World Politics Review

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Tackling the Threat of Zoonotic Diseases Aug 04, 2021

Show notes

In recent decades, scientists have identified dozens of new, potentially deadly pathogens that originated among other animal species but have the capacity to infect humans. SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is one such zoonotic virus, and humankind's vulnerability to them is increasing as a result of population growth, globalization, climate change and other processes.

A recently launched project called STOP Spillover aims to anticipate and address the threats posed by zoonotic pathogens. This week on Trend Lines, the director of STOP Spillover, Deborah Kochevar, joins WPR's Elliot Waldman to discuss some of the latest interventions that are being devised to prevent animal-borne illnesses from spreading among human populations. Kochevar is also dean emerita of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. She has a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Texas.

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.

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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: Cubans Are Still Waiting for Something New From Biden Jul 28, 2021

Show notes

During his campaign for the presidency last year, Joe Biden pledged to reverse what he called "the failed Trump policies" toward Cuba. But now, Biden's White House is signaling that it is in no hurry to lift the severe sanctions and other measures imposed on Cuba by former President Donald Trump, much less return to the historic detente with Cuba that was pioneered by Biden's old boss, former President Barack Obama.

As the Biden administration bides its time, Cuba's aging leaders have passed the baton to a new generation. At the Communist Party's eighth congress last month, Raul Castro stepped down as party chief, marking a transition of power to a new generation of leaders born after the 1959 revolution. But that new generation was careful to telegraph that it does not plan to change Cuba's political system or alter the government's heavy-handed approach to dissent.

This week on Trend Lines, WPR's Elliot Waldman is joined by Michael Bustamante, an assistant professor of Latin American History at Florida International University, to discuss the outlook for U.S.-Cuba ties and what the Biden administration's cautious approach might means for the island. Bustamante's latest book, just published in March, is "Cuban Memory Wars: Retrospective Politics in Revolution and Exile."

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.

Israeli Foreign Policy After Netanyahu Jul 21, 2021

Show notes

Over the course of his 12 uninterrupted years as prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu left a profound mark on Israel's foreign policy. Since taking the reins from him last month, his successor, Naftali Bennett, has tried to capitalize on some of Netanyahu's accomplishments—such as the diplomatic normalization agreements with Arab states that are known as the Abraham Accords— while also charting a new course when it comes to relations with traditional partners like the United States and Jordan.

This week on Trend Lines, Michael Koplow, a WPR contributor who serves as policy director at the Israel Policy Forum, joins WPR's Elliot Waldman to discuss the trajectory of Israeli foreign policy in the post-Netanyahu era. 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 End of Asylum? Jul 14, 2021

Show notes

According to article 14 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution." But that promise, which was enshrined three years later in the 1951 Refugee Convention, has never been completely honored. In fact, it has been progressively eroded in recent years across the Global North, even as the numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers around the world have swelled.

Just last month, the Parliament of Denmark passed a law allowing it to relocate asylum-seekers outside Europe while their claims are being processed. A similar measure is under consideration in the United Kingdom, while Australia has long maintained such a policy. Here in the United States, former President Donald Trump's administration enacted a policy known as "Remain in Mexico," under which asylum-seekers were forced to wait across the border in Mexico, often in unsafe environments, while their claims were processed.

Today on Trend Lines, Khalid Koser, executive director of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, joins WPR's Elliot Waldman to discuss the past, present and potential future of the right to asylum, and what it might take to revive this critical component of the international legal system. 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.

Colombia Braces for More Protests, With Few Offramps Jul 07, 2021

Show notes

After Colombians took to the streets on April 28 to protest a tax reform plan, President Ivan Duque quickly rescinded the unpopular proposal. But that didn't stop the demonstrators, who continued to march in support of more fundamental economic changes to address persistent inequality and poverty, which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Colombian security forces responded to the unrest with a typically heavy-handed approach, and at least 60 people have died so far, many at the hands of the police.

Protest leaders have paused their activities for now, but are planning more strikes and demonstrations for later in the month. Today on Trend Lines, WPR's Elliot Waldman discusses the situation in Colombia with Elizabeth Dickinson, the Bogota-based senior analyst for Colombia at the International Crisis Group. For more on the protests, check out the recently released Crisis Group report, "The Pandemic Strikes: Responding to Colombia's Mass Protests."

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.

Pro-Democracy Activist Evan Mawarire on Zimbabwe's Deepening Crisis Jun 30, 2021

Show notes

When the late Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe was ousted in 2017, celebrations broke out across the country as people cheered the end of his 37-year grip on power. Among them was Evan Mawarire, a pastor and pro-democracy activist who has been imprisoned and tortured for demanding political reforms and an end to rampant corruption and poverty.

But the hopes of Mawarire and his fellow Zimbabweans were quickly dashed, as the country's crisis only deepened under Mugabe's successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa. His government has brutally suppressed popular demonstrations, while subjecting dissidents and journalists to the threat of harassment, arbitrary detention and torture. The economic situation is also dire, with the World Bank recently reporting that half of Zimbabweans have fallen into extreme poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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 Evolution of China's 'Wolf Warrior' Diplomats Jun 23, 2021

Show notes

Like their counterparts from around the world, Chinese diplomats tend to be well-credentialed, sophisticated, multilingual and knowledgeable about their host countries and institutions. Yet an increasing number of Chinese envoys and officials are adopting a stridently nationalistic, even belligerent tone in their official statements. Some of these "wolf warrior" diplomats, have even shown a willingness to spread conspiracy theories or use doctored images in order to score points. While this aggressive behavior often plays well back home, it tends to undermine the traditional goals of diplomacy by hardening foreign attitudes toward China.

Peter Martin, a Bloomberg reporter who was previously posted in Beijing, examines this phenomenon in a new book, "China's Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy." He joins WPR's Elliot Waldman on the Trend Lines podcast this week to discuss the historical development of China's diplomatic apparatus from the early days of the Communist Revolution to the present.

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.

Biden's Tour of Europe Leaves a Lot of Unfinished Business Jun 16, 2021

Show notes

"America is back at the table," President Joe Biden said at a press conference Sunday in Cornwall following his first G-7 summit. That statement perhaps best encapsulated Biden's message during his maiden voyage overseas. While he didn't mention his predecessor by name, the contrast with Donald Trump couldn't have been clearer. And it certainly came as a relief to the other G-7 leaders, as the summit was mercifully free of temper tantrums and Twitter tirades.

The displays of comity and unity continued in Brussels this week, where Biden participated in a NATO summit Monday and a U.S.-EU summit Tuesday. But of course, hanging over all of these engagements were a set of thorny challenges facing the trans-Atlantic relationship: recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, responding to the rise of China and adapting to the emergence of nontraditional security threats like climate change, to name just a few.

This week on Trend Lines, WPR's Elliot Waldman talks about the key takeaways from Biden's tour of Europe with Lauren Speranza, director of trans-Atlantic defense and security at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington.

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.

Sizing Up Biden's U.N. Diplomacy and Guterres' Second Term Jun 09, 2021

Show notes

During his first few months in office, President Joe Biden has largely followed through on his pledges to restore a more multilateralist U.S. foreign policy, rejoining a number of key international organizations and agreements that had been abandoned by his predecessor, Donald Trump. This new approach has come as a relief to many senior officials at the United Nations, particularly Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who was nominated for a second term by the U.N. Security Council this week and is expected to cruise to reelection.

This week on Trend Lines, Richard Gowan, the U.N. director at the International Crisis Group and former weekly columnist for WPR, joins Elliot Waldman to discuss expectations for Guterres' second term and the notable aspects of Biden's approach to the U.N. thus far.

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 Case Against Restraint Jun 02, 2021

Show notes

Over the past decade or so, a school of thought known as "restraint" has been steadily gaining currency in the U.S. foreign policy establishment. While the idea encompasses a wide range of views and assumptions, proponents of restraint generally argue that in the wake of the Cold War, America overcommitted to its global responsibilities and stretched itself too thin, undertaking ill-conceived and costly military adventures while underwriting the security of allies in Europe and East Asia at a time when the strategic rationale of those alliances was hard to justify.

The so-called restrainers have been increasingly visible lately in media outlets and on Twitter. And in 2019, they got an institutional home in Washington, a new think tank called the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, set up with funding from a diverse array of foundations and philanthropists from across the political spectrum, including both Charles Koch and George Soros.

The restrainers' most prominent talking points concern the follies of U.S. military adventurism in the Middle East and Afghanistan. But how well do their views and assumptions hold up elsewhere in the world? This week on Trend Lines, Thomas Wright joins WPR's Elliot Waldman for a critical look at what a U.S. grand strategy of restraint would mean in practice.

Wright is the director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, where he is also a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy. He is the author of "All Measures Short of War: The Contest For the 21st Century and the Future of American Power" which was published in 2017. His second book, co-authored with Colin Kahl, "Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order," will be published in August.

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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