Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy

In commemoration of the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, host Carolyn Moorman sits down with Save the Children's Miriam Toure, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack's Jerome Marston, and New Lines' Alexander Kochenburger. Their conversation examines emerging and persisting threats to education, including from non-state armed groups, and highlights best practices...

In the first episode of the Eurasian Connectivity podcast, New Lines Institute Senior Director Dr. Kamran Bokhari and U.S. Institute of Peace Senior Advisor Dr. Daniel Markey discuss how the U.S. can prioritize mutual strategic interests with India while not placating New Delhi's current illiberal trajectory.

In late July, Niger became the latest in a series of West and Central African countries to have its democratically elected government overthrown in a coup. In the latest Countours episode, host Carolyn Moorman dives into potential ramifications of this power struggle on Sahelian counterterrorism initiatives and regional stability with New Lines Senior Analysts Riley Moeder and Tammy Palacios.

In the latest Contours episode, Zoe Robbin and Calvin Wilder join host Carolyn Moorman to discuss the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, their importance to the Syrian and Turkish people, and their impacts on the Syrian conflict.

In this episode of Contours, host Carolyn Moorman sits down with experts Sasha Ghosh-Siminoff and Jesse Marks to talk about current breakthroughs and obstacles in getting aid to Syria. This includes a recent aid delivery made to a blockaded refugee camp on the Syrian-Jordanian border and the Assad regime's about-face concerning cross-border aid after a Russian veto in the U.N. Security Council.

In this episode of the “Roamings and Reflections” series, New Lines Senior Analyst Riley Moeder joins host Carolyn Moorman to share how her recent trip to Jordan shed light on the regional issues of migration and counterterrorism. Moeder also discusses how the Sudanese conflict's recent developments have affected Egypt and other North African countries.

In the latest Contours episode, host Carolyn Moorman sits down with experts Jerome Marston, Katherine Zimmerman, and Alexander Kochenburger to dive into the Yemeni civil war's effects on Yemen's education sector and if recent geopolitical developments, including a protracted cease-fire and Saudi-Iranian normalization, will allow for greater international focus on reconstruction efforts.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative's creation in 2022 helped to stabilize the global food chain in wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this episode of Contours, Host Carolyn Moorman, Non-Resident Fellow Zoe Robbin, and Senior Director Eugene Chausovsky discuss what aspects of the deal's framework can be applied to the devastating affects the war has had on Ukraine's water and agricultural infrast...

Over a 24-hour period, leader of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin urged Wagner fighters to march on Moscow, successfully captured a city in Southern Russia, and then signed an agreement to back off and retreat to Belarus. Host Carolyn Moorman, Non-Resident Fellow Jeff Hawn, and Open-Source Information Gathering Manager Aram Shabanian dive into what these events mean for Russ...

In the newest episode of Contours, host Carolyn Moorman, New Lines Analyst Calvin Wilder, and the Kurdish Peace Institute's Director of Research Meghan Bodette dive into areas in which Ankara's policy rule book regarding the Turkish-Kurdish conflict will confirm and diverge from previous policy, given President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's re-election for another term in May's elections.

Any day now, the U.S. government will release its interagency strategy to combat captagon, as mandated by the late-2022 Captagon Act. In this Contours episode, Host Carolyn Moorman discusses with Director Caroline Rose and Non-resident Senior Fellow Dr. Karam Shaar how this strategy can be expected to address the trade and its evolution in the midst of an environment where multiple Arab nations ar...

Following an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for crimes committed in Ukraine, South Africa's government is facing a dilemma over whether it will arrest Putin when he visits Pretoria in August for a BRICS summit. Host Carolyn Moorman is joined by two globally recognized experts on Africa – New Lines Senior Director for Political Systems Analysi...

Fighting in Sudan has killed hundreds and driven hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring African nations. In the second part of this two-episode series of Contours, host Carolyn Moorman and New Lines Senior Analyst Riley Moeder discuss refugee inflows to North Africa and Europe and potential areas for the U.S. to augment its existing efforts to de-escalate the conflict and help stabiliz...

A month into the sustained fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the crisis has produced over 250,000 refugees and threatened regional stability. In part one of a two-part episode of Contours, host Carolyn Moorman and New Lines Institute Senior Director of Political Systems Analysis David Raikow discuss potential mediation roles for both the U.N. and...

This Newlines Institute Contours podcast reviews the geopolitical effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine, assesses what might occur in that conflict in the year ahead, and seeks to answer the question of whether anything or anyone can convince Russia and Ukraine to halt the fighting. New Lines Senior Director Nicholas Heras is joined by two globally recognized experts on Russia, Ukraine, and the war’s...

In this episode of Contours, host Minna Jaffery-Lindemulder speaks with Carolyn Moorman of the New Lines Institute and Kwangu Liwewe of New Lines Magazine about upcoming elections in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. They discuss key domestic security and economic challenges in each country, as well as threats to the elections and to democracy as a whole in the region. This conversation lays out the key playe...

On this episode of Contours, Power Vacuums Program Head Caroline Rose sits down with New Lines Non-Resident Senior Fellow and former spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, Col. Myles B. Caggins III, to discuss the lingering effects of U.S. base transfers, personnel reductions, and transition to an advise-and-assist role in Iraq.

On Oct. 10, Russia announced it was deploying troops to Belarus under a regional group of forces mechanism, mobilizing thousands of forces, fighter jets, tanks, armored vehicles, and other equipment to Belarus. The move has raised valid questions about whether Russia and Belarus are planning a renewed offensive against Kyiv, reigniting fighting in Ukraine's northern front. In this episode, Senior...

Tunisia's recent reversal of democratic freedoms under the presidency of Kais Saied has raised concerns about the country's democracy and stability. The fragile political and economic situation has also unleashed a significant wave of displacement in the Mediterranean, as worsening Tunisian conditions have exacerbated migration waves from North Africa. In this Contours podcast, the Head of New Lin...

In this episode of the New Lines Institute’s Contours podcast series, Strategy and Innovation Unit Director Nicolas Heras is joined by former Human Security Unit Research Intern Claudia Gago Ostos to discuss the U.S.’s foreign policy toward Venezuela and the Latin America region amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The discussion centers on the role the U.S. can play, alongside Venezuelan...

In this episode, Syed Mohammad Ali shares why the United States would do well to begin paying more attention to Bangladesh and its shift away from democratic values. As political violence increases and the ruling party consolidates control, the U.S. can use a mixture of punitive measures and support to help guide Bangladesh back toward democracy.

In this episode, Ambassador Frederic Hof analyzes the Israeli-Lebanese deal separating their respective exclusive economic zones in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. However, both countries have a long way to go before they can reap the rewards.

In this episode, Joel Wasserman focuses on Ukraine’s messy internal politics, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cleaning house in his security service and making other moves seen by some as an effort to consolidate his administration’s control. But even if Zelenskyy was anti-democratically inclined, several factors of Ukrainian politics make it an unlikely goal to achieve. Learn more ab...

In this episode, Alec Dionne and Maggie Sparling lay out a diplomatic framework that centers human security to win the Pacific Island countries’ long-term trust, support U.S. strategic goals, uplift its allies, and improve health outcomes. The United States’ fraught history with the Pacific Island countries has left the door open for increasing influence from China. As Beijing uses aggressive econ...

In this episode, Syed Mohammad Ali writes about Sri Lanka’s protracted civil war, and how the country is facing an economic crisis alongside social and political unrest. These problems, as deeply rooted as they are, have opened a window of opportunity for the United States to offer assistance in regaining stability in Sri Lanka – a development that would serve Washington’s goal of strengthening it...