The Global Agora

What is Vladimir Putin afraid of? Should the West be concerned about Russian nuclear rhetoric? And what do current Putin's reshuffles and purges tell us about his regime? I talked to ⁠ Andrei Soldatov ⁠, a Russian investigative journalist, co-founder, and editor of Agentura.ru, a watchdog of the Russian secret services’ activities. He is also a nonresident Senior Fellow with the Center for Eur...

I talked to Aung Myo Min , Minister of Human Rights in the National Unity Government of Myanmar. Our interview was conducted at the CEE-Asia Forum in Bratislava organized by the Central European Institute of Asian Studies ( ⁠CEIAS⁠ ) and Slovak Foreign Policy Association (⁠ SFPA ⁠). We talked about whether the junta in Myanmar is losing, the role of Russia, China, India, and ASEAN, and also about...

I just returned from a one-week-long visit to Taiwan and this podcast is one of the results of spending a few days there. I talked to Lev Nachman , a political scientist, Assistant Professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei, and a co-author of the book Taiwan: A Contested Democracy Under Threat . We discussed the domestic political dynamic and, of course, the cross-Strait relations as on...

Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She has penned three satires about the CIA: Victor in the Rubble, Victor in the Jungle, and Victor in Trouble. Satire about the CIA? In my view, the agency definitely deserves this kind of genre but still, I ask Alex why she chose it. But, of course, we also talked about some, let&#3...

Let's assume the West finds the magic pink castle in Hollywood, where all the stuff is stored that Ukrainians need and immediately transfers it on the magic carpet to Kyiv. Even with this, Ukraine would still have a problem. This is what Gustav Gresse l said to me when we spoke about the situation on the frontline. He is a Senior Policy Fellow with the Wider Europe Programme at the European Co...

What is Ukraine facing? What is Russia learning? Is it possible that Ukraine will lose the war as soon as this year? Mick Ryan ⁠ is a military strategist and retired Australian Army major general and he explains why we have to talk about the worst scenario. We also discussed Ukraine's mobilization efforts and demography, and what the West has to do to help Kyiv. Listen to our conversation. And...

Volodymyr Dubovyk is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations and Director of the Center for International Studies at Odesa I. Mechnikov National University. We talked about the US aid for Ukraine, how others need to step up, the difficult situation on the battlefield, and Ukraine's mobilization efforts. I also asked him how much is he concerned that Ukraine could lo...

How close or far is the US from a civil war? This was my question for Jay Ulfelder , a political scientist who works as a Research Project Manager at the Nonviolent Action Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School. From 2001 until 2011, he served as Research Director for the Political Instability Task Force, a US Government-funded program that aims to help policymakers anticipate and understand various fo...

Iran has hit Israel with up to 350 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles. Most of them were destroyed by the air defense as Israel's allies helped also. So what will follow after this unprecedented attack? How far is the Middle East from the big regional war? I talked to ⁠ James Dorsey ⁠, a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore. Listen to our con...

I'm talking to Maria Avdeeva from Kharkiv from the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion. She is a security expert and I remember her telling me she wants to inform the world about what's going on in her country. And Maria is doing it all the time! This time we talk about how her city is constantly attacked and if we can expect a Russian ground offensive against Kharkiv. Listen to o...

NATO is a success story, but as Alliance turns 75 can it also face demise? Over seven decades, what is the brightest hour, and what about the most problematic moment of NATO? And is Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk right when he says Europe could be in the pre-war era as Russia continues with its aggression against Ukraine? I talked to John Deni , a Research Professor of Joint, Interagency, Inter...

Russia was attacked by Islamic State but Moscow is trying to shift the blame and is spreading conspiracy theories about Ukraine's involvement. The Kremlin is lying despite the severity of the threat as on March 22nd, extremists killed 143 people in the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk in the Moscow Oblast. So is counterterrorism cooperation with Russia possible, taking into account also the bru...

Should the West try to turn China and India against Russia? What is the most visible impact of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on EU-Asia relations? And how close is China to Russia? I discussed those questions with Michael Raiterer . He is a Distinguished Professor at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance and served as the EU Ambass...

This time, I talked to Slovak political scientist ⁠ Pavol Baboš ⁠ from the Department of Sociology at Comenius University in Bratislava. We discussed the incoming presidential elections in Slovakia and the two clear favorites. The Speaker of the Parliament Peter Pellegrini and the former foreign minister Ivan Korčok. The first round of the elections will take place on April 23rd, and the second ro...

Will Ursula von der Leyen be President of the European Commission again? She has been confirmed as the European People's Party candidate to continue with her current job and it's pretty sure that the EPP will win the European Parliament elections in June.  But... "For me, it's not obvious that she will stay," Policy Analyst from the European Policy Centre Eric Maurice reacts....

Toms Rostoks is a Director at the Centre for Security and Strategic Research at the National Defence Academy of Latvia and an Associate Professor at the University of Latvia. We tried to assess what happened in two years of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, to forecast what might be next but we also talked about the scenario that at least some Western troops will help Kyiv. Listen to our...

Oleksandra Matviichuk is a Ukrainian human rights lawyer and head of the Center for Civil Liberties. Her organization was awarded the  Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 . But, unfortunately, we talked about the war, about the Russian full-scale invasion that has already been ongoing for two years. "This is wishful thinking that Putin will stop. Putin openly talked about his goal in numerous interview...

How can Europe react to Donald Trump's threats to NATO? There is a realistic scenario that the populist Republican can win the US presidential elections in November. What would it mean to NATO when Trump suggested that he would encourage Moscow to attack allies that are, as he said this, not paying bills? I talked to  Edward Hunter Christie , a Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute o...

Are we inching towards a big regional war in the Middle East? "What we see today is that two major unresolved issues are starting to interact with each other and could cause quite serious problems. One is, of course, the unresolved position of Iran. And the second problem is, of course, the unresolved issue of Palestine." This is what Erwin van Vee n sees when he looks at the Middle East...

Bille August is a Danish film and TV director and screenwriter. His movie Pelle the Conqueror won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Movie in 1988. He visited Bratislava for the festival of Scandinavian movies - SCANDI which introduced his movie The Kiss to the Slovak audience. And by chance, I've got an opportunity to interview him. So we talked about films, movie stars, actors, Indiana Jone...

Almost there. Sweden is now waiting only for a green light from Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán to become a member of NATO. But what will Stockholm bring to the Alliance? And how to prepare NATO and the EU for a potential war with Russia? According to Johan Norberg , a Senior Military Analyst from the Swedish Defense Research Agency ( FOI ), the West needs to continue its support for Ukraine and it has...

Does Hungary's PM Viktor Orbán want to take over the European Council? Charles Michel, the current President of the European Council, wants to run in June's EU elections, so there is a possibility that Orbán can replace him as Hungary starts its Presidency of the Council of the EU on July 1st. So what could be Orban's plan and how to deal with his regime? I talked to  Daniel Hegedüs ....

The countdown to the US presidential elections starts with the party primaries. There is a clear favorite on the Republican side, but can Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis threaten Donald Trump's position? And if Trump is the nominee, what does it tell us about how the current Republican party perceives democracy? I talked to J. Miles Coleman who is the associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the...

⁠Franz-Stefan Gady ⁠ is the founder and chief executive officer of Gady Consulting and a military analyst. From the beginning of the Russian aggression, he has frequently visited Ukraine and if you are regularly listening to my podcast The Global Agora, you know that I interviewed him a couple of times in the past. So I am glad Franz joined me for another episode in the series of our debates. We d...

Tomohisa Takei is a retired Japanese admiral who served as the 32nd Chief of Staff of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force from 2014 to 2016. I had a chance to talk to him as he visited Bratislava in December. He explained how his country would react to China's attack against Taiwan, how to prevent it, and how is the Indo-Pacific region affected by the Russian war against Ukraine. And would J...