Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

The longtime ruler of Chad, Idriss Deby, died from wounds sustained while visiting troops on the battlefield. Deby had been the president of Chad for over 30 years and was considered a stalwart ally of the United States and France, who viewed him as the lynchpin of regional counter-terrorism efforts.  On the line to discuss what the death of Chad president Idriss Deby means for regional and intern...

When COVID-19 forced countries to impose widespread lockdowns last year, there was a concurrent surge in gender based violence and domestic abuse. The United Nations has called this a " shadow pandemic " in which lockdowns everywhere lead to a sharp increase in gender based violence. This includes Poland, where even before the pandemic levels of gender based violence were extremely high.  During t...

India is currently in the midst the single worst spike in COVID cases experienced anywhere in the world since the start of the pandemic.  On the line with me to explain how and why the COVID crisis got so bad so quickly in India is Michael Kugelman, Asia Program Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center. We kick off discussing the current humanitarian emergen...

On April 22 and 23rd, the White House hosted the Climate Leaders Summit which featured more than 40 world leaders. Joe Biden kicked off the summit with a major announcement that the United States has set a target to reduce by 50% its carbon emissions by the year 2030 On the line with me to discuss the significance of the White House announcement and its implications for climate diplomacy is Pete O...

The American foreign policy tradition has been recently dominated by just a few ideologies: neoconservatism of the Regan and George W. Bush eras and the liberal internationalism of the Clinton and Obama administrations.  Robert Wright, has helped to introduce and popularize a new kind of intellectual tradition to the public square called "Progressive Realism."  He explains some key principals of a...

On April 14th President Biden announced that American Troops will be leaving Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, formally ending US military engagement after twenty years of war. What contributed to this decision? What impact will it have on internal dynamics in Afghanistan and does this mean the Taliban will gain control?  On the line with me to discuss the implications of the decision to end US m...

The COVID-19 pandemic is just the latest iteration of what Charles Kenny calls an unending war between humanity and infectious disease. His new book "The Plague Cycle" documents and describes how the course of human history has been shaped by infectious disease from thousands of years ago to early 2021.   Guest: Charles Kenny,  senior fellow with the Center for Global Development and author of The...

For the last several months Niger has experienced a surge in attacks against civilians by violent extremists. This region of West Africa, the Sahel, has experienced profound and growing security challenges in recent years. What distinguishes this new upsurge in violence in Niger is that civilians are being targeted -- and on the basis of their ethnicity.  Guest: Ornella Moderan the Sahel Program H...

When economies started tanking last year as COVID-19 spread rapidly around the globe, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund mounted their crisis response. Now, one year later we can assess some of the impact of the response of these institutions, and what comes next as countries continue to try weather this economic storm.  On the line with me to discuss how the World Bank and IMF have re...

On March 30th, leaders from 23 countries plus the heads of the World Health Organization and the European Union called for a new international treaty to confront the next pandemic. Global health expert Kate Dodson explains what would be included in a new international treaty on pandemic preparedness and response; how might a pandemic treaty be negotiated among world powers; and asks if a new globa...

Benin is a geographically small country in West Africa, located between Nigeria and Togo. Since the 1990s Benin has earned a reputation as a strong and stable multiparty democracy. However, that has all changed in recent years and Benin is in the midst of democratic backsliding ahead of elections in which opposition parties have been sidelined.  On the line with me from Benin is Jose Biaou, the sp...

In mid-March, the government of Turkey announced that is was withdrawing from a key human rights treaty known as the Istanbul Convention. Turkey took this move right in the middle of a major annual united nations conference called the Commission on the Status of Women. Needless to say the unfortunate irony of Turkey withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention during the Commission on the Status on Wo...

Globalization was always presumed to have a flattening effect; power in a globalized world would be more diffuse and less centralized. A groundbreaking idea, called "Weaponized Interdependence," flips that idea on its head and demonstrates how governments have exploited economic integration to pursue their foreign policy goals and compel foreign adversaries.  Guest: Daniel Drezner, professor of in...

Health systems in Brazil are collapsing. Hospitals are running out of beds and oxygen as COVID cases in that country are soaring. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has long downplayed the severity of COVID and now deaths are spiking in South America's largest country. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro's rival, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is poised for a comeback in elections next year after a s...

Several American allies have pledged to pursue an explicitely feminist foreign policy. But what does this mean in practice?   In today's episode, we explore what a feminist foreign policy would mean for the United States and how a feminist foreign policy is one that necessarily must also embrace multilateralism. Guest: Devon Cone, Senior advocate for women and girls at Refugees International. 

The pandemic has been described as a mass extinction event for journalism. This is true in the United States, Europe and the developed world but even more so in poorer countries.  A free and independent media is a key guardrail for a free and open society -- yet many media organizations in the developing world are struggling to stay afloat.  Guest: Nishant Lalwani, managing director of Luminate, a...

In early November, a civil war broke out in the Tigray region in Ethiopia. The conflict pitted the federal government and its allies against the regional government of Tigray, known as the TPLF.   Since then the fighting has gotten worse and the humanitarian impact for people living in Tigray has been catastrophic. Guest: William Davison, a senior analyst for Ethiopia for International Crisis Grou...

On February 1st, the Burmese military mounted a coup, deposing and detaining the civilian leadership of the country. The military arrested the de-facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other key members of her ruling party.  This coup is a major setback for Myanmar's transition to democracy and a key foreign policy challenge for the new Biden administration.  Why was there a coup in Myanmar an...

On February 24 the very first shipments of a COVID-19 vaccine from COVAX arrived in Ghana. COVAX is the international cooperative effort around the development and distribution safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. Ghana became the first country to receive COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX when 600,000 doses landed at the airport in Accra.  On hand to receive these doses was an old friend of mine, O...

The conflict in Yemen is entering a new phase. The Houthi rebel group that controls much of the country is launching a new offensive in an oil rich region of the country. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has breathed new life into international diplomatic efforts to end the war by ending US support to the Saudi Arabia lead military campaign.  This episode examines how the Yemen conflict has evo...

We know that countries around the world sometimes favor coal because it is cheaper. But new research from my guest today Jan Steckel aims to pinpoint some of the political forces that drive investment in coal.  Steckel along with his research collaborator Michael Jakob are coordinating a series of global case studies to understand the non-economic factors associated with investment in coal-fired p...

President Biden must soon make a key decision about American troop levels in Afghanistan. There are currently about 2,500 American troops in Afghanistan, but under a deal negotiated last year between the United States and the Taliban all American troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by May 2021.  This deal was negotiated by the Trump administration and it is unclear whether or not the new Bi...

2021 will be a consequential year for multilateral diplomacy on climate change. A number of key meetings are on the diplomatic calendar and they come just as the new Biden-Harris administration in the United states is seeking to leave its mark on international climate action. The geo-politics of this moment in climate diplomacy are complex and the new administration must skillfully navigate a path...

Over the last several weeks farmers in India have staged mass demonstrations to protest new government agricultural policies. The farmers say these new laws would be financially ruinous and allow large corporations to dictate the price of agricultural goods.  Now, the apparently ever growing size of these farmer protests, particularly around New Delhi, have brought worldwide attention to these mas...

The United States Agency for international development, USAID, is the premier global development agency of the United States government and one of the largest global development organizations in the world. As USAID goes, so goes global development. As Samantha Power prepares to lead USAID, this episode examines the global development priorities the new administration may pursue.  Guest: Sarah Rose...