Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

World Bank president Jim Yong Kim is stepping down at the end January. He made that announcement on January 7th, surprising most observers for the fact that he is resigning from his post with three years left in his second term.  This coming vacancy presents a key inflection point for the World Bank, according to my guest today, Scott Morris. Scott Morris is a senior fellow at the Center for Globa...

You would not really know it from the headlines, but more irregular migrants and refugees are arriving to Europe via Morocco than are arriving to Italy via Libya or to Greece via Turkey. In fact, as the numbers of migrants arriving to Europe declined overall in 2018, the migrant route from Morocco to Spain experienced a sharp increase.    On the line with me to explain why the Morocco-to-Spain rou...

On December 1st, a business executive named Meng Wanzhou was arrested while transferring through the Vancouver airport at the request of US authorities. Ms Meng is the CFO of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei and now faces extradition to the United States.    About ten days later, a former Canadian diplomat and analyst with the International Crisis Group named Michael Kovrig was mysteriously arrest...

One of the worst mass atrocities in recent times took place in Sri Lanka during the final days of that country's long civil war. In May 2009, tens of thousands of people were killed by Sri Lankan armed forces over the course of just a few days as the military sought to deal a final blow to an insurgent group known as the Tamil Tigers. In the process, they killed as many as 40,000 civilians. No one...

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert is Donald Trump's nominee to serve as the next US Ambassador to the United Nations. If confirmed, she will replace of course Nikki Haley, who served in the role for nearly two years. Heather Nauert is a former journalist and Fox News personality before joining the State Department in April 2017.   As State Department spokesperson, Heather Nauert held re...

Massive infrastructure projects like the building of ports, roads and railways are becoming more and more commonplace in the developing world. According to my guest today, the reason we are seeing more of these projects is a burgeoning global rivalry between China and the United States. Seth Schindler is a senior lecturer in urban development and transformation at the Global Development Institute...

A protest movement in France known as the Gilets Jaunes , or Yellow Vests, has become a political crisis for French President Emmanuel Macron. The protest movement began over a hike in a fuel tax, but has grown into something much more and is now threatening to further weaken Macron, who was already deeply unpopular in France. On the line with me to discuss the origins of this movement and its pol...

Over 180 countries are endorsing what is known as the Global Compact for Migration. The text of this non-binding agreement was finalized over the summer, and countries are meeting in Marrakech Morocco on December 10th and 11th to formally launch the Compact.  There is a great deal of misinformation being spread, mostly by right wing governments in Europe and here in the US, about what this agreeme...

The Kingdom of Bahrain is the smallest country in the Middle East. It is an island in the Persian Gulf connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway. And it is home to a very large US naval base, that houses the Navy's fifth fleet.    Bahrain is also in the midst of a years long crackdown in which political opposition figures, human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers have been languishing in jai...

Diplomats, scientists, advocates and other concerned parties are gathering in Katowice, Poland for a major international climate conference that is serving as a followup to the Paris Climate Agreement. The meeting is formally called the 24th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is better known in UN lingo as COP24 and it stretches from December 2nd...

Michelle Gelfand is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland and author of the new book Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire our World. The book, which is written for a popular audience, is based on a scientific study conducted by Gelfand in 33 countries in which she examines cultural norms around rule following.  As she explains, certain countries have a hi...

My guest today, Diana Mitlin, is a professor of global urbanism at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. Much of her work focuses on issues surrounding informal urban settlements, commonly known as slums. In this episode we discuss why slums present such a profound challenge for global development--and how getting policies around slums right can lead to big progress tow...

Harold Hongju Koh is one of the America's leading scholars of international law. He is the Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, where he formerly served as the dean. He's also served as the Legal Advisor in the State Department and was the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.   Professor Koh is the author of the new book that examines the...

On October 31, South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar entered the capitol city of Juba for the first time in two years to attend a peace ceremony. The ceremony in Juba was intended a confidence building measure toward the implementation of the peace deal.  Earlier this summer, Machar and South Sudan's president Salva Kiir signed a peace deal, formally ending a civil war that killed hundreds of th...

In mid September, I was sitting next to the journalist Sally Hayden while attending a press briefing near the United Nations when phone started buzzing with WhatsApp messages.  Refugees and migrants stranded in a prison in Libya had gotten her number and were sending her messages describing awful details of their confinement. These refugees were stranded in prison because of a deal worked out betw...

As was expected, Republicans have held onto control of the Senate while Democrats have won a solid majority in the House of Representatives.  So what does this mean for foreign policy and global affairs? On the line with me to talk through some of the international implications of the US Mid term elections is Heather Hurlburt. She is the director of the New Models of Policy Change project at the N...

Mark Lowcock is the top humanitarian official at the United Nations, serving as the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator.   When a manmade or natural disaster strikes, his UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which is known by its acronym OCHA, is the focal point for managing and coordinating the international humanitarian re...

For 27 years, the question of what to formally call the country informally known as "Macedonia" has been a diplomatic thorn in the side of Europe and the Balkans.  Macedonia became independent upon the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia in 1991. Immediately, though, the question of what to call this new country became a diplomatic and political crisis. Macedonia borders Greece and the region of...

The International Criminal Court is likely to open an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Afghanistan. Much of the focus of the investigation would be crimes committed by the Taliban, but actions by Americans could also come under scrutiny. This raises the prospect of the first real collision between Americans and the International Criminal Court.    On t...

The challenge was immense About twenty years ago, India accounted for over 60% of all polio cases worldwide -- in fact it was considered a "hyper" endemic country. Then, the Indian government teamed up with the United Nations and other partners, including through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, to tackle polio head on. India's vast population, its geographic diversity, and pockets of extr...

On October 17 Canada became the second country in the world to legalize the recreational use of Cannabis. The first was Uruguay, which decriminalized Cannabis a few years ago. But Canada's move is arguably more significant to international relations for the fact that it is a member of the G7; and is a country that has a longstanding commitment to international law and the rules based international...

An ongoing Ebola Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sickened over 250 people, and resulted in over 130 deaths as of October 18. Now, the DRC is experienced in handling Ebola outbreaks. A separate outbreak in the country's Equateur province was rather quickly and effectively contained. 33 people died, but it could have been much worse. That outbreak was declared over this summer.    W...

 On October 2, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, seeking to retrieve some marriage documents relating to his upcoming wedding.  He never came out. Turkish authorities believe he was tortured and murdered by Saudi intelligence officers sent to kill him.    This incident has profoundly shaken Saudi Arabia's relationship with the United States. Khashoggi wa...

My guest today Ivo Daalder served as the United States ambassador to NATO under President Obama from 2009 to 2013. He is now the president of the Chicago council on foreign relations and he is the co-author, with James Lindsey, of the new book, The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership.  The book offers a comprehensive accounting of the first two years of President Trump's foreig...

My guest today, Nicola Banks, is a lecturer in global urbanism and urban development at the University of Manchester. She has conducted some pioneering research on the role of the NGO sector in global development. Some of her findings, including that development NGOs be more politically engaged, are being adopted and tested by some major aid agencies. Dr. Banks is also undertaking an ambitious pro...