Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

My guest today, Elizabeth Economy, is the author of the new book The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State. The book examines the transformative changes ongoing in China today under the leadership of Xi Jinping. Xi Jingping has consolidated power in a fairly unprecedented way, and as Elizabeth Economy explains he is fundamentally shifting China's domestic and foreign policies. We spend the bulk of our conversation focusing on Chinese foreign policy, including China's massive foreign development program called the Belt and Road initiative, it's attempt to create an ostensible rival to the World Bank and its assertive policies in the South China Sea. This is a great conversation about a newly emerging force in international affairs.

In the hierarchy of the State Department the Secretary of State, of course, sits on top. Below the Secretary of State is the Deputy Secretary of State and below the Deputy Secretary is the number three post at the state department, the Under-secretary of State for Political Affairs. According to a recent report in Bloomberg by the journalist Nick Wadhams, Paula Dobriansky has be tapped to serve in that number 3 spot. Wadhams cites three sources "familiar with the decision," though neither Dobriansky nor the white house have commented at time I'm recording this. If, indeed, Paula Dobriansky becomes the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs she will be the highest ranking official in the Trump administration who has appeared on this very podcast, so I thought it would be worthwhile to revisit my conversation with her. We spoke in June 2015. At the time, Dobriansky was at Harvard having having served in the George W. Bush administration as Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs. In our conversation, we spend a good deal of time discussing her background, her academic interests, and her career serving in four administrations. She is of Ukrainian descent and entered college interested in studying the Soviet Union. She earned her PHD writing about Soviet foreign policy and was a well regarded Sovietologist and later Russia expert. We kicked off discussing what at the time was an escalating situation in Ukraine before having a longer conversation about her career. What I find interesting looking back at this interview in the context of her possibly joining the Trump administration is that she comes from a fairly traditional Republican foreign policy background. She's consistently opposed Russian aggression and has embraced the value of spreading democracy and human rights as in the national interests of the United States. She could probably be fairly considered to a neo-conservative. She certainly is very thoughtful and was very gracious with this interview.

My guest today, Paul Stares, is the author of the new book Preventative Engagement. How America Can Avoid War, Stay Strong, and Keep the Peace. The book identifies what Stares calls "the American predicament" in which United States remains the principal guarantor of global peace and security, but that in the process of maintaining global peace and security the United States becomes overly extended and prone to costly military entanglements. Stares offers a way out of this predicament that does not involve retreating from the world, but rather embraces what he calls "preventative engagement." We discuss what that concept entails and why even the trump administration might be willing to implement it. This is a good, high minded conversation about US foreign policy and about the value of the United Nations and multilateral engagement to US national security interests.

Latin America is experiencing its worst-ever refugee crisis. By most estimates, several thousands of Venezuelans are fleeing the country every single day. In recent weeks the pace and scale of this refugee crisis has sharply increased. There is no end in sight. My guest today, Andrei Serbin Pont, explains why Venezuelans are leaving their country in such profound numbers. He is the research director of the regional think tank Cries and recently undertook a study of the Venezuelan refugee crisis with the Stanley Foundation As Andrei explains, most of these refugees are fleeing to Colombia and Brazil and those countries are having a difficult time handling the influx. Still, many are fleeing elsewhere, including to nearby Caribbean Islands which have virtually no capacity to handle a sharp increase in population. The bottom line is that this is becoming a very intense regional crisis and it is accelerating. Support the show by becoming a premium subscriber

We are in a period of profound domestic turmoil here in the United States. I clearly don't need to run down the list of everything out of the ordinary that is happening in DC -- you know full well this is not normal. But I am curious to learn how some of America's longstanding allies in Europe are interpreting this unique moment of US history and I was also curious to learn how diplomacy with the United States has changed over the last year and half since Trump took office. So, I could not think of anyone better to whom I should put some of these questions than Klaus Scharioth. He is a veteran German diplomat, having served in the ministry of foreign affairs since the 1970s. He was the German ambassador to the United States from 2006 to 2011, so spanning both the Bush and Obama administrations. He is now a professor of practice at the fletcher school at Tufts University. The Ambassador is also a member of the board of directors of Humanity in Action-Germany. We kick off with a conversation about the ways in which the day-to-day practice of diplomacy with the United States has changed since Trump took office. We then have a wider discussion about the evolving nature of transatlantic relations and how the fundamental worldview of Europe is clashing with that of the Trump administration. I recorded the conversation a couple of days ago and one thing that has stuck with me about our conversation was the Ambassador's emphasizing that America's capacity for self-correction is among its most widely admired attributes in Europe. Support the show!

Suzanne DiMaggio specializes in what is called Track Two diplomacy with countries that have limited or no diplomatic relations with the United Stats. In practice, this has meant that she's spent countless hours over the last nearly twenty years in meetings with North Koreans and Iranians and those encounters have lead to some major diplomatic breakthroughs. We kick off defining our terms. She explains what Track Two diplomacy means, as opposed to, say "back channel" diplomacy. We then preview an upcoming major summit between the Kim Jong UN and South Korean president Moon Jae-in. And that meeting, of course, will lay the groundwork for the Trump-Kim meeting, which we discuss in detail. As diplomacy with North Korea intensifies in the coming months, Suzanne DiMaggio is someone you will see quoted often on TV and radio and so I also wanted to use our conversation to learn how she first got involved with this kind of unique diplomatic endeavor. She has some great stories to tell.

What happened to Iraq's oil wealth? That is the central question of the book: Pipe Dreams: The Plundering of Iraq's oil Wealth by my guest today Erin Banco. Erin Banco is an investigative reporter at the Star Ledger in New Jersey, where she covers the intersection of money and government. She has reported from the middle east for years and puts her investigative skills to use by examining documents and cultivating sources who explain the sordid tale of corruption surrounding Iraq's oil wealth, particularly in the Kurdish region. Iraq sits on the world's fifth largest oil reserves, but oil wealth has not trickled down to the Iraqi people. Erin Banco explains why.

My guest today is the renowned journalist Steve Coll. He is a staff writer at the New Yorker, dean of the Colombia School of Journalism and former president of the New America Foundation think tank. In 2005 he wont he Pulitzer for his book Ghost Wars, which examines the secret history of the CIA in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to right before the September 11 attacks. It is the foundational text that provides the history and context for understanding America's involvement in Afghanistan in the era leading up to the September 11 attacks. It took DC by storm when it was published and its basically a canonical text. Needless to say, official Washington and beyond was eagerly anticipating his sequel to Ghost Wars, which was published just a few weeks ago. The book, Directorate S: The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan picks up where Ghost Wars leaves off, spanning from the September 11th attacks to the first few months of the Trump administration. We kick off with an extended discussion of these two books and what went so wrong for the United States in Afghanistan. We then discuss his own life and career as a journalist, including how an accident of assignment lead him to South Asia at a very critical time. Links: Ghost Wars Directorate S Support the show!

A few weeks ago I was having lunch with a former high ranking US diplomat whose work focused on Russia and Europe. I asked him where he thought Vladimir Putin might target next to sow instability and without missing a beat he said: Bosnia. A scattering of recent think tank and press reports offer some insights into Russian meddling in Bosnia. It is an extremely under-covered global story, but one that has the potential to cause unrest not only in the Balkans, but across Europe. On the line with me to discuss this situation is Michael Carpenter. He is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Eastern Europe and the Balkans and is now Senior Director for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the Penn Biden Center Carpenter explains some of the motivations driving Vladimir Putin -- above all, he describes how fomenting unrest in Bosnia is Putin's best insurance policy against perceived threats by the West. Bosnia, as Carpenter puts it, is the soft underbelly of Europe that is ripe for exploitation. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the implications of Russian meddling in Bosnia for all of Europe, have a listen. Links: Support the Show Leave a review!

On September 21, 2001, Rais Bhuiyan was working behind the counter at a gas station outside Dallas, Texas when a man named Mark Stroman walked in brandishing a sawed-off shotgun. Stroman was a self-proclaimed white supremacist in the midst of a deadly hate crime spree. Seeking revenge for the recent September 11th attacks just days earlier, he roamed the area looking for what he believed to be Arabs to kill. In that killing spree Stroman took the lives of an Indian immigrant named Vasudev Patel and Waqar Hassan, a Pakistani immigrant. Stroman shot Rais in the face. But Rais, who was a former Bangladeshi air force pilot, survived the attack. Stroman was eventually arrested, convicted of murder and sent to death row. As Stroman awaited execution, Rais embarked on an improbable campaign to spare the life of his attacker. This story was masterfully told in the 2014 book "The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas" by Anand Ghirdiharas. A major hollywood movie based on the book is currently in production. Today, Rais is the founder and president of the NGO, World Without Hate. When we caught up, Rais had recently returned from a trip to Canada, sponsored by the US State Department, where he told his story. That trip also included a visit to the Islamic Center of Quebec City which was the scene of a mass shooting hate crime just one year ago. We kick off discussing this trip and Rais' work with the State Department before entering into a long and powerful conversation about Rais' experience. Links: http://worldwithouthate.org/ Support the Show Leave a review! "The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas"

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, is facing a crisis. This is the humanitarian agency that provides relief for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. This includes running hospitals and schools that serve about half a million children. Typically, the United States has provided about one third of UNRWA's overall budget, judging the organization to be a source of stability in an otherwise volatile region. The Trump administration, however, has frozen US payments to the humanitarian agency. It did so in retaliation to a vote at the UN General Assembly in which member states overwhelmingly condemned the Trump administration's decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel and move its embassy there. Withholding promised funding for humanitarian relief for Palestinian refugees was the Trump administration's payback for this vote. On the line with me to discuss what this budget crisis means on the ground for Palestinian refugees is Peter Mulrean, Director of UNRWA's Representative Office in New York. We also discuss the history of UNRWA, the role is serves in Palestinian society and in the politics of the region, and how it might overcome this funding crisis imposed by the Trump administration. Links: Become a premium subscriber Leave a review!

I got my start in journalism covering John Bolton when he was the US Ambassador to the United Nations. At the time, I was a reporter for the political monthly The American Prospect. I sometimes quip that I owe my career to Bolton because covering his time at the UN was my entry point into covering the United Nations more broadly. My reporting at the time culminated in a cover story that was published in January 2006 that detailed Bolton's tenure thus far at the UN and broke a few scoops about his conduct. In this special episode of the podcast I am going to share a few anecdotes from my reporting at the time that might shed some light on how he will conduct himself as the National Security Advisor to Donald Trump. I'll also survey some key issues around the world, including North Korea, Iran, Trans-Atlantic Relations and the United Nations to see what Bolton's past interactions with these issues might suggest for the future of US policy. I'll also explain the position of National Security Advisor to help you understand where, exactly, Bolton will fit in in the bureaucratic politics of US foreign policy making. That this is a different kind of Global Dispatches episode. This podcast is typically an interview-based show in which I have conversations with experts about topical issues, or I have longer discussions with people who have had interesting careers in foreign policy. In these conversations, I'll occasionally interject my own views. But for the most the other person is talking. But this time around, I am something of the expert. And I think other people see me as such, based on my past reporting. I was on BBC's Nightly News program last Friday after the news about Bolton broke. And I also had a piece up on The Daily Beast. So this episode is just me talking. Links: Become a premium subscriber Leave a review! My Iran Deal episode with Spencer Ackerman My Daily Beast piece on Bolton

Wanjira Mathai is a Kenyan environmental and civic leader. She is the chair of the Wangari Mathai Foundation, which is named after her mother who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Much of Wanjira's work focuses on the intersection of women's empowerment and environmental sustainability. We kick off with a discussion about her work with a group called the Partnership on Women's Entrepreneurship in Renewables (wPOWER). Much of our conversation discusses the challenges and opportunities around renewable energy in the developing world. We also discuss the work of her mother, the environmental justice pioneer who founded the Green Belt Movement. This episode is presented in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation, whose aim is to contribute to reducing the main global problems and risks that threaten humanity. Last year, the Global Challenges Foundation held an open call to find new models of global cooperation better capable of handling the most pressing global risks. In May this year at the New Shape Forum in Stockholm, the top proposals will be presented publicly and further refined through discussions with key thought leaders and experts. US$5 million will be awarded to the best ideas that re-envision global governance for the 21st century. Wanjira Mathai is a Global Challenges Foundation ambassador and in the conversation we discuss this prize and why new ideas for global governance are important for the future of environmental sustainability. Links Global Challenges Foundation Become a Premium Subscriber

By the end of this month the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia will no longer exist. The mission, known as UNMIL, is closing shop after nearly 15 years in operation, and its closing this is a major milestone and success for both Liberia and the United Nations. In 2003, it was hard to imagine this day would ever come. Around 250,000 people had been killed in a singularly brutal civil war, the infrastructure that existed in the country was decimated and most Liberians who had the opportunity to leave country had fled. Fifteen years later, thanks in large part to this UN Peacekeeping Force, Liberia is a stable democracy with a rapidly developing economy. In 2006 it was the first country in Africa to elect a female head of State, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and after serving two terms she stepped down peacefully and ceded power to her political rival, George Weah. To be sure, Liberia is still a very poor country. But these last 15 years have seen tremendous progress. On the line with me to discuss how UNMIL was able to work itself out of a job is retired Col. Christopher Holshek. Col. Holshek was one of the few Americans to serve in UNMIL and he explains just how the UN's role in Liberia transitioned from peace keeping to peace building. And because there are so few American military officers who serve in UN peacekeeping missions, his perspective on this question is very unique. The folding of the UN Mission in Liberia is a good news story coming out of the UN and I am glad to share it with you.

Maggy Barankitse is the founder of Maison Shalom, an orphanage and school that was created in Burundi in the wake of the Civil War there in the 1990s. Like in neighboring Rwanda, the conflict in Burundi involved acts of genocide pitting ethnic groups against each other. The conflict came to Maggy's town on October 24th 1993. At the time, Maggy was working as a secretary in the local catholic diocese in her hometown of Ruyigi, Burundi. What happened was an act of unspeakable cruelty and I am going to read directly the description of events from the website of Maison Shalom. "In the autumn of 1993, an atmosphere of uneasiness had settled over the country. In Ruyigi, disaster struck on 24 October. To exact vengeance for the killing of members of their ethnic group, the Tutsi hunted the town's Hutus, who were hiding in the diocese buildings. Maggy was also there. She tried to reason with the group of Tutsi driven mad by hatred. She tried to convince them not to use violence. Her efforts were in vain. To punish her for what they considered a betrayal on the part of a Tutsi "sister", they decided to strip her and tie her to a chair. They forced her to remain in that position and watch as they first set fire to the diocese building to force those hiding there to come out, then as they mercilessly hacked her friends to death with machetes." As Maggy tells me, it was this experience that lead her to create an oasis of peace and hope in the midst of such conflict and tumult. Maison Shalom has served tens of thousands of children since its founding. Unfortunately, Maggy today lives as a refugee in Rwanda. She was forced to flee the country after she spoke out against an illegal power-grab by the country's president. But even from Rwanda, Maggy is continuing her mission and has established a Maison Shalom to serve refugees and others in Rwanda. For her work, Maggy was awarded the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, which is a $1 million prize awarded to individuals who commit extraordinary acts of humanity. The prize is awarded by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, which was founded by the decedents of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and a few weeks ago I published my conversation with Noubar Afeyan who is one of the co-founders of this initiative.

I am still catching my breath over the news that Rex Tillerson was fired and CIA Director Mike Pompeo has been nominated as his replacement as Secretary of State. That happened, of course, just days after a South Korean diplomat announced a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, scheduled for May. I was just getting my head around that news and its broader implications when, of course, the firing-by-tweet occurred. Fortunately for all of us, I had on my schedule an interview with Uri Friedman, a staff writer at the Atlantic who covers global affairs and US foreign policy. He has written extensively about US diplomacy and North Korea and in this episode he and I just talk through this news. I think you will find this conversation useful. I know I did. I learned some interesting things about Pompeo's background and also the implications of having a Secretary of State who, unlike Rex Tillerson, is personally close and more on the same page as the President. Uri recently published an article on Pompeo and North Korea, which we reference in this conversation and I'll post a link to that on the website. Remember to leave a review of the podcast, my people! I'll mail you a sticker in return!

Joseph Kaifala was just a child when civil war broke out in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The war came to his town in 1989 and as a seven-year-old was imprisoned with his father. They were eventually released and Joseph and his family spent much of the next decade on the run from a brutal civil war that seemed to follow them everywhere. Kaifala recently published a memoir of these experiences titled Adamalui: A Survivor's Journey from Civil Wars in Africa to Life in America. He is also the subject of a documentary film titled Retracing Jeneba: The Story of a Witness, which is poised to debut at film festivals. Joseph Kaifala is a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow and the story of how he went from that prison in Liberia to this prestigious fellowship, and then onto law school in the United States is truly extraordinary. We kick off discussing an NGO he started long with another Humanity in Action Senior Fellow Liat Krawczyk called The Jeneba Project. This is an organization dedicated to providing high quality education for children in Sierra Leone. Liat Krawczyk is also the co-director and co-executive producer of the documentary film, along with Anthony Mancilla. This is a very powerful episode. We discuss Joseph's unique personal journey and have digressions about the causes and effects of the civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

As the United States enters its next election cycle, our democracy is still extremely vulnerable to disinformation campaigns from Russia. Other democracies, particularly in Europe, are also vulnerable to this kind of threat and, indeed, have also been the target of Russian meddling. A new report from The Atlantic Council identifies some concrete ways that the United States and Europe can better protect themselves against propaganda, disinformation, and election related hacking. On the line with me to discuss this report and its findings is one of the report's co-authors, Ambassador Daniel Fried. He was a longtime US diplomatic who's career largely focused Russia and central and eastern Europe. The report was co-authored by Alina Polyakova of the Brookings Institute The report provides a useful heuristic for understanding the problem: it breaks down and categorizes the various kinds of election meddling we've seen thus far. Also what makes this report unique is that the authors' propose that countering this kind of election meddling can be a platform for transatlantic cooperation; that is, in response to this Russian meddling Europe and the United States have an opportunity to form a new kind of strategic alliance. It can be a catalyst for cooperation.

Noubar Afeyan is a business leader, entrepreneur and philanthropist. In 2015, along with other decedents of survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide, he co-founded the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. This initiative, as Noubar explains, seeks to empower modern day survivors of genocide and mass atrocities through a variety of projects the most high profile of which is a $1 million prize for individuals who are saving lives and promoting humanitarian values in the face of extreme adversity. Noubar's own family history and life story is one of survival. He was born in Beirut in the early 1960s, but his family took a circuitous route to get there, escaping the genocide and then subsequent persecution. Much of this history was relayed to him by his great aunt,with whom he lived growing up in Beirut. This is a very interesting conversation not only about Noubar's life journey and that of his family, but also how communities remember and honor historic atrocities visited upon them.

My podcast guest today Pablo Yanguas is a research fellow at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. He is the author of the new book "Why We Lie About Aid: Development and the Messy Politics of Change." In this conversation we discuss the central thesis of his book which is that there is a profound gap between the politics of development, and how economic development is actually achieved on the ground in the developing world. And the book is provocative for arguing that the former causes us to misrepresent the latter. This thesis rings true to my experience covering global development as a journalist for over a decade now. And I must say I found this conversation very clarifying--he identifies and ascribes political motives to trends that I have certainly seen covering these issues. And even if you are not a global development nerd, I think you will find this conversation very useful. I have a fun little announcement to make. I just some ordered stickers with the podcast logo on it and I would love to send one to you. But first I need you to do something for the show, which is to tell everyone why you listen to the show in a review on iTunes. Leave a review, then send me an email using the contact button on GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com and I will mail you a sticker. To leave a review go here. If you are using the podcast app, follow these steps Launch Apple's Podcast app. Tap the Search tab. Enter the name of the podcast you want to rate or review. Tap the blue Search key at the bottom right. Tap the album art for the podcast. Tap the Reviews tab. Tap Write a Review at the bottom

Sulome Anderson was in utero when her father, the journalist Terry Anderson, was kidnapped in Beirut. She met him for the first time as a six year old, when he was finally released by his Hezbollah linked captors. Her book The Hostage's Daughter investigates the circumstances of her father's kidnapping and also serves as a memoir of her own experience dealing with her trauma and the trauma of her family. The book was published about 18 months ago to critical acclaim and it's since been optioned for a movie. In our conversation Sulome, now a journalist herself, discusses what it was like to write and report this book. She also opens up about the impact her father's kidnapping had on her childhood and adolescence, and she describes the catharsis she experienced after having interviewed one of her dad's kidnappers for this book. We kick off discussing something a little different: Sulome has been working as a freelance journalist in the Middle East for many years and she was recently the subject of a article in the Colombia Journalism Review that describes the challenges of working as a freelance foreign affairs journalist in a world obsessed with Trump. Please leave a review of the podcast on iTunes!

The conflict in Syria has entered a new phase. ISIS has been defeated, yet in many ways the war is metastasizing. In places like Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus, the war is as brutal as ever. After days of extremely heavy bombing, the UN secretary general called Ghouta "hell on earth." Meanwhile, in another part of Syria, in the northern town of Afrin, you have a situation where the US-backed Kurdish forces that were instrumental in defeating ISIS are now under attack by America's NATO ally, Turkey. Meanwhile, in recent weeks, an Israeli fighter jet was downed over the country and the United States reportedly killed dozens of Russian mercenaries in a bombing. On the line with me to help put what is happening in Syria in the broader context of the trajectory of this nearly seven year old conflict is Raed Jarrar who is the Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa for Amnesty International, USA. We kick off discussing the situation in Ghouta which is setting off international alarm bells as an ongoing mass atrocity event. We then discuss some of the broader trends of the conflict and what advocacy organizations like Amnesty are doing to keep pressure on the international community to reduce the toll this conflict is taking on civilian populations. Overall, this conversation serves as a helpful explanation of how the Syria conflict has evolved over the last several months and where it may be heading.

Djibouti is the only country in the world that hosts military bases for both the United States and China. The US base, Camp Lemmonier, hosts US special forces and its only a few kilometers from China's only military base outside of Asia. France, the former colonial ruler, also has a base in the country. That so many countries would want their military stationed in tiny Djibouti is partly due of the country's geography. It is strategically located in the horn of Africa, bordering Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea at the exact point where the Gulf of Aden meets the red Sea, across the straight from Yemen. But in part as a consequence of its strategic location its longtime leader President Ismael Omar Guelleh has had a stranglehold on power since 1999, cracking down on civil society, thwarting any potential political rivals and subverting democratic institutions. One person trying to restore democracy to Djibouti is Daher Ahmed Farah, who is on the line with me today. He is the leader of the country's main opposition political party, the Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development (MRD). He is currently in exile, living mostly in Brussels after the government issued a warrant for his arrest. We caught up as Farah was visiting Washington, DC for meetings at the state department and elsewhere. Djibouti is obviously not much on the news radar and I found this conversation an interesting explanation of how a government that is a strategic ally of many world powers can use that position to consolidate power at home at the expense of democracy. Support the show and earn rewards by becoming a premium subscriber on Patreon.

It's budget season in Washington, DC. And this year (like last year) the White House has requested massive cuts to foreign affairs spending in general, and to the United Nations in particular. The Fiscal Year 2019 budget request from the White House asks for about a 30% overall cut in non-military international affairs spending over current spending levels. Congress, which ultimately controls the purse strings, has largely pushed back against these more draconian spending measures. On the line with me to discuss how the United Nations fits into the US budget and spending debates ongoing in Washington, DC is Peter Yeo. He is the President of the Better World Campaign and Vice President for Public Policy and Advocacy at the United Nations Foundation. He was a longtime congressional staffer and knows the ins and outs of the foreign affairs budget and the UN budget process as well as anyone in DC. Peter explains the UN budget process and demonstrates how American funding for the United Nations ends up being a pretty good deal for the United States. This is a good, explanatory episode about one of the most important financial relationships in world affairs.

To the people of Kiribati, climate change is an existential threat. This is an Island nation in the pacific -- it is a string of atolls about halfway between Australia and Hawaii. It has a population of about 100,000 and is known for its vast Tuna stocks. But climate change and rising sea levels are making much of Kiribas uninhabitable--it is a country that is facing extinction. And not in some distant future. This is happening now. My guest today, Anote Tong served as President of Kiribas from 2003 to 2016. President Tong is well known in international circles for being a powerful advocate on behalf of people living in small island states that are on the front line of climate change. What I found so interesting about this conversation was learning how President Tong's advocacy in international forums has evolved over time--and how this existential threat contributed to President Tong's decision to create what is the world's largest marine sanctuary--the Phoenix Islands Protection Area. This episode is presented in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation, whose aim is to contribute to reducing the main global problems and risks that threaten humanity. Last year, the Global Challenges Foundation held an open call to find new models of global cooperation better capable of handling the most pressing global risks. In May this year at the New Shape Forum in Stockholm, the top proposals will be presented publicly and further refined through discussions with key thought leaders and experts. US$5 million will be awarded to the best ideas that re-envision global governance for the 21st century. President Tong is a Global Challenges Foundation ambassador and in the conversation we discuss this prize and why new ideas for global governance are important for the future of small island states like Kiribati.

Last week, the Polish Senate passed a law that would make it a criminal offense to claim that Poland was complicit in Nazi crimes. The Israeli government strongly opposed this measure, as do most people who care about honest academic discourse. Nevertheless, the measure was passed and now awaits the signature of the president to become law. When I caught up with my guest today, Monika Mazur-Rafał, Poland's lower house had recently passed the law and as Monika explains the public debate and discourse about it was heavily colored by invocations of ethnic nationalism and hate speech. Monika is the director of Humanity in Action-Poland, which is an organization that seeks to promote pluralism and cosmopolitan values. As she explains the use of hate speech around this particular public debate is just one manifestation of a trend that has increased sharply in recent years. In fact a public survey, which Monika describes in detail, finds that Polish people's exposure to hate speech has increased dramatically with the coming to power of the far right wing Law and Justice party. She explains that dynamic, and the relationship between anti-semitism, homophobia, islamophobia and racism and the electoral success of the ruling Law and Justice Party. Needless to say, there are some interesting and disturbing parallels to what is happening in Poland and what happened during the 2016 election in the United States. Finally, Monika explains what organizations like Humanity in Action are doing to counter this disturbing trend.

Max Boot is a foreign policy commentator and historian. Just this week he was named a contributing writer to the Op-ed page of the Washington Post. He is the author of several books; his most recent is The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam Lansdale was a CIA officer who was the inspiration behind the title character of the famous Graham Green novel, The Quiet American. As Max explains Lansdale pioneered a "hearts and minds" approach to the Vietnam quandary and sought to avoid a massive American military buildup in Vietnam, but was ultimately overruled. We discuss this history in detail and also the relevance of Lansdale to American foreign policy today. We then have an extended conversation about Max's background, including his own intellectual evolution. And here, Max explains how the Trump administration is causing him to re-think certain assumptions he once held as a movement conservative and Republican.

You've may of the Doomsday Clock. This is a rubric created by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists at the dawn of the nuclear age to demonstrate how close humanity is to nuclear annihilation. Midnight symbolizes doomsday -- and the closer the clock moves to midnight, the closer we are to nuclear war. Well, on January 25th, the scientists behind the nuclear clock moved it a tic closer -- to two minutes before midnight. This is the closest the clock has been to the doomsday scenario since 1953. They cited the impetuousness of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un as their rational. But adding to the growing concern over the possible use of nuclear weapons is also a new nuclear weapons policy that is being rolled out by the Trump administration. The world caught a glimpse of what this policy might be when a draft of a document called the Nuclear Posture Review was leaked to the press. The nuclear posture review is a document that tends to be released in the early stages of an administration to set its over all nuclear weapons policy. And here, you will probably not be surprised to learn that Trump's nuclear policy review is likely to deviate from his predecessors in important ways. On the line with me to discuss the Trump administration's emerging approach to nuclear weapons, nuclear deterrence and other key nuclear policy issues is Tom Countryman. He was a career diplomat who served for decades in various postings at the State Department and around the world. He most recently served as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation until the very early days of the Trump administration. He is now the chair of the board of the Arms Control Association. Countryman does a very good job explaining what is the same--and what is so different about Donald Trump's approach to the bomb. And in so doing, I think he offers some important insights into how some of the underlying logic of nuclear policy planners might rest on some faulty assumptions. --- Please leave a review on iTunes. You can click this link or follow these instructions --- Launch Apple's Podcast app. Tap the Search tab. Enter "Global Dispatches" in the search bar. Tap the blue Search key at the bottom right. Tap the album art for the podcast. Tap the Reviews tab. Tap Write a Review at the bottom.

Over 10,000 people have fled from English speaking regions of Cameroon to neighboring Nigeria in recent weeks. They are escaping an ongoing crackdown by Cameroonian security forces against a movement that is demanding greater autonomy for English speaking regions from the French dominated central government. In Cameroon, the struggle for more equal political rights and power by English speaking regions is a longstanding issue. It's commonly known as "the Anglophone problem." Over the past couple of years an Anglophone protest movement has gained increased strength and visibility. And over the past several months the government response to this movement has become increasingly violent and draconian. Meanwhile, some fringe splinter groups have decided to take up arms against the government. This ongoing crisis and potentially brewing conflict is an off-the-radar crises that does not attract a great deal of attention, but has both significant regional and global implications. On the line with me to explain what is going on in Cameroon and why we should be paying attention to these developments is Yonatan L. Morse, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut. He explains how this crisis is rooted in Cameroon's unique post-colonial history and why these long simmering tensions are now boiling over. This is a great conversation--and I was happy to be able to shine a spotlight on this important, but perhaps overlooked issue. --- Please leave a review on iTunes. You can click this link or follow these instructions --- Launch Apple's Podcast app. Tap the Search tab. Enter "Global Dispatches" in the search bar. Tap the blue Search key at the bottom right. Tap the album art for the podcast. Tap the Reviews tab. Tap Write a Review at the bottom.

Tancintaro, Mexico claims to be the "avocado capital" of the world, selling one million dollars worth of the fruit per day. But what makes Tancitaro truly interesting is that the orchards--and the town itself--is under the protection of a militia funded by the avocado growers. In a fascinating piece in the New York Times, Amanda Taub, Max Fisher and Dalia Martinez use the towns of Tancitaro, Neva and Monterrey to demonstrate a trend in Mexico: cities are effectively seceding from the state. As they write in their piece, "These are acts of desperation, revealing the degree to which Mexico's police and politicians are seen as part of the threat." In this conversation Amanda Taub describes what her reporting from Mexico reveals about state fragility and the enduring presence of what can best be described as warlordism. We discuss these three case studies in detail--and each are totally fascinating on their own. But what distinguishes this piece is the way in which it draws on social science literature to help explain this ongoing trend--which is present not only in Mexico but in other parts of the world as well. This combination of original reporting backed by academic research is what you can expect regularly from the most excellent Interpreter column in the New York Times, which is written by Amanda Taub and Max Fisher. I also want to note before we begin that Amanda was a recent speaker at a Humanity in Action event, where she told some behind the scenes stories of her reporting and explained her reporting process.

Shanti Bhavan is a school in the Tamil Nadu state of southern India that serves children from the Dalit community. These are the some of the poorest children in the country. Systemic inequality has kept many members of this community in extreme poverty. (The Dalits were sometimes referred to as the "untouchables" in India's now-illegal caste system.) Shanti Bhavan seeks to break that cycle by offering high quality education and other life skills to its students. And for its successes to that end it has begun to earn a great deal of attention. Last year a documentary on Netflix, called Daughters of Destiny, profiled young girls at the school and offered some insights into Shanti Bhavan's unique strategy for breaking cycles of poverty. The school was founded in 1997 by the Indian-American businessman Abraham George. His son, Ajit George, is the director of operations and joins me on the podcast to discuss how his father decided to start the school and how this school fits into a broader theory of change to upend the caste system and extreme poverty it engenders. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn about one unique strategy to end extreme poverty, have a listen.

Robert Malley is the new president and CEO of the International Crisis Group. He took over on January 1st. The International Crisis Group, of course, provides the public and policymakers with analysis of conflicts and potential ways out of conflict around the world. As regular listeners probably know it is one of my go-to resources for understanding crises and conflicts around the world and analysts from the Crisis Group are regular guests on the this show. (I did not realize this when I reached out to Malley for the interview, but I've now had every single president of the International Crisis Group as guests on this show, including Gareth Evans, Louise Arbour and Rob's immediate predecessor Jean-Marie Guehenno.) We kick off discussing some of the priorities he'll emphasize as the group's new president and also some of the major conflicts and crises he's monitoring as we enter the new year. We then discuss his unique upbringing. As Rob describes it, his father was a Jewish Egyptian Arab nationalist who became a public intellectual and advocated on behalf of colonized people around the world. Rob served in the National Security Council staff of both the Clinton administration and the Obama administration. And his last post in the White House was as the so-called ISIL Czar, coordinating policy against the Islamic State.

At the very end of last year I had the opportunity to moderate a panel at the United States Institute of Peace that served as the launch of a new report called the Global Terrorism Index. This is a one-of-its kind quantitative examination of the impact of terrorism around the world. It includes a look at the number of terrorism deaths, the geographic distribution of terrorist attacks (including the countries and regions where terrorism is on the increase or decrease) and importantly, it puts all this data into a broader historic context in which you are able to compare the data year-by-year. The Global Terrorism Index is researched, compiled and published by the global think tank the Institute for Economics and Peace. On the line with me to discuss the 2017 Global Terrorism Index, and explain what big data can tell us about terrorism around the world is Daniel Hyslop, research director at the Institute for Economics and Peace. In the conversation we also reference another flagship report from the Institute called the Positive Peace Report, which takes a quantitative approach to measuring attitudes, institutions and structures that "create and sustain peaceful societies." Both the Global Terrorism Index and the Positive Peace Report are some cutting edge research in global affairs. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn what long-term data can teach us about terrorism, have a listen.

Iran is in the midst of its most significant protest and popular uprising since 2009, when the so-called Green Revolution was quashed by the government. Now, since December 28th, tens of thousands of people -- possibly more -- have taken to the streets in several different cities in demonstrations against both the more moderate elected President of Iran Hassan Rouhani and the more hardline supreme leader Ali Khameni. As my guest today Ariane Tabatabai explains, these protests began largely as a response to worsening economic conditions and the rising cost of consumer goods. And unlike the 2009 protests, the people taking to the streets are mostly drawn from groups that have historically supported more conservative elements in the Islamic Republic. So this poses a serious political challenge the ruling authorities in Iran. In our conversation Ariane discusses the roots of these protests, how the spread so quickly and how the Iran nuclear deal is an important factor in the politics and economy of Iran. Ariane Tabatabai is the Director of Curriculum of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University

Since 2013, the government of Australia has enforced a policy of sending any refugee or migrant who arrives who arrives by boat to detention centers in Papua New Guinea or the remote island nation of Nauru. They do so without exception. Daniel Webb is an Australian lawyer who is fighting that policy. He is the Director of Legal Advocacy at Australia's Human Rights Law Center and he represents asylum seekers who are stranded indefinitely in Nauru and in Papua New Guinea. In 2016 Daniel helped lead a campaign called Let Them Stay, which petitioned the government to allow a few hundred of these asylum seekers who were transported from these islands to Australia for medical treatment to remain in the country. For his work on behalf of these asylum seekers Daniel received the 2017 Global Pluralism Award. He was one of three finalists. The award, "celebrates the extraordinary achievements of organizations, individuals and governments who are tackling the challenge of living peacefully and productively with diversity." It was conferred by the Global Pluralism Center, which is a partnership between the Government of Canada and the Aga Khan, the religious leader and philanthropist and head of the NGO, the Aga Khan Development Network. He and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada were on hand to present this award at a ceremony in Ottawa a couple months ago. I was in the audience, and after seeing his acceptance speech and learning more about his work I knew I had to get him on the show. It's a powerful conversation that shines a light on a profoundly unjust and ongoing situation.

On Thursday, December 21 the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning the United States' decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The resolution passed 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions, despite the fact that in the days leading up to the vote Donald Trump and Nikki Haley threatened to cut off US aid to any countries who voted against the United States. Meanwhile, a day earlier, the High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al Hussein announced that he is stepping down next year and not seeking another term as High Commissioner. This was a shock. Zeid is universally admired in the human rights community as a blunt voice unafraid of speaking truth to power -- indeed he has been sharply critical of Donald Trump. That could be why he's stepping down. In a letter to staff, he cited an in hospitable geo-political environment for human rights advocacy as his reason for leaving the post. On the line to discuss these issues, plus have a look back at the big stories that drove the UN agenda in 2017 is Richard Gowen, a UN expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations. This is a lively conversation that examines how some big trends that started in 2017 will shape world affairs and diplomacy at the UN in 2018.

Munira Khalif is the US Youth Observer to the United Nations. This is a position created in partnership between the State Department and the United Nations Association of the United States to help give youth a voice in official and semi-official diplomatic settings. Munira is a student at Harvard, though she is taking some time off to focus on this new role, in which she will serve for a year. And in this conversation Munira discusses her work and what is involved in giving youth a voice at the UN and in diplomatic settings and why she is using her position to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. When we spoke, Munira had recently returned from India where she participated in the Global Entrepreneurship and we kick off discussing that trip. We then have a broader conversation of what it means to engage youth around issues of importance to the broader UN-system.

The International Committee for the Red Cross/Red Crescent, otherwise known as the ICRC, is a singularly unique international organization. It was founded over 150 years ago to care for soldiers wounded in battle and has evolved substantially since then. Over the years, it has helped shape what is known today as International Humanitarian Law, which are the laws of war. This includes the Geneva Conventions in which the ICRC is specifically named. Today, the ICRC works in conflict zones around the world providing on-the-ground medical relief and other services to protect the rights and welfare of civilians and combatants in conflict. It also conducts what my guest today, Hugo Slim, calls Humanitarian Diplomacy at the United Nations and in capitals around the world. Slim is the policy director for ICRC and we discuss what Humanitarian Diplomacy entails, and have a broader conversation about the work of the ICRC around the world, including the distinct role it plays in interesting international affairs.

Dr. Mozhdeh Ghasemiyani is a psychologist with Doctors without Borders. She is a Kurdish refugee to Denmark and recently delivered a TED Talk describing her refugee experience. In the talk she draws on her knowledge as a psychologist specializing in trauma and PTSD to explain how the traumatic experiences of refugee children can have life long effects. Mozhdeh Ghasemiyani is someone i have known for years. We are both Humanity in Action Senior Fellows and lived in DC at the same time some years ago. The Ted Talk she delivered was at a TEDx event in Aarhus, Denmark. This episode is in two parts. First, you will hear that Ted Talk -- which is both powerful and enlightening. Then, Mozhdeh and I have an extended conversation about some of the stories she alludes to in the talk and also the broader political environment that caused her family to flee first from Iran right after the 1979 revolution, and then from Saddam Hussein's campaign of genocide against the Kurds. We also discuss her current work as a psychologist who specializes in working with refugee children. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!

The United States will formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capitol and intends to move its embassy there from Tel Aviv — thus, decreed President Trump from the White House yesterday. The move bucks decades of US policy, which sought to include the status of Jerusalem as part of a broader peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Meanwhile, virtually the entire world warned President Trump against this declaration, fearing that it will sow instability throughout the region and erect yet another obstacle in the way of an already failing peace process. On the line with me to discuss the implications of this announcement to both the Arab-Israeli peace process and to regional politics more broadly is Marc Lynch. Lynch is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University's Elliot School; Director, Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) and one of my favorite middle east analysts. He explains why previous US administration's have held off on making this move. And, he puts this decision by Trump administration in the context of its broader policies towards the region. Lynch argues that Trump is making a high-stakes gamble with this Jerusalem gambit–the outcome of which is highly uncertain. If you have 20 minutes and want to understand the broader implications of the US decision to declare Jerusalem the capitol of Israel, have a listen.

Dr. Joanne Liu is the International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), otherwise known as Doctors without Borders. She is a Canadian Pediatrician by training and has been with MSF for almost her entire career. She became the international head of MSF in 2013. We spoke not long after she visited MSF's operations in a stretch of land in Bangladesh called Cox's Bazar. This is where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled from neighboring Myanmar in recent months and it is the site of one of the world's most urgent global humanitarian emergencies. Dr. Liu discusses the conditions there--and the kind of unique medical needs that stem from having such a massive population displacement in such a short period of time. We also discuss MSF's history--including how it gained a reputation as one of the more fearless global humanitarian organizations. And we also discuss some of the current big challenges facing MSF, including a seeming increase in the number of attacks on humanitarian and health facilities around the world. Dr. Liu tells a few very powerful stories, including a recent visit to a detention center for African migrants in Libya a place she calls "the most inhuman incarnation of men's cruelty" We also discuss in detail a tragedy that befell MSF in October 2015 when US fighter jets bombed an MSF hospital in Afghanistan, killing many of her colleagues. This episode shifts between wonky explanations of issues in world affairs, and her own very personal experience with those issues and I just want to thank Dr. Liu and the people at MSF for making this episode so powerful. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show

Agnès Marcaillou is the director of the United Nations Mine Action Service. This is the UN agency that helps clear mine fields, defuse IEDs and clean up unexploded ordinance around the world. It is the UN Bomb Squad. In this conversation, we discuss the problem of landmines and unexploded ordinance around the word, the work of UNMAS, and how funding shortages is preventing her agency from being maximally effective in places like Iraq, where UNMAS has received high praise for defusing a bomb-laden bridge in Fallujah to allow aid to enter the city following ISIS' defeat. Agnès has had a long career in the UN and I think younger professionals and students who listen to this show will find some inspiration in how Agnes was able to make a very big policy impact as a relatively junior UN staffer working on the Convention on the prohibition of chemical weapons in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Last month, I saw Agnès give an acceptance speech at the Global Leadership Awards, which is an event hosted by United Nations Foundation. The way in which she both described the work of UNMAS and her own long experience in the UN system compelled me to reach out to her for an interview. This is a great conversation with a true bureaucratic entrepreneur. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show

Zimbabwe has had exactly one leader in its entire 37 year history as an independent country. That was, until November 14th Robert Mugabe was deposed in an apparent coup. What happens next is still very much in the air. Right now, Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace are under an apparent house arrest, though it seems he may soon be forced into exile. Meanwhile, his recently sacked vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa seems to be calling the shots. On the line with me to discuss recent events in Zimbabwe and offer some deeper context in which to understand how, after 37 years Robert Mugabe's time in power has abruptly come to an end is Amb John Campbell, who is the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. Amb. Campbell explains how an intra-party rivalry over who might succeed the 93 year old Robert Mugabe seems to have triggered this coup. We also discuss Mugabe's history as a singularly fascinating liberation leader who for a time presided over a booming economy, until, that is, he ruined it, for reasons Ambassador Campbell explains. If you have 30 minutes and want to understand how the coup unfolded and what might come next, then have a listen. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!

Over the last several weeks, ISIS has been systematically losing territory. Its last stronghold in Iraq, the city of Hawija, was liberated in early October. A few weeks later, ISIS' de-facto capitol in Raqaa, Syria fell to US-backed forces. ISIS no longer controls any major city in the region. With the group mostly defeated on the ground, the international community is starting to think through some difficult and fraught questions of how best to bring ISIS to justice for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during their brutal reign. On the line with me to discuss some of the options that the international community is weighing, and also some of the key obstacles for bringing to justice those who committed atrocity crimes in Iraq and Syria, is Dr. Zachary D. Kaufman. Zachary D. Kaufman is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and teaching at Stanford Law school -- he is also, like me, a Humanity in Action senior fellow.

Peter Galbraith helped uncover and confront two genocides. As a staffer in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 1980s, Peter compiled evidence of Saddam Hussein's genocide against the Kurdish people. Later, as the United States Ambassador to Croatia during the 1990s, he used his position to call for more forceful intervention on behalf of besieged populations in the Balkans. We discuss both these events, plus what it was like to be born the son of the 20th century's most celebrated public intellectuals and liberal icons, John Kenneth Galbraith. Peter recently wrote a piece in the New York Review of Books about how the Trump administration is approaching the Kurdish situation. In it, he discusses some recent events in Kurdish region, including the Iraqi governments decision to forcefully—and violently — respond to an independence referendum in the Kurdish region. This leads to an extended conversation that includes stories from Peter's nearly 35 year engagement with Kurdish politics — I think you will agree its riveting and interesting stuff. we also discuss Peter's time in the Balkans and the unique way he sought to draw attention to ongoing mass atrocities there. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!

Saudi Crown Price Mohammad bin Salman consolidated power in a pretty dramatic fashion by detaining would-be rivals and diminishing other power centers in the country. These moves coincided with an apparent rocket attack, launched from Yemen, toward the vicinity of an airport in Riyadh. That sparked a very dramatic decision by the Crown Prince to impose a total blockade of Yemen. That decision could have a profoundly devastating impact on the situation in Yemen, where nearly the entire population is affected by an ongoing conflict that is pitting an Iran-backed rebel group against the Saudi-backed government. The rebel group controls much of northern part of the country, including the capitol Sana'a and the largest port, Hodeidah. Saudi Arabia (with American backing) controls all sea and air lanes around the country. Yemen is already the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, with 7 million facing starvation and over 900,000 sickened with cholera. If access to Yemen remained shut down, "I can't imagine this will not be one of the most devastating humanitarian catastrophes we've seen in decades," says the head of the World Food Program. On the line with me to discuss this all is Scott Paul of Oxfam America. Scott, who has spent time in Yemen and lobbies the US government on behalf of humanitarian access in Yemen, explains the situation on the ground right now--and as you'll see there is a great lack of clarity about this apparent blockade. We also discuss more broadly the political environment in the Yemen and the broader middle east that giving rise to the ongoing catastrophe in Yemen. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!

Donald Trump's approach to sovereignty is not unique in American history. There is a longstanding political tradition that seeks no compromise with the world and see's all interactions with allies and adversaries as zero sum. What is different is that no American President has held these views until now. Stewart Patrick is author of the new book The Sovereignty Wars Reconciling America with the World. The book examines how debates about sovereignty in the United States shape American foreign policy, and also the liberal international order --that is the patchwork of treaties and agreements and institutions like the United Nations that help set the rules of international relations. We discuss the implications of Donald Trump's apparently narrow view of sovereignty on American foreign policy. It's a high minded conversation--and a good one. Stewart Patrick is a senior fellow and director of the program on international institutions and global governance at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He was a guest on the show last year for episode 116 in which he discusses his life and career. To access to this podcast episode: subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher or get the app to listen late

If California were a country, it would be the sixth largest economy in the world. Its population is greater than countries like Poland and Canada. So what happens in California can very much impact the rest of the world. And one fairly direct manifestation of California's global relevance is in the state's approach to climate change. Earlier this summer, California revamped its Cap-and-Trade program. This is a policy innovation intended to curb emissions by creating a market around greenhouse gasses like carbon. Companies can buy and sell permits to each other to release set amounts of greenhouse gasses. That's one way California is having a global impact. There are others as well. On the line with me to discuss California's global impact is California State Senator Ben Allen. Senator Allen represents about 1 million people in communities around Los Angeles and he has been in the State Senate since 2014. We discuss California's approach to climate change, and also some strategies that Senator Allen and his colleagues are employing to blunt some of the effects of the federal government's decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement. We also discuss some other issues of transnational concern, like ensuring the eduction of immigrant children is not interrupted should they the get deported. Ben Allen (like me) is a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!

Farida Nabourema spoke from an undisclosed location in West Africa, out of fear for her personal safety. Farida is a prominent Togolese activist and these are very tense times in Togo. Several people were killed in protests in recent months amid a growing opposition movement that is calling for the re-instatement of presidential term limits. These term limits are guaranteed under the Togolese constitution, but nonetheless are being ignored by the regime. Togo is a small country in west Africa, with a population of about 7.5 million people. It has been ruled for the last 50 years by the same family. Eyadéma Gnassingbé came to power in 1967 and ruled until his death in 2005, whereupon his son, Faure Gnassingbé became president. Faure is ruling to this day and is seeking to undertake some moves of dubious constitutionality that could extend his rule far into the future. It is in this volatile political environment that Farida is engaging her activism and supporting a movement to enforce president term limits and a return to democracy. We have a very interesting conversation, not only about Togo, but also about the role of anger in sustaining an opposition movement and also the strategic value of non-violence. We also discuss how she became an activist, which you will learn was something she very much grew up with. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!

Safwan Masri set out with a simple question: of all the countries caught in the turmoil of the Arab Spring, how is it that Tunisia was the only country to successfully replace a long ruling despot with a more or less functioning democracy? His new book Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly takes a deep dive into that question, examining Tunisia's history, politics and, crucially some decades old educational reforms. This is a very interesting conversation about both the Arab Spring, and Tunisia's unique experience. It is the Arab Spring success story--so far at least--and Safwan Masri helps me understand why. Safwan Masri is Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!