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Now that Democrats have won large majorities in the House and Senate, what influence might they be able to exert over US foreign policy?
I'm joined today for this special day-after-the-election episode by Joel Rubin, a veteran of both Capitol Hill and the State Department and proprietor of The Briefing Book Substack, for a conversation about the tools Democrats might wield to shape US foreign policy.
We kick off by discussing the implications of this election for the ongoing war in Iran, then turn to some of the Democrats' legislative priorities, including potentially restoring funding for foreign aid and global development. We also discuss some of the incoming chairs of key congressional committees and subcommittees. We close with a conversation about what this Democratic landslide means for the rest of the world and how it might reshape other countries' relations with the United States.
This is a timely conversation that will provide useful context for understanding the far-reaching implications of these midterm elections.
We are down to the wire in the race for UN Secretary-General, as eight candidates vie to lead the United Nations. They are a diverse group of diplomats, but one thing unites them: each has made revitalizing the UN's role in peacemaking, conflict mediation, and conflict prevention a priority of their campaign. This reflects a broad recognition that the UN's role and influence in these areas have waned in recent years.
So what can be done to restore the UN as a more meaningful player in global peacemaking? And what can the next Secretary-General personally do to promote peace and bring conflicts to an end?
I'm joined today by Jeffrey Feltman, a longtime diplomat who served as the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and is now a senior fellow at the UN Foundation. We kick off by exploring why the UN has seemingly become less effective in conflict mediation and peacemaking in recent years. We then discuss concrete steps the next Secretary-General can take to revitalize the UN's role in peacemaking and conflict resolution, some of which Feltman outlined in a recent piece for [Re]Group.
About an hour after polls closed in Israel yesterday, I caught up with longtime Israeli politics analyst Joel Braunold, Managing Director of The Center Project, for a wide-ranging conversation about the implications of the election results.
We kick off with a summary of where things stand (which has not changed much since the polls closed). To that end, Joel argues that the results represent a profound rebuke of the coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, including its explicit policy of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
He then takes us deep into the complex parliamentary politics that will play out over the next few weeks as a new government seeks to form, including the implications of the strongest showing ever by Arab-Israeli parties. We then discuss what this vote means for Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza.
I think you will find this timely conversation to be an accessible but nuanced take on how to make sense of these historically significant elections.
Over the last several years, a vast network of aging oil tankers operating under opaque ownership structures has emerged as a critical lifeline for countries facing Western sanctions—particularly Russia and Iran. This so-called shadow fleet now accounts for about 20% of all seaborne oil transport worldwide. Joining me to discuss how this rogue network of tankers evades Western sanctions, and whether we are witnessing the emergence of a parallel maritime trading system, is Nitya Labh of Chatham House.
Trump appears to have swung decisively in favor of Russia. Trump has waived sanctions on Russia, from which the United States is now purchasing diesel. Ukraine's defense has been undermined by restrictions on Elon Musk's Starshield, a critical communications platform upon which the Ukrainian military relies. Trump has invited Putin to the upcoming G20 meeting at his club in Florida, and has stymied intelligence sharing to warn about incoming missile attacks from Russia.
My guest today is journalist Luke Johnson, proprietor of the Public Sphere Substack. Based in Europe, Luke covers the war in Ukraine, European politics, and the impact of American foreign policy on Europe. We kick off our conversation with the news that an American prisoner held in Russia has been released by Putin in what is being billed as a "humanitarian" gesture, but which, in effect, further solidifies the growing alignment between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Over the last several months, the use of fully autonomous, artificial intelligence-powered weapons has been escalating. These weapons are capable of selecting and killing targets without a human in the loop. But as this technology advances, momentum is building around an international agreement that would establish guardrails for how these weapons can be used and deployed in warfare. At a recent meeting in Geneva, most countries agreed on the broad outlines of such an agreement, though the United States and Russia raised objections. So, can the pace of diplomacy keep up with the rapid development of AI-powered lethal autonomous weapons systems? Joining me to discuss this question is Magnus Løvold of Lex International.
The Rockefeller Foundation recently released the results of a massive international survey examining how people view the state of the world and the role of international cooperation in addressing global challenges. Some 35,000 people across 34 countries were polled, revealing widespread pessimism about the direction the world is heading, but also a strong desire for greater international cooperation to tackle shared problems.
Eric Pelofsky, Vice President for International Policy at the Rockefeller Foundation, joins me to discuss the survey's findings, what they reveal about public attitudes toward global challenges, and what they suggest about the future of multilateralism at a time of growing international uncertainty.
Get full episode: https://www.globaldispatches.org/50PercentOffAnnual
The former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and chair of the UN body that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
In the first segment of this episode of To Save Us From Hell, Anjali and Mark break down the implications of Navi Pillay's Nobel Peace Prize — and why it was significant that the Nobel Committee chose to honor the South African jurist when it did.
As it happens, Navi Pillay also spent nearly a decade as a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC). On the same day she was awarded the Nobel, the Trump administration announced new plans to impose sweeping sanctions on the entire court. We have an extended discussion about the implications of this move for the ICC and how the court's defenders might respond.
Finally, we unpack the latest developments in the race for UN Secretary-General, which has come down to just two candidates.
It did not receive much attention at the time, but one of the more consequential gatherings at the United Nations during UNGA was a high-level meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.
The meeting was intended to build momentum toward a global Pandemic Agreement that was negotiated at the WHO last year, but which left a few key issues unresolved. Chief among them is the creation of a so-called Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System, or PABS. The basic idea is that countries that share viral samples with pharmaceutical companies and researchers should, in turn, have access to the vaccines, medicines, and other products developed from those samples.
All of this was up for discussion at the UN meeting, but the United States ultimately blocked the adoption of a consensus outcome document.
Joining me to discuss what happened at this meeting, why it matters, and what comes next for a global agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response is Courtney Carson, Senior Director of Programs at RANI, an NGO.
Over the last several weeks, fighting has intensified in the country's north. A coalition of seven armed groups recently formed a new alliance, vowing to topple the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The Ethiopian government is fighting back. The conflict is also becoming increasingly regional. Sudan, Egypt, and Somalia are all connected in different ways to the shifting alliances and rivalries surrounding Ethiopia. And there is an even broader geopolitical dimension. Just two days before the new Eritrea-backed rebel alliance was announced, the United States lifted sanctions on Eritrea. Eritrea occupies a strategically important stretch of the Red Sea coast, directly across from Yemen, where Houthi attacks have threatened international shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Some analysts believe the sanctions relief gives Eritrea more room to pursue its interests in Ethiopia.
Joining me today to help make sense of this complicated web of factions, alliances, and regional rivalries is Dr. Jalale Getachew Birru, East Africa Regional Expert with the conflict-monitoring nonprofit ACLED.
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