Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

COP 26 is the most important international climate conference since the Paris Agreement of 2015.   On the line with me to offer a preview of what to expect from this major UN climate meeting is Pete Odgen, Vice President for Energy, Climate, and the Environment at the United Nations Foundation. He is a veteran of many previous COPs and in our conversation he discusses the key issues up for negotia...

Today's episode was recorded live in partnership with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) ahead of COP26 in Glasgow.   I moderate a panel discussion that takes a deep dive into the Nationally Determined Contributions as they relate to food and agriculture. The Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, are the backbone of the Paris Climate Agreeme...

Since the overthrow of the genocidal dictator Omar al Bashir in 2019, Sudan has been lead by a transitional governing council made up of civilians and the military. On Monday October 25th 2021 the Sudanese military purged the civilians from their leadership positions, including arresting the prime minister. On the line with me to discuss this coup and what comes next is Cameron Hudson. He is a non...

In early October, a group lead by the investment arm of the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia purchased Newcastle United, the English Premier League soccer team.  The purchase caused a great deal of speculation that it was motivated by a desire to burnish the image of the Saudi ruler.  What is not speculation is that overnight Newcastle United  became the richest soccer team in the world. On t...

Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience and produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network. It is part of a series of episodes that examine the relationship between climate and security. I moderate a panel discussion in which experts discuss and explain the need for a coherent approach to climate security across multiple policy sect...

On October 6, the World Health Organization endorsed a malaria vaccine for the first time ever. After years of testing, the vaccine was shown to be safe and effective at preventing the deaths of thousands of children in Sub-Saharan Africa. The WHO's backing of this Malaria vaccine is both a breakthrough in scientific research and an important moment in human history. Margaret McDonnell, executive...

The government of Ethiopia has expelled seven top UN officials from the country. This move comes as the federal government launches a new military offensive against the TPLF -- the Tigray People's Liberation Front.  William Davison of the International Crisis Group explains how the civil war in Ethiopia has evolved in recent weeks and describes the ongoing calamitous humanitarian impact of the con...

The process by which China makes its foreign policy is often considered to be something of a black box, or at least very difficult for outsiders to discern.  Suiseng Zhao is a professor of International Studies and director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at the University of Denver. He has written extensively about the tapestry of Chinese institutions that inform foreign policy decision ma...

Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience and produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network. It is part of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate variability and security. In today's episode, I moderate a panel discussion in which experts discuss the relationship between climate variability, migration and sec...

The massive Chinese real estate company Evergrande is unable to pay its debts. This has sparked some rare protests in China and is spooking international financial markets. A key question now is whether or not the government of China will let Evergrande collapse -- and whether or not the collapse of this real estate giant will have knock on effects throughout the region and the world? Richard Vagu...

On September 5th, a special forces unit of the Guinean military attacked the presidential palace in the capital Conakry, and deposed President Alpha Conde. This was the third coup in West Africa in the last 12 months. David Zounmenou, senior research consultant at the Institute for Security Studies, explains the circumstances that lead to this coup. He also explains how events in Guinea fit into a...

Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience and produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network.  The podcast has partnered with CGIAR for a special series that examines the relationship between climate and security and in today's episode we explore how Africa is experiencing and approaching the climate security nexus -- in particular ho...

The United Nations General Assembly is always one of the most important weeks of the diplomatic calendar. Each day this week we are bringing you live coverage featuring the latest news and analysis from UNGA, in partnership with the UN Foundation.  Today's episode was recorded Friday afternoon, September 24. Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, discusses ongoing...

The United Nations General Assembly is always one of the most important weeks of the diplomatic calendar. Each day this week we are bringing you live coverage featuring the latest news and analysis from UNGA, in partnership with the UN Foundation.  Today's episode was recorded Thursday afternoon, September 23. Dr. Jemimah Njuki, Director for Africa at the International Food Policy Research Institu...

The United Nations General Assembly is always one of the most important weeks of the diplomatic calendar. Each day this week we are bringing you live coverage featuring the latest news and analysis from of UNGA, in partnership with the UN Foundation.  Today's episode was recorded Wednesday afternoon, September 22. Kate Dodson, vice president for global health at the United Nations Foundation expla...

The United Nations General Assembly is always one of the most important weeks of the diplomatic calendar. Each day this week we are bringing you live coverage featuring the latest news and analysis from of UNGA, in partnership with the UN Foundation.  Today's episode was recorded Tuesday afternoon, September 21. Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group and Anjali Dayal of Fordham University...

The annual opening of the UN General Assembly is always one the most important weeks on the diplomatic calendar. The podcast has partnered with the United Nations Foundation to provide listeners with daily news and expert analysis about what is driving the diplomatic agenda at the United Nations during this key week. Today, we speak with UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed who articulate...

This episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience in advance of a key meeting at the United Nations known as the Food Systems Summit.  This episode is produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network and features a panel discussion examining the links between food systems and action needed to confront climate change.   

Angela Merkel steps down this month after having served as chancellor of Germany since 2005. Her time in office coincided with a number of major world events, including the global financial crisis; the 2015 refugee and migrant crisis; Brexit, Crimea, Trump, COVID, and much more.  Throughout it all, Angela Merkel has been the de-facto leader of the European Union. On the line with me to discuss som...

As Afghanistan enters a perilous and uncertain future, the United Nations has promised to "stay and deliver." The country's humanitarian emergency is getting more acute by the day, taxing UN agencies like the World Food Program. Meanwhile, the Security Council's role in managing the political transition in Afghanistan is unclear, and many of the Taliban's senior leadership are still under UN sanct...

Zuhra Bahman was out of the country on a business meeting when the Taliban took control of Kabul. She is the Afghanistan country director for Search for Common Ground, an NGO that engages in community based peace-building work. I was eager to speak with her because it is very unclear to me and to the entire international community the extent to which NGOs will be able to operate under Taliban rule...

Today's episode was recorded live in front of a virtual audience in partnership with CGIAR, the world's largest agricultural innovation network, as part of a series of episodes examining the links between climate variability and security.  The episode features a discussion amongst a panel of experts who explore the relationship between security and land use, including forestry. Visit https://clima...

Zubaida Akbar is an Afghan human rights activist living in Washington, D.C. She is desperately trying to get vulnerable people out of the country, including a group of female journalists who are almost certainly marked for execution by the Taliban.  We kick off discussing what she is hearing from her friends in Kabul as people attempt to flee the Taliban's retribution.  We then have a very heavy c...

Back in 2008, in the midst of both a global economic catastrophe and stalled progress on climate diplomacy, a unique multilateral platform called the Climate Investment Funds was born.   The G-8 created the Climate Investment Funds to support developing economies as they shifted to a less carbon intensive future. The Climate Investment Funds supports the development of clean energy markets and inv...

The Global Peace Index is an ambitious effort to measure peacefulness around the world using quantitative data. Now in its 15th year, the Index has offered policymakers and analysts a useful way to measure key trends in peace and conflict.  Steve Killilea, founder and executive director of the Institute for Economics and Peace, is on the podcast to discuss the report's findings and what it suggest...