World Politics Review

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'America Is Back' Won't Save the U.S.-Led Global Order Oct 06, 2021

Show notes

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the United States and its allies enjoyed a near monopoly on economic, military and ideological power in a suddenly unipolar world. Over the decade and a half that followed, the U.S. emerged as the dominant power atop a liberal international order in large part shaped by its preferences.

But the rise of China and resurgence of Russia as great power competitors has challenged Washington's global leadership role, while offering new options to countries seeking alternatives to the U.S.-led order. That coincides with the emergence within the U.S. and other Western democracies of movements questioning the foundations of that order. Combined, these trends have significantly weakened the United States' ability to maintain its hegemonic position in a rapidly transforming international landscape.

This week on a special edition of Trend Lines, Daniel Nexon joins WPR weekly columnist Howard French to discuss the rapidly changing global order and the United States' place in it. Nexon is a professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. With Alexander Cooley, he is the co-author of "Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order."

If you would like to request a full transcript of the episode, please send an email to podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

Relevant Articles on WPR:

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

The Most Fearless Country in Europe Sep 29, 2021

Show notes

The government of Lithuania caused a stir this summer when it announced that it would allow Taiwan to open a de facto embassy in the capital, Vilnius, with plans to open a reciprocal Lithuanian representative office in Taipei. China responded by withdrawing its ambassador to Vilnius and demanding that Lithuania do the same. And in May, the Lithuanian parliament passed a resolution labeling China's treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang as a "genocide."

China is not the only authoritarian power that Lithuania is facing off with. Vilnius hosts the Belarusian opposition leader, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled her home country last year after running against the dictator Alexander Lukashenko in a rigged election.

This week on Trend Lines, Edward Lucas, a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and a former senior editor at The Economist, joins WPR's Elliot Waldman to discuss the roots of these recent moves by Lithuania, and how the country always finds itself leading the charge against powerful authoritarian states.

If you would like to request a full transcript of the episode, please send an email to podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

Relevant Articles on WPR:

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

A Deadly Year for Latin America's Environmentalists Sep 22, 2021

Show notes

According to a report released last week, 2020 was the deadliest year on record for environmental and land rights activists around the world. The human rights organization Global Witness recorded 227 killings of such activists a tally which it said was almost certainly an undercount.

As the report makes clear, the victims were most often killed while resisting the activities of extractive industries on their land: logging, mining, the clearing of forests for agribusiness and other environmentally destructive activities that fuel the climate crisis. Of the confirmed lethal attacks, the highest number was recorded in Colombia, and nearly three-fourths of the incidents documented in the report took place in Latin America.

Today on Trend Lines, Gimena Sánchez, director for the Andes at the Washington Office on Latin America, joins WPR's Elliot Waldman to talk about what's driving this violence and what can be done about it. For more on the struggles of environmental and Indigenous rights activists and the challenges they face in Colombia, check out WOLA's podcast, "With Leaders There Are Peace."

If you would like to request a full transcript of the episode, please send an email to podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

Relevant Articles on WPR:

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

A Deadly Year for Latin America's Environmentalists Sep 22, 2021

Show notes

If you would like to request a full transcript of the episode, please send an email to podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

Relevant Articles on WPR:

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

'Born in Blackness': A Conversation With Howard French Sep 15, 2021

Show notes

The history of Europe's Age of Exploration and Empire usually follows a familiar narrative. Starting in the late 15th century, European explorers set out to find maritime trade routes to the lucrative spice and textile markets of Asia. Happening by chance upon the "New World" of the Americas, they quickly established colonies whose wealth, mainly in the form of gold and silver, combined with advances in military technology, propelled what would become known as the West to centuries of global dominance that has only begun to wane today. In this narrative, Africa and Africans are all but invisible, except as a tragic footnote when it comes to the history and legacy of slavery.

WPR columnist Howard French's fifth and latest book, "Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War," convincingly argues that almost everything about this familiar narrative is wrong. Far from being peripheral to the Age of Exploration, Africa was in fact the central focus of its early period. And far from being anecdotal to the wealth and power generated by Europe's colonies in the Americas, Africans were the irreplaceable producers of it.

This week on Trend Lines, Howard French joins WPR's Judah Grunstein to discuss "Born in Blackness," which will be released on Oct.12 and is already available for pre-order. Howard is a career foreign correspondent and global affairs writer. From 1990 to 2008, he reported overseas for The New York Times, serving as bureau chief for Central America and the Caribbean, West and Central Africa, Japan and the Koreas, and China. He is a member of the board of the Columbia Journalism Review and a professor at the Columbia Journalism School. His website is HowardWFrench.com, his Twitter handle is @hofrench, and his weekly WPR column appears every Wednesday.

If you would like to request a full transcript of the episode, please send an email to podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

Relevant Articles on WPR:

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

What to Watch for in Biden's U.N. Debut Sep 08, 2021

Show notes

The 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly will kick off next week in New York, and over the course of the following week, the assembly will host speeches from leaders and representatives of U.N. member states. The highlight will be U.S. President Joe Biden's first address to the U.N. since taking office in January, but as with previous years' diplomatic confabs, there will be plenty of developments to keep an eye on.

This week on Trend Lines, Richard Gowan, the U.N. director at the International Crisis Group and a former WPR columnist, joins Elliot Waldman to preview Biden's speech, as well as other elements of the UNGA's packed agenda. If you would like to request a full transcript of the episode, please send an email to podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

If you like what you hear on Trend Lines and what you've read on WPR, you can sign up for our free newsletter to get our uncompromising analysis delivered straight to your inbox. The newsletter offers a free preview article every day of the week, plus three more complimentary articles in our weekly roundup every Friday. Sign up here. Then subscribe.

Relevant Articles on WPR:

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

Rerun: Why Innovation Will Be Key to Africa's Post-COVID Rebuilding Sep 01, 2021

Show notes

Most African countries have fared relatively well in their responses to the coronavirus pandemic, reporting rates of infection and mortality that are far below those seen across much of Europe and the Americas. Yet Africa is expected to take a huge economic hit from the pandemic and its associated containment measures, with the African Development Bank forecasting that an additional 50 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty across the continent.

Vaccination drives and economic relief packages will certainly be important to contain the damage. But according to author and researcher Efosa Ojomo, emerging-market nations should be aiming to build societies that are more resilient to economic shocks like the pandemic.

This week on Trend Lines, Ojomo joins WPR's Elliot Waldman to discuss how the concept of "market-creating innovations" can foster broad-based solutions to poverty and other social problems in the wake of the pandemic. Ojomo is the head of the Global Prosperity research group at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, and a co-author of "The Prosperity Paradox: How innovation can lift nations out of poverty."

Relevant Articles on WPR:

Africa Is a Coronavirus Success Story So Far, If Only the World Would Notice

How Africa's Surging Technology Sector Can Reach Its Full Potential

Tech Giants Are Engaged in a New Scramble for Africa

The Continued Relevance of Informal Finance in Development

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

A Haitian Solution to Haiti's Crisis Aug 25, 2021

Show notes

Relief efforts are continuing in Haiti following the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit the country on Aug. 14, causing widespread destruction in the southern peninsula, near the quake's epicenter. The death toll has surpassed 2,200, with 344 people still missing, according to the Haitian Civil Protection Agency. More than 12,000 people have been injured and nearly 53,000 houses destroyed.

The disaster occurred during a period of deep political crisis in Haiti, which took a tragic and unexpected turn when President Jovenel Moise was assassinated on July 7. Before that, Moise had been governing mainly through executive orders due to his failure to organize legislative elections, and he had been facing widespread demands for his resignation due to rampant corruption and mismanagement of the economy under his administration. The current acting president and prime minister, Ariel Henry, had been in office for less than a month when the earthquake occurred.

Given Haiti's recent history, it is perhaps understandable that headlines about the country in recent years have focused on its cascading crises, now compounded by yet another major natural disaster. Yet too often overlooked in this coverage is the work being done by the country's vibrant civil society, to put an end to corruption and poor governance and bring about a more just and equitable future for Haiti. This week on Trend Lines, WPR's Elliot Waldman discusses these efforts with Monique Clesca, a Haitian writer, pro-democracy advocate and former United Nations official who is part of a recently formed group called the Commission to Search for a Haitian Solution to the Crisis.

If you would like to support earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti, please consider donating to the relief fund organized by FOKAL, a local NGO.

To request a full transcript of the episode, please send an email to podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

Relevant Articles on WPR:

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

Confronting East Asia's Demographic Transition Aug 18, 2021

Show notes

The results of China's once-a-decade census, released in May after a one-month delay, showed that the population of mainland China grew at an average rate of 0.53 percent each year between 2010 and 2020. The official results contradicted an earlier report by the Financial Times, which indicated the census figures would actually show a population decline.

What is certain, though, is that the combination of higher life expectancies and lower fertility rates poses a huge challenge for East Asia's largest economy, and for other major economies in the region as well. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore all have population growth rates that are in negative territory or will be in the coming years. It's an issue with global implications, given the important role that these countries play in the world economy.

This week on Trend Lines, Ronald D. Lee, a demographer and economist at the University of California, Berkeley, joins WPR's Elliot Waldman to talk about how East Asia is coping with its major demographic changes.

Relevant Articles on WPR:

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

Hunger: The Other Pandemic Aug 11, 2021

Show notes

2020 will forever be known as the plague year, but it was also a year of increased hunger around the world. That's according to a multiagency United Nations report released last month, which found that the number of undernourished people in the world rose by 118 million, to a total of about 768 million—nearly one-tenth of the global population. Much of that increase was due to COVID-19, a crisis that "continues to expose weaknesses in our food systems," the report warned.

Today on Trend Lines, Julie Howard, a senior adviser to the global food security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joins WPR's Elliot Waldman to discuss why and how our food systems have become so vulnerable, and what will it take to reverse the trend of increasing hunger.

Relevant Articles on WPR:

Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and resource politics in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter at @peterdoerrie.

To send feedback or questions, email us at podcast@worldpoliticsreview.com.

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