interesting and relevant news and opinion from around the world. It's a news clips service that major global NGOs, think tanks and government agencies wake up to in the morning. And it can be yours! 2) Sneak previews of upcoming episodes and the chance to pose questions to my guests. I'll let you know ahead of time about the topics I'm covering and individuals I'm interviewing. If you have a specific question you'd like me to ask, I'll work it into my interview. 3) Bonus episodes! If 100 of you to become sustaining members of the podcast, I'll create a regular series for your-ears-only. It will be a looser kind of show than Global Dispatches and focus on the consequence of Trumpism inside the UN and global institutions more broadly. It will also cover the big events, ideas, politics and other happenings around the UN that may be off the radar. It should appeal to a general global affairs audience and UN-insiders alike. This is a special bonus for sustaining members, so we can tailor this special programming to your requests. 4) Access to a community platform. This will be a space where we can have discussions about world events, about our lives and careers, or reflect on previous episodes. It can serve as a safe, private outlet where you can share whatever is on your mind with your fellow listeners. 5) Swag! I'll mail you a sticker. Who doesn't love stickers? As more and more people sign up, the swag will get awesomer. (Tote Bags! Mugs! Flashdrives!)
-----Why this? Why now? I've been writing on the Internets for 13 years -- as a blogger, twitter person and beyond. In all my projects over the years, I've never felt a deeper connection with my audience than through this podcast. There is an intimacy to this medium. I really cherish that. And based on the feedback I receive everyday, you do too. If the podcast is part of your daily routine, become a patron. It cannot keep going without your support. Together we can turn this challenging election outcome into something positive--into an opportunity to learn and grow. Lots of Love, Mark PS If you have any questions or concerns, contact me.
Donald Trump will become president and commander-in-chief in January. I am pledging to you right now that I will dedicate myself and dedicate this podcast to helping you make sense of foreign policy and world affairs in the era of Trump.
To that end, I caught up with Heather Hurlburt of the New America Foundation. Heather and I have a pretty wide ranging discussion about the implications of a Trump presidency for American alliances, for Syria, for the Iran nuclear deal and for the lives of some of the most vulnerable people on the planet. We kick off discussing the kinds of personnel choices that President Elect Trump must take in the coming weeks which will be a very early sign of what kind of foreign policy president he will be.How the international community saves lives in conflict prone countries or insecure places is becoming increasingly relevant and important to global affairs. On the line to walk me through the nuts and bolts of one of these relief operations is Laurent Bukera, who runs the World Food Program's operations in Somalia.
We have a pretty fascinating conversation about how a humanitarian agency like the World Food Program operates in profoundly difficult environments beset by insecurity and terrorism.
Laurent walks me through some of WFP's operations in Somalia--that is how they deliver aid and some of the challenges of working in that country. And these challenges includes not only threats from terror groups like Al Shebaab, but more broadly extremely low levels of infrastructure development. To deal with some of these obstacles the WFP is rolling out some new technological innovations, which we discuss toward the end of this episode.Here we are days from the US election, so I thought to myself let's have a US focused episode that explains US culture and American politics and why Trump is facing such an uphill battle by talking about....hot sauce.
Now, it's been widely reported--and I'm being completely serious here--that this is Hillary Clinton's favorite condiment. And full disclosure: I too love everything spicy. But it is also true that more Americans like spicy food than at any time in the history of this country. On the line with me to discuss the political and cultural implications of Americans' growing appetite for spicy cuisine is Denver Nicks, author of the new book: Hot Sauce Nation: America's Burning Obsession. We discuss how spicy peppers became integrated into the mainstream of the American cuisine largely through public policy decisions that be traced to a profoundly important date in 20th century American history. The results on election day may be one more indication that spicy peppers and American elections are far more intertwined than we may think.Brian Katulis is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress where his work focuses on US National Security and Foreign Policy.
He's had a long career working and living in several middle eastern countries at key junctures in their history, including Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Egypt and we discuss many of these experiences in this conversation. We kick off discussing a new report he helped write about some of the key challenges facing the next administration as it navigates an ever evolving political and security landscape in the Middle East.Mosul is Iraq's second largest city, and in 2014 ISIS militants took the city as Iraqi army units fled. Now, a large scale military operation backed by the United States is underway to regain control of the city, which is situated in Northern Iraq.
The fight to re-take Mosul may have profound domestic and regional political implications says my guest today Kirk Sowell, publisher of the Inside Iraqi Politics newsletter, He argues in a recent piece published by the Carnegie Endowment that the operation to retake mosul is part of a broader power struggle between Turkey and Iraq. The conversation you are about to hear explains the political and diplomatic context in which this battle is taking place. If you believe, as Clausewitz said, that "war is the continuation of politics by other means" than it behooves all of us to understanding better the kind of regional, sectarian and even parliamentary politics at play in the battle for Mosul.Late in the evening on October 20th news broke that South Africa is moving to withdraw from the International Criminal Court.
The ICC is the first permanent international court to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity and back in 2002 when it came to life, South Africa was a founding member.
In recent years the court has come under criticism by some African governments for holding a perceived bias against Africa, but until now no major country has withdrawn from the court after joining it. There is a fear that South Africa's withdrawal will spark an cascade of countries doing the same thing. If South Africa's withdrawal leads to a mass exodus, the ICC's jurisdiction around the world could be significantly shrunk. Maybe even fatally. On the line with me to discuss these questions and more is David Bosco, associate professor of international studies at Indiana University's School of Global and International Studies. He is also author of the book Rough Justice: The International Criminal Court in a World of Power Politics and someone I have looked to over the years to help me understand the ICC's role in international relations.Sarah Chayes was a reporter for NPR working in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. Then, in early 2002 she decided to give up her career in journalism to help rebuild the country. She joined the NGO world, eventually founding an Afghan based NGO. And during this time, while living in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, she became an advisor to the top US generals in Afghanistan.
These experiences in Afghanistan informed her prize winning book, Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, which as the name suggests examines the corrosive effect of corruption in post conflict countries and beyond. We kick off talking about the problem of corruption before discussing Sarah's fascinating life and career.Last week the UN General Assembly Officially elected Antonio Guterres as the next UN Secretary General. Guterres is a well known figure around the UN and in global politics more broadly. From 2005 to 2015 he served as the UN High Commissioner for refugees and before that he served as Prime Minister of Portugal.
His term begins on January 1st and I thought it would be useful and interesting to learn more about Guterres from two distinct perspectives. This episode is in two parts. First, I speak with the Portuguese political commentator Pedro adao e Silva who discusses Guterres' political career in Portugal and more broadly the political context in which Guterres emerged as a national leader and political figure. We discuss some of the key moments of his term as Prime Minister and how his background and experience in the Portuguese revolution against a authoritarian regime may shape his performance as Secretary General. Next, I speak with Michel Gabaudan, who is the president of the advocacy organization Refugees International. Gabaudan was a senior official at the UN Refugee Agency for many years and served in top positions while Guterres was in charge of it. He offers some perspective on Guterres' leadership style of a complex UN agency and shares some insights into his skill sets and how he interacts with powerful member states like the USA. I was so glad to get both perspectives. Guterres is someone who I've followed closely as the UN Refugee Chief. I've seen him speak on numerous occasions, and both Pedro and Michel do a good job helping me understand how someone who has been so outspoken, in the words of Michel "speaks truth to power" could still win the favor of the world's most powerful country.At the United Nations last month there was a major meeting at the sidelines of the General Assembly about an issue called anti-microbial resistance. This meeting did not make much news outside the UN bubble, but it was arguably the single most meaningful thing to happen at the United Nations in months. Anti-microbial resistance is one of the worst global health crises in the world that gets the least amount of attention. The short story is that the antibiotics we use to treat common infections are becoming less and less effective. There are many reasons for this, including the overuse of antibiotics in livestock and the over-prescription of these drugs for humans. The implications of ever-increasing anti-biotic resistance is exceedingly profound for both the health and wealth of our entire planet. The foundation of modern medicine is in peril. On the line with me to discuss the problem of antibiotic resistance, its origins, and what the international community is doing to confront it is Elizabeth Tayler. She is with the World Health Organization and is one of the few people on the planet working day in and out to reverse this trend. Tayler does an excellent job of describing the root causes of anti-microbial resistance, its implications for modern medicine and what the global plan is to confront it.
The 52 year civil war in Colombia between the government and the Marxist rebel group the FARC is the longest running conflict in the Western Hemisphere. But after years of painstaking negotiations, the conflict looked as if it is finally coming to an end. There is ceasefire, and a peace deal was signed in September between FARC's leader and the president of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos. The government promised to put the peace deal to a final vote among the people of Colombia in a popular referendum, and low and behold, when the vote was taken in early October voters rejected the deal. On the line with me to discuss the referendum results, the peace deal, and the implications of this failure to formally end this civil war is James Bargent, a freelance journalist based in Colombia. I caught up with James while he was in Medellin just days after the vote and he does an excellent job of describing the political climate that lead to this result, and games out scenarios for what happens next in this now quite tenuous peace process. A resumption of conflict is not out of the realm of possibility.
Scott Shane is a veteran reporter with the New York Times.His latest book is titled Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President and the Rise of the Drone. It tells the story of Anwar al-Awlaki and President Obama's decision to kill him.
al-Awlaki was an American born man of Yemeni descent. He was a charismatic preacher who later moved to Yemen and joined an al Qaeda affiliate. In 2011 he was killed by a US drone strike, making him the fist American since the civil war to be deliberately assassinated by his own government.
Scott Shane's book is a masterpiece that won the 2016 Lionel Gerber prize for best international affairs book. It's now out in paper back. And unlike most episodes where we spend the first 10 or fifteen minutes speaking about an author's new book before exploring their own life story, Scott and I spend the bulk of our conversation telling the remarkable and gripping story of al-Awlaki before talking about Scott's own career.When a building is bombed, a group of volunteers known as the White Helmets rush to the scene to dig through rubble to find survivors. In a conflict known for its never-ending descent into depravity, this one group stands apart as true servants of humanity. On the line to discuss their work is Orlando von Einsiedel, who directed the new Netflix documentary "The White Helmets." The film follows members of the Aleppo contingent of the Syrian Civil Defense Corps as they go on rescue and training missions. The White Helmets are unarmed and apolitical. But as Russia and Syrian forces have intensified the battle for eastern Aleppo, the White Helmets have increasingly been a target themselves. In the last week alone, four of their bases in Aleppo have been targeted and they are often the victims of a bombing strategy known as "double tap" in which a second bomb is unleashed on a civilian target just as rescue workers are arriving on the scene. In this conversation, director Orlando von Einsiedel -- whose credits include the documentaries Virunga and Skateistan -- describes the work of the White Helmets and his decision to make them the subject of his newest film.
I was in New York for the UN General Assembly and so was Under Secretary of State for civilian security, democracy and human rights Sarah Sewall. We taped this episode in front of a live audience organized by New York chapter of the group Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, YPFP.
Sarah Sewall kicks off telling some behind the scenes stories from her week at the UN and describing what it's like being a top US diplomat during the busiest week on the diplomatic calendar. We then discuss some of the substantive issues she is working on relating to countering violent extreemism and terrorism through diplomacy and development. She also recounts her ground breaking career path that lead her from her home in Maine to the highest reaches of foreign policy making. And finally, we take some questions from the audience. This was taped live at the SLC Conference Center in mid-town Manhattan.-----SUPPORT THE SHOW-----
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The UN General Assembly kicks into high gear this week as world leaders flock to New York for the annual UN summit. There are many story lines for international affairs nerds to follow, and on the line with me to break them all down is Richard Gowen, a fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations. Richard and I offer a preview of the big stories, high drama, and possible moments of intrigue that are sure to be present at one of the most important weeks ever year for global affairs. Before we kick off, I have a special announcement--actually an invitation. I will be holding a live taping of Global Dispatches with Under Secretary of State Sarah Sewall and you are cordially invited to attend. She is the highest ranking State Department official dealing with human rights, terrorism, refugees, and other issues related to civilian security, rights, and democracy, and it should be a fantastic conversation that will include some audience participation. The event is organized in conjunction with the group Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, is being held in New York on Wednesday, September 21st at 7pm at the SLC Conference center 15 W 39the st (near Bryant Park.) So, for those of you in the New York area, please come by. If you are planning to attend, you can RSVP here. http://www.ypfp.org/globaldispatches
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World leaders gather at the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York next week. There will be much political drama and diplomatic storylines that I'll discuss in a later episode. But behind all the politics and drama are issues of substance -- and arguably the most important substantive issues on the table relate to the global refugee crisis.
There will be two high profile summits at the UN related to refugees. The first is organized by the United Nations itself, called the "Summit for Refugees and Migrants." The second is being organized by President Obama and is the "Leaders Summit on Refugees." Taken together, these two high level meetings at the UN have the potential to provide an important inflection point in the international community's attempt to address the largest global displacement crisis since World War Two. On the line to help me to help put these two summits in a broader context of how countries confront a growing refugee crisis and an ever increasing number of migrants around the world is Shannon Scribner, a humanitarian policy adviser for Oxfam. Shannon describes what these two distinct summits hope to accomplish, some of their benefits and weak points, and explains the exceedingly complex challenge of crafting a global strategy to confront this global problem.-----SUPPORT THE SHOW-----
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The crisis in Yemen is getting worse by the day. Hospitals are being bombed, seemingly at a routine frequency; some 10,000 people have been killed; and extremist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and ISIS have gained a foothold in parts of the country.
Yemen is the region's poorest country. And, since the Arab Spring, it's also been one of the most unstable countries in the Gulf. In March 2015, a rebel group known as the Houthis consolidated control over the capitol city Sana'a and moved against the internationally recognized government of President Hadi. That brought in Saudi Arabia, which lead a US-backed military intervention in support of the beleaguered president. Meanwhile, UN backed mediation efforts proceeded haltingly and as of now there is really no end in sight to this conflict. On the line with me to discuss the current situation in Yemen, the roots of the conflict, and potential opportunities to advance a peace process is Adam Baron, a visiting fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations. Adam goes pretty deep into the historic roots of instability in Yemen, which he traces to the early 1990s. If you have 20 minutes and want to understand how the crisis in Yemen was able to devolve into the catastrophe it is today, have a listen.-----SUPPORT THE SHOW-----
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Over the course of the last six weeks or so, I've received a series of increasingly urgent sounding press releases from various humanitarian organizations operating in the far northeastern region of Nigeria, called Borno state. In July, I received this from MSF saying (in all caps) "NIGERIA: CATASTROPHIC MALNUTRITION IN BORNO STATE...A major humanitarian operation is needed to save lives in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state, where more than 500,000 people are living in catastrophic conditions"Also in July, I received an email from UNICEF saying, "An estimated quarter of a million children in Borno state, North-East Nigeria, face severe malnourishment and risk death"
And from Mercy Corps, in August: "An estimated 7 million people are in need of lifesaving aid in the worst affected areas in the northeast; of those, an estimated 2.5 million people are malnourished and lack access to food and safe drinking water."
This leads me to conclude that the situation in Northeaster Nigeria and the broader Lake Chad basin is arguably the worst crisis in the world that receives the least amount of attention.
This crisis has been festering for several years as the Boko Haram insurgency gripped the region. But over the past year, Boko Haram has been on the retreat and much of Borno state and the surrounding region has been liberated from Boko Haram. So why now is this crisis seemingly coming to light.? On the line with me with answer that very question, offer a grounds-eye perspective on this humanitarian crisis, and describe what can be done to mitigate it is Adrian Ouvry, a humanitarian advisor with Mercy Corps. He recently returned from Borno state and discusses why the levels of malnutrition currently experienced in this region may just be the tip of the iceberg.-----SUPPORT THE SHOW-----
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I need your help. I need you to support the show. If you can afford it, then please click the link below and make a contribution. I--literally--can do this without you. Or, to put this another way, I can't keep this podcast going without diversifying my funding streams. We get some ads, but not enough to keep the lights on. Help us keep the lights on, and the quality of content high.
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Mark
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The new bombastic and brash president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte is undertaking a war on drugs like no other country on earth. In the last few months, hundreds of alleged drug offenders have been killed on the streets, many by vigilante groups empowered by the government. Meanwhile, Duterte has released a list of hundreds of public officials that he claims are involved in the drugs trade.
It's a human rights disaster unfolding in real time and another indication that Duterte is a singularly unique--and some may say threatening -- individual in global affairs. My guest today Dr. Tom Smith of the University of Portsmouth at the Royal Airforce College Cranwel describes how Duterte, a long serving mayor of the city of Davao unexpectedly emerged as president of the Philippines in elections this year, and how he is applying harsh anti-crime tactics honed at the municipal level on a national scale. This is a war on drugs like no other on earth.-----SUPPORT THE SHOW-----
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Greg Stanton has spent a career researching and fighting genocide. He speaks candidly about the psychological toll of this line of work and managing the PTSD which he confronts to this day.
Stanton is a descendent of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and as you'll learn from this conversation, the human rights gene runs strong in this family. His father was a liberal preacher and civil rights activist, and Greg tells me the most dangerous place he's ever worked, to this day, was registering black voters in Mississippi in the 1960s. Greg is the founder of the NGO Genocide watch. His career as a genocide scholar and activist began in the 1980s as an humanitarian worker in Cambodia, and he recounts collecting evidence of war crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge. Greg served for many years in the State Department as well, including in Rwanda to help establish the war crimes tribunal following the 1994 genocide. We kick off discussing an ongoing genocide against the Yazidi people in Iraq and Syria. The subject matter of this episode is pretty heavy and i just want to thank Greg for being so open and honest about the emotional challenges he's faced throughout his career. As regular listeners know, we sometimes have some ads before the start of a show. Those ads are helpful, but they are inconsistent and I need consistency to be able to produce this show every week. To that end, I've put up a link on Global Dispatches podcast.com where you can make a financial contribution to the podcast; and for anyone who makes a recurring monthly contribution to the podcast I can mail a book, at random, from my personal collection of foreign policy books. If you are listening to this on iTunes you can go to that donation page right now by clicking here. THANK YOU!There is a catastrophe underway in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The city has been at the center of fighting since the civil war broke out in 2011, but in recent weeks the battle for Aleppo has become much more intense. And caught in the middle are 2 million people. Food is scarce. Hospitals have been bombed. Humanitarian aid has not been able to reach the city. And earlier this week, the UN warned that water supply has been cut off for about a week.
On the line with me to discuss the situation in Aleppo is Dave DesRoches, a professor at National Defense University. We discuss the strategic significance of Aleppo in the context of the civil war, that is, why fighting for control of the city of Aleppo is so consequential to the trajectory of the entire conflict; he describes the various fighting forces that are converging on Aleppo to participate in this fight, their disparate motives; the role of the United States and Russia, and of course the dire humanitarian consequences of this particularly brutal fight.Derek Chollet is the author of the new book The Long Game: How Obama Defied Washington and Redefined America's Role in the World.
Derek served in a number of foreign policy positions in the Obama administration, including in the National Security Council, State Department and finally as an assistant secretary of defense for international security so this book serves, very much, as an insider's assessment of 7 years of Obama's foreign policy. We kick off with an extended discussion about his book and Obama's foreign policy more broadly before pivoting to a conversation about Derek's fascinating career path from a college town in Nebraska to the highest reaches of US foreign policy making.There catastrophe is looming in southern Africa.
This year’s historically intense El Nino sparked a region-wide drought that has decimated harvests. The area was already prone to food insecurity, but the extreme nature of this El Nino is causing a humanitarian emergency not experienced in decades.
On the line with me to discuss the food crisis in Southern Africa are two officials from the US Agency for International Development, USAID: Dave Harden, the Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance and and Dina Esposito a deputy assistant administrator and Food for Peace director.
The two officials discuss some of the root causes of the food crisis and its implications across a number of sectors. We discuss what the US and international response is looking like and why this crisis differs so substantially from a devastating famine that the region experienced 35 years ago.
Arsalan Iftikhar is the author of the new book Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies and Threatens Our Freedoms.
Arsalan is a human rights lawyer by training and was one of the original guests on this podcast a couple years ago, when he discussed his career and life journey that lead him to this line of work.
Arsalan is on TV a lot. And often times he get's the call after there has been some sort of terrible terrorist attack. To that end, we have an extended conversation about what it's like to be a
Helen Clark is a candidate to become the next UN Secretary General. She’s the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, serving from 1999 to 2008 and is currently the head of the United Nations Development Program.
We spoke in mid-July as part of a series of conversations I’m having with the candidates in the race to replace Ban Ki Moon when his term expires at the end of this year.The goal with these candidate conversations is to learn how some of their past experiences might inform the kinds of decisions they would make as Secretary General, and so to that end Ms Clark discusses growing up on a farm in New Zealand in the shadow of World War Two; becoming politicized in high school and university around the anti-apartheid movement; her decision to enter politics and some of the big foreign policy decisions she took as Prime Minister.
This is a great conversation with one of the most high profile of the Secretary General candidates.
Priscilla Clapp had a 30 year career in the state department, which ended in 2002 as the top US official in Burma. She also served in top positions in South Africa in the early 1990s during the transition from Apartheid and in Japan and Moscow.
Clapp is the co-author with Mort Halperin of what I consider one of the most important books you can read about US foreign policy. It's called Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy, and as the title suggests the book describes the role of the bureaucracy in shaping US foreign policy. We kick off with an extended conversation about that book, and then have another extended conversation about how Clapp, as the State Department official in charge of refugee programs in the late 1980s, used tools of bureaucratic politics to helped engineer the emigration of jewish refugees from Russia to the United States.
This is a great conversation--a little longer than most--but well worth it.If you follow US politics even just slightly you will probably be surprised to learn that Congress actually did something last week. And deeper still, the action they took was broadly in the service of humanity.
Just after the July 4th holiday Congress passed the Global Food Security Act, which was a piece of legislation that will inform how the US government fights hunger worldwide. My guest today, Judith Rowland was deep in the trenches of the years long effort to pass this bill. She is the US government relations lead for the Global Poverty Project and we spoke just a few hours before the passage of this bill. Judith discusses what is contained in the bill, including the strengthening of a Obama administration program known as Feed the Future. And we also discuss how in such a polarized political environment, something like the Global Food Security Act could get passed.Lauren Wolfe is an award winning journalist who covers sexual violence in conflict. She's the director of the Women Under Siege project, which is a journalistic endeavor founded by Gloria Steinem as part of the Women's Media Center to investigate how rape and gender based violence are used as tools of conflict.
About a week before we spoke Lauren wrote an article in the Guardian about a Congolese militia that terrorized a small town in the eastern part of the country by systematically raping babies and toddlers. A day after the publication of this article, the militia leader was arrested. We kick off discussing that story. Lauren has spent the better part of her career in journalism reporting on trauma and she is currently a columnist for Foreign Policy. Among other stories, she covered 9-11 and its aftermath for the New York Times and Lauren opens up in a pretty profound way about she feels so compelled to cover violence and trauma. This is a pretty heavy episode, though not without moments of humor. But it was a real honor to speak with her.On July 9, South Sudan commemorates its 5th independence day. And I say "commemorates" and not "celebrates" because there is not a whole lot to celebrate. The country has been mired in conflict since late 2013, when a political dispute between president Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar devolved into an armed battle and then full blown civil war.
The consequences of this war for the people of South Sudan have been immense. Millions have been displaced, and though a peace deal was signed last year violence continues to flare up and the humanitarian situation is as dire as ever.
On the line to discuss recent developments in South Sudan, the role of the United Nations Peacekeepers in the country, and the humanitarian situation is Noah Gottschalk, who is the senior humanitarian policy advisor at Oxfam. He does a good job of offering some broader context to understand how South Sudan has so unraveled in the last five years. If you have 20 minutes and want to understand the deep challenges that face the people of South Sudan on the country's 5th birthday -- and the leaders under whom they have been so ill-served -- have a listen.Both the European Union and the United Kingdom are important players in international development. In fact the EU is the single largest foreign aid provider; and the United Kingdom's own aid programs, run by the Department for International Development, or DfID, are considered some of the more innovative programs in this space. Also, the UK is one of just a few countries to actually have met a commitment to spend 0.7% of its gross national income on global development.
So, it would seem the fallout from Brexit could potentially be pretty profound for international development. To go over these big issues, I caught up with Mikaela Gavas of Overseas Development Institute, which is a highly respected UK-based think tank that focuses on global development issues. Mikaela, in particular, works on Pan-European global development policies so she is able to offer some deeply nuanced insights into these questions. (Also, toward the end of the interview, Mikaela expresses some consternation that as a British expert on EU policy, she may soon loose some credibility with her continental peers.) If you are a global development nerd, Mikaela will give you a lot to chew on. If you are a more casual observer of internationals affairs, this conversation offers a good distillation of one way in which Brexit may have some profound global implications.Stewart Patrick is an international relations scholar with a background in studying human evolution. As you might imagine, that combination makes for some fascinating conversation.
Stewart is a Senior Fellow and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. He's a Rhodes scholar who has studied the intersection of the evolution of culture and international relations and we have some great digressions about how culture contributes to the creation of international norms and international law. In the early 2000s, he received a fellowship to serve on the policy planning staff of Colin Powell's State Department, and he discusses two big lessons he drew from that experience: the power of ideology to shape policy and how bureaucratic politics can influence big decisions. We kick off discussing his newest project, which is The Global Governance Report Card grades international performance in addressing a specter of current global challenges.You've probably heard about the dispute in the South China Sea. And if you have heard about it, you are probably vaguely aware, as I was, that it involves disputed territorial claims between China and its neighbors, and that in defense of American allies in the region, the US navy is positioning military assets in the area.
On this episode we go a bit deeper into this dispute, its origins, and broader global implications -- of which there are many. On the line to discuss it all is Gregory Poling, a fellow with the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. And we kick off discussing a case that the Philippines has brought against China at an international court of arbitration, the result of which is expected very soon.I caught up with my guest today, Arms Control Association president Daryl Kimball from his hotel in Vienna. Daryl, along with hundreds of diplomats around the world were gathered for the 20th anniversary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
This is a treaty that bans the testing of nuclear weapons and establishes a global monitoring system to ensure that no one can secretly test a nuclear bomb. The treaty was signed by the USA and most countries on the planet back in 1996, but it has not been ratified by some key countries, including the United States, and accordingly has not formally entered into force. Despite that, Daryl Kimball explains how the CTBT has become a very effective treaty over the past two decades, in particular through deployment of a system of monitoring stations around the world that can detect anomalous seismic activity and radioactive discharge into the atmosphere. We also discusses the implications of the continues non-ratification of the treaty by the USA.If you follow the Middle East at all, you've probably read the works of my guest today, Marc Lynch. Marc publishes widely and in a wide variety of mediums. He's got a high volume Twitter feed under the handle @AbuAardvark and writes regularly for the Monkey Cage blog at the Washington Post. He is a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, and the founder and director of the Project on Middle East Political Science among other affiliations. He is someone whose work I have learned from and followed for several years
We spend about the first 20 minutes or so talking about his new book, The New Arab Wars: Anarchy and Uprising in the Middle East, which explores the Arab Spring and its fallout through the prism of international relations and regional politics.
Marc discusses how he became interested in the middle east through an internship early in college, and the evolving nature of one of his key research subjects over his career, the relationship between media and politics in the Middle East. And of course, stick around until the end for his musings on how international relations theory can explain rivalries in hip hop.The Gambia is a tiny country in western Africa. It's a narrow sliver on the ocean, surrounded by Senegal. It has a population of under 2 million, and according to my guest today, Jeffrey Smith, it is the worst dictatorship you have never heard of.
Smith is a human rights researcher, now a consultant to human rights activists in Africa through his firm Vanguard Africa. In this conversation he describes the politics of repression in Gambia and how the deteriorating situation there is having profound regional, and even global consequences. Indeed, I was surprised to learn that The Gambia as small as it is, is actually a major source of refugees crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. We also discuss a foiled coup plot that was planned in the United States by Gambian-Americans. The Gambia is obviously not much in international headlines so I was glad to be able to shine a spotlight on this really under covered story. Even if you have barely heard of the Gambia or if you follow African politics closely, I think you will appreciate this conversation.In her new book The Fires of Spring my guest today Shelly Culbertson travels to six countries in the Middle East and North Africa to describe for readers how each of these countries are managing the political, economic and social challenges of the post Arab Spring era. Through interviews and drawing on her own expertise as a longtime analyst, Culbertson explains why some countries in the region managed to muddle through the Arab Spring, some collapsed under pressure, and how at least on may have emerged stronger.
Culbertson has had a career in government and is now with the Rand Corporation, where she specializes in education and development in the Middle East. We discuss her interesting career path and some of the fascinating stories from her book and travels throughout the middle east. If you are interested in comparative politics and the Middle East, you'll love this conversation. I certainly learned a lot from her and the book is a great resource.Over the past week, a number of scientists and bio-ethicists expressed deep concern that holding the Olympics this summer in Rio de Janeiro could enable the Zika virus to spread far and wide. I caught up with one of the world's leading experts on Zika, Dr. Peter Hotez and put the question to him. Dr. Hotez has a lot of credentials. Among other affiliations, he is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of medicine, where he is also a professor of pediatrics and molecular & virology and microbiology, and president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute. He describes why these fears are overblown and unfounded. Instead, he argues that we should really be focusing our attention on the spread of Zika to the Caribbean and Southern United states. In this conversation, Dr. Hotez explains to us laypeople why Rio is actually no longer a hotbed for Zika. (It's science, but it's easily understandable). He also explains why dithering in congress over providing funding for mosquito control could have potentially catastrophic consequences for people living in the Gulf of Mexico.
Venezuela is on a rapid and precipitous decline. You might even say, as my guest today Francisco Toro wrote in a recent piece in the Atlantic that Venezuela is falling apart. Between food, fuel, medicine and commodity shortages, corruption and rampant crime, this one-time middle income country is struggling mightily. There's an incipient humanitarian crisis and instability of Valenzuela could effect the entire region.
Fransisco Toro is the proprietor of the blog Caracas Chronicles and co-authored the Atlantic piece, with Moises Naim, who many of you probably know and was a guest on this very show last year. The piece very succinctly describes the causes and consequences of Venezuela's collapse and begins with an very telling anecdote about toilet paper.Jennifer Harris has devoted much of her career to studying what she calls "geo-economics," -- the ability of countries to shape world politics, diplomacy, and global affairs more broadly through the deployment of economic means. She's a Council on Foreign Relations Fellow and co-author, with Robert Blackwill, of the new book War By Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft.
Jennifer grew up near an artillery range in Oklahoma and became fascinated with economics from a young age. She was a Rhodes Scholar and worked in the State Department under both Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton. And it was working in the Clinton State Department that Jennifer lead the development of Secretary Clinton's Economics and Statecraft agenda, which was rolled out in 2011. And towards the end of the interview we discuss what it was like working with Hillary Clinton, who more likely than not will be the next US president. And we also have an illuminating conversation about the bureaucratic politics that goes into crafting a new kind of foreign policy agenda.Senator Chris Murphy wants to change a bedrock relationship in US foreign policy.
In April this year he introduced legislation to restrict arms sales to Saudi Arabia over that country's conduct in the war in Yemen. The Saudi-led air campaign is both causing inordinate civilian casualties in Yemen and not doing much to counter the active ISIS or Al Qaeda branches in the country. Senator Murphy discusses how this legislation hopes to reign in Saudi Arabia's military campaign, which in the view of Senator Murphy is becoming increasingly inimical to American interests.
Our discussion of Yemen leads to an extended conversation about the US-Saudi alliance, the terms of which Murphy is very transparently trying to change from his perch in the Senate. We recorded this conversation before the US Senate voted, unanimously, on May 17th, to enable the family members of 9-11 victims to possibly sue the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for any potential liability they may hold--a move which was opposed by the White House. But I do think this conversation helps set the context for that vote. Senator Murphy is a Connecticut Democrat on the progressive end of the spectrum, who has launched a website, chanceforpeace.org in which he's attempting to fundamentally shift the terms of the national security conversation in DC. The Saudi arms sales legislation seems to be one manifestation of his foreign policy vision. Foreign policy watchers will be interested in hearing Senator Murphy's critique of US middle east policy. And for international relations students out there, this conversation offers a fascinating insight into how individual legislatures can influence US foreign policy.Calestous Juma is a prolific author who focuses on the intersection of society, science and international development. He is a professor and director of the Science, Technology and Globalization project at the Belfer Center for Science and International affairs at Harvard. Calestous grew up in flood prone village on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya and in this episode he describes how his upbringing inspired his interest in understanding the relationship between nature, economic development, and technological change. We kick off discussing his forthcoming book, out in July, titled Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies--which includes, among other things, a fascinating discussion about what this history of margarine can teach us about the future of global development. This conversation was a delight, Calestous tells some great stories and offers some intriguing insights about trends in global development. And if you are not already, you should definitely follow him on twitter @Calestous. And I'm @MarkLGoldberg.
The international humanitarian system is stretched beyond capacity. In fact, it's fair to say it is broken.
The inability of the international community to confront multiple manmade and natural disasters, like the crisis in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, ebola in west Africa and the earthquake in Nepal is a profound contributor to insecurity around the world.There are more people displaced around the world than there has been at any time since World War Two; donors are not committing enough money to provide for the basic needs of people affected by sudden crises, and the international community is not doing a sufficient job of preventing the outbreak of conflict, ending current conflicts, or mitigating the effects of natural disasters.
These failures and proposed solutions to these ongoing challenges are the subject of the first ever World Humanitarian Summit, which kicks off in Istanbul in mid May. This is a UN backed affair, which includes participation of member states, civil society and the private sector. And one participant is on the line with me today to discuss some of the problems and solutions that this conference hopes to address.
Shannon Scribner is Oxfam America's Humanitarian Policy Manager, and in this conversation she offers an insightful preview of what to expect from this conference, some of the more controversial debates about the role of humanitarian relief and international development that this conference has already sparked, and how a first-ever world humanitarian summit can help mend a broken humanitarian system.
I caught up with my guest today, The US Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack just after he left the stage at the Climate Action Conference in DC. This was a two day UN backed conference with representatives from local and national governments, the business sector, civil society, NGOs and philanthropies gathered to discuss strategies to implement the Paris Agreement. Some quick background: the cornerstone of the Paris Climate Agreement are a set of commitments by each government to take certain actions or meet specific goals, and taken together these pledges can meaningfully alter the current climate change trajectory. That is, of course, if these commitments and pledges are actually implemented. And the point of this conference was to bring together stakeholders from disparate sectors to make the commitments of the Paris Accord a reality. Enter the US Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. He details the specific actions that USDA is taking to implement the US government's commitments at Paris. And those are technically pretty interesting, but what I found enlightening in his comments is that it suggests there is a bureaucratic shift underway at USDA to mainstream climate imperatives throughout the department. This shift at USDA is likely one manifestation of a trend we are seeing throughout the US government in which the imperatives of confronting climate change are being mainstreamed throughout the whole of government. It's not just the EPA or department of energy or interior. Rather, every branch of government is taking this on in their own differentiated way. And that is, I think, a pretty interesting shift that we are living through.
Paul Niehaus is undertaking a radical experiment. His organization, Give Directly, wants to find out would happen if people living in extreme poverty were offered the guarantee of a basic income for ten to 15 years. They plan on launching an experiment in East Africa in which 6,000 people would be given, with no strings attached, enough money to pay for their basic needs over a long period of time.
The idea they seek to test is called the Universal Basic Income. There are some communities around the world that offer this in some form, but never before has this idea been tested over an extended period of time in the developing world. Give Directly announced this new experiment a few weeks ago and it's caught the attention of the international development community and those of us in the media who follow these things. Paul explains what they hope to accomplish with this experiment, how it will actually work, and what implications it has for the global effort to combat extreme poverty.Tom Nagorski is a longtime TV editor reporter and producer for ABC news and is currently an executive vice president at the Asia Society.
Tom's career as a journalist spans some of the major world events of the last three decades, including the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its aftermath, the first Gulf War, the war in the Balkans, Somalia, the second Gulf War, and many many other events. We discuss what it was like reporting on these events and witnessing some world historic moments from behind the camera. This is a wide ranging conversation with Tom telling some fascinating stories from his career, but we kick off discussing the diplomatic relevance of Yao Ming, who was recently nominated for the NBA hall of fame..
On the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, there is an ongoing and overlooked human rights and humanitarian catastrophe. In recent years, the government of the Dominican Republic has taken measures to essentially strip ethnic Haitians of Dominican citizenship. New legal statutes have the potential to render about 500,000 people stateless. (For context and comparison's sake that is roughly the equivalent of the number of asylum applicants in Germany stemming from the Syrian refugee crisis) The roots of discrimination against Haitians in the Dominican Republic run deep, but these citizenship laws are relatively new. On the line with me to discuss this largely overlooked humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere is human rights researcher Ryan Bacci. He explains the contours of these laws, their human rights and humanitarian implications on the ground, and offers some important historical context to understand how this kind of discrimination could be enshrined into a country's constitution.
Kevin Rudd is the former prime minister of Australia who knows China far better than most western leaders. He served from 2007 to 2010, and then again in 2013. These days, among other things, he's president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
I got to know the prime minister a little bit earlier this year when he moderated a panel on which I was a speaker. The panel was for the Independent Commission on Multilateralism which is putting together a set of policy recommendations for the next Secretary General. Rudd leads that commission and we kick off with a brief discussion about it hopes to accomplish before pivoting to longer conversation about Rudd's upbringing and career as a diplomat in the Australian foreign service. Kevin Rudd is a fluent mandarin speaker and he discusses how and why he became enthralled with China at a very young age. We discuss his first postings as young diplomat and how he decided to make the leap from diplomat to politician.My guest today Srgjan Kerim is a diplomat with the soul of an artist, who wants to become the next UN Secretary General. Karim is the former foreign minister of Macedonia, was an official in the Federal government of the former Yugoslavia and also served as president of the UN General Assembly back in 2007-8.
He's a self described citizen of the world. He was born in Macedonia, but spent much of his formative years in Germany and has lived at various times all over the world. We discuss his unique upbringing, some of his academic work in development economics, and his experience during the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. And, not least, he discusses how to create gorgeous photographs using a blackberry device.Vesna Pusic is the former foreign minister of Croatia and a candidate to become the next UN Secretary General. She's a sociologist by training. Politician and diplomat by practice and I caught up with her one day after she participated in hours of questioning by UN member states in what was essentially a very public job interview for the position of Secretary General
Pusic grew up in Zagreb in a household of intellectuals in the aftermath of World War Two, which was particularly brutal in Croatia where Nazi collaborators carried out acts of genocide and persecution. She became ensconced in academia and later turned to politics. In her twenties, she started the first feminist NGO in Yugoslavia, and she discusses that experience. This conversation is part of our UN Secretary General candidate conversations. Stay tuned for more in depth conversations with the individuals who wish to be the next leader of the United NationsSomething extraordinary took place at the United Nations this week. For twenty hours, over three days, each candidate in the race to become the next UN secretary general submitted themselves to hours of questioning by member states and civil society.
This was a radical departure from how things were done previously. For the past 70 years, the Secretary General was picked pretty much behind closed doors by the five veto wielding members of the Security Council. It was a totally un-transparent process, sometimes you did not even know who was in the running.
This time around, that is not quite how things are going down. For one, there are actually declared candidates--9 so far. And each of these candidates faced two hours of questioning by member states, forcing them to go on the record on some hot button global issues. And it was all webcast! I watched nearly all of it. I would be lying to you if I said that it was all riveting political theater. But for UN nerds like me and my guest Richard Gowen the novelty of it all offered some insights into the inner-workings of the United Nations, what individual countries prioritize in deciding who to back for Secretary General, and a glimpse into the diplomatic acumen of the candidates' in the hot seat. So, because these hearings were new, and different and genuinely exciting for UN watchers like Richard and I, this episode is in two parts. We first spoke before the hearings even began about our expectations for this event and discussed what we would be looking out for. Then, on Thursday afternoon, just as the hearings were wrapping up, we spoke again about some of the highlights from the week and any tea leaves that could be read into both the questions that the member states asked and the answers given. For anyone who wants to learn what these public job interviews for the position of UN Secretary General can tell you about the UN and international relations more broadly, have a listen.Danilo Turk is the former president of Slovenia and one of eight currently declared candidates to be the next United Nations Secretary General. He was president from 2007 to 2012 and also served as his country's ambassador to the UN for many years.
Turk was born in 1952, just seven years following the Nazi occupation of Slovenia. He shares how his mother's experience of being sent to a forced labor camp at the age of 14 affected his own childhood. That included an intense focus on eduction. By the time he was 14, Turk was devouring the greek classics, like Thucydides. By 18 he was in law school, discovering concepts of human rights. We have an extended conversation about the intellectual curiosity that lead Turk to human rights law and what it was like being a human rights legal scholar in the former Yugoslavia, which was then a communist country. We discuss his role during Slovenia's 1991 secession from the former Yugoslavia and the brief war that ensued, and the tactics he used as Slovenia's first ambassador to the UN to introduce this new country to the world. I caught up with Dr. Turk at his hotel room in Dakar, Senegal, where he was chairing a conference about the intersection of water and peace. We kick off with a brief discussion about that issue. In the next several months, the world will select the next Secretary General of the United Nations. There are so far eight candidates to succeed Ban Ki Moon, and this conversation is part of a special podcast series in which the candidates discuss the big moments in their lives and careers that helped to shape their own worldview. The idea here is to introduce the candidates' personal and professional histories into the public discourse and hopefully illuminate how past experiences may guide their decision making as Sec Gen.Ban Ki moon visited a refugee camp in Algeria that is home to people displaced by conflict in Western Sahara and he uttered remarks that created a diplomatic maelstrom.
Ban referred to the quote "occupation" of Western Sahara, by the government of Morocco. Morocco responded with a massive government sponsored protest in the streets of Rabat, and also ceased cooperation with a UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, including evicting civilian members of that mission. It has also threatened to pull its own troops from UN peacekeeping missions worldwide. All because of a word. With me to put this current diplomatic crisis into the larger context of the decades old dispute over the proper status of western sahara is Fiyola Hoosen-Steele. She is not a disinterested observer of this crisis. As the UN representative of the diplomatic advisory firm Independent Diplomat, she works with political representatives of the Western Saharan indepdeence movement, known as the Frente Polisario. She explains the roots of the conflict in Western Sahara and the current diplomatic obstacles to its resolution.Mary Fitzgerald is an Irish journalist who for the better part of five years has covered Libya, including the fall of Gaddafi, Libya's fractured politics, and the the rise of ISIS. Mary got her start in journalism covering the conflict in Northern Ireland and she discusses how she applies what she learned studying that conflict to help her better understand Libya.
We kick off with an extended discussion about the current political situation in Libya, which is complicated, but fascinating, and Mary does an excellent job of breaking it all down. I've made this point before, but I do think that Libya is going to be one of the most important foreign policy crises facing the United States and Europe next year, particularly as the next president takes office. And this conversation offers a great way to understand the drivers of conflict in Libya.Work started at the United Nations this week on the next big global enviromental treaty. The treaty would create rules of the road for management of the high seas. This would include provisions to create marine sanctuaries and other mechanisms to preserve sea life and biodiversity.
On the line to discuss this new treaty (which does not yet have a name) is Elizabeth Wilson of the Pew Charitable Trusts. She explains the problems that this new treaty aspires to solve, how it would fit into already existing treaties, like the Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the process and politics surrounding the crafting of this treaty and its eventual ratification.
The last time I saw Anna Day we were both attending a conference in Dubai. That was just last month, in February. I hopped a plane back to the United States. She went to Bahrain, and was promptly arrested with her crew. They were filming a documentary about the legacy of the Arab Spring uprisings when they were detained by Bahrani authorities and charged with crimes that carried hefty sentences.
Anna recounts that experience in pretty vivid detail. But getting arrested in Bahrain is just the latest challenge that Anna has faced while trying to tell stories from the middle east. She was one of the first western journalists to detail the rise of ISIS in Syria, and before that she was one of the first American journalists in Tahrir square as the Egypt Arab Spring began. If you are interested in learning more about the situation in Bahrain, I actually served as the publisher of an e- book by the journalist Elizabeth Dickinson about Bahrain, called Who Shot Ahmed, A Mystery Unravels in Bahrain's Arab Spring, that tells the story of the murder of a young activist and his family's quest for justice.The attacks in Brussels this week are accelerating an already heated conversation in Europe about the unrelenting movement of refugee from the Middle East to the continent.
The attacks on Tuesday came just days after the EU sealed a highly controversial agreement with Turkey in which refugees arriving to the greek islands would be expelled back to Turkey. This agreement is highly maligned by the United Nations and refugee advocates for reasons I discuss with a UN official and a refugee advocate. This episode is in two parts. First, I speak with Melissa Flemming, a spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency, also known as UNHCR. She offers a grounds eye view of how this new deal is affecting the work of the UN Refugee Agency on the Greek Islands and explains why UNHCR is refusing to collaborate in the implementation of this agreement. Next, I speak with Michel Gabaudan, president of Refugees International, who discusses the details of the deal and does a good job of putting it in a larger context of global refugee policy.My guest today Somini Sengupta is the United Nations correspondent for the New York Times. She's the author of the new book The End of Karma: Hope and Fury Among India's Young which tells the story of a huge demographic challenge facing India today, where 365 million people are between the ages of 10 and 24. It is the youngest country on the planet, and through storytelling and reporting, Somini puts the experiences of India's young into the broader context of the country's political, social and economic challenges.
Somini was born in Calcutta, but came to the Canada and then the USA at a young age. She joined the New York Times in the mid 1990s and she tells some powerful stories from her reporting in Africa in the early 2000s, including Liberia, Congo and Darfur. We kick off discussing her new book, and a term she coined to describe India's youth generation, the "noonday children."The Islamic state is seemingly on the ascent in Libya. It controls territory, including the coastal city of Sirte, and over the past several weeks it has launched a series of spectacular attacks in Libya and Tunisia.
This episode goes pretty deep into the weeds of the origins of the Islamic State in Libya and its current strategic goals. On the line is Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Phd candidate and proprietor of Jihadology.net. Aaron explains how The Islamic State in Libya can trace its start to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in the mid 2000s, and how through a series of contests it muscled out other jihadist groups in Libya to become a potent and destabilizing force for the entire region.Thomas Fuller was the longtime Southeast Asia correspondent for the New York Times. He's now based in San Francisco, but his last posting from the region caught my attention. Fuller describes a scene in which he is interviewing the leader of a protest in Thailand, when that leader is gunned down right in front of him. That experience leads him to his conclusion of the piece: a rampant culture of impunity is threatening the region's otherwise impressive gains.
We discuss some of Fuller's other reporting from the region, including an incredible story last year in which he helped track down a boat full of Rohingya migrants stranded in the Andaman Sea. This is a great episode. Fuller describes how he got started in journalism, some adventures from his early career working at the International Herald Tribune in France and how and why he feels such a deep bond with South East Asia.Ashish Thakkar is an African entrepreneur who started his business at the age of 15 having just escaped from the Rwanda genocide. That business, the Mara Group, is now a multi-billion dollar enterprise headquartered in Dubai and with operations in 22 African countries.
I met Ashish a few weeks ago at a conference in Dubai and learned just enough about his personal story to know that I needed to speak with him for a podcast episode. It's an intense story not only of his own escape from the Rwandan genocide, but his parents in the 1970s were forced to flee Idi Amin's Uganda. Ashish tells much of his family history and the story of the founding of the Mara Group in his new book The Lion Awakes: Adventures in Africa's Economic Miracle. Ashish is also the founder of the Mara Foundation, the work of which we discuss, and he was recently named the chair of the UN Foundation's Global Entrepreneurs Council.On March 1 a man named Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi made an appearance at the international criminal court in the hague, and in so doing earned the dubious distinction of being the first person to ever appear at the ICC for the crime of destroying cultural heritage. He is accused of ordering and participating in the destruction of centuries old mausoleums in Timbuktu, Mali. Timbuktu was taken over by Islamist extremists in 2012 in the midst of a civil war in Mali, and their puritanical vision of Islam clashed with local customs which imbued these mausoleums with religious significance.
Now, one of the people who allegedly orchestrated this destruction is sitting in a jail in the Hague, possibly awaiting trial. This is not only first time that an individual is being charged with the crime against humanity of destroying cultural heritage, but it is the first time that a jihadist is facing ICC prosecution. On the line with me to discuss the facts of this case and its broader significance to the International Criminal Court and global human rights more generally is Mark Kersten. He's a post doctoral fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.Dr. Raj Shah served as the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, from 2010 to 2015. He was just 36 years old when he was appointed to this cabinet-level position, and less than a week into his tenure a massive earthquake struck Haiti. President Obama turned to raj to coordinate the US Government's response.
We discuss how he came to terms with that responsibility. We also have a very interesting discussion about his childhood growing up the son of immigrants from India, and how that compelled him to a career in global health and development. That career really started at the Gates Foundation. He was one of very early employees of the Gates Foundation where he helped designed a financing mechanism that to this day is helping to fund vaccines around the world. Raj is the co-author, with Michael Gerson, of a chapter about USAID and foreign aid in the new book "MoneyBall for Government," and we kick off discussing his contribution to that chapter.By now you have probably heard of the legal and public relations battle between the FBI and Apple. In short, the FBI is trying to force Apple to unlock the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple is unwilling to comply, saying that doing so could endanger the privacy of every iPhone user, everywhere.
This dispute will play itself out in the US legal system. But the result will have profound international implications. On the line to discuss the global consequences of this dispute is David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Freedom of Expression and a clinical professor of law at the University of California, Irvine. David Kaye recently wrote a report in his role as UN Special Rapporteur that assesses the relationship between encryption technologies, the varying policies of governments around the world towards encryption, and the protection of human rights. Encryption, he argues, is a key protector of the freedom of expression around the world, for reasons we discuss in this episode.Susan Benesch is the founding director of the Dangerous Speech Project. And in this role she has helped to create a set of guidelines that helps policy makers and observers deduce the conditions under which inflammatory public rhetoric crosses the line to become a catalyst for major violence. We kick off discussion what those criteria are have a broader conversation about the role of language in inspiring violence.
Susan had a career as a journalist, covering conflict in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s and then, after experiencing some profound physical and emotional turbulence, she switched careers and became a human rights lawyer, working among other places at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.Burundi is in a tailspin. It has been for the last year since President Pierre Nkurinziza decided to run for a constitutionally dubious third term in office. That set off protests, a violent suppression of those protests, and a short lived coup. Now, Nkurinziza is consolidating his hold on power, there is great fear that the situation may devolve into a full blown civil war, and given the history of the region, perhaps even genocide.
The world is pretty aware of this. But the international community seems unable to stop Burundi from sliding into deeper conflict. Why? I put that question to Dr. Cara Jones, an associate professor at Mary Baldwin College. Dr. Jones offers some concise background on the history of this conflict and explains why observers are so concerned that this may spiral out of control and have profound implications not just for Burundi, but for the entire region. If you have twenty minutes and want a deeper and nuanced understanding of the crisis in Burundi, what the international community is trying to do to stop it, have a listen.I'm coming to you from World Government Summit this week, which is a conference dedicated to ideas and technologies to make government work more effectively. It's sort of a cross between TED talks and Davos. You have people like Neil deGrasse Tyson discussing government's role science research, fancy displays of drone technologies, and virtual reality stations. But you also have UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Elliason discussing the SDGs and international superstars like Mary Robinson and Mohammad Yunus keeping in real by maintaining a focus on harnessing these technologies and ideas in service of humanity at large.
It's been an interesting few days, and I two interviews from the summit for you, which reflect the dual tracks of this conference. First up is Princess Sarah Zeid, who is a long time UN employee and humanitarian worker (whose spouse is the Jordanian diplomat and royal and current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.) She is spearheading efforts in the UN system and beyond to sharpen the international community's focus on providing maternal and reproductive health in humanitarian emergencies. Up to now, this is not something that the international community has done very well, for reasons she explains. And she discusses candidly the very personal reason that she decided to take on this cause. Next up, i speak with Justin Hall Tipping, a venture capitalist who is investing in nano-technology in the clean energy space. We have a discussion about the potential of nano technology to revolutionize things like access to clean water and clean energy, and what it will take to realize some very promising scientific discovery So, like I said, two somewhat different issues, but all under the rubric of this confernece and both interesting. Have a listen!Michelle Mays is a nurse with Doctors without Borders, better known of course as MSF. She has worked in conflict zones, post conflict zones and generally very intense situations around the world to deliver health care and other services to vulnerable people. MSF has a reputation in the humanitarian community for being the first to arrive and last to leave often times dangerous situations, and its been in the news recently for the fact that its hospitals have been bombed in Yemen, by Saudi forces and Afghanistan by Americans.
Michelle started her career as a nurse in Baltimore with an itch to work globally. We discuss some of her deployments in recent years, including to Haiti after the earthquake and to a remote part of India. We kick off discussing her most recent deployment to South Sudan.
The United Kingdom plays host to a major conference this week intended to raise money and political support for the Syrian humanitarian disaster. There are now over 4.6 million Syrian refugees who have fled abroad, mostly to surrounding countries and 7.6 million people displaced inside the country. In all the UN estimates that there by the end of 2016, there will be 18 million people in need of some sort of humanitarian relief, thins like food aid, shelter, medicines.
And that is going to cost a great deal of money. About $9 billion to be exact. And the way that money is raised is through appeals to donors--basically like a charity whose major contributors are governments around the world. On the line today to discuss this London conference and the major global challenge of mounting an appropriate humanitarian response to this overwhelming crisis is the UK's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Peter Wilson. We discuss some specific aspects of the humanitarian response to this now 5 year old crisis, like, for example providing access to education for displaced children and opportunities for employment for refugees abroad. We also discuss the larger challenge of mounting a humanitarian response when so many of the belligerents are ignoring basic tenants of the laws of war, and we also discuss the current political peace process underway in Geneva.Raymond Baker was a newly minted Harvard Business School graduate working in Nigeria in the 1960s when he discovered that foreign businesses were nefariously sneaking money out of the country. After years of working in Nigeria and then internationally as businessman and consultant, Baker founded the NGO Global Financial Integrity to fight what he's termed illicit financial flows out of economies in the developing world.
This is a fascinating conversation about an interesting, though little appreciated aspect of the global fight against corruption. We kick off discussing the problem of illicit financial flows more broadly and one big cause of this problem more specifically, which is what he terms "mis-invoicing." You'll learn a lot about the history of the fight against global corruption from listening to this episode.Earlier this week the World Health Organization warned that a mosquito borne viral disease known as Zika was fast spreading throughout the Americas. That includes the United States, which it will likely reach sooner rather than later.
On the line to discuss Zika and its larger public health implications is one of the world's leading experts in tropical diseases, Dr. Peter Hotez. He is the Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine Baylor College of Medicine in Houston; The's the Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics Texas Children's Hospital and President of the Sabin Vaccine institute, the work of which we discuss in this conversation.
This is an absolutely fascinating conversation about a topic that is clearly on many people's radars right now. We discuss how and why this disease is spreading, the lessons drawn from the ebola outbreak that can be applied to this situation, and how poverty and inequality in the USA might exacerbate the Zika outbreak?Elizabeth Economy has for decades studied something that used to be considered somewhat obscure, but today is very much in vogue: the relationship between Chinese politics and economy to climate change and the natural world. She is now a Senior Fellow and director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and she's written a number of books and influential papers examining China and climate change.
She's had a fascinating career. She started out specializing in Soviet studies and took a turn working as an analyst in the CIA before getting her PhD and launching her career studying china and the environment. We kick off this conversation discussing China's decision to join the consensus at the Paris Climate Talks, and we have an extended conversation about some pressing, yet under the radar ecological and environmental challenges that China is struggling to deal with.Drone strikes are an increasingly common feature of modern warfare; and there have been numerous discussions in the academic literature and beyond about the effectiveness of drones strikes, the morality of the policy, and the larger implications of the United States' growing reliance on drone strikes as part of a broader counter-terrorism strategy. But for all this debate, there has been very little research into the psychology that surrounds drone strikes. Now, two academics out of George Washington University are compiling some exceedingly interesting and politically relevant research into the psychological forces that are shaping America's drone policy. Julia McDonald and Jacqueline Schneider recently published a fascinating paper in the Journal of Conflict Resolution that examines the relationship between a president's tolerance for risk and his (or possibly her) preference for using drones. They are also in the midst of research into why soldiers in combat prefer, or not, manned vs unmanned air support; and the conditions under which the general American public is more or less likely to support drone strikes. It's cutting edge and cross disciplinary research and just fascinating stuff. On the line with me to discuss this research and its broader implications is the co-author of these studies, Jacqueline Schneider, a pHD candidate in residence at the institute for conflict and security studies at George Washington University. Enjoy!
Dan Byman was fresh out of school when he took a job as an analyst for the CIA. Byman was a generalist, and they put him on a backwater Persian gulf desk in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Then Saddam invaded Kuwait and the US led a massive military operation to evict the Iraqi army from Kuwait. His memos suddenly had an audience at the highest reaches of government.
That experience led Byman to a career studying the Middle East and global terrorism. He's the author of numerous books on international terrorism and is Director of Research at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. But most importantly for me, he was the director of the Security Studies program at Georgetown University eight years ago when I was a student there. We have a great conversation about his fascinating career in and out of government, which includes serving on the 9-11 Commission. We also discuss terrorism more broadly and the international relations of the Middle East. We kick off with a brief discussion about what seems to be the weakening alliance between Saudi Arabia and the USA.The journalist Anjan Sundaram is the author of the new book Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship. The book details how the creeping authoritarianism of the Rwandan government has silenced the free press, even as that government is treated as a darling of the international community for its impressive economic gains following the genocide.
In 2009, Anjan took a job teaching journalism in Rwanda. He soon saw that something was amiss. His students were harassed, beaten and one colleague murdered. Other journalists were simply co-opted into the state propaganda machine. After speaking with Anjan for this interview, it's hard not to conclude that suppression of dissent in Rwanda is putting that country on a very dangerous path.
This is a fascinating conversation and I suspect that this book will get a great deal of attention in foreign policy and human rights circles. We kick off discussing the history of President Paul Kagame, and his recent controversial decision to amend the constitution to permit him to stay in office, theoretically until 2034. I have a link to the book on GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com, so do check that out.Marcy Hersh recently returned from a research trip to the Balkans, where she followed refugee women and girls as they made their way through Europe. Marcy is a senior advocacy officer with the women's refugee commission, and we kick off our conversation discussing what she witnessed on that trip and the broader struggles that are unique to female refugees around the world.
Marcy has had a long career in humanitarianism. Including a stint in Haiti just after the earthquake. But she started off as an english teacher abroad. We discuss what compelled her to teaching, to international affairs, to feminism And how reading Simone de Beauvoir on a desolate outer atoll of the Marshal Islands gave her a new perspective on her life and career.Happy New Year everyone! And what an interesting an exciting year this will be for the United Nations because the new year marks the semi-official kickoff of the race to select the next UN secretary general.Ban Ki Moon's second and final term expires at the end of the year and now it is up to the world--or, i should say more specifically the Security Council with input from the General Assembly--to find his replacement.
On the line with me to discuss the likely candidates for the next secretary general and the diplomatic intrigue that will surround this whole process and provide a great deal of subtext for diplomacy at the UN this year is Richard Gowan. If you are a regular listener to this podcast you'll be well aquatinted with richard, I believe this is this his third time of the show. He is a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for International Cooperation and teaches at Colombia. He's also out with a new piece in The American Interest taking a look at US priorities at the UN during Obama's last year in office. and at the end of this conversation we discuss that piece. But we kick off and devote most of this episode to the big question of who will replace Ban Ki Moon and how that selection will be made. And start by discussing what's known in UN circles as the so-called "Bulgarian Primary"Named by The Guardian as a "podcast to make you smarter" Global Dispatches is an international affairs podcast with impact.
The Paris agreement that was adopted on December 12 was a triumph of diplomacy. It is also a affirmation of idealism in international relations -- that the anarchy of the international system can be transcended to find global solutions to global problems. And the fact international community found a way to push the needle in the right direction on as complex an issue as climate change makes other global challenges suddenly seem a little less daunting. The Paris Agreement itself is profoundly inventive document. On the line to discuss some of the finer points of contention in the agreement, how they were resolved and why certain countries like India played a key role in crafting final outcome, is Neil Bhatiya, a policy associate with the Century Foundation. We discuss some of key questions that the agreement addresses, like how can the international community verify compliance with the accord and how the question of so-called "climate finance" will work. We also discuss the role of the United States in helping shape the final outcome. If you are fascinated by diplomacy, want a closer look at the big issues that were up for negotiation and understand what comes next, have a listen!
After Syrians and Afghans, the largest nationality of people who are fleeing as refugees to Europe are Eritreans. And the vast majority of Eritreans who are fleeing to Europe are young people between the ages of 18 and 24 who are escaping an oppressive system of compulsory national service.
National service itself is not a problem. Lots of liberal democracies have some of draft or conscription. But the System of national service in Eritrea takes this to the extreme and has become a system of forced labor and population control. Amnesty International recently published a report called Just Deserters: Why Indefinite National Service in Eritrea has Created Generation of Refugees that explores in depth the human rights abuses of this system and its implications for global security. On the line with me today is the report's lead author Claire Beston. We discuss how this system works, why so many young Eritreans are fleeing the country, and why countries in Europe are turning a blind eye to this major driver of refugees to their shore. This is a very interesting conversation about how policy decisions by one small and brutally repressive government can have profound repercussions around the world.Emma Sky was an Arabist, working at the British Council in 2003 when the United Kingdom joined the US led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Though she strongly opposed the war, she opted to join the coalition provisional authority, which administered Iraq after the fall of Saddam. Here's why She served as the top coalition official in the-oil rich and ethnically diverse province of Kirkuk, and later returned to Iraq as the top civilian advisor to advisor to general Ray Odierno as they managed what's now known as the Sunni Awakening. She tells stories from those experiences in the episode you are about to hear. She also has them down in her new memoir called The Unraveling. Sky had an unusual upringin. She was raised by a single mom who worked at an all boys school. So young emma sky's formative years very much included being the only girl in the room, and she discusses how that experience affected her later on in life. We kick off with a discussion about the current state of affairs in Iraq and Syria, before pivoting to a longer discussion about her life and career, which includes a long stint in Israel at the height of the peace process in the 1990s and its unraveling.
Unlike any other global climate or environment conference I've covered over the years, civil society and the activist community this time around is genuinely enthused about the Paris Climate Talks. Cautious optimism, or at the very least, not gloom and doom, seems to be prevailing mood.
I asked the leader of one of the most important and largest global climate activist organizations, May Boeve of 350.org, why that is. And her reply is interesting and telling. May says that we are in the midst of a political tipping point in the international debate about climate change and Paris is one manifestation of this historic moment. I caught up with May while she was in Paris during the first week of the talks, and we discusses some of the issues she was following closely as the talks enter a more technical phase. But we have a longer conversation about the role of activism in bringing delegates to this point and what the activist community has planned for after paris. For those of you interested in the particulars on the Paris talks, you will be sure to get a lot out of this conversation. But even if you are less interested in the minutia of climate politics, this episode offers a fascinating insight into the role of civil society and activisms in shaping the outcome of a major international negotiation. The role of civil society in the Paris climate talks is sure to be the subject of PhD thesis for decades to come. This conversation shows you why.My guest today Katie Meyler is the founder of the NGO More than Me, which provides schooling and counseling to adolescent girls in Monrovia, Liberia. Katie founded the NGO in 2009, but during the Ebola outbreak last year it transformed into a community hub in the West Point neighborhood of Monrovia, which was the hardest hit neighborhood in the hardest hit city in the hardest hit country by the outbreak. And we have a powerful discussion of why she opted to stay put in Liberia during the Ebola crisis, even though she became symptomatic. And how she dealt with all the death and despair that was surrounding her. Katie grew up poor in a very wealthy town in New Jersey and she discusses how service trips with her church first exposed her to extreme poverty around the world. She tells an ultimately inspiring story about the founding of More than Me and how with the partnership of the government of Liberia, she is trying to replicate the success of More than Me in other parts of the country. We kick off though, discussing a new resurgence of Ebola in Liberia several months after the country was declared Ebola free.
Could the horrible attack in Paris might provide the kind of exogenous shock to the international system that could unstick international diplomacy on Syria and move the needle in right direction? After a key meeting in Vienna of the USA, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and all the relevant regional players it would appear that there is finally some movement on the diplomatic front.
Here with me to discuss the diplomatic implications of the paris attacks is Ambassador Christopher Hill. He is the former US Ambassador to Iraq (among many other places) and was a lead US negotiator during the Balkan conflict. He's now the Dean of the Korbel school at the University of Denver and was on Episode 29 of this very podcast to discuss his life, career, and his memoir Outpost. I caught up with Ambassador Hill just as he was leaving for Dayton, Ohio to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Dayton peace accords which ended the Balkan civil wars. We have a very interesting conversation about the kinds of lessons that can be drawn from the Dayton experience and applied to international diplomacy on Syria.James P Grant is not a household name. But he most certainly should be. Grant lead UNICEF from 1979 until his death in 1995, and as Nick Kristof once wrote he "probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined." He was a force in the UN bureaucracy and on the international stage. And now, for the first time, there is a full accounting of his life and work in the new biography titled "A Mighty Purpose: How UNICEF's James P Grant Sold the World on Saving Its Children."
On the line with me to discuss Grant is his biographer, Adam Fifield. Fifield describes how Grant spearheaded what is now known as the "child survival revolution" in the 1980s that lead to, among other things, the quadrupling of worldwide childhood immunization rates." And Fiefield vividly describes how Grant accomplished this achievement and many others on behalf of children of the world, often times through sheer force of nature.The Paris Climate talks kick off in just a few short weeks. On November 30, president Obama and many other heads of state are going to start weeks of negotiations that if all goes according to plan, will usher in a new kind of international climate change regime. These talks a huge deal for diplomacy and for the planet. On the line with me to discuss the contours of the talks, expected outcomes, diplomatic intriguies and possible speed bumps along the way is Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
For those of you who are less steeped in the complexities of climate diplomacy, this episode is a useful primer to the Paris talks. But as our conversation progresses we go deeper and deeper into the weeds, so there's good fodder for you climate wonks as well.
"Red Teaming" is a concept that can trace its origins to the year 1234 when Pope Gregory the IX created the position of Devils Advocate to vet Papal cannonizations. In more modern times, the process has been increasingly used by militaries, the foreign policy bureaucracy and even the private sector to question assumptions and challenge groupthink. My guest today, Micah Zenko, is a Council on Foreign Relations fellow who has written what is arguably the first and definitely the most comprehensive examination of Red Teaming; its history and modern applications. It's called "Red Team: How to Succeed by Thinking like the Enemy" and I think it;s a supremely interesting investigation into a little studied aspect of national security and foreign policy making.
Less than a month ago, Russia began a military operation in Syria that is ongoing to this day. Russia's direct military involvement in Syria adds a complicated layer to an already complex conflict. On the line to discuss Russia military and political strategy for Syria, and the implications of this military action for the longer term prospects of a internationally negotiated resolution to this conflict is Michael Kofman, who is an analyst at the CNA Corporation and Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Kofman offers some clearheaded analysis of the political implications of Russia's military intervention and does an excellent job of unpacking some of the complexity of the current state of the Syrian conflict. This episode is sponsored by World Politics Review, which provides uncompromising analysis of critical global trends to give policy makers, business people, and academics the context they need to have the confidence they want. The good people at World Politics Review are offering Global Dispatches Podcast listeners a two week free trial and then a 50% discount on an annual subscription. To redeem this offer go to about.worldpoliticsreview.com/dispatches And I'll post a link on Global Dispatches Podcast.com
The Liberal party in Canada, lead by Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre, shocked the world with a big, big win in hotly contested national elections. The Liberal ascent ends a near decade in power for the conservative Stephen Harper and has the potential to fundamentally re-balance Canada's relationship with the world, so says my guest Janice Stein who is the founding director of the Munk School of International Affairs at the University of Toronto.
We spoke the morning after the elections and have a great and truly interesting conversation about the discrete changes we can expect in Canadian foreign policy -- and how those changes may affect international relations and global affairs more broadly. We discuss what's called "Middle Power Diplomacy" in academic circles, Canada's role in Climate politics, and why Washington, DC may be none too pleased with some of the changes to come. This is a timely and interesting conversation. Enjoy!Felice Gaer has served on the UN Committee Against torture since 1999, making her the longest serving American elected to a UN Human Rights body. Though there is little power vested in the independent experts who staff treaty organizations, Gaer has been able to move the needle on human rights cases worldwide through creatively deploying the little power she has. This was an lesson she first learned while investigating the disappearance of the soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in the early 1980s.
Felice has had a very long career in human rights, and we trace the origins of her commitment to human rights from an early age, and more recently to her work on the Committee Against Torture. We kick off our conversation with about a 15 minute conversation about the UN's evolving posture on women's rights and LGBT rights. Gaer tells an interesting story about how an early bureaucratic decision about the structure of the UN's Economic and Social council enabled the integration of women's rights into the broader UN human rights agenda.So we had a scare. But all ends well. This episode is in two parts. First, you'll hear directly from my amazing wife about giving birth in our family car. It's a crazy story. Then, I speak with Dr. Luc de Bernis Senior Maternal Health Advisor at the UN Population Fund who puts our experience in a larger global health context. We discuss various interventions to reduce maternal and newborn mortality around the world, including the deployment of what the World Health Organization calls "Skilled Birth Attendants." I've reported on health systems and maternal and new born health for years and visited clinics and hospitals in Bangladesh and several countries in sub-saharan Africa, but it wasn't until my wife gave birth in our old car that I truly appreciated the role of a skilled birth attendant in ensuring the safety and health of mother and child.
Christine Fair is a respected scholar of South Asian politics and security. But her career path has been tough, with unnecessary obstacles in her way. In this episode, she speaks candidly about overcoming sexual harassment in graduate school and facing threats of sexual violence by the very subjects she studies as an academic.
The Nobel Peace Prize is announced on October 9. In March this year, Victor Ochen was nominated for the 2015 prize by the same organization the nominated previous laureates, Martin Luther King, Jr, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Dag Hammarskjold
Victor Ochen may not be a household name. But that may soon change. He is the founder of the peace and reconciliation NGO African Youth Initiative Network, which is active in Northern Uganda. He was the first Ugandan and youngest African ever nominated for the prize.
Victor has a powerful personal story. He grew up in IDP camps fleeing LRA violence and even lost his brother to the LRA. But throughout it all he maintained a commitment to peace and justice. In this episode, Victor discusses his nomination, tells stories from a childhood in conflict, and explains why he started an NGO.
This is an edited repost of Episode 53
Andrew Young is a civil rights icon who was with his friend Martin Luther King Jr when Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. In this interview, Young traces his a lifelong commitment to non-violence from his childhood in New Orleans, to his civil rights work in the 1950s and 1960s, to becoming Jimmy Carter's ambassador to the United Nations and long-serving Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.
This is a re-post of Episode 32, published last year.
UN Week kicks off on a high note on Friday, with the opening of a special summit on the Sustainable Development Goals. Pope Francis will be one of the first to address the summit on Friday morning. President Obama is helping to close the session on Sunday. In between are over 150 speakers, mostly heads of state.
The SDG summit is a very big deal for the United Nations, and quite possibly for all of humanity. It is the culmination of over two years of negotiations over what should replace the Millennium Development Goals, which expire at the end of this year.
The SDGs — or, the “Global Goals,” as the advocacy community has taken to calling them — are an aspirational set of 17 goals and 169 targets that every country on the planet is pledging to work toward from now until 2030.
The top goal is nothing less than the total eradication of extreme poverty (as defined by people living on $1.25 per day), and each of the goals have embedded in them principles of environmental sustainability.
It’s a massively ambitious agenda and if it’s achieved, life for most of the 8 billion on earth in 2030 will be vastly improved.
On the line with me to discuss these goals, their likelihood of success and, importantly, how we can measure progress is John McArthur. He is a fellow at Brookings at with the United Nations Foundation and has been studying the SDGs since their inception. This is a great conversation, and nicely sets up not just the coming few days at the UN, but also the coming few years of a new international development agenda in pursuit of these global goals.
The UN Summit kicks off next week in New York! This is always the most exciting time of year for us UN nerds. And between the Pope and Putin, this UNGA promises to be a very interesting one.
Here with me to break down what to expect at the UN in the coming weeks and how make sense of it all is Richard Gowan. We discuss the big stories, the overlooked stories, and political intrigue that will accompany the 70th UN General Assembly.
Gowan is a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and also with the Center on International Cooperation, where he was previously research director. He is a columnist for World Politics Review, which is sponsoring this episode.
World Politics Review provides uncompromising analysis of critical global trends to give policy makers, business people, and academics the context they need to have the confidence they want. The good people at World Politics Review are offering Global Dispatches Podcast listeners a two week free trial and then a 50% discount on an annual subscription. To redeem this offer go to about.worldpoliticsreview.com/dispatches
Elmira Bayrasli is the author of the new book "From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places." She is also the co founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted, which seeks to amplify the voice of female foreign policy experts-- and she's a former assistant to Madeleine Albright.
We kick off discussing the new book, which transitions nicely to a conversation about her experience growing up the child of Turkish immigrants and how she got her start working in foreign policy. If you are a regular listener to the podcast--thank you! Our community of listeners has been growing pretty dramatically in recent weeks, I think largely due to word of mouth--so thank you again for spreading the world. And As always, feel free to reach out to me via twitter @MarkLGoldberg or you can send me an email via GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com. And if you are new to the podcast, welcome! We post one of these longer interviews with foreign policy thought leaders every monday. Go to the website to check out our robust archives.Why do countries build fences and walls at their border and under what conditions are those walls and fences likely to work as intended? These questions are obviously topical right now, with the US-Mexico border a hot button issue in the US presidential election; and the Syrian refugee crisis dominating discussion the Europe
But fences and their effectiveness have largely remained off the radar of any rigorous academic study. Until now. In the most recent edition of the journal International Security, political scientists Ron Hassner and Jason Wittenberg of UC Berkeley compiled what is the first-ever dataset of what they called "fortified boundaries" constructed between countries since 1945. Ron Hassner is on the line with me to discusses their study and the implications of some of their key findings, including the fact that we are in the midst of a fortified boundary building boom and why the religion of a country seems to make a difference in whether or not the country decides to build a border fence.When Jina Moore was in Middle School she became intensely curious about the Holocaust, reading about everything she could on the subject. That curiosity improbably led a girl from a small town in West Virginia to become pen pals with the woman who hid Anne Frank.
These days, Jina is based in Nairobi, Kenya and is the the international women's rights correspondent for Buzzfeed, where she's covered key stories, including the ebola outbreak. On a personal note, she is someone whose reporting I've come to rely on to have a deeper and more textured understanding of important global issues. I love this episode and I think you will too. Her own story is just so fascinating and I encourage you to follow her work on Buzzfeed. As always, you can go to globaldispatchespodcast.com to peruse our archives where we have lots of great conversations like the one you are about to hear. You can also send me an email or hit me up on twitter @MarkLGoldberg; love hearing from you guys--keep the emails coming.The Syrian refugee crisis has finally made it to Europe's doorstep. Over the past several weeks, masses of refugees have made their way to southeastern Europe, mostly en route to Germany and other countries in northern Europe. After four years of conflict, the Syrian refugee crisis is suddenly a crisis for Europe.
Here with me to discuss the implications of this refugee flow is Ellen Laipson of the Stimson Center. We have a fascinating discussion about how the conflict in Syria and Iraq is manifesting itself on the streets of Europe and how the scale of the outmigration from the middle east to Europe resembles the wave of Irish escaping the potato famine to the USA in the 1850s
This episode is being brought to you by World Politics Review, which provides uncompromising analysis of critical global trends to give policy makers, business people, and academics the context they need to have the confidence they want. The good people at World Politics Review are offering Global Dispatches Podcast listeners a two week free trial and then a 50% discount on an annual subscription. To redeem this offer go to about.worldpoliticsreview.com/dispatches ; or click the link on GlobalDispacthesPodcast.com
My guest today, Juliana Barbassa is a journalist and the author of the new book Dancing with the Devil in the City of God: Rio di Janeiro on the Brink.
We have a great conversation about the current political upheaval in Brazil; how preparations for the 2016 summer Olympics are changing the character of Rio; and why corruption in Brazil's political system is seemingly so endemic. Juliana had a nomadic upbringing. She is Brazilian, but spent much of her childhood overseas in the middle east and Texas, where she developed a bug for journalism. We discuss her life and career, including her time covering key immigration debates in the USA in the 1990s and 2000s; and her writing of this interesting new book about Rio. If you want to learn more about the most important city in one of the most interesting countries on earth, have a listen.Earlier this week the UN Security Council did something it's never done before: it held a meeting specifically focusing on violence directed against LGBT people. The council called two witnesses, both of whom are gay men caught up in the conflict in the Middle East. The first witness was an Iraqi who spoke to the Council by phone. He spoke anonymously and from an undiclosed location because he was marked for death by ISIS.
The second witness was Subhi Nahas, a gay Syrian refugee now living in the USA. A day after addressing the Security Council, Subhi spoke with me. The episode you are about to hear is in two parts. First, you'll hear Subhi's story and how he fled Syria once Al Qaeda's affiliate, Jabat al-Nusra, took over his town. Next, you will hear from Neil Grungras, the founder of the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration, which happens to employ Subhi. Neil helps put the situation of LGBT refugees and asylum seekers in a broader global context. This is a powerful episode, and a profound reminder that marginalized communities deserve our support."Worm Wars" is shorthand for an ongoing scientific debate about the efficacy of de-worming programs; that is, programs supported by governments and non profits to stop the transmission of parasitic worms. This debate has become exceedingly heated in recent weeks after new research called into question old research about a key claim that de-worming programs increased school attendence. This largely academic debate offers key insights into the role of research in influencing international development and global health agendas. The debate gets very complicated, very quickly. Here to help me make sense of it all and explain its larger relevance to international development is my old pal Tom Murphy. Tom is a correspondant for the website Humanosphere and also the co-founder along with...me of DAWNS Digest.
There is a new ebola vaccine. And it works spectacularly well. A recent paper in the Lancet demonstrated of the 7,600 people in Guinea who received the vaccine, not one person contracted the virus. This 100% effectiveness rate is unheard of.
Dr. Jeremy Farrar is on the line to discuss the implications of this vaccine for the fight against ebola. He is a professor of tropical medicine and director of the Welcome Trust, a philanthropy that supports medical research. We discuss how the vaccine trial was conducted, how the results can be analyzed and what an effective vaccine might mean for the global fight against ebola. Dr. Farrar has also very prominently called for the creation of a global vaccine fund to spur the development and deployment of vaccines to counter fast emerging epidemics. And we have a lively conversation about this proposal.The FARC Insurgency in Colombia has been raging for fifty years. And now, after a long peace process, it may soon be coming to a formal end. But even though a peace deal may be signed, whether or not that results in a meaningful improvement for the lives of people in rural Colombia is a key determinant of whether or not peace can be sustained.
That is the argument of my guest James Bargent, a freelance journalist in Colombia who has a piece in World Politics Review discussing the prospect of a peace dividend in poor, rural outposts of Colombia over which FARC has historically exerted a great deal of influence. We have a very interesting conversation about the history of this insurgency, the peace process, the challenge of coca eradication and the complex relationship between impoverished farmers, FARC guerrillas and the government. This episode is being brought to you by World Politics Review, which provides uncompromising analysis of critical global trends to give policy makers, business people, and academics the context they need to have the confidence they want. The good people at World Politics Review are offering Global Dispatches Podcast listeners a two week free trial and then a 50% discount on an annual subscription. To redeem this offer go to about.worldpoliticsreview.com/dispatchesSouth Sudan is in a tailspin. On July 9, the country commemorated its 4th anniversary of independence but it was hardly a celebration. Since December 2013 the country has been in a freefall stemming from when a political dispute between President Salva kiir and his rival Riek Machar turned into open conflict and civil war. Millions have been forced from their homes, a famine might loom over the country, and there is no end in sight.
Here to help explain how things went so badly, so quickly for this young country is Rebecca Hamilton. She's the author of the book Fighting for Darfur and professor at Columbia University's Law School. Rebecca does a great job explaining the wider regional context of this conflict; and also showing how a government that was once championed by the USA fell out of favor with the Obama administration.Jessica Jackley co-founded Kiva and revolutionized micro-lending. Her new memoir Clay, Water, Brick tells the story of the founding of Kiva and her own personal journey from a religious family in Pittsburgh to becoming a successful social entrepreneur. This is a great conversation about personal development, entrepreneurship, starting Kiva--and then figuring out how to handle its explosive growth.
Also: a podcast milestone! Jessica, and her husband Reza Aslan, have become the first wife and husband team to appear independently on this show. My conversation with Reza is episode 64.This is a special bonus episode of Global Dispatches. Mark speaks with Prof Laura Seay about the implications of President Obama's decision to visit Ethiopia, and what it says about US policy toward Africa.
President Obama is visiting Kenya this week. This is his first trip to his father's country of birth since becoming president, and people in Kenya are certainly treating it like a homecoming.
Here with me to discuss the symbolic and political relevance of this historic trip is Wycliffe Muga, the Weekend Editor of the Star Newspaper in Kenya. Wycliffe and I have a rather lively conversation about what this trip means to ordinary Kenyans, what impact it might have on the Presidency of Uhuru Kenyatta (who recently had war crimes charges against him dropped by the International Criminal Court) and why Obama may disappoint some distant relatives from his father's family village. This is both a great curtain raiser to his trip. Muga it does a very good job of putting Obama's visit to Kenya in its proper context.The nuclear deal with Iran is essentially grand bargain: Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for a gradual easing of international and national sanctions. But as President Obama is fond of saying, the agreement is not based on trust. It's based on verification. And the entity responsbile for verifying Iran's compliance with the nuclear accord is the International Atomic Energency Agency. Here with me to discuss how the IAEA will go about this mission is Tom Colina, policy director of the Ploughshares fund. We discuss the diplomatic pressures under which the IAEA will operate and the technical tools at inspectors' disposal. We also discuss the personality of its executive director Yukia Amano, a Japanese diplomat who is suddenly one of the most important and consequential players in Middle East diplomacy (For those of you really interested in the history of the IAEA and also want more mechanics on how inspections work, I recommend you check out my April interview with Thomas Shea, a former IAEA nuclear weapons inspector. We recorded that interview just as the Framework Agreement, which lead to this final agreement, was being negotiated.)
Taking a break this week. Instead, I wanted to give you all an update on where things are going with the podcast. Let me know what you think.
A hugely consequential UN conference kicks off in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia next week. It has has not gotten a tremendous amount of media attention, but it is pretty big deal for most of the world. At the heart of this conference is one very big question: can the idealism embedded in principles of sustainable development actually be paid for? Who will pony up the funds? And how? The conference is officially called the "Third International Conference on Financing for Development" The decisions and announcements made at this conference will have a profound effect on whether or not the world can fulfill the promises of the Sustainable Development Goals, including eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. Here to put the conference in context, and explain what official and unofficial outcomes might look like is Minh-Thu Pham of the United Nations Foundation. We discuss the big points of convergence and contention between countries as they were negotiating the outcome document of this conference, and we have a deeper discussion of how this conference signals a profound shift away from thinking about international development as driven primarily by foreign aid. This conference has the potential to revolutionize how the international community, local stakeholders and the private sector implement the Sustainable Development Goals. It is the first of three big conferences in 2030 that will shape the international development and climate change agenda for a generation.
Anand Gopal's first book, "No Good Men Among the Living: America, The Taliban and The War through Afghan Eyes," was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize. And deservedly so. This book is easily one of the best and most important foreign policy books of the last decade and certainly the most enlightening book written about the Afghan War.
As its title suggests, Gopal offers a rarely seen perspective on the US-led intervention in Afghanistan by profiling individuals--both civilian and Taliban -- and by telling the story of shifting alliances in a region in southern Afghanistan.
Gopal discusses how he went about reporting these amazing stories; what compelled him to travel to Afghanistan on a whim in 2008; and how his complexion both helps and complicates his reporting in Afghanistan and in the Middle East. I think you can tell I was so thrilled to speak with Anand. If you have not already done so, definitely read his book. You'll look at the Afghan war--and perhaps even interventionism--in a totally different way.A panel of independent experts recently published an exhaustive and hotly awaited report on the future of UN Peacekeeping The panel was lead by Jose Ramos Horta, the Nobel Laureate and former president of East Timor--a country where peacekeeping played a key role in its turbulent early ears.
The report was a pretty big deal in UN circles. Its release provides a good inflection point to discuss UN peacekeeping, the big challenges it faces, and how current trends in global security are going to force the UN to adapt.
My guest today, Richard Gowan, is a columnist at World Politics review and an editor of the Global Peace Operations review. He is one of my favorite UN pundits and I am thrilled to have him back on the podcast to discuss this new report and all things UN Peacekeeping. UN and peacekeeping nerds will love this one.
This episode is sponsored by World Politics Review, which provides uncompromising analysis of critical global trends to give policy makers, business people, and academics the context they need to have the confidence they want. The good people at World Politics Review are offering Global Dispatches Podcast listeners a two week free trial and then a 50% discount on an annual subscription. To redeem this offer go to about.worldpoliticsreview.com/dispatches.
Stephen Morrison is the Senior Vice President and Director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He's had a long and fascinating career working on development, human rights and health issues around the world. His PhD work focused on the political economy of countries that bordered apartheid South Africa and spend much of the 1980s and 1990s working on African issues in Congress and for the clinton administration. We discuss the origins of the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict, and his experiences working in the Horn of Africa during a pretty turbulent time. Later, he started USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives and served in Bosnia during the height of the civil war, where he had a few very close calls... Enjoy!
The UN Charter turns 70 years old on June 26. This is the founding treaty that created the United Nations and in this episode you will learn the fascinating and legitimately entertaining history of that document and of the 1945 San Francisco Conference that produced it.
Ban Ki Moon and a number of international dignitaries are visiting San Francisco this week to commemorate the occasion, so I caught up with the writer Stephen Schlesinger, author of Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations who tells some great stories about the ideas, inspirations and personalities that created the document we now know as the United Nations Charter.
This conversation is in part a historiography of the UN Charter and a history of the San Francisco Conference. You’ll learn the odd reason why San Francisco was picked to host the conference; hear the curious etymology of the term “The United Nations”; and learn some of the big drama that unfolded as delegates tried to put the final touches on the charter. At one point, you’ll even picture Winston Churchill in the buff (it’s an important part of the story. Trust me!)
UN nerds, history aficionados and international affairs enthusiasts will love this episode.
Paula Dobriansky served as Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs for pretty much the entire George W Bush administration. Prior to that she served in the Bush 41, Reagan and Carter administrations in various foriegn policy capacities. And prior to that she was a Sovietologist studying at Harvard. She's now back at Harvard, and reflects on her time in government. We kick off with a discussion about the situation in Ukraine and then have a longer discussion about some fun highlights of her long career.
Earlier this month, the African Union held a summit in South Africa. Among the attendees was Omar al Bashir, the president of Sudan. This was somewhat surprising because Bashir is wanted on charges of war crimes and genocide by the International Criminal Court. And South Africa, as a member of the ICC, is treaty bound to arrest fugitives like Bashir.
But South African authorities did not arrest him. So a local human rights group pressed their case in a South African court, which issued an injunction ordering Bashir to stay put pending the resolution of the case. That's when things got weird. With the complicity of the South African government Bashir was allowed to escape the country. He's now back in Sudan. And on the line with me to discuss what exactly happened and what the consequences might be for the ICC and its relationship with African governments is Mark Kersten. He's the creator of the excellent Justice in Conflict blog and a researcher focusing on the ICC.It was a year ago this week that the Iraqi city of Mosul--the second largest city in country--fell to ISIS. The loss of Mosul sparked a re-examination of US policy toward Iraq and ISIS. And just this week, the White House announced that it was sending over 400 military advisers to an Iraqi base that is on the front lines of the fight. On the line with me to discuss the evolution of US strategy to counter ISIS in Iraq is Dr. Steven Metz. He does a very good job articulating that the White House is betting on a strategy of containment--and that this is probably their best option even though they wont publicly admit as such. Metz describes what this strategy looks like; and identifies the big drawbacksof this strategy
Metz is a columnist for World Politics Review, which is sponsoring this episode. The good people at World Politics Review are offering Global Dispatches Podcast listeners a two week free trial and then a 50% discount on an annual subscription. To redeem this offer go to about.worldpoliticsreview.com/dispatches.
The Chagos Archipelago is a group of islands situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean. You may have heard of the largest of these Islands, Diego Garcia, because it is home to a strategically important US military base. However, the story of how this base came to being is rather sordid. And the plight of the thousands of inhabitents who were expelled from their homeland to make room for this base is utterly tragic. Today's episode is a little different than what you may be used to from a typical monday episode of Global Dispatches Podcast. I have two guests today--each bringing a different perspective to one vastly overlooked affront to human rights that has been ongoing for the last 50 years. I first speak with David Vine an associate professor at American University and author of a book about the Chagossian exile called Island of Shame. We discuss the history of Diego Garcia, why the US military considers the base is so strategically important, and what's become of the Chagossian population since their expulsion. Next I speak with Olivier Bancoult, who at the age of 4 was banished from his homeland. Like many Chagossians, he now lives in Mauritius. He tells me his life story and we have an absolutely fascinating and somewhat tragic conversation about how a people who have been banished from their homeland adapt and find ways to preserve their cultural heritage.
What's the relationship between air conditioning, air temperature and income levels? In other words, at what income level and in what climate zones do people opt to purchase A/C? The answer to these questions could have a profound implication on the quality of life of people in the developing world and also seriously strain fragile energy grids and contribute significantly to global carbon emissions. But the question was not seriously studied...until now. On the line is Lucas Davis who is co-author with his University of California colleague Paul Gertler of a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that examines the relationship between climate, income and air conditioning in Mexico. What they find is both fascinating on its own and also deeply consequential to discussions about international development and climate change in other warm and rapidly developing countries (think India, which is currently in the midst of a heatwave). This is a very interesting study of a niche topic with exceedingly profound implications--all of which are discussed in this episode!
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a journalist and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who in April published the book Ashley's War, which tells the story of a group of female soldiers who accompanied special forces during missions in Afghanistan. In this conversation, Mark and Gayle discuss how these units were created and take a deep dive into the history of the role of women in the US military. Gayle has had a very interesting career as a journalist and as an MBA who studied entrepreneurship in the developing world. We discuss some of her big scoops and how she became so attracted to Afghanistan. Enjoy! This was an interesting conversation. As always, feel free to send me an email via GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com or hit me up on twitter with your suggestions of people to interview or topics to cover.
Here's a statistic that may surprise you: most foreign aid does not go to the poorest countries on earth. In fact, only about 30% of official development assistance from donor governments goes to the 47 least developed countries in the world. Why is that the case? What would be a more appropriate ratio of foreign aid to the poorest countries on earth? And what could these countries be doing to raise their own domestic sources of revenue so they are not as dependent on foreign aid?
On the line with me to discuss these questions and more is Sara Harcourt of the One Campaign, which recently released a comprehensive report that crunches some of the data on foreign assistance and makes the case that more aid should be directed to the poorest countries, and that developing countries as a whole need to commit a greater proportion of their own GDP to health and education. If you are into data and global development--and who isnt?--you'll love this episode.A dangerous game of human pingpong is underway in the Adaman Sea between Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Thousands of Rohingya, a Muslim minority primarily from Myanmar, are adrift at sea. Not only is no country taking them in, but Navies have pushed back boats that have made it into harbor.
It is a wretched situation of almost unconscionable cruelty. And at the center of it all are human trafficking gangs who operate modern day slave camps from the jungles of Thailand. On the line today to discuss the Rohingya refugee-at-sea crisis is Sornata Reynolds of Refugees International. She discusses why discrimination and persecution of this group in Myanmar is the root cause of the crisis, and why the policies of neighboring countries like Bangladesh are making it work. She describes how criminal gangs sell these vulnerable people into slavery and what the international community--including you and I --can do to stop this situation from getting worse.
Jean-Marie Guéhenno is the president of the International Crisis Group and long serving head of UN Peacekeeping. He comes from an interesting background--his father was a well known French intellectual whose experience in World War I made him a pacifist. In this episode, Guéhenno discusses his experiences as the top French foreign policy planning official during the fall of the Berlin Wall; what it was like have Kofi Annan interview you for a job; and the future challenges facing international peacekeeping.
Guéhenno is out with a new book that details these experiences and more. The Fog of Peace: A Memoir of International Peacekeeping in the 21st century was published this month by Brookings Press. Guéhenno is a true scholar practitioner. This is a great episode.
Burundi is in the midst of a deepening political crisis that has many observers extremely worried about the prospects of mass violence. Dozens of people have been killed and tens of thousands of people have fled in recent weeks. At time of publication, there's been a reported coup attempt.
Journalist Jonathan Rosen is on the line from Kigali, Rwanda where he is reporting on the evolving situation. He explains the roots of the conflict, its proximate causes, and makes a compelling case that the main sources of tension are political and not ethnic. Still, given its bloody history the prospects of ethnic violence are not at all remote. If you have 20 minutes and want a deep and textured understanding of the crisis, why it matters for international relations, and what can be done to mitigate it, have a listen to this interview.
This episode is brought to you by World Politics Review. The online magazine is offering Global Dispatches Podcast listeners a two week free trial and 50% off the price of an annual subscription. Go to http://about.worldpoliticsreview.com/dispatches/ to redeem this offer.
Reza Aslan is arguably the most influential scholar of religion in America today. He's best known for mixing it up with the likes of Bill Maher and explaining the basics of the academic study of religion to ignorant Fox News hosts. His books "Zealot" about Jesus and "No God But God" about Islam were both best sellers. In this episode Reza recounts his family's escape from Iran during the Revolution and tells the story of his conversion to evangelical Christianity in high school. Reza and host Mark Leon Goldberg talk the academic study of religion, religious experiences and rituals. Reza describes how 9-11 inadvertently thrust him into the limelight; and how "new atheists" get religion wrong. This is a great episode with lots of wonky academic study of religion talk.
The advent of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, sometimes called a Chinese-led rival to the World Bank, is one of the most genuinely interesting developments in global affairs. Thought not yet operational, it is being formed despite the strong opposition of the USA. The creation of the AIIB, with many US allies joining as founding partners, reflects the rise of China, waning American global influence, the declining relevance of international institutions created after World War Two, and the ways in which political polarization in the USA is influencing global affairs. Or does it? Scott Morris of the Center for Global Development is on the line to discuss the the new bank and why it matters to international development and international relations. This is a super interesting conversation about a key development in global affairs.
Albina du Boisrouvray is a French countess who sold her family heirlooms to start an anti poverty NGO. She was born into one of the wealthiest families in the world and was a successful film producer when her son, a rescue pilot, died in an helicopter accident in Mali. She then sold most of her possessions and devoted her fortune to fighting AIDS and extreme poverty. Her NGO, FXB International, uses an unconventional and holistic approach to fighting poverty village by village. In this episiode, Albina discusses her truly unique life story and describes why the methodology that FXB has used to uplift communities has been so successful. Albina's story is wild, heartfelt and inspiring.
Two years ago, I asked a top UN expert in disaster to describe the one scenario that keeps him up at night. Without hesitation he said that an intense earthquake in Kathamndu would be a monumental catastrophe that could kill as many as 250,000 to 400,000 people. He was not alone in this estimation. I'd heard humanitarian relief workers say the same thing.
On Saturday, April 25 a massive earthquake struck Nepal. And while the damage and destruction is immense and tragic, it was not the cataclysm he predicted. Why was that? How was this nightmare scenario avoided?
This week, I caught back up with that same expert, Jo Scheuer of the United Nations Development Program, as he was on his way to Nepal to survey the damage. In the conversation below, he explains how a combination of good luck and preparation helped to limit the scale of the destruction. He further describes the lessons Nepal's experience can teach the international community about how to invest in sustainable development that takes into account a region's risk for natural disaster.
This is obviously a timely conversation for the fact that we focus on the events in Nepal. But the long term lessons of what happened are also exceedingly important to the international development community and beyond. Have a listen.
Fareed Zakaria shares stories about his upbringing in India and the influence of his die-hard pro-American mother and Indian nationalist father. He discusses his intellectual journey from a middle class childhood in India to getting getting a PHD at Harvard and becoming the editor of Foreign Affairs magazine at the age of 28. This is a great exploration of the intellectual development of one of the most prominent and oft-cited global affairs analysts of his generation. Fareed Zakaria is out with a new book, "In Defense of a Liberal Education" in which he writes a full throated paean to the values and virtues of the liberal arts. Mark and Fareed kick off with a discussion about his new book before discussing Fareed's own education, his family history and the big turning points of his life and career. Enjoy!
An earthquake in Katmandu may become one of the terrible natural disasters of our era.
In 2013, I spoke with Jo Scheuer of the United Nations Development Program. He is an expert in disaster risk reduction so I asked him what disaster scenario keeps him up at night? Without hesitating he said that an earthquake in Katmandu Valley could bring death and destruction even worse than the Haiti earthquake. He was sure an earthquake would strike — and that the international community was racing the clock to prepare for it. He explained why that region is so vulnerable and what the UN, the local government and international NGOs were doing to mitigate the risk.
Humanity is winning the fight against Malaria, but we still have a long way to go. Since the advent of the Global Fund, the Millennium Development Goals and the President's Malaria Initiative, death and illness rates have dropped precipitously around the globe. Now, talk of total worldwide eradication is not as preposterous as it may seem. This is the message that Martin Edlund of Malaria No More has for the policy community ahead of World Malaria Day on April 25. Despite the progress, though, he argues that there are still big challenges ahead -- particularly the spread of drug resistant Malaria in the Mekong Delta. This is a great episode for anyone who wants to learn why a disease that haunted humanity for millennia is now on the ropes.
Juliette Kayyem is a practitioner and scholar of security studies. She's a former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, civil right attorney, Harvard Professor and self described "security mom." She even recently ran for governor of Massachusetts. In this episode, Kayyem discusses growing up the daughter of Lebanese immigrants in California and how she transitioned from civil rights law to terrorism and national security issues. Juliette Kayyem is also now a podcaster!
This is a great conversation with someone who has had a varied and distinguished career in public service.
When the Yarmouk refugee camp outside Damascus was overrun by ISIS, a bad situation got much worse. Ban Ki moon called it "the deepest circle of hell" and UN humanitarian agencies are struggling to help people escape from the encampment. On the line to discuss these efforts is Richard Wright of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is a humanitarian agency for Palestinian refugees in the middle east. Wright relays the current situation in Yarmouk, describes the UN's ongoing efforts to navigate between warring factions and the government, and tells the story of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who have been caught up in the Syrian civil war.
Yemen is the latest country in the region to collapse. Shi'ite rebels have taken control of much of the country and Saudi Arabia has launched a military campaign to re-install the ousted government. It's a complex mess, with regional rivalries and local grievances overlaid with sectarian strife. ISIS and al Qaeda are getting in the game, too. If present trends continue the situation could reach Syrian levels of depravity.
On the line today to discuss the underlying causes of the conflict, help understand the exact nature of Iran's role in this crisis, and recommend ways that Yemen can avoid a death spiral is April Longley Alley of the International Crisis Group. If you have 15 minutes and want a textured understanding of what's happening in Yemen--and why--have a listen.
Caryl Stern is the president and CEO of the United States Fund for UNICEF. This is the big fundraising arm (think "trick or treat for UNICEF") of one of the most important humanitarian organizations in the world. Caryl Stern's mother escaped the Holocaust at a young age and that experience loomed large over her childhood and eventual career trajectory. In this episode, Mark and Caryl discuss UNICEF's work and funding streams, the role of philanthropy in international development and how a woman with no background in international development became the leader of a $670 million international philanthropy.
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are going to play a critical role in any final deal with Iran. But who are these inspectors? What do they do? What can't they do? Mark speaks with former IAEA inspector Thomas Shea who offers a grounds-eye view of what a robust inspection regime looks like. Dr. Shea also puts the potential inspections of Iran's program in the broader context of the IAEA's history of its work on behalf of international peace and security. We don't yet know what the Iran nuclear deal might look like. But if a deal is struck, the IAEA will be the lynchpin that holds it all together. This episode gives you an excellent perspective of how these inspections actually work.
Victor Ochen grew up in displaced persons camps in Northern Uganda, fleeing from the Lord's Resistance Army. He emerged from that difficult situation to become a civic leader and peacemaker. And this year, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of war crimes victims in Uganda. Victor and Mark are old friends, and Victor opens up about growing up in a war zone, losing a brother, and becoming a self-taught social entrepreneur. This is one of the best episodes of Global Dispatches yet.
Nigerians go to the polls on March 28 in consequential elections that could decide the future of Africa's largest democracy. Incumbent Goodluck Jonathan is facing a tight race with Muhammdu Buhari. Security, Boko Haram and a slugging economy are all dominating the campaigns. Meanwhile, Boko Haram and fear of election related violence abounds. Mark speaks with journalist Dayo Olopade about the significance of the elections, what ordinary Nigerians are thinking when they go to the polls, and why fears of violence may be overblown. If you have 15 minutes and want a sophisticated take on elections in one of the world's largest democracies, have a listen.
Jessica Stern was a mid level National Security Council staffer when Hollywood literally came calling. Nicole Kidman portrayed a fictionalized version of her work as a nuclear security analyst in the Clinton White House in the film "The Peacemaker" (also starring George Clooney). Stern's academic and professional life have taken some interesting turns. In the 2000s she published groundbreaking research on what motivates individuals to commit violent acts of terror, and she did so by speaking to actual terrorists. Stern recently published a new book called ISIS: State of Terror that takes a deep dive into the historic origins of the so-called Islamic State. This is a great episode with fun and fascinating stories from a long time national security wonk. Enjoy.
Benjamin Netanyahu secured a substantial victory in the Israel's elections this week. The consequences of this right wing victory will be profound both for Israeli politics and the prospects for a negotiated two state solution (which just became much dimmer).
On the line to discuss what happened in Israel and how it will affect Israel's future and the peace process is Joel Brunold of the Alliance for Middle East Peace. Brunold is an astute observer of Knesset politics and a powerful voice for an enduring peace between Palestinians and Israelis. He breaks down the election results and explains precisely how this will damage the Two State Solution. With the peace process stalled, Brunold offers one idea imported from Northern Ireland that supporters of the Two State Solution may rally around.
If you have 15 minutes and want to understand what happened in Israel and what it means for the peace process, have a listen
Todd Moss is a true international development wonk. He's also the author of a critically acclaimed novel--a thriller called The Golden Hour that examines the dysfunction of the American foreign policy bureaucracy through riveting storytelling. In this episode, Moss discusses how fiction can be a useful tool for examining real-world truths about how US foreign policy is made. Moss also discusses his unique path from studying stock markets in West Africa to becoming a novelist, which includes stints at the World Bank and State Department. He has not quit his day job, though. Todd studies trade and economics of west Africa from his perch at the Center for Global Development while writing sequels to his novel. This is a fun episode that will satisfy policy nerds and fiction lovers a-like.
Guinea Worm eradication is near. Guinea Worm is a waterborne disease that affects only the poorest of the poor people on the planet. But after millennia of inflicting pain and suffering in Asia and Africa, the disease is tantalizingly close to being wiped off the face of the earth. 30 years ago there were millions of cases worldwide. In 2014, there were just 126. This decline is thanks in large part to Jimmy Carter and the the work of the Carter Center, which launched a Global Eradication Program in the 1980s. On the line today is Adam Weiss of the Carter Center who discusses Guinea Worm Disease, how its transmitted, how this amazing decline has occurred, and what needs to be done to eradicate it once and for all.
The ebola crisis demonstrated that countries with very weak health care systems are extremely vulnerable to a preventable disease outbreak. Now that the crisis is on the wane, organizations are taking stock of how to build better health systems--the nuts and bolts of how people access the care they need. To that end, Save the Children released a new report this week that ranks 72 poor countries based on the relative strength of their overall health system. Mark speaks with CEO Carolyn Miles about the new Health Access Index, what countries can do to move up it, and why universal healthcare for people in the developing world is a perfectly achievable goal. This is Miles' second appearance on the podcast. In episode 16 she tells Mark about her remarkable life story and career path that lead her to Save the Children.
Sarah Margon is the Washington director of Human Rights Watch. She's spent her career fighting for human rights in Africa and beyond, but took a somewhat circuitous path to get there. In this episode, Margon recounts a recent trip to Iraq to investigate abuses by militias aligned with the Iraqi Army; discusses her relationship with her former boss, Senator Russ Feingold; and describes how she landed a key post with Human Rights Watch.
How good are the data that drives international development policies? It turns out, not that great. This week's episode comes in two parts. In part 1, Mark speaks with Morten Jerven, author of "Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do about it?" who offers an excellent overview of the situation. Next, Mark speaks with one person who is actively trying to solve this problem in one discreet way. Mayra Buvinich is a senior fellow with the United Nations Foundation who helped start Data2X, which is a collaboration that seeks to improve the quality of data and statistics about women and girls in the developing world.
Sri Lankans stunned the world--and probably themselves--when they voted to oust a quasi-autocrat from power. In January, a politician named Maithripali Sirisena engineered a surprise electoral upset against Mahinda Rajapaksa, an authoritarian and probable war criminal whose family long held a tight grip on power. In this episode, human rights lawyer and political scientist Kate Cronin-Furman explains how this upset occurred, what it might mean for other quasi-dictators around the world, and how this move might effect ethnic Tamils' long quest for justice and accountability for crimes against humanity.
Leila Zerrougui is the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. It's her job to help free child soldiers and ensure that children are spared from the worst effects of war and conflict. In this episode, Zerrougui describes how she recently helped secure the release of child soldiers in South Sudan and reflects on her work to protect children around the world. Zerrougui was born in conflict: she grew up in Algeria during the war for independence and served as a juvenile court judge during Algeria's civil war in the 1980s and 1990s before moving to a career with the United Nations. This is a great conversation.
There is a tragedy unfolding in the Mediterranean sea. Migrants trying to reach an Italian island off the coast of Libya are dying by the boatload, and Europe is turning a blind eye. Just this week, the UN Refugee Agency estimated that over 300 people have died already this year taking this perilous journey. Meanwhile, an Italian search and rescue operation that saved thousands of people last year has been shelved. John Dalhuisen of Amnesty International is on the line to discuss this crisis, what Europe and Italy could be doing to stop it, what is compelling these migrants to make this dangerous journey, and why this ongoing tragedy is about to get much worse.
The measles outbreak in the United States is an aberration. Since 2000, measles cases have declined substantially around the world thanks to a worldwide effort known as the Measles and Rubella Initiative. Its goal is to eliminate measles all together by 2020. But is that realistic? And what would that entail? Mark speaks with epidemiologist Dr. Rebecca Martin of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who puts the US outbreak in a global context. She discusses why epidemiologists are so concerned about the American outbreak; what accounts for the overall decline globally; and what needs to be done to reach that 2020 target.
Ambassador Susan Jacobs is the Special Advisor for Children's Issues at the State Department. She has the distinction of being the first sitting US government official to be Mark's guest. Ambassador Jacobs describes her office's work on inter-country adoptions and custody disputes and when these issues rise to the level of high diplomacy. Ambassador Jacobs was one of the very first married women to be allowed to enter the US foreign service. She discusses what it took to break that barrier as she entered a long and distinguished career--including a stint at the US ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. It's a lively discussion with a foreign service pro. Enjoy!
The Boko Haram insurgency is intensifying precisely as Nigerians prepare to go the polls in hotly contested elections. Earlier this month, the group pulled off their deadliest attack to date (though the media was consumed by the Charlie Hebdo attacks). So why is Boko Haram stepping up their attacks now? What effect might it have on the prospects of another term in office for President Goodluck Jonathan? What can the international community do to help beat back this insurgency? And what are the other big campaign issues on the table in Africa's largest democracy? Alexander Thurston of Georgetown University answers these questions and more.
Trita Parsi is the founder of the National Iranian American Council. He tells Mark the story of his family's escape from Iran to Sweden during the revolution, and how he eventually came to Washington, D.C. Parsi is a scholar, activist, and media personality who has written extensively on middle east affairs.In this episode, he discusses some of the domestic barriers to a nuclear deal facing Iranian moderates; his amazing personal story; and how he came to found America's only organization dedicated to the political mobilization of Iran's diaspora in the USA.
President Obama visits India this week. This means that for the first time in history, a US President will visit India twice while in office. Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institute discusses the symbolic importance and concrete policy outcomes that this trip may bring. She argues that Obama's decision to travel to India for its Republic Day celebrations could lift a profound psychological barrier that has prevented closer ties between the world's two largest democracies. Have a listen!
In September delegates at the United Nations will decide upon a set of Sustainable Development Goals to replace the Millennium Development Goals, which are expiring. The SDGs will almost certainly set an audacious goal: to totally of eradicate extreme poverty by 2015. Is that even possible? And what will it take to get there? In this episode, host Mark Leon Goldberg gets two distinct perspectives on the substance and process behind the Sustainable Development Goals. First up is John McArthur of the Brookings Institution and United Nations Foundation who discusses the big picture of why we need a common international development agenda. Next is Amina Mohammad, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General in charge of spearheading the UN system around setting these goals. This is a great episode, published in conjunction with a day of social media action to raise awareness about the SDGs and big stakes ahead in 2015.
2015 will be a big year for the United Nations. Richard Gowan of New York University and host Mark Leon Goldberg discuss the debates, events, and ideas that are going to drive the agenda at the United Nations this year. Some of these are predictable (Syria!) others probably under the radar, but will still shape international diplomacy in the coming year. If you are interested in learning what will make ambassadors and diplomats sweat in Turtle Bay in the coming few months, have a listen.
This is a special edition of Global Dispatches Podcast for the holidays! Leave me a voicemail at 202 780 5166 and tell me what book about the world inspired you the most? What book shaped your worldview or informed how you understand international relations, foreign policy or world affairs? Leave me a message at the number above or click on the widget on GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com and I will play your answer on a future episode of the podcast.
Pope Francis and the Vatican played a key role in brokering the historic resumption of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States. This was high diplomacy, Vatican style. Father Thomas Reese of the National Catholic Reporter walks through the play-by-play that lead to the Pope playing a central role in the USA-Cuba deal. He also discusses the Vatican's robust history of diplomacy and the unique role of the Vatican's veritable clerical army of skilled diplomats. It's a fascinating discussion about the Vatican's specific role in the Cuba-USA detente and the international relations of the Holy See.
Aaron David Miller has been at the center of nearly every major Arab-Israeli peace initiative since the late 1980s. The historian and Middle East expert discusses what drew him to study the politics of the Middle East and US foreign policy. Miller and host Mark Leon Goldberg have an extended conversation about Israeli politics, what has made Israeli leaders seek peace in the past, and what can be done to set American policy in the region on a better course. You'll learn a lot from this episode!
Time Magazine named Ebola Fighters as their 2014 Persons of the Year. Mark spoke with one of these health care workers, Dr. Joia Mukherjee of Partners in Health, literally as she was en route to Sierra Leone. They discuss why ebola cases are on the decline in Liberia, but not seemingly in Sierra Leone; why the fear of ebola is still much deadlier than the disease itself; why we need to invoke human rights language into any discussion about health care disparities in poor countries; and what lessons the international community needs to draw from this outbreak. This was a powerful, informative and exceedingly timely conversation with an experienced frontline healthcare worker.
Dr. Samantha Nutt is the founder of War Child, a group that assists children and their families in conflict affected countries around the world. Prior to founding War Child, Samantha Nutt was a humanitarian worker and researcher in places like Somalia, Burundi and Iraq. She pioneered a kind of gender study in war zones and her research on the deleterious humanitarian effects of economic sanctions is partly why there are so few countries currently under sanction these days. She tells some interesting (if harrowing) stories. It's a great episode!
Delegates from around the world are in Lima, Peru for the latest round of international climate talks, known as "COP20." The climate change conference is not getting a tremendous amount of media attention, but it's tremendously important. Mark speaks with Eliot Diringer of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions about the big issues on the table, the big points of contention, and how these talks might move the needle towards an internationally binding climate accord. These talks are a big deal. Here's what you need to know about the diplomacy of it all.
The journalist Howard French spent a career covering West Africa and China for the New York Times. He stumbled into journalism somewhat accidentally while living in the Ivory Coast and has reported from the Liberian civil war, conflict in DR Congo, and covered social upheavals in China. Now out with a book about China's complex relationship with Africa, Howard sits down with Mark to discuss his unique path to become one of America's most respected journalists and observers of West Africa. Have a listen!
The USA and Iran may remake the geopolitics of the Middle East with a successful outcome of a nuclear deal. Failure to reach a nuclear agreement between the USA and Iran will come with its own set of profound consequences. I speak with Alireza Nader of the Rand Corporation about the regional and global implications of both failure and success in reaching a nuclear deal with Iran. We discuss the potential shifting of alliances in the Middle East, how a detente between the USA and Iran may affect the conflict in Syria, and how Saudi Arabia may respond to a diplomatic breakthrough. Have a listen.
Kori Schake is a Republican foreign policy advisor who served in various positions in the George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations before joining the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008. Now ensconced in academia, she is working on a book about American foreign policy in the 19th Century. She discusses being mentored by Condoleezza Rice, her regrets about the Iraq War, and why she became a Republican. It's an interesting conversation with a thoughtful critic of my general worldview. Enjoy!
The Rohingya are a religious and ethnic minority in Myanmar that faces horrid abuse and discrimination by Burmese authorities. As the politics of Myanmar lurches toward representative democracy, this group is still excluded from sharing even basic rights of citizenship. Even the lauded Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is shamefully silent about their situation. On the eve of President Obama's second visit to Myanmar, Mark speaks with Matthew Smith of the human rights group Fortify Rights about the plight of the Rohingya and what the international community can do to improve human rights in Myanmar as it opens up to the world.
Tom Hart was at the center of the biggest international development debates of the last 15 years. Now serving as the US Director of the ONE Campaign, Hart lobbied for forgiving the debt of the world's poorest countries in the late 1990s, and in the early 2000s he helped pass the world's largest program to combat HIV/AIDS. In this episode. Hart tells the genesis story of the Jubilee Campaign, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. And "Genesis" is apt--Tom grew up in Alaska the son of an Episcopal minister and became the Washington, D.C. lobbyist for the Episcopal church. It's a very interesting story, accessible and interesting for wonks and non-wonks alike.
The foreign policy implications of the U.S. midterms could be profound. How might Republican control of the U.S. Senate affect the on-going and sensitive nuclear negotiations with Iran? How would it impact President Obama's Foreign Affairs budget requests, and what does the election results say about foreign policy debates within the Republican party? Here with me to discuss these questions and more is Boston Globe columnist Michael Cohen of The Century Foundation. Enjoy (or not, depending on your political preference!)
Erica Chenoweth is a pioneering academic whose ground breaking study on strategic non-violence demonstrated that movements that use non-violent tactics when fighting for the over-through of a regime are twice as likely to succeed as movements that use violence as a tactic. Her book, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Non-Violence, co-authored with Maria J. Stephan, provides an authoritative study of how and when non-violent movements succeed in their goals of overthrowing a regime. Chenoweth discusses her book, some of the current movements she is studying and tells Mark how growing up in Dayton, Ohio to helped propel her to a career in international relations.
The ebola outbreak and its importation to the United States has unleashed a wave of panic in the United States that reveals the paucity of Americans' knowledge and understanding of Africa. I speak with Laura Seay of Colby College and the Washington Post who is one of America's premier Africanists. She discusses how ignorance breeds discrimination and policy responses that undermine the effort to contain the ebola outbreak in West Africa. Americans don't know much about Africa or African geography--and that is hurting the country's ability to stop ebola at its source.
The Millennium Development Goals are expiring in 2015 and they will be replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals. This is a big year for international development--and humanity -- as complex diplomacy is underway at the United Nations to finalize what's called the "Post 2015 Development Agenda."
Here with me to discuss the process of creating the Sustainable Development Goals, the substance of those goals and the key points of contention is Minh Thu Pham of the United Nations Foundation. This is a super helpful discussion for anyone who cares about international development, global do gooder and diplomacy. Have a listen!
For the first time in the history of the world, a sitting head of state is attending his trial for crimes against humanity. The head of state is Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta. The venue is the International Criminal Court. The stakes are high, but the case against him is troubled. Mark speaks with Mark Kersten of the LSE and SOAS, and author of the blog Justice in Conflict about the case against Kenyatta. They discuss its significance the ICC, and why it's exceedingly difficult to build a case against a serving head of state.
Scott Guggenheim is the most influential development expert that you've never heard of. The writer Rebecca Hamilton sits in for Mark today and interviews Guggenheim about his pioneering model of community driven economic development. This model has critics, but it was proven effective -- of all places -- in Afghanistan in the height of the insurgency. Guggenheim tells Hamilton how this model works, how he came up with it, his friendship with Ashraf Ghani, and his career as a maverick World Banker.
Somaly Mam is on the line today. She is the Cambodian anti-sex trafficking activist who came to prominence a few years ago as celebrities in the west rallied around her and her organization. That all came crashing down this year when Newsweek published a cover story calling into question the credibility of her amazing personal story, which includes escaping from the sex trade herself. She was ousted from the organization that bears her name and was tarnished by some of her closest allies. Then, in September, Marie Claire published an article calling into question some of the claims of that Newsweek takedown, suggesting that key details were incorrect.
So what is the real story? I don't know. The point of this interview was not to engage in a back and forth with Somaly about whether or not she fabricated claims about past. Rather, I was interested in learning what she is up to now, and how this controversy has affected her personally and her work rescuing girls from the sex trade. To be honest, I'm not sure I succeeded. It was a tough interview. I'll let you decide. Please feel free to direct your criticisms and critiques (or, if you like it, your approbation) of this interview to me personally, via @MarkLGoldberg
The Security Council will hold an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday, chaired by President Obama, dedicated to stemming the flow of foreign fighters to the Syrian battlefield. The meeting demonstrates that the United States believes the United Nations has an important role to play in the global fight against terrorism. But what, exactly, does that mean? Here to discuss the Security Council meeting and the UN's evolving involvement on terrorism issues (including its strengths and weaknesses) is Naureen Chowdhury Fink of the Global Center on Cooperative Security.
Hundreds of world leaders are descending on the United Nations for a one day meeting on climate change. This is a big deal for the United Nations, for diplomacy, and possibly for the planet. So who is showing up and what countries are snubbing the conference? What will be discussed? And how will this affect ongoing negotiations to construct an internationally binding climate change agreement? Mark speaks with Elliot Diringer of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions who helps put this historic meeting at the United Nations in the larger context of international climate change diplomacy. This is a very useful conversation for understanding the diplomatic contours of arguably the single most important issue facing humanity today.
Ruth Messinger cut her teeth in New York City politics. She was a long serving member of the city council and one-time candidate for Mayor. She made the move from municipal politics to global affairs when she became the head of the American Jewish World Service, an international development and advocacy organization. Ruth tells Mark about growing up in New York, running for office, and making the switch to international issues. They kick off with a discussion about the work of the AJWS around the world.
The Central African Republic is far from the headlines these days, which is unfortunate. Things are bad, but there's a potential that the situation may improve in the coming weeks as the current African Union-led peacekeeping force is formally "re-hatted" as a United Nations peacekeeping force. Mark speaks with Evan Cinq-Mars of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect about the situation in CAR and what the transition to a UN Peacekeeping mission may mean for the people of this conflict-plagued country.
It looks increasingly likely that the United States will expand its military operations against ISIS to Syria. Mark speak with William McCants of the Brookings Institution about the prospects and pitfalls of a US-led international military campaign against the Islamic State in Syria. They also discuss the role of another Islamist rebel group, al Nusra, in Syria's conflict and what might befall about 40 UN Peacekeepers in the Golan who were abducted by this group. Have a listen!
In many ways, the fear of ebola is more deadly and consequential than the virus itself. Jina Moore of BuzzFeed just returned from a reporting trip to Liberia where she detailed how the outbreak is transfixing Liberian society and politics. Moore is one of the best global beat reports in the game and her dispatches from Liberia are must-reads for anyone who wants a deeper texture and analysis of ebola's toll on a frontline state. Have a listen.
Hi all-
No interview this week. Rather, after 30 longform interviews I thought it was a good time to take a quick break and update you all on where I want to take this podcast.
South Sudan is quite possibly on the verge of famine. The conflict that erupted in December shows little signs of abating. The peace process is halting and in the meantime the humanitarian situation is growing precipitously worse. Mark speaks with Tariq Riebl, Oxfam's South Sudan country director about the humanitarian situation in South Sudan and what can be done to avert a possible famine.
The United Nations released a grave warning this week that some 1,500 women have been captured as sex slaves by the Sunni extremist group that is rampaging through parts of Iraq and Syria. Mark speaks with Zainab Hawa Bangura the UN Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict about the situation in Northern Iraq and what can be done to help these women.
Chris Hill was born into the foreign service...and he stayed there. He has served as Ambassador to Iraq and as the lead American negotiator in the six party talks on North Korea's nuclear program. Ambassador Hill sits down with Mark to discuss managing US relations with key allies as the iron curtain fell, facing down Slobodan Milosevic, negotiating with North Korea and the current problems facing Iraq.
These stories are all fresh in his mind. Ambassador Hill just completed his highly anticipated memoir, to be published this fall. Have a listen!
The Palestinian Authority may ask to join the International Criminal Court, potentially paving the way for war crimes charges to be brought against both Israelis and Palestinians. Mark speaks with international law expert Kevin Jon Heller about the legal and political consequences of a potential ICC investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The international development pioneer and founder of the Center for Global Development is on the line this week. Nancy Birdsall tells Mark about how she got her start in international development in the 1960s and how the field has changed since then. Her career includes long stints at the the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank before founding her own cutting edge research institution. It's an interesting conversation with great digressions and diversions about the history of the American approach to international development. The conversation kicks off with a discussion of the African Leaders summit underway in DC.
If you like what you hear, subscribe on iTunes. It's free!
An Ebola outbreak in west Africa has claimed more than 600 lives. Mark Leon Goldberg speaks with Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization who explains why the international community has had such difficultly containing this outbreak. Why is this outbreak different from previous ones? What are local and international health workers doing to contain the outbreak? Why is it spreading? And what needs to be done to put it under control? Have a listen!
As the conflict in Gaza drags on, there's a renewed diplomatic effort to secure a ceasefire. Mark speaks with Michael Hanna of the Century Foundation about the complex diplomatic efforts underway, the critical role that Egypt is playing, in all of this, and why things may get worse before it gets better. Hanna also offers one possible solution in which both sides can save face as they lay down their arms. Have a listen. This is an important and timely conversation.
CARE CEO Helene Gayle is on the line this week. The medical doctor from upstate New York tells Mark how she became the head of one of the largest international humanitarian relief NGOs on the planet. And prior to her work at CARE, Dr. Gayle had a twenty year career at the Centers for Disease Control where was at the front line of the fight against AIDS since the 1980s. She discusses how the fight against AIDS has changed over time and describes the origins of US policy to tackle AIDS internationally. Have a listen.
In the fight between humanity and the AIDS virus, humanity is winning. That is the top line conclusion you can draw from the newest global data about HIV/AIDS from the United Nations. Erin Hofhelder of the ONE Campaign is on the line to discuss this report, preview the big International AIDS Conference in Australia, and explain why new laws against LGBT communities in some African countries may undermine the progress we've made against HIV/AIDS. Have a listen!
There is a refugee crisis in the USA. Since October over 50,000 children and tens of thousands of families have streamed across the southern border of the United States. What is compelling this surge in migration, particularly of unaccompanied minors? Who are these children and families? And what is their journey like? I speak with Gary Shaye of Save the Children, which is running a relief operation in Texas for children and families that have made it across the border. He answers these questions and more.
It's a special edition of the podcast today! I have a number of officials from the United Nations on the show. These interviews were conducted on location at the United Nations. Each conversation lasts about 10 minutes or so and focuses on some aspect of my interviewees work. Enjoy!
In order of appearence:
Richard Wright, UNRWA (Palestinian Refugees agency)
George Papagiannis, UNESCO
Valere Mantels, Office of Disarmament Affairs, Weapons of Mass Destruction Branch
Sarah Crowe, UNICEF
Gary Fowlie, The International Telecommunucations Union
Silke von Brockhausen, UN peacekeeping mission to Sierra Leone
Warner Schmidt, UN Capital Master Plan (renovatin the UN building)
All eyes are on Vienna as delegations from the United States, Germany, France, the UK, Russia and China meet with Iranian officials in a final push to secure a comprehensive agreement over Iran's nuclear program. They have until July 20 to come to terms.
The negotiations are complex and the issues vexing. But one thing is certain: if an agreement is struck it could change international relations in the entire Middle East and even the world. Here to take us inside the negotiations is veteran journalist Laura Rozen. She sets the scene for what to expect in Vienna in the coming days. I also speak with Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association who breaks down the wonky key points of negotiation in an easily digestible way.
I think you'll enjoy this episode. This is a hugely significant moment for Obama's foreign policy legacy, the Middle East, and the cause of non-proliferation. Have a listen.
Turkish foreign policy is always a fascinating case study. As the sunni insurgency in Iraq is gaining steam, how are Turkish foreign policy elites responding? What are Turkey's near term strategic goals for Iraq and Syria? And how does this impact Turkey's sometimes hostile relationship to its Kurdish population? Mark speaks with professor Louis Fishman who answers these questions and more.
Be sure to check out Prof. Fishman's blog, Istanbul-New York-Tel Aviv.
Something different on the podcast this week! I recent sat down with a number of officials at the United Nations as part of Talk Radio Day 2014. This is an annual event hosted by the United Nations Foundation in which talk radio hosts from around the country broadcast from the UN for the day. I spoke with about a dozen officials, both from the United Nations secretariat and from member states. Each of the interviews focuses on topical issues related to the work of my very interesting guests.
Here's the first batch of interviews. Look out for part two in the near future.
John Ashe, President of the General Assembly
Courtenay Rattray, Jamaica's Ambassador to the UN
Le Hoai Trung, Vietnam's Ambassador to the UN
Kurt Chesko, UN Mine Action Service
Andrew Hudson, UN Development Program
Chris Whatley, United Nations Association of the USA
From the perspective of the United Nations, the crisis in Iraq cannot be disaggregated from the crisis in Syria.
In this special edition of Global Dispatches, I speak with the United Nations Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliason who shares his deep concern that ISIS's offensive in Iraq and Syria's escalating conflict could plunge the entire region into sectarian war.
I also speak with Bettina Luescher, spokesperson for the World Food Program, who discusses the UN's humanitarian response to the Iraq and Syria crises. Have a listen. Look out for more of these conversations from the United Nations on Monday.
In 2022 Qatar will host the World Cup. Migrant workers, mostly from Southeast Asia, are living in harsh conditions and dying in large numbers as they construct the infrastructure for the World Cup in the Gulf Kingdom. Mark speaks with journalist Pete Pattisson of the Guardian who takes us inside the migrant worker industry to expose horrid conditions, stolen wages, and corrupt practices faced by Nepalese workers in the Gulf.
Egypt's ex Army Chief Abdel Fatah al Sisi won election this week (with an astounding 96% of the vote!) The ascent of this Mubarak-era military functionary speaks to the profound failure of Egypt's 2011 Arab Spring revolution.
Who is al-Sisi? Why did the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohammed Morsi fail so spectacularly? And what can prevent Egypt from lurching from one political crisis to the next? Here to provide the context for Morsi's fall, al Sisi's rise and What It All Means is Issandr al Amrani of the International Crisis Group. If you have 20 minutes and what to understand what's going on in Egypt, have a listen.
President Obama's commencement address to West Point Graduates this week was billed by the White House as a major foreign policy address. But there were some conspicuous absences from the talk. What was notable about this speech? And how does this fit into Obama's overall foreign policy legacy? Here to put the talk in context is Matt Duss of the Center for American Progress.
Libya today is arguably closer to a full blown civil war than at any time since the fall of Muammar Ghaddafi in 2011. A renegade general named Khalifa Haftar is on the March, seeking to upend an Islamist controlled parliament. Who is this man, what does he want, and why are conditions ripe for a civil war? Mark speaks with journalist Marine Casalis who puts the unfolding situation in Libya in some context.
The largest excerise in democracy in the history of humanity is coming to an end. Narendra Modi will cruise to victory, but what does his ascent mean for India's relationship with Pakistan, China, the USA and the rest of the world? Mark speaks with Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution about the foreign policy implications of India's elections.
Boko Haram is in the news for all the wrong reasons. A series of audactious attacks, including the kidnapping of hundreds of school girls, has provoked international outrage. But why would Boko Haram launch such an attack? Who are these people, what do they want, and how can they be defeated?
Mark Leon Goldberg catches up with Jacob Zenn of the Jamestown Foundation who offers insight, context and an explanation for the Boko Haram insurgency. Have a listen.
Iraq is in the midst of an unrelenting descent into violence. Every day brings news of another bombing or attack that leaves scores of people dead. This has been the case for the past several months, and it only seems to be getting worse.
I speak with Douglas Ollivant of the New American Foundation who helps put this current wave of violence in context. Ollivant served as a military officer in Iraq, then served on the Iraq team at the National Security Council under both President Bush and Obama. Ollivant offers an indepth analysis of what is driving this violence, what can be done to stop it and the regional implications (read: Syria) of it all. Have a listen.
The historian Gary Bass has penned a new book that is getting rave reviews. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide tells the story of the muted American response to a human rights and humanitarian catastrophe that befell Bangladesh in the wake of its separation from Pakistan in the early 1970s.
Gary and I talk about his story, what made this particular genocide "forgotten", and how one goes about researching history like this. Have a listen!
Doing things a little differently this week. Mark conducts a series of back-to-back-to-back interviews with experts from around the United Nations. Interesting, wonky discussions were had! Here are the interviewees in order of appearance.
Sarah Crowe, UNICEF
Jo Scheuer, UN Development Program expert on disaster risk reduction
Dan Sheppard, Department of Public Information, specializing on climate issues.
Randy Rydell, UN Office for Disarmament Affairs
Andrew Rudd, UN Habitat
Roland Rich, UN Democracy Fund
Mahar Nasser, Creative Community Outreach
Boaz Paldi, UN Development Program
In this special edition of Global Dispatches, Mark Leon Goldberg interviews Shelly Pitterman of the UN Refugee Agency. Today, June 20th, is World Refugee Day and earlier this week the UN High Commission for Refugees released a report showing that the global number of displaced persons has reached a 20 year high. Pitterman discusses this report, describes the UN Refugee Agency's work in Syria, and explains how the Syria emergency is complcating other humanitarian efforts around the world.
Mark Leon Goldberg speaks with Suzanne Nossel, author of the influential Foreign Affairs article "Smart Power." Nossel served as a deputy assistant secretary of state during president Obama's first term, and has served in leadership roles in high profile human rights NGOs. Suzanne tells Mark about how familty connections to South Africa shaped her dedication to human rights; how a cold call to Richard Holbrooke lead to a career in public service; and what American leadership can accomplish at the United Nations.
We are doing something a little different today. Instead of one in depth interview, Mark chats with several experts who work for various arms of the United Nations.
Here's the set up: The UN Foundation invited a number of talk radio hosts to broadcast from inside the United Nations headquarters in New York and arranged for UN experts to stop by the broadcast room. I couldn't fit every single interview into one podcast, so look out for a future "Live from the UN Volume 2."
On this program, in order of appearance, we have:
Paul Heslop from UN Mine Action Service--the real life Hurt Locker.
Zainab Hawa Bangura, Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict on her remarkable career fighting for women's rights.
George Papagiannis, UNESCO. On the USA's self-defeating policy toward UNESCO
Jos Vandaveer, Chief of Immunizations, UNICEF. Why vaccines can save the world.
Khalid Malik, UNDP. What the New Human Development report tells us about the Global South; and why China's remarkable rise is not going to end anytime soon.
On the line this week is PJ Crowley, the former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. Mark and PJ talk about the role of public diplomacy in US foreign policy, PJ's long career in the Air Force, and how speaking out against the treatment of accused Wikileaker Bradley Manning marked the end of his public service.
You probably know him as "The Muslim Guy." Arsalan Iftikhar is a civil rights lawyer and popular media commentator who fights daily against widespread bigotry facing Muslim Americans. In our conversation we discuss the how the child of immigrants from Pakistan got into this line of work, how the Bush administration officially sanctioned discrimination against Muslim Americans, and why Barack Obama refuses to set foot in an American Mosque.
In this week's episode, I talk with Dr. Laura Seay who you probably know better as @TexasinAfrica. I learn how the daughter of a preacher from a cotton farming community near Lubbock became one of America's most influential Africanists. We talk about how activism around Africa (think: Kony 2012 and 'conflict minerals') often has nefarious consequences on the ground; how the DR Congo can get back on its feet; and, speaking of feet, why she cringes at the sight of TOMS shoes.
Executive Director of the National Security Network Heather Hurlburt kicks off the new podcast series. She discuses why Syria is a such a vexing dillemma for Obama; how different generations of policy hands drew separate lessons from the Iraq War; why Russian studies ought be back in vogue; and how the Boston Red Sox shaped her worldview. Have a Listen!
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