Global Roaming with Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald

A scrappy Chinese startup turned the tech world on its head this week, when news broke that DeepSeek had developed a competitive AI model much faster and cheaper than anyone thought possible. Does this mean China has pulled ahead in the arms race that could define our time? And what's really at stake in the battle for AI supremacy? Guest: Alice Han - an expert in Chinese macroeconomics, political...

Geraldine and Hamish ask Donald Trump’s longest serving national security advisor whether there is method to what seems like madness in President Trump’s foreign policy announcements, and they get a message for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.  Guest: Ambassador John Bolton - served as national security adviser under US President Donald Trump for 17 months and is the author of "The Room...

There are two states that have the most to gain, and the most to lose, when it comes to AUKUS: South Australia and Western Australia. In the final episode of AUKUS Investigated Hamish and Geraldine speak to South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas about why he thinks the rest of the country needs to come to the AUKUS party.  GET IN TOUCH:  We'd love to hear from you! Email us at global.roaming@a...

AUKUS doesn't only affect us. From the time that it was announced there were mixed reactions from our neighbours - some who wanted in, and some who thought it unwise and provocative. A big part of the fear - both regionally and within Australia - concerns the nuclear question. As the first non-nuclear country to ever acquire a conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine, can we be confident of...

Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has said of AUKUS that "we don't need to be a pair of shoes hanging out of America's backside". Is that a fair characterisation of Australia's position vis a vis AUKUS? Are we getting the short end of the stick with this deal, and sacrificing our sovereignty to boot?  GUESTS: Sam Roggeveen - Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program. He is t...

In this episode Hamish and Geraldine examine the strategic thinking behind AUKUS. If China has undertaken the most rapid military expansion of any country since WWII, how does the AUKUS pact factor into Beijing's thinking? And does a plan that ties us more closely to the United States make us more or less safe? GUESTS: Zhou Bo – Senior Colonel (Ret.) of China's People's Liberation Army, is Senior...

The plan for us to acquire nuclear submarines has been dubbed the 'Optimal Pathway', but achieving it will be no mean feat. In this episode we explore what the scheme involves, what the key challenges are to making it work, and we get some cold hard facts about what it is really going to cost us.  GUESTS: Jennifer Parker - expert associate at the national security college ANU, an adjunct fellow at...

In a special mini-series, Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald get the answers to all your burning questions about AUKUS.  In this first episode, we investigate how AUKUS came about - who spoke to who, what the true motivation was for going nuclear and whether the total secrecy around the deal was justified.  GUESTS:  Andrew Fowler - investigative journalist and author of Nuked: The Submarine Fia...

2024 has been an extraordinary year in terms of global affairs. And as we try to wind down, events internationally have been ramping up. Global Roaming's inaugural year has been packed, and we thank our audience for being so engaged. This episode we highlight some of those moments and look back at what an incredible year it's been around the world. GET IN TOUCH:  We'd love to hear from you! Email...

A short bonus episode where Geraldine and Hamish discuss the shock fall of Damascus, and the rest of Syria, to opposition group Hayat Tahir al-Sham. The hardline Sunni Islamic group has its roots in Al Qaeda but has refined its image to be more moderate. With Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and family getting asylum in Russia, Syrians around the world are celebrating. But what happens next? RECOM...

When Hamish visited Finland he met up with Finland's Minister of Education Anders Adlercreutz - although unfortunately not in a sauna. But they do discuss the importance of saunas in keeping Finnish society egalitarian. And of course its focus on public education. Finland takes a holistic approach that gives teachers freedom and flexibility to teach multiple subjects together - a lesson might incl...

Why is Germany in a bit of a funk? How did the superstar of Europe go so far off the rails - even the German trains aren't running on time. Germany is governed by a three party centre-left coalition that's in disarray, a snap election has been called for February, and polls show the main ruling SPD party is set to suffer a big loss. Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is the...

Last week New Zealand parliament went viral when MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke performed a haka and tore up a controversial bill. And this week tens of thousands of New Zealanders marched in protest, opposing the bill.  At the heart of the debate is the Treaty of Waitangi and a bill that seeks to reinterpret it, with some fearing it will dilute Maori rights.  Guest: Taiha Molyneux, Māori News Edito...

Much has been going on around the world this year so climate and environment have taken a back seat. Now with the US electing a president who calls climate change a hoax, how will conversations and actions change globally? Perhaps there are opportunities for Australia as China increases its dominance.  Martijn Wilder joins us to discuss - and it's not all bad. Martijn founded Pollination, a climat...

Donald Trump has a mandate to do what he promised after winning easily. But how far will he actually go and how fast? And will he try to unite the country a little, as hinted at in his victory speech?  Jonathan Swan, who’s been covering Trump for close to a decade, warns that Trump's been emboldened to take more risk, and little stands in his way this time. Swan is a reporter for The New York Time...

An election on a knife-edge, and a nation seemingly on the brink. How do we make sense of this fever-pitched moment?  First a snapshot from USA Today political reporter Deborah Berry, who's been in Georgia a lot lately. Then we hear how strategist Rachel Bitecofer has advised the Democrats to beat the Republicans at their own game, with less focus on policies and more on  negative attacks. And we...

Our friends at If You're Listening have a new series about the US presidential election that we want to tell you about.  Donald Trump still refuses to accept the result of the 2020 election. Now he’s on the ballot again, and in his campaign against Kamala Harris he’s calling on his supporters to make the race ‘too big to rig’. In America's Last Election, Matt Bevan leaves his basement and heads to...

In this extended conversation with Geraldine and Hamish, renowned historian Sir Niall Ferguson warns that Donald Trump is not the biggest threat to American democracy. A bigger threat, he says, lies much closer to Australia... RECOMMENDATIONS: Geraldine: Niall Ferguson: The Treason of the Intellectuals article in The Free Press Hamish: The tragedy of a 50-50 America article in the Financial Times...

Like it or not, we all have a stake when Americans head to the polls in November. So what would a Harris or Trump presidency mean for the global economy, conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, and an increasingly powerful China? Guest: Edward Luce - US national editor, Financial Times. RECOMMENDATIONS: Geraldine: Secret Documents Show Hamas Tried to Persuade Iran to Join Its Oct. 7 Attack by Ron...

In the final instalment of our New Frontlines mini-series, we look at the ideological fault-lines that are dividing countries from within. Identity, values and fears are being weaponised by those on the political extremes, and it's working.  Guest: Margaritis Schinas - the European Commission vice president for Promoting our European Way of Life. RECOMMENDATIONS: Geraldine: Europe Takes a Trumpian...

Iran talks a big game, but in the last two weeks Israel has dealt some serious blows to the ‘axis of resistance’, while Tehran has done little to deter Netanyahu from going even further. Is the balance of power in the Middle East swinging away from Iran and towards Israel? Or is there more going on inside Iran than meets the eye? Guests:  Ali Ansari - Professor of Iranian History & Founding Di...

Exploding pagers, attacks on underwater gas pipelines and deepfake videos - we’ve entered a terrifying new realm of hybrid warfare, where the aim is to sow discord deep within our democracies. But how do you fight a war that isn’t really a war, against an invisible enemy? We visit a centre in Finland where they are urgently trying to find the answers to that question.   Teija Tiilikainen - Directo...

As the war in Ukraine spills into Poland, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski makes an impassioned call to countries around the world to wake up to what he sees as Putin's true imperialist intentions.  RECOMMENDATIONS: Geraldine: America’s Role in the World Is Hard. It Just Got Much Harder. Thomas Friedman in The New York Times. Hamish: Take Me To Your Leader Season 3: Dictators & Demagogues on...

We kick off this Global Roaming mini-series by looking at the ways wars will be fought in the future. From drones to electronic warfare and even social media, war today looks completely different to what it did even a decade ago. Russia’s war on Ukraine is providing a breeding ground for testing and innovation of new weapons, but are we in Australia prepared for any of this? Do we need to be?    G...

Sure, we have great beaches, but when it comes to forging strong economic and security ties, does Australia leave something to be desired? Guest: Dr Kyung-wha Kang – President and CEO of the Asia Society; South Korea’s 38th Minister of Foreign Affairs (2017 to 2021) under President Moon Jae-in  RECOMMENDATIONS: Geraldine: Kiss the Future documentary - SBS On Demand Hamish: Zhou Enlai: A Life - rev...