Building the Future: Freedom, Prosperity, and Foreign Policy with Dan Runde

In this episode, Dan Runde is joined by Paul O’Brien. When this episode was recorded, Paul was the Vice President of OXFAM America and on secondment to OXFAM International to co-lead the Global Corona Virus Advocacy Task Force. He has since been hired as the Executive Director at Amnesty International USA. Dan and Paul start off their conversation by talking about Paul’s recent book Power Switch-...

In this episode, Dan Runde is joined by Michael Jarvis, Executive Director of the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, a donor collaborative working to expand the impact and scale of transparency, accountability, and participation interventions. Dan and Michael kick-off their conversation by talking about the importance of transparency and accountability at both the national and sub-nationa...

In this episode, Dan Runde is joined by Christos Makridis, a Digital Fellow with the Initiative on the Digital Economy at MIT and a Research Assistant Professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Dan and Christos sit down to discuss Christos’ article, “New Research Shows Religious Liberty Drives Human Flourishing — And Why This Matters Now More Than Ever.” They explo...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined by Doreen Bogdan-Martin, the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), to discuss the ITU’s critical role in increasing access to global digital connectivity. Dan and Doreen first provide an overview of the history of the ITU and outline the specific mandates of the BDT...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined by Leo Li, the Director of the Content Lab at the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA). They discuss how Taiwan’s creative industries have adapted in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the increasing importance of 5G and digital technology, and potential avenues of collaboration between Taiwan and Latin American countries who are working...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined by Gloria Steele, Acting Administrator for USAID, to discuss the future of global development strategies in the Indo-Pacific region. Dan and Gloria start off by discussing Gloria’s time spent in the Philippines and the specific challenges the country continues to face in its development trajectory. They focus on the future of U.S. develop...

Digital authoritarianism presents overlapping and expanding challenges within autocracies and democracies. In the past year, CSIS produced a policy brief that examined this ever-evolving challenge and determined a new, strategic approach to confront authoritarian actors who seek to use digital tools to subvert human rights and democratic principles. How does this strategy - which is grounded in fu...

In this episode, Dan speaks with Ambassador Bob Zoellick, an American public official who most recently served as the 11th President of the World Bank. He is the author of a fascinating new book, America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy. In the tradition of the 1994 Diplomacy (by Henry Kissinger), this book was written to bring a practitioner’s perspective on history an...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined by Romina Bandura, Senior Fellow on the Project on Prosperity at CSIS, to discuss the new PPD report Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon. Dan and Romina discuss how better governance in the Amazon can improve the security conditions, as well as opportunities for the U.S. private sector and bilateral agencies like USAID and the DFC to...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined by Nicole Aandahl, the Director of the Diversity and Leadership in International Affairs Program at the CSIS, to discuss diversity and inclusion in the international affairs and foreign policy community. The podcast examines the state of diversity and inclusion in international affairs following the Cold War, identifies how the United Sta...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan speaks with Sergio de la Peña, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs and a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Army. The pair discuss Sergio’s immigrant background and his path through the ranks of the U.S. military and government, which included assignments in Venezuela and Chile. They also tackle some of the factors cu...

In this episode of Building the Future, Tomás Serebrisky, Principal Economic Adviser at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Infrastructure and Energy Department, speaks with Dan about his recent book, From Structures to Services: The Path to Better Infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean. The pair cover the growing need to prioritize service provision in Latin America, and how Covid-19...

In a special Spanish-language crossover episode with the CSIS podcast 35 West, Dan sits down with María Eugenia Vidal, the former Governor of the Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. They discuss how she got her start in politics, as well as key policy issues she prioritized during her time as governor, including crime reduction and poverty. They also discuss how the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerat...

In this episode of Building the Future, Joshua Eisenman, author of Red China’s Green Revolution and Assistant Professor at the Keogh School of Global Affairs at Notre Dame, sits down with Dan Runde to talk about the specifics of China’s development narrative, and how the country leverages this narrative to advance its strategic objectives in the rest of the world. The two also discuss where the U....

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined once again by Dr. Jonathan Ward, author of China’s Vision for the World, to discuss how China’s relationship with the rest of the world has changed in the last 18 months. This time around, the pair analyze the growing recognition of China’s ambitions in U.S. society and foreign policy, as well as China’s increasing willingness to push reg...

Ambassador Nestor Forster Jr., Ambassador of Brazil to the U.S., sits down with Dan Runde to discuss the history of the U.S.-Brazil relationship and avenues for potential future collaboration. They address environmental conservation and protection, space collaboration, and the budding Brazilian creative economy. The Ambassador and Dan also discuss Covid-19 and how the pandemic has affected trade p...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan is joined by Dr. Weifeng Zhong, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. They discuss Dr. Zhong’s work in developing the open source Policy Change Index (PCI) project, which leverages machine learning to analyze vast quantities of propaganda and predict Chinese policy changes. The two focus on PCI-China and PCI-Crackdown,...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined by Representative Joe Wilson (SC-2), Chairman of National Security & Foreign Affairs Task Force at the Republican Study Committee, to discuss the recent RSC National Security Strategy. The duo review the positive role America has had in the world since World War II, examine current relationships and perceptions of the U.S. abroad, and del...

In this episode, Dan Runde speaks with Ambassador Bárcena, the first female Ambassador from Mexico to the United States. Their discussion touches upon President AMLO’s response to Covid-19, the future of Mexico – U.S. trade relations, and the significance of Mexico’s recently announced feminist foreign policy.

In this episode, Dan Runde speaks with Dalibor Rohac, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of the new book, In Defense of Globalism. During their conversation, Mr. Rohac repudiates the recent push for isolationism in the name of national sovereignty and instead makes the case for maintaining and improving the multilateral system. The duo discuss how global institutions...

In this episode, Dan Runde speaks to Jene Thomas, Mission Director for USAID Peru, about the strength of the middle class when it comes to economic growth, the conservation of the Amazon, and the U.S. government counternarcotics strategy in Peru.

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde hosts Jamie Fly (President, Radio Free Europe) to discuss Radio Free Europe’s work providing free and independent media in countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established. Jamie talks about overcoming interference by governments that seek to prevent the delivery of news, as well as addressing technological barriers...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan speaks with Andrew Natsios, former USAID administrator and current director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. During the conversation, Andrew talks about his past experiences confronting epidemics while at USAID, and highlights the work currently being done at...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde talks to Richard Fontaine (President/CEO for the Center for New American Security) about the need to create a new Atlantic charter for the post-coronavirus era. Richard talks about the importance of globalization in a post-pandemic world and utilizing this unique moment of global collaboration as an opportunity to envision the future for the world,...

In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde sits down with General James Cowan (CEO of the Halo Trust) to discuss the continuing devastation caused by landmines, and the work of the Halo Trust, the oldest and largest humanitarian landmine clearance organization in the world. General Cowan describes the history of landmines and the Halo Trust’s work in areas such as Colombia, Afghanistan, and...