The Decision Advantage

U.S. President Joe Biden said this week he wanted to distribute 200 million vaccine doses before the end of his first 100 days in office. Some news outlets suggest the US could be getting close to enough vaccines for the adult population. BUT disinformation is still rampant. In today’s episode, RANE founder David Lawrence speaks with Drs. Fred Southwick and Bill Lang about the latest statistics an...

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently replaced his country's central bank governor. Again. It’s one major move in an ever-evolving crisis. What’s going on? Emily Hawthorne, Senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at RANE provides perspective on what this means for 2023 elections, the economy in both the short-term and in the long. Subscribe to the Stratfor Podcast wherever you liste...

In this episode of the Pen and Sword podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue speaks with best-selling author, Don Bentley. He's the man behind the Matt Drake series of thrillers. Book two in the series, The Outside Man, published in March. In this volume, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) operative Matt Drake finds himself outgunned, outmaneuvered, and outmanned in the middle of downtown Austin Texas. Hi...

In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue speaks with Matthew Bey, Senior Global analyst at RANE. The recent Hafnium/Microsoft Exchange hack has brought Chinese cyber activity back to the United States' radar as Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan met with Chinese officials in Alaska on March 18-19. How does cyberespionage fit into China's overall cyber strategy? L...

In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue speaks to Evan Rees, Asia Pacific analyst at RANE. China's National People's Congress has approved sweeping electoral reforms for Hong Kong that will ensure greater mainland control by strengthening the pro-Beijing camp and sharply limiting the ability of the pro-democracy camp to wield power in elected institutions. Wha...

In this episode of the RANE Insights podcast, RANE founder David Lawrence speaks to Joseph Grundfest, professor of law and business at Standford university law school and expert on capital markets, corporate governance, and securities litigation. They discuss the historical context and lessons learned from the GameStop spree, as well as the personalities, roles, and motivations of the different pl...

In this episode of the RANE Insights on COVID-19 podcast, RANE founder David Lawrence speaks with Drs. Fred Southwick and Bill Lang about why some European countries, including Germany, have halted the dispensation of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. They discuss whether that decision was based on science or politics. Plus: new data on how the US will reach herd immunity.  Dr. Bill Lang is an expert in p...

In an analysis for RANE Worldview in March, senior analyst for global economics at RANE, Michael Monderer, wrote that "China’s continued high rate of fiscal stimulus doesn’t match up with the narrative that its economy has recovered from the COVID-19 crisis." In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue speaks to Monderer, who explains what it means that China’s an...

In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics from RANE, Emily Donahue speaks to Ryan Bohl, Middle East and North Africa analyst at RANE.  The Yemen civil war has lasted more than 6 years. It has spawned political and humanitarian crises, crises so dire that the United Nations has warned that forty thousand children may die from starvation this year. Now, a battle over the resource-rich city of Mar...

In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue speaks with Carmen Colosi, Latin American analyst at RANE. In February, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced that he would seek to replace the CEO of state-owned petroleum company Petrobras. This is part of a larger - seemingly contradictory - series of changes on the horizon for Brazil’s energy sector. Sign Up f...

Many organizations spent most of 2020 reacting to travel bans and awaiting mandates from public health officials. Now, as we all continue to pick up the pieces from the pandemic, many organizations need to send essential travelers abroad. But they are faced with the challenges of navigating an extremely complex duty of care landscape with many questions left unanswered. To help answer these questi...

In the United States, as the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine was released, and more doses became available more broadly, some governors announced an end to mask mandates. But was that wise? In today’s episode of the RANE Insights on COVID-19 podcast, RANE founder David Lawrence speaks with Drs Fred Southwick and Bill Lang about new developments in the fight against COVID-19. Dr. Bill Lang is an...

In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue speaks with Rebecca Keller, Director of Analysis for Stratfor’s geopolitical team at RANE. We have entered another news cycle where the United States and other countries are questioning the supply chains of rare earth elements. You seem, there are strategic vulnerabilities because China controls the majority of the world...

Welcome to Baker’s Dozen, a podcast series of monthly conversations about geopolitics from RANE. In this episode, host Rodger Baker speaks with Geoff Sloan, an Associate Professor at the University of Reading and the UK coordinator of the Mackinder Forum about the geopolitics of the United Kingdom, or UK. Brexit has challenged the European Union’s narrative of deeper integration as a model for fut...

In this episode of the Baker's Dozen podcast from RANE, host Rodger Baker discusses Pakistan’s geopolitical situation with Kamran Bokhari, Director of analytical Development at Newlines Institute, formerly the Center for Global Policy. Critical for any future solution in Afghanistan, Pakistan faces significant geopolitical challenges. Squeezed between Iran, Afghanistan, China and India, the countr...

In this episode of Baker's Dozen, a podcast series of monthly conversations about geopolitics from RANE, host Rodger Baker speaks with Lasha Kasradze, a Eurasia analyst who specializes in the Caucasus and holds a MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.  On November 9, 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan reached a Russia-brokered deal that put an end to six weeks of fighting. A...

The U.S. Department of Justice recently accused a Stanford University researcher of hiding her connections to the Chinese People's Liberation Army and misleading U.S. investigators. The researcher, Chen Song, is just the latest example of U.S. counterintelligence efforts against China and people accused of selling U.S. trade secrets to China. In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast fr...

In this episode of the RANE insights on COVID-19 podcast, RANE founder, David Lawrence speaks with Drs Fred Southwick and Bill Lang, about the global death toll and the latest vaccine news. in the United States, more than half a million lives have been ended by COVID-19. Around the world, more than 2.5 million. Tragic milestones to be sure. And yet, on the horizon is the possibility that with new...

In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue catches up with Adriano Bosoni, Senior European analyst at RANE. No one expected the disengagement of the United Kingdom from the European Union, know as Brexit, to be simple. But the deal, reached at the very last moment at the end of 2020, has raised significant issues for the UK government. In recent weeks there have...

In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Palestinian general elections take place in 2021. A several months-long wave of  legislative, presidential and council elections through the summer. The elections are garnering global attention. But why do they matter? Tune in to see why. Stay up to date on RANE's analysis and intelligence. Sign up for our free newsletter today!

In this episode of the RANE Insights on Security podcast, our host, RANE’s Executive Director of Safety and Security, Brian Lynch, speaks with Peter Warmka, a former senior intelligence officer with the CIA, and expert in clandestine human intelligence collection. His new book, "Confessions of a CIA Spy: The Art of Human Hacking," was published in February 2021. The conversation looks at threats o...

In this episode of the RANE Insights podcast series on COVID-19, RANE founder David Lawrence speaks with Dr. Fred Southwick and Dr. Bill Lang about how stricter mask mandates, smaller gatherings and cold weather contributed to lower new COVID-19 cases this week. But doctors are still concerned about contagious new variants - and the rate of vaccine distribution.  Dr. Bill Lang is an expert in publ...

Belarussian President Aleksandr Lukashenko is seeking to retain power and influence through a new constitutional reform process while also signaling that he will seek Russian support, a strategy that will probably revive anti-government protests and risk escalating into a standoff between Russia and the West. In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue speaks with...

Many organizations spent most of 2020 reacting to travel bans and awaiting mandates from public health officials. Now, as businesses continue to pick up the pieces from the pandemic, many organizations need to send essential travelers abroad. But they are faced with the challenges of navigating an extremely complex duty of care landscape with many questions left unanswered. To help answer these qu...

In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue speaks with Stratfor's global security analyst, Thomas Abi-Hanna.  When you think of a military drone, do you think of the big, sleek silent remote controlled planes used for intel gathering and bomb runs? What about those tiny drones, individuals use to get aerial pictures. Or the toy drones that kids play with? Clearly...