Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Happy New Year everyone! And what an interesting an exciting year this will be for the United Nations because the new year marks the semi-official kickoff of the race to select the next UN secretary general. Ban Ki Moon's second and final term expires at the end of the year and now it is up to the world--or, i should say more specifically the Security Council with input from the General Assembly--...

Named by The Guardian as a "podcast to make you smarter" Global Dispatches is an international affairs podcast with impact. 

The Paris agreement that was adopted on December 12 was a triumph of diplomacy.  It is also a affirmation of idealism in international relations -- that the anarchy of the international system can be transcended to find global solutions to global problems.     And the fact international community found a way to push the needle in the right direction on as complex an issue as climate change makes o...

After Syrians and Afghans, the largest nationality of people who are fleeing as refugees to Europe are Eritreans. And the vast majority of Eritreans who are fleeing to Europe are young people between the ages of 18 and 24 who are escaping an oppressive system of compulsory national service.  National service itself is not a problem. Lots of liberal democracies have some of draft or conscription. B...

Emma Sky was an Arabist, working at the British Council in 2003 when the United Kingdom joined the US led invasion and occupation of Iraq.  Though she strongly opposed the war, she opted to join the coalition provisional authority, which administered Iraq after the fall of Saddam. Here's why   She served as the top coalition official in the-oil rich and ethnically diverse province of Kirkuk, and l...

Unlike any other global climate or environment conference I've covered over the years, civil society and the activist community this time around is genuinely enthused about the Paris Climate Talks. Cautious optimism, or at the very least, not gloom and doom, seems to be prevailing mood.    I asked the leader of one of the most important and largest global climate activist organizations, May Boeve...

My guest today Katie Meyler is the founder of the NGO More than Me, which provides schooling and counseling to adolescent girls in Monrovia, Liberia. Katie founded the NGO in 2009, but during the Ebola outbreak last year it transformed into a community hub in the West Point neighborhood of Monrovia, which was the hardest hit neighborhood in the hardest hit city in the hardest hit country by the ou...

Could the horrible attack in Paris might provide the kind of exogenous shock to the international system that could unstick international diplomacy on Syria and move the needle in right direction? After a key meeting in Vienna of the USA, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and all the relevant regional players it would appear that there is finally some movement on the diplomatic front.  Here with me to di...

James P Grant is not a household name. But he most certainly should be. Grant lead UNICEF from 1979 until his death in 1995, and as Nick Kristof once wrote he "probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined." He was a force in the UN bureaucracy and on the international stage. And now, for the first time, there is a full accounting of his life and work in the new...

The Paris Climate talks kick off in just a few short weeks. On November 30, president Obama and many other heads of state are going to start weeks of negotiations that if all goes according to plan, will usher in a new kind of international climate change regime.    These talks a huge deal for diplomacy and for the planet. On the line with me to discuss the contours of the talks, expected outcomes...

"Red Teaming" is a concept that can trace its origins to the year 1234 when Pope Gregory the IX created the position of Devils Advocate to vet Papal cannonizations. In more modern times, the process has been increasingly used by militaries, the foreign policy bureaucracy and even the private sector to question assumptions and challenge groupthink.    My guest today, Micah Zenko, is a Council on Fo...

Less than a month ago, Russia began a military operation in Syria that is ongoing to this day. Russia's direct military involvement in Syria adds a complicated layer to an already complex conflict. On the line to discuss Russia military and political strategy for Syria, and the implications of this military action for the longer term prospects of a internationally negotiated resolution to this con...

The Liberal party in Canada, lead by Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre, shocked the world with a big, big win in hotly contested national elections. The Liberal ascent ends a near decade in power for the conservative Stephen Harper and has the potential to fundamentally re-balance Canada's relationship with the world, so says my guest Janice Stein who is the founding director of the Munk School of Int...

  Felice Gaer has served on the UN Committee Against torture since 1999, making her the longest serving American elected to a UN Human Rights body. Though there is little power vested in the independent experts who staff treaty organizations, Gaer has been able to move the needle on human rights cases worldwide through creatively deploying the little power she has. This was an lesson she first lea...

So we had a scare. But all ends well.    This episode is in two parts. First, you'll hear directly from my amazing wife about giving birth in our family car. It's a crazy story. Then, I speak with Dr. Luc de Bernis Senior Maternal Health Advisor at the UN Population Fund who puts our experience in a larger global health context. We discuss various interventions to reduce maternal and newborn morta...

Christine Fair is a respected scholar of South Asian politics and security. But her career path has been tough, with unnecessary obstacles in her way. In this episode, she speaks candidly about overcoming sexual harassment in graduate school and facing threats of sexual violence by the very subjects she studies as an academic. 

The Nobel Peace Prize is announced on October 9. In March this year, Victor Ochen was nominated for the 2015 prize by the same organization the nominated previous laureates, Martin Luther King, Jr, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Dag Hammarskjold Victor Ochen may not be a household name. But that may soon change. He is the founder of the peace and reconciliation NGO African Youth Initiative Network...

Andrew Young is a civil rights icon who was with his friend Martin Luther King Jr when Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. In this interview, Young traces his a lifelong commitment to non-violence from his childhood in New Orleans, to his civil rights work in the 1950s and 1960s, to becoming Jimmy Carter's ambassador to the United Nations and long-serving Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.  This is a re-po...

UN Week kicks off on a high note on Friday, with the opening of a special summit on the Sustainable Development Goals. Pope Francis will be one of the first to address the summit on Friday morning. President Obama is helping to close the session on Sunday. In between are over 150 speakers, mostly heads of state.  The SDG summit is a very big deal for the United Nations, and quite possibly for all...

The UN Summit kicks off next week in New York! This is always the most exciting time of year for us UN nerds. And between the Pope and Putin, this UNGA promises to be a very interesting one.   Here with me to break down what to expect at the UN in the coming weeks and how make sense of it all is Richard Gowan. We discuss the big stories, the overlooked stories, and political intrigue that will acc...

Elmira Bayrasli is the author of the new book "From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places." She is also the co founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted, which seeks to amplify the voice of female foreign policy experts-- and she's a former assistant to Madeleine Albright.   We kick off discussing the new book, which transitions nicely to a conversation about her ex...

Why do countries build fences and walls at their border and under what conditions are those walls and fences likely to work as intended? These questions are obviously topical right now, with the US-Mexico border a hot button issue in the US presidential election; and the Syrian refugee crisis dominating discussion the Europe   But fences and their effectiveness have largely remained off the radar...

When Jina Moore was in Middle School she became intensely curious about the Holocaust, reading about everything she could on the subject. That curiosity improbably led a girl from a small town in West Virginia to become pen pals with the woman who hid Anne Frank.  These days, Jina is based in Nairobi, Kenya and is the the international women's rights correspondent for Buzzfeed, where she's covered...

The Syrian refugee crisis has finally made it to Europe's doorstep. Over the past several weeks, masses of refugees have made their way to southeastern Europe, mostly en route to Germany and other countries in northern Europe. After four years of conflict, the Syrian refugee crisis is suddenly a crisis for Europe.   Here with me to discuss the implications of this refugee flow is Ellen Laipson of...

My guest today, Juliana Barbassa is a journalist and the author of the new book Dancing with the   Devil in the City of God: Rio di Janeiro on the Brink.  We have a great conversation about the current political upheaval in Brazil; how preparations for the 2016 summer Olympics are changing the character of Rio; and why corruption in Brazil's political system is seemingly so endemic.   Juliana had...