The Brookings Current

At the NATO summit in Ankara, wary European leaders sought an equilibrium with the United States. Against a backdrop of ongoing conflict in Iran and Ukraine, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş asked Thomas Wright and Mara Karlin about the dynamics at play. Episode transcript and show notes . Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to  p...

After the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to end the war, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş spoke to Brookings experts Kari Heerman and Bruce Jones about its geopolitical implications, building on their recent articles in the series "Blowback: How the Iran war may change the world." Episode transcript and show notes . Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or w...

Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical is a 42,000-word Vatican treatise that elevates "the protection of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence." Nicol Turner Lee, senior fellow and director for the Center for Technology Innovation, and Elham Tabassi, senior fellow and director for the AI and Emerging Tech Initiative, spoke to Valerie Wirtschafter, fellow in Foreign Policy, about the imp...

On this episode of The Brookings Current , Brookings Senior Fellow Rashawn Ray sits down with two former teachers-turned-lawmakers: Reps. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Kevin Kiley (I-Calif.), members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. They engage in a candid dialogue on the state of K-12 education amid changing student demographics, the introduction of AI in the classroom, and the...

Brookings Senior Fellow Robert Kagan writes in The Atlantic that U.S. defeat in Iran war "is not only possible but likely." In this episode of The Brookings Current, Kagan is joined by Melanie Sisson and Michael O'Hanlon, also senior fellows in Foreign Policy, to discuss their latest thinking on the war, and whether it has weakened America's hand in the region. Show notes and transcript . Follow T...

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has brought the largest energy disruption the world has seen in decades. Adie Tomer, senior fellow in Metro, talks with Samantha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative, to break down the implications of this crisis for American consumers and the United States. Show notes and transcript . Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on App...

The Trump administration has used executive orders to expand immigration enforcement, overhaul elections, and gut diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Keon Gilbert, director of the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative, discusses the disproportionate impact on Black Americans with Jonathan Cox of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and Tonantzin Carmona, a fellow at Brookings Metro...

With an indefinite ceasefire in place and continued attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, the war in Iran has reached a turning point. Given the chasm between the strategic interests of the United States and Iran, where does the conflict go from here? In this episode of The Current, Brookings Fellow Aslı Aydıntaşbaş is joined by Vice President of Foreign Policy Suzanne Maloney and Visiting Fellow Mara...

The IRS and the Postal Service are close to their breaking points. On this episode of The Current , Katie Dunn Tenpas speaks with Senior Fellows Elena Patel and Vanessa Williamson about how cuts have impacted the agencies' mission,, if they can be saved, and what all this means for taxpayers. Show notes and transcript . Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever y...

Culture wars have distracted America's K-12 system at the expense of students, says former U.S. Ambassador and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. On this episode of The Current, Emanuel sits down with Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy, to diagnose what went wrong and how some schools are trying to get it right. Show notes and transcript . Follow The Current and all Brookings po...

Research shows that investing in programs and places for youth to participate in sports can reduce gun violence. But what can the people most directly affected do in the wake of tragedy? In this episode, part two of a conversation, Brookings Senior Fellow Rashawn Ray speaks with Taren Weaver-Smith, mother of Darius Lee, a rising basketball star whose life ended by gun violence, and Ron Cottrell, D...

This episode of The Current features excerpts from a new Brookings podcast, The Beijing Brief , on which scholars from the China Center at Brookings discuss a range of issues in the U.S.-China relationship. On this episode, they focus on why the Trump-Xi summit was delayed and what the rescheduled summit could look like. Show notes and transcript . Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on...

Can investing in youth sports—especially in certain neighborhoods where children are particularly vulnerable—reduce gun violence? In this episode, Rashawn Ray, senior Brookings Governance Studies fellow, leads a conversation on the role that basketball can play in community building and reducing violent conflict. Joining him are Hanna Love, Brookings fellow; Howard Levy, head men's basketball coac...

Brookings Metro Senior Fellow Joe Parilla speaks with Alma Flores, executive director of the Latino Economic Development Center, and Peter Frosch, CEO of the GREATER MSP Partnership, about how their Minnesota-based organizations responded to the crisis brought about by Operation Metro Surge, the federal immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. Show notes and transcript...

Two weeks into the United States' and Israel's war with Iran, there are increasingly urgent questions about Iran's future and the Trump administration's objectives. In this episode of The Current, Brookings Fellow Aslı Aydıntaşbaş is joined by Vice President of Foreign Policy Suzanne Maloney and Visiting Fellow Mara Karlin to discuss the state of the war, the Iranian regime, and the global ripple...

This week, Brookings experts convened to discuss the Iran war and its implications for Iran, the Middle East, and international security. This episode of The Current offers highlights from that event, moderated by Michael O'Hanlon, and including panelists Philip Gordon, Mara Karlin, Jeff Feltman, and Suzanne Maloney. Show notes and transcript . Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Appl...

In new research, scholars at the Center for Community Uplift at Brookings and Gallup find a high degree of interracial cooperation across key aspects of American life such as work, relationships, and family. In this episode of The Current , Brookings Senior Fellow Andre Perry discusses the report's findings and implications for policy, with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi of Howard University and Washington Po...

With the annual Munich Security Conference now wrapped, Brookings expert Constanze  Stelzenmüller brings back insights from the conversations unfolding on the ground. In her conversation with  Aslı Aydintaşbaş, Stelzenmüller, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings, reflects on the main stage speeches from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and German Chancellor Friedrich M...

The first State of the Union address of President Trump's second term is coming up, but Brookings scholars aren't waiting for the speech to take the country's pulse. In this episode, E.J. Dionne asks Molly Reynolds, Wendy Edelberg, and Melanie Sisson to offer their views on the governance, economic, and global security challenges that characterize America's state of the Union today. Show notes and...

In the first year of his second term, President Trump has conducted a trade policy that features tariff cuts, tariff raises, and tariff exemptions. While the economic impacts of this tariff approach are uncertain, it's clear that the post-World War II rules-based liberal trade policy is over. On this episode, David Wessel talks with Kari Heerman, director of Brookings's Trade and Economic Statecra...

The violence in Minneapolis has become a flashpoint for a national debate regarding ICE and immigration enforcement. In this episode of The Current, Gabriel Sanchez and Rashawn Ray, senior fellows in Governance Studies at Brookings, analyze the structural breaks behind the headlines, from hiring 18- year-olds in "six-minute" windows to slashing training academies from 22 weeks to just 47 days. The...

Brookings senior fellows Michael O'Hanlon and Robert Kagan discuss O'Hanlon's latest book, To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution , an examination of 250 years of U.S. defense policy around the world. "Isolationism," O'Hanlon says, "strikes me as the least accurate term" to describe that history. Show notes and transcript . Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts o...

In recent days, the Iranian regime has conducted an unprecedented and bloody crackdown on protests across Iran. In this episode, Brookings Fellow Aslı Aydıntaşbaş is joined by two Iran experts, vice president of Foreign Policy Suzanne Maloney and visiting fellow Mara Karlin, to discuss the unique nature of the protests and the regime's violent response, options for U.S. military action, and Presid...

Are we heading in the right direction with AI in education, or drifting into a "wild west" of privacy risks and lost learning? In this episode, Rebecca Winthrop, senior fellow and director of the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, sits down with tech reporter Kara Swisher to unpack the urgent findings from her task force's new report, "A new direction for students in an AI world: Prosper...

Scott Anderson and Caitlin Talmadge discuss the legal, tactical, and strategic angles of the recent U.S. military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Anderson, a fellow in Governance Studies and general counsel for Lawfare, and Talmadge, Foreign Policy nonresident senior fellow and professor at M.I.T., explore what the stunning tactical success of the operation m...