The Brookings Cafeteria

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U.S.-Iran relations, the Iran nuclear deal, and the future of Iran Sep 11, 2015

Show notes

“Iran gets out of jail free. I mean, they’re out of the penalty box at this point," says Senior Fellow Suzanne Maloney in this podcast on Iran in a post-nuclear deal world. "The rest of the world will do business as usual with Iran. Iran will be welcomed to international fora. The ... stench of pariah-hood that had attached itself to Iran during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—both because of the nuclear escalation and because of Ahmadinejad’s proclivity for really provocative statements and reprehensible rhetoric on the Holocaust and other issues—that problem is now gone.” Maloney, the interim deputy director of Foreign Policy at Brookings, and a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy, examines the impact of the nuclear deal on U.S.-Iran relations and on the Iranian people, discusses Iran’s place in the international community, and talks about her optimism for the future of Iran. “It’s a young, dynamic, incredibly well-positioned society for the future,” she says. “I think if I were to place a bet on the long-term democratic opportunities in the region, Iran is it. By a long shot.” Also in this episode, Senior Fellow David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy, delivers his regular "Wessel's Economic Update, this time on the distribution of student loan debt. Show Notes: Follow Suzanne Maloney on Twitter @MaloneySuzanne The Brookings Essay: Iran Surprises Itself and the World: A new president may take his country in a new direction Debating the Iran Deal Series Iran, Syria, And The Secretarian Challenge Letters to the Ayatollah: Why Obama's Latest Outreach to Iran's Supreme Leader Was A Mistake Maloney's new book: Iran's Political Economy since the Revolution Brookings's Markaz blog on Middle East Politics and Policy Debating the Iran Nuclear Deal by Robert Einhorn Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

Community colleges and college affordability Aug 21, 2015

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“Almost half of undergraduates in the United States start at a community college,” says Fellow Adela Soliz in this podcast. Soliz, a new fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, identifies challenges faced by students looking to transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions, reacts to President Obama’s proposal to make community college free, and discusses the conflict between for-profit colleges and community colleges. Regarding the conflict between the two, she says, “From an institutional perspective, there is a lot of potential for competition to be a beneficial thing. If the community colleges are losing students to the for-profits, then that could encourage them to increase their efficiency and increase their quality. [However] there are a couple of reasons why that may not be happening.” Also in this episode, Fellow John Hudak, managing editor of FixGov blog, offers his "What's Happening in Congress" update. Show Notes: Increasing community college student transfer rates Will free college lead to more degrees? Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

Jihadist terrorism, Islamic State, and the war in Yemen Aug 06, 2015

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"We have successfully built up our defenses so that here, at home in the United States, we're probably safer than we were a decade ago but abroad our terrorist enemy is more numerous, more barbaric, more dangerous than ever before," says Senior Fellow Bruce Riedel in this podcast. Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project at Brookings, and also a former CIA officer and senior policy official, identifies the catalysts of the global jihadist movement, discusses the rise of the Islamic State and its rivalry with al-Qaida, addresses the crisis in Yemen, and examines how the Obama administration can better deploy soft power tools. "A strategy that only uses the stick isn't going to work," he says. "We have to have a strategy that not only goes after the terrorists but also seeks to deal with the underlying issues that produce this wave of terrorism. That's easy to say and very very hard to do." Also in this episode, Senior Fellow David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy, delivers his regular "Wessel's Economic Update." Show Notes: Another royal reshuffle in Saudi Arabia: King Salman reorders his court again The war in Yemen has one local winner: al-Qaida. Why aren't the Saudis more concerned? The Pakistani Pivot from Saudi Arabia to China Interview on "Stand Up! with Pete Dominick" JFK's Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA, and Sino-Indian War What We Won: America's Secret War in Afghanistan, 1979-89 Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu. "22" by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, and Shellback (Big Machine Records, Republic Records)

Economic costs of hosting the Olympics and World Cup Jul 13, 2015

Show notes

“Go and interview a restaurateur in central London near Piccadilly or go and interview a theatre manager in central London about how their business was in central London in August of 2012 [during the Summer Olympics] and they’ll say ‘It was awful. It was like the great depression,’” says economist Andrew Zimbalist in this podcast. Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College and the author of Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup (Brookings Institution Press, 2015), reveals the real economic costs and benefits of hosting mega-sporting events and discusses the prospects of FIFA following the corruption scandal. “This is what the modern Olympics and the modern World Cup are really about,” he says. “It’s the Circus Maximus in the old days of referring to these gigantic stadiums and elaborate facilities, but it’s also a Circus Maximus in the sense that it’s a circus.” Also in this episode, Senior Fellow John Hudak, managing editor of FixGov blog, offers his "What's Happening in Congress" update. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Show Notes: Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums, Andrew Zimbalist and Roger Noll Andrew Zimbalist explains how FIFA treats the Women’s World Cup differently than the Men’s Olympics numbers don’t add up (Zimbalist op-ed in Boston Globe) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

New Orleans' resilience 10 years after Hurricane Katrina Jul 07, 2015

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“New Orleans is still in the middle of a major urban experiment,” says Senior Fellow Amy Liu in this podcast, the 50th episode of the Brookings Cafeteria. “It’s an urban experiment that is not so much just about responding to Katrina and the oil spill, but really is the great experiment of our time.” The central question within that experiment is, “regardless of any environmental or economic disaster—like the Great Recession, the loss of a manufacturing sector—how does an economic center, a population center, really continue to grow and adapt?” Liu is co-director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and has been an expert on the rebuilding efforts in greater New Orleans and southern Louisiana post Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf oil spill, and the recession. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Also in this episode, Senior Fellow David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, offers his regular "Wessel's Economic Update." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Show Notes: The Data Center The New Orleans Index (2011) "New Orleans Five Years After: A Transformation Unfolding" "Resilience and Opportunity: Lessons from the U.S. Gulf Coast after Katrina and Rita" (book, 2011) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

Jean-Marie Guéhenno on his leadership of UN peacekeeping and "The Fog of Peace" Jun 18, 2015

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“More and more we see that the separation between war and peace is not as clear-cut as it used to be,” says Jean-Marie Guéhenno in this podcast. Guéhenno, president and CEO of the International Crisis Group and a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings, was head of United Nations peacekeeping operations from 2000 to 2008, the longest-serving person in that post. In this podcast, he talks about his toughest peacekeeping operation, his best results, and why a political process is so important to the success of peacekeeping operations, all themes in his latest book, “The Fog of Peace: A Memoir of International Peacekeeping in the 21st Century" (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). Also in this episode, Governance Studies Fellow John Hudak explains what’s happening in Congress. --- Show Notes: The Fog of Peace: A Memoir of International Peacekeeping in the 21st Century United Nations peacekeeping fact sheet Crisisgroup.org --- Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

Why the European Union matters Jun 04, 2015

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“The European Union is, in a way, a treasure,” says Distinguished Brookings Fellow Javier Solana in this podcast. “It’s a treasure that really signifies peace, that signifies cooperation … the type of thing the global world of today needs.” Solana, former secretary general of NATO and EU foreign policy chief, describes how he started as a physics professor before turning to policy-making and reaching the highest levels of Spanish and European institutions; discusses how the EU negotiates the shoals of nationalism; addresses the EU’s responses to the crisis in Ukraine and its approach to the negotiations with Iran; and offers his advice for success in navigating a global world. Also in this episode, Senior Fellow David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, offers his regular "Wessel's Economic Update," focusing on the question of whether the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program increased inequality. And, George Burroughs gets an update from Nonresident Senior Fellow Pat Mulroy on the water crisis in the western states. This follows the Brookings Cafeteria podcast episode with Mulroy, the "Vegas water czar." Show Notes: Sovereignty's revenge: Populism and the future of European integration (event) Europe's Sovereignty Illusion Javier Solana's columns on Project Syndicate Monnet's Brandy and Europe's Fate, Brookings Essay by Strobe Talbott Saving Europe: Anatomy of a Dream (New and Expanded Edition), by Carlo Bastasin Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

Ukraine's struggle for independence May 21, 2015

Show notes

What is happening in Ukraine is a tremendous threat to Putin’s Russia precisely because of the kinship that Russians feel with Ukraine,” says Chrystia Freeland in this podcast. Freeland, a Member of Parliament in Canada and also a journalist and author, talks about her own family’s connection to Ukraine, why the Russian propaganda machine has been effective, and why the Russian-Ukrainian language divide is oversimplified. Listen to find out why she thinks that the “Maidan and what has followed is the most hopeful moment ever in Ukrainian history.” --- Also in this episode, Fellow John Hudak explains what’s happening in Congress, including a rare moment of agreement between President Obama and the Republicans in Congress. --- Show Notes: • "My Ukraine: A personal reflection on a nation's dream of independence and the nightmare Vladimir Putin has visited upon it" • Chrystia Freeland's parliamentary bio --- Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

MOOCs, college costs, and the future of higher education May 07, 2015

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“Ten years from now college is going to look a lot different,” says Senior Fellow Stuart Butler in this podcast. Butler, an expert on the future of higher education, economic mobility, budget process reform, and federal entitlement reform, explains how developments in education technology, such as MOOCs, are driving college costs down, changing university business models, and could have a dramatic effect on social mobility in this country. “If you have a higher education system that actually does provide students with the skills they really need at a much lower cost than today,” he says, “that’s good for everybody, and good for the economy.” Plus, in "Wessel's Economic Update," David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, discusses the re-release of Arthur Okun's classic book, "Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff." Show Notes: New Arizona State-edX MOOC: Another blow to traditional college How Google and Coursera may upend the traditional college degree Beyond College Rankings: A Value-Added Approach to Assessing Two- and Four-Year Schools Reimagine College Tottering Ivory Towers City & Guilds Social Mobility Memos Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

Education challenges in the Arab world Apr 23, 2015

Show notes

“The Arab world has made huge progress in giving children access to school,” says Maysa Jalbout, a nonresident fellow with the Center for Universal Education at Brookings. Yet even so, she calls the 2.6 million Syrian children out of school in the region “perhaps the biggest education crisis globally.” In the podcast, Jalbout—former CEO of the Queen Rania Foundation and a global leader on education in international development—discusses the challenges and solutions to educating children in the Arab world, why quality and not just access matters, how the education crisis is a global security issue, and why 3 out of 4 Arab women remain out of the labor force in their countries. Much of the discussion is about Jalbout’s new report, “Reaching all Children with Education in Lebanon: Opportunities for Action.” Show Notes: Center for Universal Education Reaching all Children with Education in Lebanon: Opportunities for Action The Arab World Learning Barometer Unlocking the potential of educated Arab women Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

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