Hudson Institute Events Podcast

On May 29, for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC)’s vote share fell below the 50 percent threshold necessary for unilaterally forming a government. Urgent coalition negotiations are ongoing to meet the constitutionally mandated 14-day deadline for parliament to select a president, but there is immense uncertainty about the outcome. The...

Russia continues to export vast amounts of gas and oil to Europe while importing military goods and mission critical hardware to fuel its war against Ukraine. Some of Moscow’s most notorious strategic corruption projects, NordStream and TurkStream, and their related state capture networks continue to operate despite more than a dozen rounds of sanctions imposed by the European Union and Group of S...

For weeks, hundreds of thousands of Georgians have peacefully demonstrated across the country against the “Russian Law,” a bill designed by the Georgian Dream party to stifle and restrict civil society and political opposition. Georgia’s Western friends have warned that the law is not compatible with Euro-Atlantic integration. But the Kremlin has supported Georgian Dream’s measures. In addition to...

Niger’s 2023 military coup led to swift changes, and many now wonder what’s next for West African security cooperation. As American troops move out and Russian troops move in, will United States counterterrorism operations continue in Niger and the Sahel region? West African security experts Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim of International Crisis Group, Malik Samuel of the Institute for Security Studies, a...

On July 10, President Joe Biden will gather fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders in Washington to celebrate 75 years of the alliance and chart a direction for the way ahead. Over the course of NATO’s existence, warfare has changed in dramatic ways, punctuated by offset strategies and revolutions in military affairs. Today, the large-scale war in Ukraine is spawning battlefield innovat...

Niger’s 2023 military coup led to swift changes, and many now wonder what’s next for West African security cooperation. As American troops move out and Russian troops move in, will United States counterterrorism operations continue in Niger and the Sahel region? West African security experts Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim of International Crisis Group, Malik Samuel of the Institute for Security Studies, a...

This event is part of the Motwani Jadeja US-India Dialogue series funded by the Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation. Amid a shifting and increasingly competitive global landscape, technology cooperation has emerged as a vital component of the United States–India strategic partnership. In May 2022, the two countries announced the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), which wa...

Join Hudson in welcoming Ambassador Nikki R. Haley for her inaugural event as the Walter P. Stern Chair. She will deliver a special address on United States foreign policy amid wars in the Middle East and Europe and growing tensions in Asia. Following her remarks, she will sit down with Hudson’s Peter Rough for a fireside chat. Hudson Board of Trustees Chair Sarah May Stern will deliver introducto...

Over two years on, the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine War continue to reverberate throughout the Black Sea and Western Balkan regions.  Russia’s latest push threatens to break Ukraine’s front lines. Georgia’s free and open society hangs in the balance as a pro-Moscow government debates a restrictive new “Russian law.” North Atlantic Treaty Organization member Montenegro’s leadership is falling...

The Pentagon’s $820 billion budget is the United States government’s biggest expense other than Social Security and health care. However, despite its obvious importance, the Defense Department’s budgeting process is notoriously inflexible and slow. As a result, current operational and security needs often do not match spending priorities established two or more years ago. Congress recently establi...

On June 2, Mexicans will head to the polls to elect over 20,000 national, state, and local officials, including the president, members of Congress, and numerous governors. The two leading contenders for the presidency, Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez, offer starkly contrasting visions for Mexico’s future. Sheinbaum, of the ruling MORENA party, seeks to continue the nationalist Fourth Transfor...

This event is part of the Motwani Jadeja US-India Dialogue series funded by the Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation. As the world’s oldest and largest democracies, respectively, the United States and India constitute key anchor points of the democratic world, and the two nations have significantly deepened their partnership over the past three decades. Shared values and strong people-to-people connec...

When Estonia joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on March 29, 2004, the country’s foreign minister said, “Ever since regaining our independence, one of the main tasks of every government of Estonia has been the security of our nation. Today, I can say that we are much closer to a peaceful and confident feeling in our hearts.” But NATO has not only kept Estonia safe from existential threa...

Fresh off a string of policy victories, United States Representative Dan Crenshaw (TX-02) joins Hudson Media Fellow Jeremy Hunt for a conversation about the critical foreign aid package that recently passed both chambers of Congress. Specifically, the package contains vital support for Taiwan and the forced divestiture of TikTok—both of which are important policy steps to counter the Chinese Commu...

Join Hudson Distinguished Fellow Walter Russell Mead, United Kingdom Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and Senator Jim Risch (R-ID), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for a conversation about the challenges and opportunities facing the transatlantic community and the future of the special relationship.

Sweden’s total defense concept includes a civil defense component that “encompasses the whole of society and comprises the collective resilience in the event of war or danger of war.” Civil defense consists of three pillars: defending the population, safeguarding important societal functions, and contributing to the armed forces’ ability to respond to an attack. Russia’s hybrid attacks against the...

Hudson’s Michael Doran hosts Columbia University Professor Ran Kivetz, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Executive Director Asaf Romirowsky, and Senior Fellow and Tablet  Editor at Large Liel Leibovitz. They will discuss the causes of the recent slate of pro-Hamas encampments on American college campuses, who is funding these protests, and what administrators and policymakers should do about t...

For several days, Georgians have demonstrated on the streets of Tbilisi against the Georgian Dream–led government’s moves to derail the country’s Euro-Atlantic future. Nona Mamulashvili, a former member of the Georgian parliament and cofounder of the Gamziri civic platform, has participated in the nightly protests. Hundreds of miles away, her brother Mamuka Mamulashvili commands the Georgian Legio...

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders met in Madrid, Spain, to chart a new Strategic Concept for the alliance. The document identified Russia as “the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.” One year later, in Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO leaders met again to adopt a new set of regi...

The foreign policy actions of many Latin American governments often contradict their principles. This disconnect causes leaders to pursue short-term objectives that do not address the region’s most pressing challenges, such as authoritarianism and organized crime. The Maduro regime’s assassination of a Venezuelan exile in Chile and the Ecuadorian government’s arrest of a convicted former vice pres...

The historic April summit between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida signaled a new era in United States–Japan relations. The summit produced agreements for enhancing economic ties, advancing technological innovation, coordinating diplomatic efforts, and strengthening security cooperation. The president said that this is the most significant upgrade of the US-Japan alliance since...

As Russia scores localized gains on land, Ukrainian forces have achieved major successes in the Black Sea Region (BSR). The Ukrainians have sunk or damaged some one-third of the Black Sea Fleet, forced Moscow to move naval assets away from occupied Crimea, and put Russia on the defensive. These successes challenge the narrative that Russia’s war against Ukraine is a stalemate and demonstrate Ukrai...

Hudson is delighted to welcome Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala for a major policy address on the future of the transatlantic alliance. Since assuming office in November 2021, Fiala has placed transatlantic cooperation at the heart of the Czech Republic’s foreign policy and marshalled crucial support for Ukraine in its hour of need. As Fiala put it in October 2022, “Ukraine’s fight is our fight too...

Prosperity Guardian, the United States–led military operation designed to end Houthi attacks on international shipping, has failed. Michael Roberts and Salvatore Mercogliano, two leading experts on international shipping, will join Senior Fellow Michael Doran for a virtual event. They will discuss the Houthi attacks’ consequences for the global economy and the balance of power between the US and i...