Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Donald Trump will become president and commander-in-chief in January. I am pledging to you right now that I will dedicate myself and dedicate this podcast to helping you make sense of foreign policy and world affairs in the era of Trump.   To that end, I caught up with Heather Hurlburt of the New America Foundation. Heather and I have a pretty wide ranging discussion about the implications of a Tr...

How the international community saves lives in conflict prone countries or insecure places is becoming increasingly relevant and important to global affairs. On the line to walk me through the nuts and bolts of one of these relief operations is Laurent Bukera, who runs the World Food Program's operations in Somalia.  We have a pretty fascinating conversation about how a humanitarian agency like th...

Here we are days from the US election, so I thought to myself let's have a US focused episode that explains US culture and American politics and why Trump is facing such an uphill battle by talking about....hot sauce.  Now, it's been widely reported--and I'm being completely serious here--that this is Hillary Clinton's favorite condiment. And full disclosure: I too love everything spicy. But it is...

Brian Katulis is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress where his work focuses on US National Security and Foreign Policy.  He's had a long career working and living in several middle eastern countries at key junctures in their history, including Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Egypt and we discuss many of these experiences in this conversation. We kick off discussing a new report he he...

 Mosul is Iraq's second largest city, and in 2014 ISIS militants took the city as Iraqi army units fled. Now, a large scale military operation backed by the United States is underway to regain control of the city, which is situated in Northern Iraq.  The fight to re-take Mosul may have profound domestic and regional political implications says my guest today Kirk Sowell , publisher of the Inside I...

Late in the evening on October 20th news broke that South Africa is moving to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. The ICC is the first permanent international court to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity and back in 2002 when it came to life, South Africa was a founding member. In recent years the court has come under criticism by some African governments for holding a per...

Sarah Chayes was a reporter for NPR working in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. Then, in early 2002 she decided to give up her career in journalism to help rebuild the country. She joined the NGO world, eventually founding an Afghan based NGO. And during this time, while living in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, she became an advisor to the top US generals in Afghanistan.  The...

Last week the UN General Assembly Officially elected Antonio Guterres as the next UN Secretary General. Guterres is a well known figure around the UN and in global politics more broadly. From 2005 to 2015 he served as the UN High Commissioner for refugees and before that he served as Prime Minister of Portugal.  His term begins on January 1st and I thought it would be useful and interesting to lea...

At the United Nations last month there was a major meeting at the sidelines of the General Assembly about an issue called anti-microbial resistance. This meeting did not make much news outside the UN bubble, but it was arguably the single most meaningful thing to happen at the United Nations in months.    Anti-microbial resistance is one of the worst global health crises in the world that gets the...

The 52 year civil war in Colombia between the government and the Marxist rebel group the FARC is the longest running conflict in the Western Hemisphere. But after years of painstaking negotiations, the conflict looked as if it is finally coming to an end. There is ceasefire, and a peace deal was signed in September between FARC's leader and the president of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos.    The gove...

Scott Shane is a veteran reporter with the New York Times. His latest book is titled Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President and the Rise of the Drone . It tells the story of Anwar al-Awlaki and President Obama's decision to kill him. al-Awlaki was an American born man of Yemeni descent. He was a charismatic preacher who later moved to Yemen and joined an al Qaeda affiliate. In 2011 he was killed...

When a building is bombed, a group of volunteers known as the White Helmets rush to the scene to dig through rubble to find survivors. In a conflict known for its never-ending descent into depravity, this one group stands apart as true servants of humanity.    On the line to discuss their work is Orlando von Einsiedel, who directed the new Netflix documentary "The White Helmets." The film follows...

I was in New York for the UN General Assembly and so was Under Secretary of State for civilian security, democracy and human rights Sarah Sewall. We taped this episode in front of a live audience organized by New York chapter of the group Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, YPFP. Sarah Sewall kicks off telling some behind the scenes stories from her week at the UN and describing what it's like...

The UN General Assembly kicks into high gear this week as world leaders flock to New York for the annual UN summit. There are many story lines for international affairs nerds to follow, and on the line with me to break them all down is Richard Gowen, a fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations.    Richard and I offer a preview of the big stories, high drama, and possible moments of int...

----- SUPPORT THE SHOW ----- Click here to make a contribution to the podcast -->   http://www.globaldispatchespodcast.com/support-the-show/   World leaders gather at the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York next week. There will be much political drama and diplomatic storylines that I'll discuss in a later episode. But behind all the politics and drama are issues of substance -- and...

----- SUPPORT THE SHOW ----- Click here to make a contribution to the podcast -->   http://www.globaldispatchespodcast.com/support-the-show/   The crisis in Yemen is getting worse by the day. Hospitals are being bombed, seemingly at a routine frequency; some 10,000 people have been killed; and extremist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and ISIS have gained a foothold in parts of the country.    Yem...

----- SUPPORT THE SHOW ----- Click here to make a contribution to the podcast -->   http://www.globaldispatchespodcast.com/support-the-show/ Over the course of the last six weeks or so, I've received a series of increasingly urgent sounding press releases from various humanitarian organizations operating in the far northeastern region of Nigeria, called Borno state.    In July, I received this fro...

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The new bombastic and brash president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte is undertaking a war on drugs like no other country on earth. In the last few months, hundreds of alleged drug offenders have been killed on the streets, many by vigilante groups empowered by the government. Meanwhile, Duterte has released a list of hundreds of public officials that he claims are involved in the drugs trade. ...

----- SUPPORT THE SHOW ----- Click here to make a contribution to the podcast -->   http://www.globaldispatchespodcast.com/support-the-show/   Greg Stanton has spent a career researching and fighting genocide. He speaks candidly about the psychological toll of this line of work and managing the PTSD which he confronts to this day.  Stanton is a descendent of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and as you'll le...

There is a catastrophe underway in the Syrian city  of  Aleppo. The city has been at the center of fighting since the civil war broke out in 2011, but in recent weeks the battle for Aleppo has become much more intense. And caught in the middle are 2 million people. Food is scarce. Hospitals have been bombed. Humanitarian aid has not been able to reach the city. And earlier this week, the UN warned...

Derek Chollet is the author of the new book The Long Game: How Obama Defied Washington and Redefined America's Role in the World.   Derek served in a number of foreign policy positions in the Obama administration, including in the National Security Council, State Department and finally as an assistant secretary of defense for international security so this book serves, very much, as an insider's a...

There catastrophe is looming in southern Africa. This year's historically intense El Nino sparked a region-wide drought that has decimated harvests. The area was already prone to food insecurity, but the extreme nature of this El Nino is causing a humanitarian emergency not experienced in decades. On the line with me to discuss the food crisis in Southern Africa are two officials from the US Agenc...

Arsalan Iftikhar is the author of the new book  Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies and Threatens Our Freedoms. Arsalan is a human rights lawyer by training and was one of the original guests on this podcast a couple years ago, when he discussed his career and life journey that lead him to this line of work. Arsalan is on TV a lot. And often times he get's the call after there has been...

Helen Clark is a candidate to become the next UN Secretary General. She's the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, serving from 1999 to 2008 and is currently the head of the United Nations Development Program. We spoke in mid-July as part of a series of conversations I'm having with the candidates in the race to replace Ban Ki Moon when his term expires at the end of this year. The goal with thes...