The Global Agora

Donald Trump is 78. Do you think there is any chance he could follow Joe Biden's example and will stop his campaign? That was one of my questions for Professor Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha from the Department of Political Science at the University of North Texas as we discussed the current state of the US presidential campaign. Of course, we also talked about Vice-President Kamala Harris, about the e...

This is a special episode of my podcast as I have more than one guest for the first time. And not two, but three. I talked to Alessio Armenzoni , an Associate Fellow at the London-based Open Source Centre, Giangiuseppe Pili , an Assistant Professor at the Intelligence Analysis Program at James Madison University and Gary Kessler , the president of Gary Kessler Associates, a maritime cybersecurity...

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is the biggest sports event of the year. It will attract fans from around the world but, unfortunately, it also attracts terrorists of all kinds. So what are the main threats France is facing? I talked to  Lucas Webber who is a Co-Founder of MilitantWire.com and a Research Fellow at the Soufan Center and he is mostly worried about jihadi terrorism and particularly...

"Let's hope that this is the end of the story of political violence in the 2024 election cycle. But my suspicion is it's not the end it's the beginning or the middle and we have more to come". This is what a Research Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Jacob Ware said to me when I asked him about what's next for the US after the assassination attempt against...

We met many times, so I was really happy when Oana Lungescu agreed to the following interview. She is the longest-serving NATO Spokesperson, from 2010 to 2023, and the first woman and first journalist to hold the post. And, as she said, she was also the first person from the wrong side of the Iron Curtain in this position. We talked about her career path from Ceausescu's Romania to BBC and the...

If you listen to my podcast The Global Agora you know Mick Ryan has been generous enough to appear on my show. He is a military strategist and retired Australian Army major general, so I again used this opportunity to talk about all things related to NATO and the Russian war against Ukraine. And while the days are dark, he says he stays optimistic. Why? And how much is he concerned about the possi...

The United Kingdom general election takes place on July 4th. "All the things in the UK are now being seen as terrible," Professor Steven Fielding told me. He is an expert in British politics and modern political history and is currently writing a book analyzing the Labour Party since the 1970s. So is this going to be an electoral wipeout for the ruling Conservative Party? What kind of ro...

What's next for the European Union after the European Parliament election ? Will Ursula von der Leyen continue as the President of the European Commission? And what to expect from France on the EU scene as President Emmanuel Macron announced the early election and it could lead to a far-right government? I talked to Professor Erik Jones , Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Stud...

On 15 and 16 June, Switzerland is organizing a Summit on Peace in Ukraine and about 90 countries and organizations will attend. Russia wasn't invited and Ukrainian analyst Julia Kazdobina explains why. She is a Visiting Fellow at The Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies and she heads the Ukrainian Foundation for Security Studies. So what would be a successful summit for Ukraine and wo...

What is Vladimir Putin afraid of? Should the West be concerned about Russian nuclear rhetoric? And what do current Putin's reshuffles and purges tell us about his regime? I talked to ⁠ Andrei Soldatov ⁠, a Russian investigative journalist, co-founder, and editor of Agentura.ru, a watchdog of the Russian secret services’ activities. He is also a nonresident Senior Fellow with the Center for Eur...

I talked to Aung Myo Min , Minister of Human Rights in the National Unity Government of Myanmar. Our interview was conducted at the CEE-Asia Forum in Bratislava organized by the Central European Institute of Asian Studies ( ⁠CEIAS⁠ ) and Slovak Foreign Policy Association (⁠ SFPA ⁠). We talked about whether the junta in Myanmar is losing, the role of Russia, China, India, and ASEAN, and also about...

I just returned from a one-week-long visit to Taiwan and this podcast is one of the results of spending a few days there. I talked to Lev Nachman , a political scientist, Assistant Professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei, and a co-author of the book Taiwan: A Contested Democracy Under Threat . We discussed the domestic political dynamic and, of course, the cross-Strait relations as on...

Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She has penned three satires about the CIA: Victor in the Rubble, Victor in the Jungle, and Victor in Trouble. Satire about the CIA? In my view, the agency definitely deserves this kind of genre but still, I ask Alex why she chose it. But, of course, we also talked about some, let&#3...

Let's assume the West finds the magic pink castle in Hollywood, where all the stuff is stored that Ukrainians need and immediately transfers it on the magic carpet to Kyiv. Even with this, Ukraine would still have a problem. This is what Gustav Gresse l said to me when we spoke about the situation on the frontline. He is a Senior Policy Fellow with the Wider Europe Programme at the European Co...

What is Ukraine facing? What is Russia learning? Is it possible that Ukraine will lose the war as soon as this year? Mick Ryan ⁠ is a military strategist and retired Australian Army major general and he explains why we have to talk about the worst scenario. We also discussed Ukraine's mobilization efforts and demography, and what the West has to do to help Kyiv. Listen to our conversation. And...

Volodymyr Dubovyk is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations and Director of the Center for International Studies at Odesa I. Mechnikov National University. We talked about the US aid for Ukraine, how others need to step up, the difficult situation on the battlefield, and Ukraine's mobilization efforts. I also asked him how much is he concerned that Ukraine could lo...

How close or far is the US from a civil war? This was my question for Jay Ulfelder , a political scientist who works as a Research Project Manager at the Nonviolent Action Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School. From 2001 until 2011, he served as Research Director for the Political Instability Task Force, a US Government-funded program that aims to help policymakers anticipate and understand various fo...

Iran has hit Israel with up to 350 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles. Most of them were destroyed by the air defense as Israel's allies helped also. So what will follow after this unprecedented attack? How far is the Middle East from the big regional war? I talked to ⁠ James Dorsey ⁠, a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore. Listen to our con...

I'm talking to Maria Avdeeva from Kharkiv from the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion. She is a security expert and I remember her telling me she wants to inform the world about what's going on in her country. And Maria is doing it all the time! This time we talk about how her city is constantly attacked and if we can expect a Russian ground offensive against Kharkiv. Listen to o...

NATO is a success story, but as Alliance turns 75 can it also face demise? Over seven decades, what is the brightest hour, and what about the most problematic moment of NATO? And is Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk right when he says Europe could be in the pre-war era as Russia continues with its aggression against Ukraine? I talked to John Deni , a Research Professor of Joint, Interagency, Inter...

Russia was attacked by Islamic State but Moscow is trying to shift the blame and is spreading conspiracy theories about Ukraine's involvement. The Kremlin is lying despite the severity of the threat as on March 22nd, extremists killed 143 people in the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk in the Moscow Oblast. So is counterterrorism cooperation with Russia possible, taking into account also the bru...

Should the West try to turn China and India against Russia? What is the most visible impact of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on EU-Asia relations? And how close is China to Russia? I discussed those questions with Michael Raiterer . He is a Distinguished Professor at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) of the Brussels School of Governance and served as the EU Ambass...

This time, I talked to Slovak political scientist ⁠ Pavol Baboš ⁠ from the Department of Sociology at Comenius University in Bratislava. We discussed the incoming presidential elections in Slovakia and the two clear favorites. The Speaker of the Parliament Peter Pellegrini and the former foreign minister Ivan Korčok. The first round of the elections will take place on April 23rd, and the second ro...

Will Ursula von der Leyen be President of the European Commission again? She has been confirmed as the European People's Party candidate to continue with her current job and it's pretty sure that the EPP will win the European Parliament elections in June.  But... "For me, it's not obvious that she will stay," Policy Analyst from the European Policy Centre Eric Maurice reacts....

Toms Rostoks is a Director at the Centre for Security and Strategic Research at the National Defence Academy of Latvia and an Associate Professor at the University of Latvia. We tried to assess what happened in two years of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, to forecast what might be next but we also talked about the scenario that at least some Western troops will help Kyiv. Listen to our...