The Outlook

Madeleine Shaw, Victor Lago, Amen Salha, Pranav Akella, Josephine Kramer, Taanvi Gowdar, and Daniel Park sit down with retired Ambassador Erica Barks-Ruggles. Ambassador Barks-Ruggles served for 32 years in senior leadership and diplomatic positions; most recently leading the successful U.S. effort to rejoin UNESCO, setting up the U.S. Mission from scratch and re-establishing U.S. leadership in th...

Victor Lago, Madeleine Shaw, and Pranav Kela sit down to talk with Captain Omer Rafiq. Captain Omer Rafiq is a Captain in the United States Marine Corps Reserves, currently serving at Special Operations Central Command in Tampa, FL. He enlisted in the reserve component of the Marine Corps in August 2010. Following initial training, he deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan in support of Operati...

Elizabeth Shackelford is the Magro Family Distinguished Fellow in International Affairs for the Spring 2024 term. She served as a career diplomat in the U.S. State Department, with postings in Warsaw, Poland, South Sudan, Somalia, and Washington, D.C. Her outstanding work in South Sudan during the civil war earned her the prestigious Barbara Watson Award for Consular Excellence. She gained interna...

Josh Paul resigned from the State Department in October 2023 due to his disagreement with the Biden Administration's decision to rush lethal military assistance to Israel in the context of its war on Gaza. He had  spent over 11 years working as a Director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. He previously worked on security sector reform in both Iraq and the West Bank, with additional...

Vivian Salama covers national security for the Wall Street Journal, based in Washington. She has covered U.S. foreign policy and national security issues for nearly two decades, reporting from more than 80 countries. Before moving to Washington, she served as Baghdad bureau chief for the Associated Press, during which time she covered the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, as well as Iran&apos...

Stuart Reid is an executive editor at Foreign Affairs magazine and author of The Lumumba Plot : The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination. He has written for publications including The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg Businessweek, Politico Magazine, and Slate. Stuart grew up in Ontario and Ohio, and received a bachelor’s degree in Government from Dartm...

Dr. Rose M. Mutiso is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Mawazo Institute, which supports the next generation of female scholars and thought leaders in East Africa, and promotes public engagement with research. She is also the Research Director of the Energy for Growth Hub, a global network connecting research and policymakers to build high-energy systems to power for industry, commerce, and job creati...

Daniel Fitzgerald Runde is a senior executive and strategist in international development, international trade, investment, global business and organizational change. Runde is the author of the book, "The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership through Soft Power."

Interview with Micheal Kofman.  Michael Kofman is the director of the Russia Studies Program at CNA and an adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He specializes in the Russian armed forces, military thought, capabilities and strategy. His work is interdisciplinary, integrating defense strategy, military analysis and history. He is also a contributing editor at War on the Rocks,...

World Outlook discusses journalism, Putin’s biography, domestic political implications for Putin due to the successful Ukranian resistance, the theory of Eurasianism in Russian political discourse, the ideological dispositions of Putin, Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the ability of international pressure and sanctions in bringing to an end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with Philip Short...

World Outlook senior editor Sri Sathvik Rayala '24 and associate editors Madeleine Shaw '25, Quinn Hall '26, and Anika Mukker '26 discuss propaganda tools of illiberal governments, democratic movements, challenges proponents of liberal democracy face, motivations that drive proponents of democracy to challenge the status quo, the utility of social media for democratic activists...

World Outlook senior editor Sri Sathvik Rayala '24 and associate editors Madeleine Shaw '25 and Quinn Hall '26 discuss the relations between Russia, India, and China following the invasion of Ukraine, the threat of nuclear proliferation in Eastern Europe, the stability of the European Union, the possibility of off ramps for de-escalation in the Russo-Ukrainian War, the women-led pro...

World Outlook senior editor Sri Sathvik Rayala '24 and associate editors Madeleine Shaw '25 and Adam Tobeck '25 discuss civil conflict in Mali, the 2015 peace accord in Mali, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, population growth, climate change, inequality, migration, the various initiatives performed by the foreign service for Americans and the international community, and more with A...

World Outlook senior editor Sri Sathvik Rayala '24 and associate editors Madeleine Shaw '25 and Adam Tobeck '25 discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine, refugees and migration, human rights issues, and more with Ambassador Keith Harper, who served as U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council from 2014 to 2017 during the tenure of the Obama Administrati...

Annie Pforzheimer,  Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Afghanistan (2018-19), and Dr. Tina Dooley-Jones, Mission Director to USAID Afghanistan (2020-2021),  joined World Outlook editors Ben Vagle '22 , Charlie Bateman '22, and  Sathvik Rayala '24 to discuss topics concerning Afghanistan, including the U.S. withdrawal, the efficacy of U.S. foreign aid in Afghanistan,  the...

Update on the implications of elections in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region and Trump's "Deal of the Century" in Israel.

For the season finale, The Outlook has a special episode, with a discussion on Professor Rezvani's work on partially independent territories, a segment filled with takes on the Julian Assange extradition from World Outlook members, and a Q/A with Ambassador Rubin. Thank you for a great first season and thank you to the Class of 2020 for putting in so much time and effort into this organizatio...

World Outlook editors Ben Vagle '22 and Sathvik Rayala '24  discuss American civil discourse with David Mindich, the Chair of the Department of Journalism at Temple University and the author of Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News.