The Decision Advantage

In this episode of the Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue speak with global security analyst, Ben West about the impact of COVID-19 and the economic crisis on social protests about racial injustice. Protests were not prompted solely by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Factors intensifying the unrest in 2020 include years of building frustration over police violence aga...

In this Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Global Security Analyst, Thomas Abi-Hanna, discusses what's has happened in the 20 years since Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon. Points include: Why was Israel in Lebanon in the first place? What factors caused Israel to withdraw after 18 years? The geopolitical implications of the invasion and withdrawal for Israel, Lebanon and elsewhere? If y...

Protests have started again in Hong Kong, after China made a big move. In this Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Asia Pacific Analyst Evan Rees speaks with Emily Donahue about why protests in Hong Kong have reignited and why the will not burn out any time soon. A hint: It's all about Taiwan. Subscribers to RANE Worldview can read decades of analysis of the Hong Kong / China relationship and...

In this Pen and Sword podcast from Stratfor, a RANE company, Emily Donahue interviews Anthony DePalma, Author of "The Cubans: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times." With rare access, DePalma discovers and shares stories from people whose lives have been defined by a U.S. embargo and a failed revolution. For 60 years, Cuba's presence on the world stage has been limited to the role of a pawn in the...

In this Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, Emily Donahue speaks with Greg Priddy. Priddy, who directs coverage of global energy and the Middle East, says the road ahead for oil producers looks long and hard. From Saudi Arabia to Russia and the U.S., the oil markets are looking at a sustained downturn, not unlike that of the mid-1980's. Subscribers to RANE Worldview can read all of our covera...

In this episode of RANE's Essential Geopolitics podcast, host Emily Donahue speaks with Ben West about his work surveying how the global return to work is going. West says that If the shut down process in March and April seemed chaotic and disorganized, the reopening process will be even more jumbled.  That's because not only is there no global plan in place but inside individual countries - inclu...

In this episode of the Pen and Sword podcast from RANE, Rodger Baker speaks with the inaugural president and CEO of the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations David Firestein. A decorated career U.S. diplomat from 1992–2010, Mr. Firestein specialized primarily in China and U.S.-China relations. Topics covered range from the COVID19 to latest trade tariffs to the U.S. presidential el...

The geopolitics of energy and how access to energy and uses of energy play into a changing world order are the topics of Dr. Michael Webber's new book, "Power Trip: The Story of Energy" from Basic Books. Webber argues the stakes are high, given that Earth is in the midst of a major climate transition even as developing countries seek better access to reliable sources of energy. Will the future be...

In this episode of Essential Geopolitics from RANE, Emily Hawthorne discusses how the six Middle Eastern countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman are approaching the battle against COVID-19. As with the rest of the world, Hawthorne advises, the virus will impact economies, industries and societies. The real question is how to prevent any unrest arising fr...

In this episode of the RANE Insight podcast series, host Emily Donahue speaks to Bill Edwards Associate Principle of Protective Design & Security Services Thornton Tomasetti. s the third quarter approaches, a large portion of the workforce may be back. But what would that actually mean?. Edwards says there must be changes to the workplace to ensure workers, clients and visitors will be safe as COV...

In this episode of the RANE Insight podcast series, host Emily Donahue speaks to Bill Edwards Associate Principle of Protective Design & Security Services Thornton Tomasetti. As the third quarter approaches, a large portion of the workforce may be back. But what would that actually mean? Edwards says there must be changes to the workplace to ensure workers, clients and visitors will be safe as COV...

In this Essential Geopolitics podcast from RANE, the conversation is about impending resumption of work on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. You may recall it was interrupted last year when US sanctions forced the company providing pipe laying vessels to bow out of the project. RANE analyst, Sim Tack says it looks like the U.S. won't be able to stop it. Subscribe to RANE World...

In this episode of the RANE Essential Geopolitics podcast, host Fred Burton speaks to senior global analyst, Matthew Bey. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, a shellshocked global economy and tangled supply chains, it might seem U.S. - China Trade tensions would be on the decrease. Not so. New  U.S. export controls against China aimed at limit Beijing's overall access to U.S. technology will come at the cos...

In this episode of the RANE Essential Geopolitics podcast, host Fred Burton speaks to senior global analyst, Matthew Bey. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, a shellshocked global economy and tangled supply chains, it might seem U.S. - China Trade tensions would be on the decrease. Not so. New  U.S. export controls against China aimed at limit Beijing's overall access to U.S. technology will come at the cos...

In 2007, then-Secretary General of Liaoning Province, Li Keqiang (kuh-chung), told the United States Ambassador that China's gross domestic product (GDP) numbers were "man-made" and that they were for "reference only." Now, as China's second-in-command after General Secretary Xi Jinping, and as Xi's handpicked coordinator of China's COVID-19 response, Li is in charge of informing the world of Chin...

In this episode of the RANE Insight Series, some common sense advice on working safely while working remotely. Many companies have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by reducing or banning corporate travel and by asking some or all of their employees to work from home. While having employees work from home will help reduce transmission of the virus in the workplace, it also brings with it some add...

In this podcast, RANE Founder David Lawrence sits down with Dr. Isaac Weisfuse to discuss his perspectives on the current pandemic and the lessons learned from his experiences working in New York on its 2006 pandemic preparedness plan. This happened as an aggressive strain of the flu was making its way across Asia and the Middle East. Dr. Weisfuse, is a medical epidemiologist with over 25 years of...

In this episode of the RANE Essential Geopolitics Podcast, Fred Burton speaks with RANE's Senior European Analyst, Adriano Bosoni. Bosoni says that the COVID-19 pandemic has severely delayed free trade agreement negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom. This, combined with logistical and political obstacles, has made it unlikely that the two sides will reach a comprehensive t...

In this episode of the RANE Essential Geopolitics podcast, the conversation turns to the Asia Pacific. Countries in the region - from China to Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and more - have had differing reactions to the coronavirus. That has led to vastly different infection rates and deaths. Podcast listeners can subscribe to RANE Worldview at https://www.ranenetwork.com/worldview-s...

What Data from China can be trusted and what does it really tell us? In 2007, then-Secretary General of Liaoning Province, Li Keqiang (kuh-chung), told the United States Ambassador that China's gross domestic product (GDP) numbers were "man-made" and that they were for "reference only." Now, as China's second-in-command after General Secretary Xi Jinping, and as Xi's handpicked coordinator of Chin...

Many companies have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by reducing or banning corporate travel and by asking some or all of their employees to work from home. While having employees work from home will help reduce transmission of the virus in the workplace, it also brings with it some additional risks. As the disruptions from responses to COVID-19 mount, it is important to consider the second- and...

In this episode of RANE's Essential Geopolitics podcast, Host Fred Burton speaks to Thomas Abi-Hanna, a global security analyst for RANE. As anyone in the U.S. who was alive in the 1990's might tell you, the case of convicted spy Aldrich Ames shook Washington and all of its intelligence agencies. Ames worked as a double agent for the USSR and Russia for more than a decade and his treachery led to...

In this episode of RANE's Pen and Sword podcast with Fred Burton, a conversation with Dan Gabriel. Dan Gabriel was just out of college when the terror attacks on September 11th, 2001 spurred him to action. He didn't join the military, though. He joined the CIA where he worked in  counter-terrorism. And he traveled to Mosul and Afghanistan during both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring...

In this episode of RANE's Essential Geopolitics podcast, host Fred Burton speaks to RANE analyst Ryan Bohl about Israel's new unity government. As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps Israel, the state’s squabbling political factions have settled into a new government but still must work together to work to address ongoing issues such as Gaza, annexation and its relationship with its Arab neighbors. Subsc...

In this episode of RANE's Essential Geopolitics podcast, Fred Burton speaks with Greg Priddy. Priddy directs RANE's Global Energy and Middle East  Analysis. Today they go deep on why West Texas Intermediate, Intermediate, the main US crude oil benchmark, fell to negative prices Monday afternoon and why the OPEC+ agreement didn't prevent this. You can stay ahead of the economic and geopolitical imp...