Foreign Exchanges: the Podcast

I’m very grateful that the University of Florida’s Terje Østebø was able to make his third Foreign Exchanges appearance this week to talk about the rapidly changing situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. When Terje and I last spoke the Ethiopian military, alongside elements of the Eritrean military and Amhara regional security forces, had driven the Tigray People’s Liberation Front out of Mekelle...

This week I’m joined by attorney and activist Elizabeth Beavers, who has just written a piece for Fellow Travelers titled “Ilhan Omar was Right: The Ugly Reality of International ‘Justice’” that delves into the sordid relationship the United States has had with the International Criminal Court and really with the very concept of accountability for war crimes. We’ll talk about what she aptly calls...

This week I’m joined by Andrew Leber from Harvard's Department of Government and defense technology journalist Kelsey Atherton to talk about a new briefing book produced by their excellent Fellow Travelers Blog . The book compiles several policy briefs commissioned by FTB over the past several months and is intended to provide some substance for progressive members of Congress looking to steer US...

What happens when an Islamic Republic decides that the “Republic” part maybe isn’t such a big deal? Journalist and returning guest Séamus Malekafzali and Sina Toossi, senior research analyst at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), join the program to discuss this Friday’s Iranian presidential election. We’ll talk about the field, such as it is, and how it came to be the way it is, and we’...

This week I’m very pleased to welcome back Annelle Sheline, research fellow at the Quincy Institute and scholar of the Arab world. She’s written a new piece for Foreign Policy titled “Washington Has Yemen Policy Backwards,” in which she discusses the need for a new framework for peace talks that recognizes the reality of the Houthi victory. We’ll talk about the flaws in the old framework, based on...

Returning champion and Foreign Exchanges contributor Alex Thurston is here to discuss the apparent, though not yet totally confirmed, death of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau and what it means for Nigeria. We’ll discuss Shekau’s role in Boko Haram’s rise and development, his notorious reputation, and what his (probable) death means for the rivalry between his branch of Boko Haram and the Islamic...

I’m joined by Eli Clifton, Senior Advisor at the Quincy Institute and Investigative Journalist at Large at its Responsible Statecraft outlet. He and Ben Freeman, Director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy, have produced a new report , Restoring Trust in the Think Tank Sector , that makes three major recommendations for Washington think tanks to...

This week I’m grateful to be joined by Sandra Tamari ( @SandraTamari1 ), executive director of the Adalah Justice Project , and Darin Hussein ( @DarinZeidan ) in separate interviews. We’ll talk about the events of the past few weeks across Israel-Palestine and they’ll share their experiences of the Israeli occupation, the international response to it, and the work they’re doing to try to bring the...

This week I’m joined by historian Nathaniel Powell, author of France's Wars in Chad: Military Intervention and Decolonization in Africa ( available now ), researcher at the Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster University, and tweeter under the handle @natkpowell . He’s here to talk about the death of longtime Chadian President/dictator Idriss Déby under somewhat murky circumnstances last week...

We're marking the end of America's longest war with what may be the longest episode of this podcast to date, featuring not one but two interviews. I'm first joined by Mena Ayazi of Search for Common Ground and Kate Kizer of Win Without War (and Foreign Exchanges ) to talk about Joe Biden's planned withdrawal from Afghanistan and how the United States could provide actual assistance to the Afghan p...

Today we’re very lucky to be joined by Annelle Sheline, Research Fellow for the Middle East at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a non-resident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Annelle’s research focuses on religious authority in the Middle East, particularly the intersection of religious and national identities in the Arab monarchies, and she’s done...

Journalist Séamus Malekafzali joins me to try to get a head start on assessing the state of Iran’s June presidential election, a task that I acknowledge is a bit of a sucker’s game since the Guardian Council hasn’t started rejecting candidates yet. At this point the only thing we know for sure is that term-limited incumbent Hassan Rouhani won’t be sticking around. But along the way we discuss the...

Returning champ and brand new FX contributor Alex Thurston, of the University of Cincinnati and Sahel Blog , joins me to discuss his first FX column and the similarities between America’s Forever War in Afghanistan and France’s Forever War in the Sahel. Alex also offers his perspective on Sunday’s presidential runoff in Niger and the unrest that has ensued, which diverges from what you’re likely t...

Thanks for listening! If you’re interested in more coverage of international affairs and US foreign policy, check out Foreign Exchanges at Substack and sign up for our free email list today: This week I’m joined for the second time by the University of Florida’s Terje Østebø. The last time Terje was on the podcast we talked about Ethiopia’s “ethnic federalist” political system and the tensions bet...

Thanks for listening! If you’re interested in more coverage of international affairs and US foreign policy, check out Foreign Exchanges at Substack and sign up for our free email list today: Returning champion Alexander Thurston rejoins the podcast to talk about his new book, Jihadists of North Africa and the Sahel: Local Politics and Rebel Groups . He’s offering a different way to understand jiha...

Thanks for listening! If you’re interested in more coverage of international affairs and US foreign policy, check out Foreign Exchanges at Substack and sign up for our free email list today: Thomas C. Field Jr. of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University joins me for the second time to update us on the situation in Bolivia. Luis Arce, nominee of Evo Morales’ Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, won a d...

This is the web version of Foreign Exchanges , but did you know you can get it delivered right to your inbox? Sign up today: This time around I’m joined by Stephen Wertheim, Deputy Director of Research and Policy at the Quincy Institute and a Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. We’re discussing his brand new book, Tomorrow, the World: The Bir...

University of Washington professor, Quincy Institute fellow, and (above all) Foreign Exchanges columnist Daniel Bessner joins me for a chat about his first two FX pieces, the development of US foreign policy and the foreign policy establishment in DC, and some of the structural obstacles to overhauling that foreign policy for leftists. There are lots of links for this one: * Daniel’s first two FX...

This is the web version of Foreign Exchanges, but did you know you can get it delivered right to your inbox? Sign up today: This week I’m joined by Jessica Moody, a PhD candidate at Kings College London whose work focuses on post-conflict Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire for you francophones out there). She’s here to discuss the tensions surrounding President Alassane Ouattara’s (somewhat abrupt) decisi...

This is the web version of Foreign Exchanges, but did you know you can get it delivered right to your inbox? Sign up today: Today I’m joined by reporter Joshua Kucera of Eurasianet , a great source for news and analysis on the Caucasus and Central Asia. As you may be aware, fighting broke out several days ago between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Josh g...

This is the web version of Foreign Exchanges, but did you know you can get it delivered right to your inbox? Sign up today: FX’s regular analyst on all things related to the Sahel, Alex Thurston, joins me to discuss the August 18 coup in Mali, the ouster of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, and what may be on the horizon for Mali and the rest of the region. Keïta voting in Mali’s 2018 presi...

This is the web version of Foreign Exchanges, but did you know you can get it delivered right to your inbox? Sign up today: I’m very pleased to be joined this week by Terje Østebø of the University of Florida to discuss the roots and nature of Ethiopia’s “ethnic federalist” system and the impact that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s political changes have had on it. If you’ve been following reports of...

This is the web version of Foreign Exchanges, but did you know you can get it delivered right to your inbox? Sign up today: The Ploughshares Fund’s John Carl Baker returns to the show to talk about the push to modernize the US nuclear arsenal, what that entails, and how much it will cost. We then assess the wreckage the Trump administration has made in terms of arms control and what that means for...

I'm joined by Dr. Owen Miller, lecturer in Korean Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, to mark the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Building in part off of his recent piece for Jacobin, Owen helps me better understand the root causes of the Korean War, the factions involved, and the impact the conflict had on the Korean people. A US Nav...

I'm very pleased to be joined by Brendan James and Noah Kulwin , co-hosts of the fantastic podcast " Blowback ," covering the Iraq War and the utterly surreal political and media environment that both enabled the war and was fundamentally shaped by it. Mission accomplished indeed (US Navy via Wikimedia Commons) Episodes are currently being released every Monday on your favorite podcast outlet, but...