New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast

We live in the age of the refugee. Arguably, no country in the West has been more welcoming to refugees over the years than Sweden has. Progressive, secular, social democratic, Swedes have worked hard to integrate migrants into their society, to help refugees create new lives in their new home country. How then do you explain what happened last month during Easter when Stockholm, Malmö and other c...

As Russia's war on Ukraine grinds on with no end in sight, what's at stake may be changing. As Blitzkrieg turned into a war of attrition, arguably the confrontation is becoming about something much bigger than European security arrangements. It's becoming about how the world works, about democracy versus autocracy, about free versus not free. A surprising list of countries, big and small, are eith...

Russia’s war on Ukraine has set off the largest movement of refugees in Europe since the last World War. At least 2.7 million of these refugees have fled to Poland, a country with a spotty record—at best—when it comes to accepting migrants. But this time is different: even as the country builds a wall on its border with Belarus to keep out migrants from the Middle East, Poles and their government...

One of the many unintended consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the renewed discussion among politicians, as well as in the popular media, of nuclear war. How worried should we be about Russian or Korean or Chinese or prospectively Iranian nukes? Have we suddenly moved from a world of nonproliferation to a world of proliferation? Dr. Tytti Erästö is an expert on nuclear weapons at th...

Perhaps the biggest known unknown in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is China's role. What does that actually mean? How far will China go to keep Russian troops in the field? Promises aside, are there in fact limits? Tough questions that are very difficult, maybe impossible to answer, but our guest Alicia Garcia-Herrero recently offered some possibilities. Alicia is a senior fellow at the European th...

The only hope for a world awash in troubles is that leaders with vision, universal values, and determination will seize the moment. But just bemoaning the lack of leaders accomplishes nothing. That’s why we established the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. In 2021, our global jury selected two amazing leaders: Asha de Vos, a Sri Lankan marine biologist and Tero Mustonen, a Finnish cli...

The whole world really is watching Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Except for audiences in Russia itself, that is. Among the many thousands of Russians reportedly fleeing their country are scores of Russia’s best journalists who have (understandably) given up the good fight. However, at least one has not: Yevgenia Albats. When the government stopped her from publishing and ended her radio sho...

Arguably, any understanding of the Russian invasion of Ukraine must take into account the Beijing Winter Olympics or, rather, the meeting there of Presidents Xi and Putin. Can there be any doubt that they included Putin’s war plans as well as Xi's willingness to provide support when the much-advertised Western sanctions eventually kicked in? Why did Xi apparently green light Putin's war? What does...

The world is transfixed by the tragic images emerging from Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Unfortunately, many modern conflicts never really end. Whether or not that will be the case in Ukraine remains to be seen. We too quickly move on to the next issue, assuming that what's done is done. War correspondents and war photographers know better. Our guest, Janine di Giovanni has spent much of he...

Most of us thought the war in the Balkans would be the last conflict in Europe. We were wrong. A revanchist Russia is trying to redraw borders, roll back history, and change Europe’s security reality. It’s impossible to predict how or when this ends. The Tällberg Foundation recently hosted a conversation about the conflict in Ukraine and its implications. This conversation featured Jan Eliasson, f...

Wars have cycles: sooner or later, the fighting ends and the negotiations begin. Of course how the fighting ends will shape whatever negotiations ensue. But it is never too early to think about the future contours of the map of Europe. This episode with Emma Ashford, Washington-based Atlantic Council geopolitical expert, was recorded before Russia attacked Ukraine. Nonetheless, Emma's thoughts and...

Joel Kotkin, Executive Director of the Urban Reform Institute, recently published an essay on democracy’s demise. Donald Trump is not the villain of the piece. Rather, he argues that the withering of democratic process and institutions reflects the deeper transformation of our societies: the emergence of a ruling technocracy; the use of the pandemic and the environmental crisis to constrain indivi...

Climate change is the ultimate example of a problem that can only meaningfully be addressed at the global level. Last November, more than 100 countries sent delegations to Glasgow for the 26th United Nations High Level Meeting on Climate. The results were mixed. Many new commitments were made, but not enough to meet the 1.5 degrees goal. And that was the easy part; delivering policies that actuall...

In many, perhaps most countries in the West, there is a wide and growing gap between citizens and their political leaders. Governments often fail to deliver on basic aspects of the social contract and voters sometimes respond by endorsing extreme solutions on the right or the left. If there is a silver lining, it is that our sorry condition has caused some people to rethink how politics ought to w...

Hostile troops massing on the border of a Central European democracy. Russia's threats against Ukraine and its demands for new security and arrangements in Europe sound all too familiar. Of course, the huge difference today is that Germany is not only firmly anchored in the West but is a cornerstone of the European Union. What will Germany do? Constanze Stelzenmüller—an expert on Germany, geopolit...

The Middle East is changing. New investment and trade relationships are emerging based on economics, not religion. In December more than 700,000 Saudi kids participated in a four-day rave in the Saudi desert with regular intermissions for Islamic prayers. What's going on? Has the Middle East of strict Islam suddenly turned into something more modern? Have the Arabs figured out how to move beyond r...

Whether we like it or not, global politics today is defined by the confrontation between autocracies and democracies. Not surprisingly, as historian and journalist, Anne Applebaum wrote in the Atlantic in November: “The Bad Guys are Winning.” As she put it, "If the 20th century was the story of slow, uneven progress toward the victory of liberal democracy over other ideologies—communism, fascism,...

We live in a digital society. Unfortunately, some of the results include cybercrime, illegal spying, intimidation and identity theft. It’s bad enough when these activities are aimed at you or me; much worse when they target dissidents, crusading journalists, etc. Ronald Deibert and his colleagues at the Citizen Lab are in the business of fighting back, using cutting-edge technologies to protect ci...

The Taliban's surge to power in Afghanistan is one of those events that will have repercussions for years to come. Jamila Afghani succeeded in getting out with her family. Jamila is an educator and an activist. Her work to elevate the rights and improve the education of women and girls is based on her studies of Islamic law, which she believes is typically misinterpreted to give them second-class...

Under President Xi Jinping, China has shown a growing willingness to act outside the accepted geopolitical, economic and even diplomatic global framework and practices. Australian Kevin Rudd has spent a considerable part of his life thinking about, working on, and negotiating with China — as a diplomat, twice as his country's prime minister, and currently as president of the Asia Society. Arguably...

Great leaders may or may not be born that way, but their skills and abilities certainly evolve and mature over time. That is why we established an Emerging Leader category for the TSEGL Prize. The jury selected two leaders. Pashtana Durrani, an Afghan activist and educator. Christian Ntizimira, a Rwandan who champions palliative care in central Africa. Listen as two jurors—Shahidul Alam, photograp...

The only hope for a world awash in troubles is that leaders with vision, universal values, and determination will seize the moment. But just bemoaning the lack of leaders accomplishes nothing. That’s why we established the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. This year, our global jury selected two amazing leaders: Asha de Vos, a Sri Lankan marine biologist and Tero Mustonen, a Finnish c...

The Middle East of today is significantly different than the region that has been such a locus of conflict over the past 50 years. Key actors seem to be refocusing their political and diplomatic efforts. In this context Jordan is playing a major role and their diplomacy has kicked into high gear in this search for a new, positive future. Ambassador Dina Kawar, Jordan's ambassador to the United Sta...

Do you care about the future of the oceans? Seventy percent of the earth is covered by water. If we want a livable planet, we need livable oceans. Can we save the oceans? If failure is not an option—and it should not be—who needs to do what? Oceanographers Sylvia Earle from the United States and Asha de Vos from Sri Lanka talked about water, the oceans, threats, and solutions. Both are explorers,...

We live in a digital society. Unfortunately, some of the results include cybercrime, illegal spying, intimidation and identity theft. It’s bad enough when these activities are aimed at you or me; much worse when they target dissidents, crusading journalists, etc. Ronald Deibert and his colleagues at the Citizen Lab are in the business of fighting back, using cutting-edge technologies to protect ci...