Mark Leonard's World in 30 Minutes

Host Mark Leonard has an intimate discussion with our heads of office from Sofia and Warsaw, Vessela Tcherneva and Piotr Buras about their experiences, hopes and dreams during the transition times of the 1990s. How did their life and future change the minute the Berlin Wall fell? What are this generation’s thoughts 30 years later and predications for Europe in the coming 30 years? This podcast was...

In the second in our series on the events of 1989 and how they will shape our world for decades to come, host Mark Leonard is joined by Fyodor Lukyanov. Lukyanov is Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs, Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and Research Director of the Valdai International Discussion Club. In this podcast, recorded in Dubai, the two discuss...

In this episode, live from Brussels, Ellie Geranmayeh is standing in for our host Mark Leonard to discuss Iran’s further withdrawal from the 2015 Nuclear Agreement. After the Iran Strategy Meeting meeting, she met with Hossein Mousavian (Princeton University), Ilan Goldenberg (Center for a New American Security) and Nasser Hadian (University of Teheran) to analyse the responses coming from the US...

In the first in our mini-series on the events of 1989, host Mark Leonard is joined by very special guest Timothy Garton Ash, historian and Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. This series considers how 1989 and it's events will shape our world in the future. Was 1989 the greatest year in European history? How much of what is going on was a blip? Are we witnessing the decline of libe...

How will IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s killing impact ISIS as a terror organisation and the situation in Syria? Host Mark Leonard is joined by Anthony Dworkin and Asli Aydıntaşbaş to analyse the current events and political implications for Syria’s neighbouring countries, the US and the EU. As the European Union has failed to come up with a coherent policy on how to handle their citizens who tr...

North Macedonia and Albania wanted to start negotiations with the EU after having been candidate countries since 2005 and 2014. But the enlargement plans seemed to have stalled especially after opposition from France. Host Mark Leonard is joined by Susi Dennison, José Ignacio Torreblanca and Vessela Tcherneva to get to the bottom of things and the divisions particularly between France and Germany...

Turkey's offensive into northeastern Syria is moving at an unprecedented pace with grave consequences. Europe's utter irrelevance in the face of US withdrawal from the Turkish/Syrian border has been thrown in to stark light, particularly as it fails to take responsibility for European Isis members in the region. Europes weakness on migration and the refugee crisis as a whole has also been highligh...

In this week’s podcast, Mark Leonard, Gustav Gressel and Kadri Liik analyse Macron’s plans and ideas for recreating the European security order, an initiative which he launched with a speech at the Ambassador’s conference this year. Moreover, according to French officials, France will instead of starting with a top-down plan, try to build European security from the bottom-up and see if there is a...

Mark Leonard welcomes a very special guest, David McAllister MEP to the podcast, talking about the process of doing all the hearings for the European Commission over the next weeks. Additionally, David McAllister gives his view on Europe on the world stage and his vision of European foreign policy. The podcast was recorded on 25 September 2019.Bookshelf:"Aufstehen, Kilt richten, weiterkämpfen" by...

The multilateral system faces three related crises of power, relevance, and legitimacy. This fraying consensus threatens the EU, which is committed to multilateralism. But the situation also represents an opportunity for European influence! Mark Leonard discusses Europe's stake on multilateralism with the ECFR experts Richard Gowan and Anthony Dworkin. Bookshelf:"The Education of an Idealist: A Me...

Mark Leonard is meeting his ECFR colleagues, Tara Varma, Piotr Buras and Teresa Coratello in Berlin to go through the newly selected EU Commission. What have been surprises, disappointments and challenges in von der Leyen's new cabinet? And what role did geopolitics play during the selection process? This podcast was recorded on 10 September 2019.Read von der Leyen's Vision Statement here: https:/...

This week, ECFR director Mark Leonard discusses with experts Ellie Geranmayeh and Julien Barnes-Dacey the French president Emmanuel Macron's bold initiative: Europeans are now to explore a credit line for Iran to entice the sanctions-battered country to keep abiding by an international nuclear deal. But the US and president Trump are sceptical. Bookshelf:"Crashed" by Adam Tooze"21 Lessons for the...

In the final episode of our special summer series on European strategic sovereignty, regular host Mark Leonard is joined by two of ECFR’s own experts: research director Jeremy Shapiro and Senior Policy Fellow and head of the Paris office Tara Varma. Topic of discussion is research led by Ulrike Franke and Tara Varma looking at how Europeans from all of the different EU member states see strategic...

As the US-China tech war escalates, techno-nationalism looks to replace global connectivity and collaboration. Helping ECFR director Mark Leonard understand the tech rivalry are Andrew Small, a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund, Tim Rühlig, a researcher at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and Amy Studdart, a senior advisor at the International Republican Institu...

In this episode of ECFR’s special summer series on European strategic sovereignty, Mark Leonard talks to Ulrike Franke, ECFR Policy Fellow, about artificial intelligence (AI). Mark asks Ulrike, who is currently on leave at the University of Oxford studying AI, where Europe stands compared to the United States and China in harnessing this promising new technology. More specifically, they look at th...

In the third episode of ECFR’s summer series on strategic sovereignty, Mark Leonard talks to Gustav Gressel, Acting Director of the Wider Europe programme and Senior Policy Fellow at ECFR, about hybrid threats. Using Gressel’s recent paper on hybrid threats as a starting point, they discuss all elements of hybrid warfare: from sponsored proxy groups to propaganda war, and from economic pressure to...

The second episode of ECFR's summer series on strategic sovereignty explores the critical challenge that secondary sanctions pose for Europe, due to the Trump administration's maximalist position on Iran. Joining Mark Leonard for a lively discussion of economic statecraft are Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow at ECFR, Henry Farrell, a professor of political science and international affairs...

Mark Leonard launches ECFR’s special summer series on European sovereignty with a discussion of the continent’s security and defence policy. He is joined by Nick Witney, a senior policy fellow at ECFR with a wealth of experience in diplomacy and defence strategy. Witney discusses how today’s strategically-divergent Europeans can collectively bolster their defence capabilities to offset new pressur...

Standing in for regular host Mark Leonard, Anthony Dworkin, senior policy fellow at ECFR, looks at Europe's Eastern neighbourhood and interaction with Russia. He is joined by Kurt Volker, executive director of the McCain Institute and US special representative for the Ukraine negotiations, and Nicu Popescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Moldova and former head of the Wider Europe program at ECFR...

In the latest edition of the World in 30 Minutes, regular host Mark Leonard discusses the transatlantic relations with Ben Rhodes, former speechwriter and advisor to President Obama, Jake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor to Vice-President Biden and Head of Policy Planning to then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and Amanda Sloat, senior fellow at Brookings and former Deputy Assistant S...

This week, ECFR director Mark Leonard discusses the new faces of the European Council: from Ursula von der Leyen to Josep Borrell, these are the figures who will lead Europe over the coming years. Mark is joined by an all-star cast from four ECFR offices across Europe. Bookshelf: Wes Mitchell: Perhapsburg (American Interest)Francis Fukuyama: IdentityJohn Mearsheimer: The Great Dillusion: Liberal D...

Anthony Dworkin, standing in for regular host Mark Leonard, was joined by Douglas Alexander, senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, former Labour Europe minister, and former Labour shadow Foreign Secretary, and by Heather Grabbe, director of the Open Society European Policy Institute, to discuss Brexit. On this latest episode of the World in 30 Minutes, Anthony and his two guests, who are bo...

Mark Leonard was joined by Jean Pisany-Ferry, co-founder of Bruegel, Guntram Wolff, director of Bruegel and Jeremy Shapiro, Research Director at ECFR. This week ECFR published a paper on how Europe can regain the capacity to act. Mark and his guests, inspired by the tenor of this new publication, discussed the concept of European Economic Sovereignty on this latest episode of Mark Leonard’s World...

This week, Ulrike Franke is filling in for the regular host Mark Leonard to discuss the stories behind the media headlines in the aftermath of the EU elections. She is joined by Simon Hix, Pro-Director for Research and the Harold Laski Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, Susi Dennison, senior policy fellow and the director of ECFR's European Power programme and Pawel...

Mark Leonard is joined by Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy head of ECFR’s MENA programme, Hossein Mousavian, former Iranian diplomat and scholar, and Ilan Goldenberg, director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and former Pentagon official. They explore the latest development around the JCPOA, the European and Iranian point of views, and scenarios for pote...