Foreign Exchanges: the Podcast

This is the web version of Foreign Exchanges, but did you know you can get it delivered right to your inbox? Sign up today: Returning guest and scholar of the Sahel Alex Thurston joins me to discuss the recently reported death of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb leader Abdelmalek Droukdel. Serendipitously, this subject coincides with Alex's forthcoming (probably in September) book, Jihadists of Nor...

This is the web version of Foreign Exchanges, but did you know you can get it delivered right to your inbox? Sign up today: Latin America scholar Thomas C. Field Jr. joins me to discuss the last six or so months in Bolivia, from the disputed October election to the ouster of President Evo Morales to the machinations of the post-coup government that replaced him. You can find Thomas on Twitter @tho...

Returning guest Alex Thurston joins the show to discuss COVID-19 in the Sahel, how the region's militant groups have responded to the pandemic, and recent militant and military activity in Nigeria, Chad, Mali, and elsewhere. Be sure to check out Alex's Sahel Blog and follow him on Twitter: @sahelblog . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to...

I'm joined by Andrew Fishman, reporter for The Intercept and managing editor for The Intercept Brasil , to discuss the ongoing soap opera that is Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's haggard response to the coronavirus, as well as the new drama surrounding the recent resignation of ex-Justice Minister Sergio Moro. It’s been a rough couple of weeks (Brazilian government via Wikimedia Commons) You c...

I'm joined by Michael Brooks, returning champion and host of The Michael Brooks Show as well as co-host of The Majority Report with Sam Seder and Jacobin's Weekends with Ana Kasparian and Michael Brooks . We're discussing his new book, Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right . We're talking the "Intellectual Dark Web," Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and how the left can counter their...

I’m joined by returning guest David Adler of the Democracy in Europe Movement to discuss how Europe has risen—or failed to rise—to the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. David offers his thoughts on the lack of collective action within Europe and what it might mean for the eurozone and the European Union moving forward, as well as some ideas for improving European institutions. David’s Guar...

I’m joined by historian and podcaster Patrick Wyman, whose “The Fall of Rome” and “Tides of History” are two of the very best historical podcasts out there, to discuss pandemic diseases in Roman history. We’re talking the Antonine Plague, the Plague of Cyprian, and the Plague of Justinian, and what they meant to the Roman Empire and (especially in the latter case) to world history in general. Late...

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 joined by defense technology journalist Kelsey Atherton to talk about wars, pandemics, COVID-19, US sanctions, and his latest piece for Inkstick Media, “The Plague and the Long War,” which you can find here . Kelsey writes a newsletter on the intersection between national...

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 joined by John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy in Focus ( fpif.org ) at the Institute for Policy Studies, to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic and its worldwide political ramifications. John has written three recent pieces on the pandemic: * Will the Coronavirus Kill Gl...

David Adler of the Democracy in Europe Movement and the University of Washington’s Daniel Bessner join me to discuss the US dollar’s global influence and how that it with the more overtly military aspects of Empire USA. Their recent The New Republic piece is called “To End Forever War, End the Dollar’s Global Dominance.” Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other sub...

Returning guest Alex Thurston discusses the recent dust up between the leaders of the G5 Sahel nations and French President Emmanuel Macron, then guides us through an introduction to Mauritania and its current political crisis. You can find Alex on Twitter at @sahelblog . His recent World Politics Review piece on the squabbling at the top of Mauritanian politics can be found here . This is a publi...

Fatemeh Aman, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council and expert analyst on Iran and South Asia, joins me to discuss the effects that the assassination of Qassem Soleimani and the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 are having inside Iran. She breaks down the protests, assesses the impact of the “Maximum Pressure” campaign, and offers some insights into Iranian politic...

In today’s episode I’m joined by journalist Branko Marcetic to discuss his new piece at In These Times looking at the transformation of Luis Almagro, secretary-general of the Organization of American States, from foreign minister for a leftist government in Uruguay to useful tool of right-wing US foreign policy. We look particularly at the role the OAS has played in the coup that ousted former Bol...

I’m joined by defense technology journalist Kelsey Atherton of C4ISRNET to discuss several recent stories related to technology in the military, from the alleged need for a fully autonomous nuclear deterrent (!) to the Pentagon’s plan to create a domestic quadcopter industry from whole cloth. You can find Kelsey’s “Tomorrow Wars” newsletter here , and you can find Kelsey himself on Twitter here ....

I welcome back Ryan Cooper ( @ryanlcooper ), national correspondent for The Week magazine and co-host of the exciting new Left Anchor podcast (you can also check them out on Twitter ). Ryan wrote a piece last week (his full archive is here ) looking at the alternative to the ossified “free trade” consensus that’s emerging on the left in the Democratic primary, and he’ll walk us through the develop...

All of FX’s interviews are available to the public, but if you’d like to support the podcast and get access to exclusive content, subscribe today: I’m joined by Stephen Wertheim (@stephenwertheim on Twitter), Co-Founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft , Research Director of its Ending Endless War program and a Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies a...

I’m very pleased to welcome Andrew Fishman ( @AndrewDFish ), managing editor for the Intercept Brasil . He’s here to guide us through the bombshell reporting the Intercept is currently doing on the scandal involving the Operation Car Wash scandal (yes, it’s a scandal over a scandal) and what seems to have been the very politically motivated corruption prosecution of former Brazilian President Luiz...

I’m very grateful to be joined in this episode by Darren Byler, lecturer in anthropology at the University of Washington. Darren’s research focuses on art and culture in Xinjiang and he’s done considerable field work in the region. He’s here to walk us quickly through Uyghur history, to talk about his own work in the region, and to give us a sense of the Chinese government’s campaign to stamp out...

I’m joined by Australia’s own Matt Brady to discuss Saturday’s election and the sordid cast of characters involved in its decidedly unexpected outcome. We look at what happened to the Labor Party and what to expect now that Scott Morrison has a whole term ahead of him—at the risk of spoiling the ending, it’s not good. Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscr...

I'm joined for either the first or third time by Alex Thurston from Miami University of Ohio to talk about inter-communal violence in Mali, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso, as well as an update on the Boko Haram(s) conflict in Nigeria. Alex is an expert on the Sahel region who writes at several places, but you should definitely check out his  Sahel Blog  and his books: * Salafism in Nigeria  from  Colum...

Hey folks. This is just a short introductory message to welcome you here to Substack and explain a bit about how the podcast end of things is going to work. Mostly it’s an excuse for me to test out Substack’s podcasting feature before doing a real episode, which I will be doing later this week. I know there have been some questions about an RSS feed and I answer those as best I can in the audio. I...

We're a day earlier than usual with this week's first episode, but I like to get interviews out quickly because of the possibility they'll be overtaken by events. As promised, I'm joined by John Carl Baker, a senior program officer at the Ploughshares Fund who works on North Korea, to discuss last week's failed US-DPRK summit in Hanoi. John walks us through the history of US-North Korea diplomacy...

In something of an emergency episode brought on by the sudden onset of a political crisis in Venezuela, I'm joined by political scientist and DSA member Jared Abbott. Jared specializes in Latin America and just returned from doing fieldwork in Venezuela, and he's here to hopefully put recent events into some context. This episode is open to the public so feel free to share. The Jacobin interview J...

For our final regular podcast of 2018, I'm joined by political scientist Ann Marie Wainscott of Miami University of Ohio. Ann is currently researching the religious sector in Iraq, but I wanted to talk about her past work in Morocco (ruled by King Mohammed VI, pictured). We talk about the Moroccan government's efforts to bureaucratize religious expression after the Casablanca bombings of 2003, Mor...

We're joined for the second time by Jacobin writer Branko Marcetic ( @BMarchetich ) to talk about French President Emmanuel Macron's tribulations, France's "yellow vest" protests, why austerity leads both to fascism and to a cooked planet, and of course why Vladimir Putin is behind all of it. Enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bon...