Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

Hundreds of world leaders are descending on the United Nations for a one day meeting on climate change. This is a big deal for the United Nations, for diplomacy, and possibly for the planet. So who is showing up and what countries are snubbing the conference? What will be discussed? And how will this affect ongoing negotiations to construct an internationally binding climate change agreement? Mark...

Ruth Messinger cut her teeth in New York City politics. She was a long serving member of the city council and one-time candidate for Mayor. She made the move from municipal politics to global affairs when she became the head of the American Jewish World Service, an international development and advocacy organization. Ruth tells Mark about growing up in New York, running for office, and making the...

The Central African Republic is far from the headlines these days, which is unfortunate. Things are bad, but there's a potential that the situation may improve in the coming weeks as the current African Union-led peacekeeping force is formally "re-hatted" as a United Nations peacekeeping force. Mark speaks with Evan Cinq-Mars of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect about the situati...

It looks increasingly likely that the United States will expand its military operations against ISIS to Syria. Mark speak with William McCants of the Brookings Institution about the prospects and pitfalls of a US-led international military campaign against the Islamic State in Syria. They also discuss the role of another Islamist rebel group, al Nusra, in Syria's conflict and what might befall abo...

In many ways, the fear of ebola is more deadly and consequential than the virus itself. Jina Moore of BuzzFeed just returned from a reporting trip to Liberia where she detailed how the outbreak is transfixing Liberian society and politics. Moore is one of the best global beat reports in the game and her dispatches from Liberia are must-reads for anyone who wants a deeper texture and analysis of eb...

Hi all- No interview this week. Rather, after 30 longform interviews I thought it was a good time to take a quick break and update you all on where I want to take this podcast.     

South Sudan is quite possibly on the verge of famine. The conflict that erupted in December shows little signs of abating. The peace process is halting and in the meantime the humanitarian situation is growing precipitously worse. Mark speaks with Tariq Riebl, Oxfam's South Sudan country director about the humanitarian situation in South Sudan and what can be done to avert a possible famine.

The United Nations released a grave warning this week that some 1,500 women have been captured as sex slaves by the Sunni extremist group that is rampaging through parts of Iraq and Syria. Mark speaks with Zainab Hawa Bangura the UN Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict about the situation in Northern Iraq and what can be done to help these women. 

Chris Hill was born into the foreign service...and he stayed there. He has served as Ambassador to Iraq and as the lead American negotiator in the six party talks on North Korea's nuclear program. Ambassador Hill sits down with Mark to discuss managing US relations with key allies as the iron curtain fell, facing down Slobodan Milosevic, negotiating with North Korea and the current problems facing...

The Palestinian Authority may ask to join the International Criminal Court, potentially paving the way for war crimes charges to be brought against both Israelis and Palestinians. Mark speaks with international law expert Kevin Jon Heller about the legal and political consequences of a potential ICC investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza. 

The international development pioneer and founder of the Center for Global Development is on the line this week. Nancy Birdsall tells Mark about how she got her start in international development in the 1960s and how the field has changed since then. Her career includes long stints at the the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank before founding her own cutting edge research instituti...

  An Ebola outbreak in west Africa has claimed more than 600 lives. Mark Leon Goldberg speaks with Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization who explains why the international community has had such difficultly containing this outbreak. Why is this outbreak different from previous ones? What are local and international health workers doing to contain the outbreak? Why is it spreading? And wha...

As the conflict in Gaza drags on, there's a renewed diplomatic effort to secure a ceasefire. Mark speaks with Michael Hanna of the Century Foundation about the complex diplomatic efforts underway, the critical role that Egypt is playing, in all of this, and why things may get worse before it gets better. Hanna also offers one possible solution in which both sides can save face as they lay down the...

CARE CEO Helene Gayle is on the line this week. The medical doctor from upstate New York tells Mark how she became the head of one of the largest international humanitarian relief NGOs on the planet. And prior to her work at CARE, Dr. Gayle had a twenty year career at the Centers for Disease Control where was at the front line of the fight against AIDS since the 1980s. She discusses how the fight...

In the fight between humanity and the AIDS virus, humanity is winning. That is the top line conclusion you can draw from the newest global data about HIV/AIDS from the United Nations. Erin Hofhelder of the ONE Campaign is on the line to discuss this report, preview the big International AIDS Conference in Australia, and explain why new laws against LGBT communities in some African countries may un...

There is a refugee crisis in the USA. Since October over 50,000 children and tens of thousands of families have streamed across the southern border of the United States. What is compelling this surge in migration, particularly of unaccompanied minors? Who are these children and families? And what is their journey like? I speak with Gary Shaye of Save the Children, which is running a relief operati...

It's a special edition of the podcast today! I have a number of officials from the United Nations on the show. These interviews were conducted on location at the United Nations. Each conversation lasts about 10 minutes or so and focuses on some aspect of my interviewees work. Enjoy!  In order of appearence:  Richard Wright, UNRWA (Palestinian Refugees agency) George Papagiannis, UNESCO Valere Mant...

All eyes are on Vienna as delegations from the United States, Germany, France, the UK, Russia and China meet with Iranian officials in a final push to secure a comprehensive agreement over Iran's nuclear program. They have until July 20 to come to terms.  The negotiations are complex and the issues vexing. But one thing is certain: if an agreement is struck it could change international relations...

Turkish foreign policy is always a fascinating case study. As the sunni insurgency in Iraq is gaining steam, how are Turkish foreign policy elites responding? What are Turkey's near term strategic goals for Iraq and Syria? And how does this impact Turkey's sometimes hostile relationship to its Kurdish population? Mark speaks with professor Louis Fishman who answers these questions and more.  Be su...

Something different on the podcast this week! I recent sat down with a number of officials at the United Nations as part of Talk Radio Day 2014. This is an annual event hosted by the United Nations Foundation in which talk radio hosts from around the country broadcast from the UN for the day. I spoke with about a dozen officials, both from the United Nations secretariat and from member states. Eac...

From the perspective of the United Nations, the crisis in Iraq cannot be disaggregated from the crisis in Syria. In this special edition of Global Dispatches, I speak with the United Nations Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliason who shares his deep concern that ISIS's offensive in Iraq and Syria's escalating conflict could plunge the entire region into sectarian war. I also speak with Bettina Luesc...

  In 2022 Qatar will host the World Cup. Migrant workers, mostly from Southeast Asia, are living in harsh conditions and dying in large numbers as they construct the infrastructure for the World Cup in the Gulf Kingdom. Mark speaks with journalist Pete Pattisson of the Guardian who takes us inside the migrant worker industry to expose horrid conditions, stolen wages, and corrupt practices faced by...

Egypt's ex Army Chief Abdel Fatah al Sisi won election this week (with an astounding 96% of the vote!) The ascent of this Mubarak-era military functionary speaks to the profound failure of Egypt's 2011 Arab Spring revolution.  Who is al-Sisi? Why did the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohammed Morsi fail so spectacularly? And what can prevent Egypt from lurching from one political crisis to the next? Here...

President Obama's commencement address to West Point Graduates this week was billed by the White House as a major foreign policy address. But there were some conspicuous absences from the talk. What was notable about this speech? And how does this fit into Obama's overall foreign policy legacy? Here to put the talk in context is Matt Duss of the Center for American Progress.  

Libya today is arguably closer to a full blown civil war than at any time since the fall of Muammar Ghaddafi in 2011. A renegade general named Khalifa Haftar is on the March, seeking to upend an Islamist controlled parliament. Who is this man, what does he want, and why are conditions ripe for a civil war? Mark speaks with journalist Marine Casalis who puts the unfolding situation in Libya in some...