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Named by The Guardian as “a podcast to make you smarter,” Global Dispatches is a podcast for people who crave a deeper understanding of international news.
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but under a deal negotiated last year between the United States and the Taliban all American troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by May 2021.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.
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