Deep Dish on Global Affairs

Two big shocks are hitting the Chinese economy at once. The first shock is within China—slowing growth, increasing debt, an aging population, and an underdeveloped consumer base. The second shock is with the United States as tensions rise and a trade war looms. Angela Lee, professor of Marketing at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, Paul Schickler, a former president of DuPont Pioneer, and Vivian Lin Thurston, a partner and global research analyst with William Blair, discuss the changing Chinese economy with the Council's Phil Levy.

Within hours of President Trump's announcement that the United States would withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, Iran's foreign minister was on a plane, first to China and then to Russia. This often overlooked but important geopolitical trio, Iran, Russia, and China, is the subject of a new book by Dina Esfandiary and Ariane Tabatabai.

Two distinguished public opinion surveys reveal how American foreign policy is perceived at home and abroad. Pew's director of global attitudes research Richard Wike joins Dina Smeltz, lead author of the Chicago Council Survey on US public opinion on foreign policy, to discuss their findings.

Sheila Bair was front and center for the 2008 fiscal crises as George Bush's appointee to the FDIC. Notably, she was also among the small number of officials who voiced concerns about the dangers of subprime mortgages before the meltdown. On this episode of Deep Dish, we ask her what we've learned about the global crisis and how vulnerable we are today.

Of the 50 most violent cities in the world, 47 are in the Americas. This week's Deep Dish features World Bank citizen security expert Flavia Carbonari, Mario Maciel from San Jose's Gang Prevention Task Force; and Medellín's Chief Resilience Officer Santiago Uribe discussing how cities can combat urban violence.

Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut have inflicted widespread damage to property, food production, and human life. As extreme weather increasingly uproots communities and economies, leading experts Simon Dalby and Joshua Busby join this week's Deep Dish podcast to predict how today's climate change will affect tomorrow's foreign policy.

The Trump administration is furious that the International Criminal Court is considering an investigation into US military action in Afghanistan. In a major speech this week, National Security Advisor John Bolton threatened the court with sanctions. One of the court's founder's, Ambassador David Scheffer, joins Deep Dish this week to react.

Yale Historian Tim Snyder says "if it can happen in Poland, it can happen anywhere." Find out how this Eastern European poster child for democracy backslid into autocracy, and what lessons it holds for the rest of the West.

President Trump announced a new trade deal with Mexico to replace NAFTA, and called on Canada to join the deal or risk being left out. On this week's Deep Dish, Mexico expert Duncan Wood, Canada expert Laura Dawson, and US trade economist Phil Levy analyze the new deal and lay out what could happen next.

The Turkish Lira has been plunging in value, causing investor concern about a greater financial contagion. This comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Turkey on a range of domestic and geopolitical issues. Turkey experts Steven Cook and Henri Barkey join economist Phil Levy on this week's Deep Dish podcast to examine the causes and consequences of this emerging market crisis.

Ambassador James Dobbins established the US embassy in Kabul 17 years ago, at the beginning of the War in Afghanistan. Since then, the United States and its NATO allies have been at constant war. On this episode of Deep Dish, Ambassador James Dobbins and US NATO Ambassador Douglas Lute discuss whether and how an endgame might take shape in America's longest war.

The results of Zimbabwe's first election in decades will signal how the country proceeds economically and politically during its transition to a post-Mugabe era. Experts Alex Vines and Rachel Riedl join Deep Dish this week to explain the election's importance for the country and region.

From the South China Sea to the DMZ, there are tensions in the world that could lead to deadly war. But two renowned political theorists believe they have the keys to conflict prevention. Paul Stares and Bruce Jentleson join this week's Deep Dish podcast to discuss how preventative engagement can help keep global peace.

Russian election interference changed the cyber playing field. While United States intelligence knows what happened before, is it ready to stop it from happening again? Cybersecurity experts Adam Segal and David Sanger join this week's Deep Dish podcast to discuss the latest in US cyber policy.

With the NATO summit underway in Brussels, former US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder joined this week's Deep Dish podcast to discuss President Trump's relationship with the alliance and his upcoming summit with Russian Vladimir Putin.

The United States has gone from threats to action on a number of trade fronts. China and Europe are both retaliating, while NAFTA negotiations continue to slog on. To help see the big picture, global economy fellow Phil Levy joins Brian Hanson on this week's Deep Dish.

Mexico heads to the polls on Sunday, and Andrés Manuel López Obrador is largely expected to claim presidential victory. NPR's International Correspondent in Mexico City, Carrie Kahn, explains how this election is Mexico's anti-establishment statement and why President Trump may not be relevant to the campaign.

Until Wednesday, family separations were part of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" response to illegal immigration. The Bipartisan Policy Center's Theresa Brown breaks down how we got there, why migrants risk so much to enter the United States, and what else can be done to deal with migrant flows.

Following their historic meeting on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula. But they offered few specifics. To break down what happened, how we got here, and what all this means, Asia experts Katrin Katz and Karl Friedhoff join Brian Hanson on this week's Deep Dish podcast.

Fake news, cyber-attacks, election tampering, and expanding its territory are some of the ways Russia continues to antagonize the West. Former president of the Brookings Institution, diplomat, and journalist Strobe Talbott joins this week's Deep Dish podcast to share his view of Russia based on extensive personal experience.

Spain's Congress will hold a vote of no-confidence at the end of this week. If it is successful it will bring down the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. What are the implications of this vote on the state of Spain's domestic politics today? How does Spain view its role in NATO and other transatlantic agreements? Spanish Ambassador to the United States, Pedro Morenés, joins Brian Hanson to discuss.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro handily won reelection, but the international community rejected his election as a sham, and the United States responded with new sanctions. To explain what happened and what's next, Francisco Rodriguez, a Venezuelan economist and a policy advisor to leading opposition candidate Henri Falcón, joins this week's Deep Dish with Brian Hanson.

After weeks of popular protest, Armenia's Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan was replaced by opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan. Former Foreign Minister of Armenia and Member of Parliament, Vartan Oskanian, along with Salpi Ghazarian, director of the University of Southern California's Institute of Armenian Studies, joined Deep Dish to give their eyewitness accounts of the "Velvet Revolution" and explain how it all happened.

President Trump's "Maximum pressure" campaign could be working, or Kim Jong-un's playbook could be running the show. After an historic South-North summit, The Wall Street Journal's bureau chief in Seoul, South Korea, Jonathan Cheng, joins the Council's Karl Friedhoff to examine the drivers and developments leading up to President Trump's meeting with Kim Jong-un.

Iran's leaders may fear regime collapse enough to consider renegotiating the nuclear deal, but President Trump could walk away anyway. Expert Iran watchers Saeid Golkar and Ilan Goldenberg explore the ramifications of ending the Iran deal on this week's Deep Dish.

While China bolsters its military strength in the South China Sea, the US Navy is expanding its capability to enforce maritime norms across the region. "The US Navy will not be deterred," says Vice Admiral Andrew Lewis, as he dives into the Navy's latest steps to challenge its near-peer rivals.

The United States, United Kingdom, and France launched coordinated air strikes against Syria's military on Saturday. To analyze the fallout, Council President Ivo Daalder and Greg Jaffe, national security reporter from The Washington Post, join this week's Deep Dish podcast.

National Security Council alums from both sides of the aisle sit down to look at what responsibilities and challenges President Trump's new National Security Advisor will face on the job. A National Security Adviser trying to implement the President's agenda might be tempted to run around any bureaucracy slowing down the President's impulses. With no congressional or public oversight, John Bolton may soon find himself taking national policy into his own hands. Former National Security Council members Ivo Daalder and Kori Schake join Brian Hanson to discuss the future of the NSC under John Bolton.

What can the president do in trade wars, and what restraints exist? This episode originally aired in 2017 but has become newly relevant as China and the US go tit for tat in opening trade skirmishes. Listen again to learn what powers the president has in true trade wars. Featuring Phil Levy and Gary Clyde Hufbauer.

Deep Dish often takes a strategic or policy-oriented view toward conflicts around the world. In this episode, we pause to consider the real human lives impacted by the headlines we read. Becky Carroll, who is in direct contact with people on the ground in Eastern Ghouta, co-founded the #StandWithAleppo social media campaign in 2016 and serves on the Ambassador Board for MedGlobal. Dr. Wendy Pearlman, whose new book, "We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria," reports first-hand testimonials of those affected by political violence in Syria. Dr. Pearlman is a political science professor at Northwestern University.

Social media, the internet of things, and the dark web are the latest battlegrounds in a new era of asymmetrical warfare. Premier cyberterrorism expert Gabriel Weimann joins Deep Dish to discuss how terrorists and bad actors use cyber networks to recruit members, spread propaganda, and cause physical harm.

Ambassador Barbara Stephenson, president of the American Foreign Service Association, joins Deep Dish to give voice to the members of the US Foreign Service. She talks State Department cuts, political appointees, military partners, and how members of the US Foreign Service cope with the challenge of forming and implementing US foreign policy.

President Donald Trump has accepted North Korea's invitation for direct talks with Kim Jong-un. North Korea expert Karl Friedhoff and national security expert Commander Thomas Bodine discuss what brought us here, what China, North Korea, South Korea, and the United States want out of these talks, and what to watch for next.

After five months of uncertainty, Germany has formed a new government. Meanwhile in Italy, right-wing populists triumphed electorally but left no clear path toward a governing coalition. Italian expert Nathalie Tocci and German expert Constanze Stelzenmüller analyze the results and what it could mean for stability in Europe.

Stav Shaffir, the youngest-ever woman elected to Israel's parliament, joins Deep Dish to discuss corruption charges against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as her own Labor party's failure to pull ahead in polling, despite what she says is a broad base of support for its progressive agenda.

Each year, international security and defense chiefs meet at the Munich Security Conference for intense debate about global security challenges. The Washington Post's Josh Rogin and Julie Smith from Foreign Policy and the Center for a New American Security help us understand what happened, and, more importantly, what didn't happen at this year's premier security summit.

NATO Ambassador Ivo Daalder and POLITICO's Susan Glasser react to the Pentagon's new nuclear posture review, the rumored "bloody nose" strategy for deterring North Korea, mismatches between the State Department and the White House, Russia's upcoming election, and the destabilization of US institutions.

The United States faces a new era of great power conflict, according to the Trump administration's new National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy. Naval Commander Thomas Bodine joins this week's podcast to help make sense of the strategic shift away from terrorism and toward peer on peer state competition.

The World Economic Forum's annual meeting of economic and political elites opened Tuesday in Davos, Switzerland. As the vanguard of globalization met, senior economist Phil Levy joined this week's Deep Dish podcast for a tour of hot spots in the global economy.

The Trump administration will not renew the temporary protected status of more than 200,000 El Salvadorian nationals living in the United States. This episode of Deep Dish features Latin America experts from the Atlantic Council and Migration Policy Institute talk about the impact of this decision from the lenses of social policy, economics, and diplomacy. Guests: Jason Marczak, director of the Atlantic Council's Latin America Center, and Kevin Appleby, senior policy director on international migration at the Center for Migration Studies. Guest host: Phil Levy, senior fellow for the global economy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

What began as Iranian protests about high food prices and inflation has turned into the largest anti-government outcry in nearly a decade. Iran experts Saeid Golkar and Nicola Pedde join guest host Stephen Anderson to unpack what this uprising could mean for the Islamic Republic.

Making Russia great again has long been a domestic and foreign policy goal of Vladimir Putin and his Russian base of support. This week's Deep Dish explores Russian politics, foreign and domestic, that are geared toward making that wish a reality.

Bitcoin may be the most famous application of blockchain technology, but its potential extends well beyond cryptocurrency. On this week's Deep Dish podcast, two tech experts explore the promise of this revolutionary technology in the global economy.

President Trump has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital – a move he says "acknowledges the obvious." But officials and religious leaders across the Middle East condemn the decision for stoking violence and defying UN resolutions on Jerusalem's status. This week's Deep Dish podcast welcomes Carnegie's Maha Yahya, POLITICO's Susan Glasser, and the Council's Cécile Shea to discuss.

ISIS has been decimated and Bashar al-Assad sits secure atop the bloody streets of Syria. With Russia leading diplomatic efforts to close the books on the Syrian Civil War, this week's Deep Dish examines the state of play in Syria, how we get there, and the competing interests of those who hope to influence what happens next. Brian Hanson is joined by U.S. Ambassador (ret.) to Syria Robert S. Ford, senior fellow for global security and diplomacy Cecile Shea, and nonresident senior fellow for Iran policy Saeid Golkar.

Now that President Trump has passed the Iran deal to Congress, debates about the deal's merits have resurfaced. To help explain the arguments for and against the deal, we asked two experts with extensive experience in the area to present their perspectives on this week's episode of Deep Dish. Listen as Brian Hanson moderates a debate between Jessica Mathews, Distinguished Fellow and past President at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Michael Singh, the Lane-Swig senior fellow and managing director at The Washington Institute and a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council.

Ma Jun is China's leading environmental activist. In this week's Deep Dish, he joins host Brian Hanson during a rare visit to the United States to talk about how he's using big data to hold corporations in China accountable to the environmental damage they're causing in his country.

Saudi Arabia says Lebanon and Iran have declared war on it. Meanwhile, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has initiated the arrest of dozens of royal family members, officials, and business executives in an anti-corruption sweep. This week's Deep Dish looks at what's going on and explains it within the larger context of geopolitical trends in the region.

President Trump is preparing to visit China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Hawaii from Nov. 3 - 13. In the latest Deep Dish, we gathered a group of Asia experts to dissect the potential pitfalls and opportunities that await in each leg of his journey, as well as what to watch for during the trip.

The Spanish government's violent treatment of Catalonian voters thrust its national political crises into worldwide headlines. On this week's Deep Dish, CSIS's Daniel Runde brings context and clarity to the unsettled scene in Catalonia and the international reaction to the independence referendum.