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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.
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