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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.
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.
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