Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

With the peace process between Israel and Palestine seemingly intractably stalled, a new peace building plan that is modeled on Northern Ireland seeks to build grassroots support for peace.  Peace-builder and advocate Joel Brunold explains how the Middle East Partnership for Peace Act, recently passed by US Congress, can build momentum for a lasting resolution to longstanding conflict between Isra...

A military coup in Myanmar (also called Burma) has toppled the civilian government lead by Aung San Suu Kyi. In this 2019 episode, former deputy National Security Advisor to Barack Obama Ben Rhodes explains Aung San Suu Kyi's rise to prominence in Burmese politics and how she ultimately fell from grace as a human rights icon, once revered in the West. The episode covers the political dynamics and...

The security and humanitarian situation in the Central African Republic has rapidly deteriorated over the last several weeks. Rebel group control a key road from which goods, food and humanitarian supplies is imported to CAR from neighboring Cameroon. The capitol city, Bangui is under an effective siege.   On the line to discuss what is happening in the Central African Republic is Hans de Marie He...

On January 23, protests erupted in several cities and town across Russia in support of Alexey Navalny, the anti-corruption activist who was poisoned in an assassination attempt last August.  Navalny returned to Russia and was promptly arrested.  On the line with me to discuss the significance of these protests and what they signal about politics in Russia today is Michael McFaul, who served as US...

Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people. It is the largest country in Africa. The country is now in the midst of a second wave of COVID infections which is straining an already fragile health system. But Nigerian officials have not been able to secure any doses of any COVID-19 vaccine for their frontline health workers--let alone general population. My guest today, Dr. Faisal Shuaib he...

On January 14th, Uganda held national elections for president and parliament. The incumbent was the 76 year old Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986. His main challenger was a 38 year old music star turned politician who goes by the stage name Bobi Wine. Museveni claimed victory and his security forces have laid siege to Wine's home.   On the line to help me understand the current stat...

A treaty to ban the use of nuclear weapons becomes international law on January 22, 2021.  The treaty seeks to do to nuclear weapons what previous international treaties have done to chemical and biological weapons -- that is, prohibit their use on humanitarian grounds.  Nobel Peace Prize winning Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, discusses...

Ambassador Klaus Scharioth, who served as German Ambassador the United States from 2006 to 2011, discusses the implications of the Pro-Trump insurrection on US foreign policy and international relations.  https://humanityinaction.org https://patreon.com/GlobalDispatches    

Loujan al-Hathloul is a 31 year old Saudi women's rights activist in prison for challenging laws that inhibit women in Saudi Arabia.  In early January 2021, she was handed down a nearly six year prison sentence, though much of the sentence was suspended and she may be released as early as February or March. On the line to discuss her case and what the persecution of Loujan al-Hathloul can tell us...

There is a worsening Jihadist insurgency in a  province in Northern Mozambique called Cabo Delgado. The insurgency began in 2017, but in recent weeks the fighting has intensified substantially. Over half a million people have been displaced -- most over the last few months. And in early January 2021, the French energy company Total announced it was suspending operations on a massive $3.9 billion n...

One of the most visible tools of international cooperation on peace and security are UN Peacekeepers -- Blue Helmets. Today there are about 95,000  uniformed personnel deployed to to 13 missions around the world. Though the United States deploys very few boots on the ground to peacekeeping missions, it is the single largest funder of UN Peacekeeping. And, as a veto-wielding member of the Security...

The last four years have altered the global human rights landscape in some pretty significant ways. The Trump administration by and large abandoned multilateral forums for advancing a human rights agenda, like the UN Human Rights Council, while at the same time China began to more proactively engage in those platforms.  Suzanne Nossel, makes the compelling argument that the time has never been mor...

With Trump leaving office, the incoming administration has an opportunity to reset America's approach to refugees, asylum seekers and international migration more broadly. On the line with me to discuss some of the concrete steps the incoming Biden-Harris administration may take on these issues is Nazanin Ash, vice president for global policy and advocacy at the International Rescue Committee  We...

On December 10th, Donald Trump upended over 30 years of US diplomacy with a tweet in which he declared American support for Morocco's claims of sovereignty over Western Sahara. Since the 1970s, Morocco and a local group called the Polisario Front have fought for control of Western Sahara. In the early 1990s the United States brokered a ceasefire agreement which called for the people of Western Sah...

The COVID-19 pandemic has made global health a top tier issue in Washington. In today's episode we explore what opportunities might exist for the incoming Biden administration and Congress to advance a global health agenda premised on strengthening international cooperation to take on common health challenges  Loyce Pace is President and CEO of the Global Health Council. We kick off discussing how...

December 12 2020 is the five year anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement. And on that day a number of governments, non state actors and other world leaders will convene virtually for a Climate Ambition Summit hosted by the United Nations, the United Kingdom, and France, in partnership with Chile and Italy.  Ahead of this summit, the podcast partnered with the Stockholm Environment Institute (S...

Ambassador Thomas Pickering is a legendary retired US foreign service officer. He had a four decade career in diplomacy, including serving as ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, Nigeria, El Salvador, among key postings. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed him US Ambassador to the United Nations where he played a critical role in marshaling broad international support against Iraq's inva...

The first 100 days of any new presidential administration offers a key inflection point, signaling the policies that the new administration will prioritize and champion. It is during those first 100 days that the new administration gets the most leeway from congress, the media, and the general public to set their agenda.   Setting that agenda often includes a mix of new executive actions, supporti...

Linda Thomas-Greenfield will be nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. She is a veteran diplomat who most recently served as Assistant-Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Obama administration. Prior to that she served as the US Ambassador to Liberia during a critical time in that country's transition to democracy. Linda Thom...

When President Trump came to office in 2017, he inherited from President Obama the Iran Nuclear Deal. Trump rejected the deal and embarked on a fruitless "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran.  Such is the state of relations between the United States and Iran that Joe Biden will inherit when he takes office in January. Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute discusses whether or not it is even poss...

On November 9th the warring parties in Nagorno-Karabakh signed a ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia. The agreement comes after weeks of very heaving fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia which killed and displaced thousands of people. On the line with me to discuss these recent events Anna Zamejc, a freelance journalist who has covered this region for years. We spend a few minutes discussing...

On November 4th, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched military operations against the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the TPLF, which is the group that controls the Tigray region in Northern Ethiopia.  Tensions have been simmering for some time between the Federal government, which Abiy controls and the TPLF. Now, one year after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Abiy has launched a mili...

Gerard Araud is the former French Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations. We recorded this conversation on the Friday following the Tuesday of election day, when the result was all but certain. Ambassador Araud offers his take on how the election of Joe Biden will impact transatlantic relations and the ways that a Biden administration can repair some of the damage done to US-Europe...

At time of recording, votes in the United States election were still being counted. It appears that the vote totals so far are highly favorable to Joe Biden. Boston Globe columnist Michael Cohen discusses the results, such as we know them, and what they reveal about the American electorate and what, if anything, the results mean for America's role in the world. 

Protests in Thailand took an unexpected turn in October when young Thais began demanding reforms to the Monarchy, a traditionally revered institution. This added to demands that the prime minister, who took over in a coup in 2014 immediately resign.   Benjamin Zawacki, Senior Program Specialist at the Asia Foundation and author of the book "Thailand: Shifting Ground between the US and a Rising Chi...