Mark Leonard's World in 30 Minutes

As Russia undermines democracies and reduces Ukrainian territory to a mere power play, European ideology is flourishing more than ever before. In this week’s episode, Mark Leonard hosts Enrico Letta, former Prime Minister of Italy and current President of the Jacque Delors Institute, to discuss his solution to the EU’s problems: a European Confederation. Nations such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldo...

As Russia shifts the focus of its military offensive to southern and eastern Ukraine, Finland and Sweden are moving closer to NATO membership. In this week’s episode, Mark Leonard speaks to Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden and current ECFR co-chair, and Alexander Stubb, former prime minister of Finland and current ECFR council member. Beyond both countries’ expressions of intent, where...

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will face off against each other in the second round of the French presidential election on April 24. We have a good idea of what a second Macron presidency would look like, but Marine Le Pen is another story all together. How would her presidency affect Europe and the world? Jeremy Shapiro – seizing the reins of the podcast this week from a complaisant Mark Leona...

Russia’s war in Ukraine has turned European defence and security policy upside down. The German Zeitenwende, the Versailles Summit in March, and the recently published Strategic Compass for Security and Defence are all testament to this rediscovered priority on European leaders’ agenda. Jana Puglierin takes over the podcast to talk with ECFR senior policy fellows Nick Witney – who served as the fi...

Mark Leonard is joined by the head of ECFR's Middle East and North Africa programme Julien Barnes-Dacey, ECFR visiting fellow Cinzia Bianco, professor of political science at the University of Tehran Nasser Hadian, and founder and chair of the Gulf Research Center Abdulaziz Sager to analyse current developments in Gulf energy security and the Iran nuclear deal. On location at the Doha Forum 2022,...

Mark Leonard is joined by Andrew Wilson, senior policy fellow at ECFR and Ukraine expert, and Volodymyr Yermolenko, a Ukrainian philosopher and editor of the blog Ukraine World, to dissect Russia's war against Ukraine from a Ukrainian intellectual perspective. What concepts define Ukrainian history and identity, and how is this important in understanding Ukraine’s response to the Russian invasion?...

Mark Leonard is joined by Marie Dumoulin, head of our Wider Europe programme, and ECFR’s research director, Jeremy Shapiro, to talk yet again about the ongoing war in Ukraine and some possible different scenarios for its resolution. Does this war actually mean – as per one US strategist – a complete collapse of NATO member states’ policy? How should Europe react to Russian loss or indeed victory i...

Mark Leonard and senior policy fellow and head of ECFR´s Paris Office, Tara Varma, sat down in Paris to talk about how Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine is affecting France and the French presidential race. In the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and facing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they discussed such questions as: what kind of role did foreign policy play in the election campaigns before Russia's...

In this week’s early podcast, Mark Leonard is joined by ECFR senior policy fellow Kadri Liik and the head of ECFR’s Asia programme Janka Oertel to talk about how the Ukraine war is affecting Sino-Russian relations. How is Russia's attack on Ukraine perceived in China? Will Russia and China be joining forces in an ‘alliance of autocracies’? What does Russian and Chinese policymakers planning look l...

War in UkraineAs the situation at the Ukrainian border escalates, Mark Leonard sat down with Marie Dumoulin, director of ECFR’s Wider Europe programme, and senior policy fellows Gustav Gressel and Kadri Liik – as well as Jonathan Hackenbroich, head of ECFR’s Task Force for Strengthening Europe against Economic Coercion – to talk about the recent developments and the state of play at the ground: Wh...

Live from the Munich Security Conference (MSC)! Mark Leonard huddled together with editorial director for Le Monde and ECFR board and Council Member Sylvie Kauffmann and Jana Puglierin, head of ECFR’s Berlin office in one of the many rooms of the Bayerischer Hof to talk about the West’s thinking and reaction to the geopolitical challenges and battles of today: In the spotlight is of course the que...

This week, ECFR senior policy fellow, Susi Dennison, takes over the podcast to talk about international cooperation on global health. As many European countries are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel after yet another hard winter struggling with covid-19, attention is refocusing on global inequity around tackling the pandemic. What does effective multilateral cooperation on global heal...

In this episode, we reverse the usual roles: today’s host is ECFR’s Research Director Jeremy Shapiro and Mark Leonard tries out the role of guest. They discuss the surprising findings of ECFR’s latest public opinion poll on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In recent weeks, many commentators, including this podcast’s interim host, have focused on Europe’s divisions and lack of agency in the Russia-Ukra...

Humanitarian crises in places like Afghanistan, Yemen or Ethiopia are not only a reflection of internal turmoil – but mirror a much grander development: system failure. In today’s episode, Mark Leonard is joined by David Miliband, president and chief executive officer of the International Rescue Committee and a former UK Foreign Secretary. Together, they discuss his model describing the four level...

Since the holiday season, we have brought to you a special mini-series looking at how the things that keep us connected – like trade, tech, the internet, and migration – can also tear us apart. But rather than despairing at the state of the world, the geopolitics, and ongoing superpower battles, Mark Leonard is joined by a number of high-level thinkers in this mini-series in order to find strategi...

Diplomatic talks about the Russia – Ukraine crisis are increasingly icy. While Europeans continue to gnash their teeth over a patchy security architecture, US president Biden and the Russian president Putin are struggling to come to a peaceful conclusion in their bilateral negotiations. It seems Europeans are caught between the prospect of a “new Yalta” or a full-scale war on the European continen...

Since the holiday season we have brought to you a special mini-series looking at how the things that keep us connected – like trade, tech, the internet, and migration – can also tear us apart. But rather than despairing at the state of the world, the geopolitics and ongoing superpower battles, Mark Leonard is joined by a number of high-level thinkers in this mini-series in order to find strategies...

Traditions die hard, or so they say. And thus, we are especially excited to continue one of our most popular traditions: Predicting ten foreign policy trends for 2022. This week, host Mark Leonard and Jeremy Shapiro, Research Director at ECFR, are looking into their crystal balls to foretell the forces and events that will shape the upcoming year. They also convened an impartial jury consisting en...

Over the holiday season, we are bringing you a special mini-series looking at how the things that keep us connected – like trade, tech, the internet, and migration – can also tear us apart. But rather than despairing at the state of the world, the geopolitics and ongoing superpower battles, Mark Leonard is joined by a number of high-level thinkers in this mini-series in order to find strategies fo...

Over the holiday season we are bringing you a special mini-series looking at how the things that keep us connected – like trade, tech, the internet and migration – can also tear us apart. But rather than despairing at the state of the world, the geopolitics and ongoing superpower battles, Mark Leonard is joined by a number of high-level thinkers in this mini-series in order to find strategies for...

Over the holiday season, we are bringing you a special mini-series looking at how the things that keep us connected – like trade, tech, the internet and migration – can also tear us apart. But rather than despairing at the state of the world, the geopolitics and ongoing superpower battles, Mark Leonard is joined by a number of high-level thinkers in this mini-series in order to find strategies for...

In this episode, host Mark Leonard is joined by POLITICO Europe's Editor-in-Chief Jamil Anderlini to discuss his plans for POLITICO. They talk about life in Brussels, breaking news in Asia, how to find a good story and what makes good reporting. Also, many of the big impetuses that have changed Europe in the past came from the outside, and likely in the future, mainly from Asia: what does Anderlin...

After more than a decade of death and destruction – and despite a string of international efforts to end his regime - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remains in power. Meanwhile, the country faces deteriorating economic and humanitarian crises, with over 90% of its population currently living below the poverty line. In this week’s episode, host Mark Leonard is joined by ECFR Council Member Bassma...

On Wednesday afternoon, the German Social Democrats, the FDP and the Greens presented their coalition agreement. The long-awaited deal sets out the roadmap for the “traffic light” government for the upcoming four years led by Olaf Scholz (SPD). In this episode, Mark Leonard and ECFR senior policy fellows Janka Oertel and Jana Puglierin take a deep dive into the 170+ page-long document: what does i...

At the beginning of this week, NATO warned about an ‘unusual’ concentration of Russian forces close to the Ukraine border. So far, the Kremlin has dismissed the warning as “alarmist” while the US alerted allies about the possibility of Moscow preparing for a possible invasion of Ukraine. Mark Leonard is joined by Marie Dumoulin the new director of our Wider Europe programme, in her first week on t...