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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.
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