The McKay Interview

The Irish Republic's multilateral agenda at the UN Geneva, as well as other matters

Dr David Chikvaidze's reflections on international affairs and some of the big political leaders that he has worked with and observed during his long, diplomatic career.

Dr. Carol Graham is a well-published authority on happiness, well-being and its converse, Ill-being. The nuances and intricacies of the subject are more complex than you would think!

Riel Miller answers many of my questions about the effectiveness of Futures Literacy, including on climate change, racism and the oppression of women.

An ambassadorial overview of the state of bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and the Swiss Confederation.

An update on Covid-19 and the pandemic from one of the world's leading infectious disease epidemiologists almost exactly one year after our first interview.

Topical issues from the perspective of a successful oil-trading company leader. 

A conversation with Corinne Momal-Vanian, who worked and travelled with Kofi Annan when he was U.N. Secretary-General, about why he was and still is so revered; and the important work of his eponymous Foundation.

Departing Director of GSCP and recently appointed appointed Swiss Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran discusses Swiss values, Swiss neutrality and the delicate balance of the use of "soft power".

After six years in Geneva - an unusually long time - Ambassador Braithwaite shares with me his views on the UK and world trade vis-à-vis the WTO, the practicalities of ethics in government foreign policy, climate change, the Commonwealth and the meaning of Global Britain.

The Hon. Kent Brown served as a career diplomat for almost thirty years, all over the world for the U.S. Department of State. In this interview, he gives his insights and personal opinion about America today as I ask him whether the American Dream is now out of reach for a growing number of people and what President Joe Biden needs to do now and by 2024. Topics covered in this episode: - The end o...

Michael McKay is going to talk to guests over the next few weeks on  how  the world sees America - through the eyes of Americans who have an experience of life outside the United States. In the second programme, Michael talks to John, who was for 8 years Global Chairman of Republicans Abroad – the official arm of the Republican Party abroad - stepping down at the time of George W. Bush’s...

Michael McKay is going to talk to guests over the next few weeks on  how the world sees America - through the eyes of Americans who have an  experience of life outside the United States. In the first programme, Michael speaks to Geneva based US political scientist Dr Daniel Warner.

My Guest today is Michael Møller, known to many of you listening as the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva up until a year or so ago. Well, you cannot keep a good and energetic man down! And he has re-emerged as one of the principal leaders of this new organisation that I mentioned which is called the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation.  Quite a mouthful...

My topic this time is Privacy. And by that I mean how states, governments, corporations, organisations, businesses and we ourselves as individuals, view things like privacy, secrecy, the characteristic or human quality of being discreet; whether or not we have a right to Privacy; or whether or not that depends on the law of the land, societal and cultural norms or international standards of behavi...

Dr David Hawley  is the Director-General of the International School of Geneva and  Antonia Molnar is a Year 12 Student at the La Châtaigneraie Campus. We talk about international Education.

A very special guest for the final McKay Interview of  this extraordinary year – one we are probably all glad to see the back  of – the Swiss Ambassador to the United Kingdom, or to give him his  official title in the UK, the Ambassador from the Swiss Confederation to  the Court of St. James's, His Excellency Mr Alexandre Fasel.

On this week's McKay Interview, Michael talks to the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Tatiana Valovaya. She discusses the future of the UN in Geneva, how the pandemic is affecting the work of the UN and conflicts around the world.

This week Michael McKay speaks to Lorenzo Stoll, Director-General of SWISS International Airlines for the Suisse Romande. The pandemic has meant major disruptions to airlines around the world due to travel bans - but how is the industry adapting and what is its future?

Michael McKay speaks with Professor Jovan Kurbalija. He is prominent in many important circles in Geneva, in Switzerland and internationally. He is the Founding Director of DiploFoundation and the Head of the Geneva Internet Platform. Professor Kurbalija is a former diplomat, and has a professional and academic background in international law, diplomacy, and information technology. He has been a p...

Michael's guest is Karel Leeflang. His bread and butter is in leading large-scale transformations, both as a corporate executive and advisor. And in describing what he does, jargon words and phrases like “global organizational efficiency” and “effectiveness programs” and “ productivity improvement solutions” feature prominently. He has his own firm called StrategyPod, focusing on advisory, analyti...

On this week's McKay Interview: As we are based in Geneva, we are well aware of its long-standing multilateral reputation and its unrivalled position as the city of peace, negotiation and reconciliation. In neutral Switzerland, Geneva has no military credentials. Just the opposite - being home of the Disarmament Talks since the early 1930s, the United Nations and its predecessor the League of Nati...

Two years ago in Paris, I recorded a roundtable McKay Interview with people whose fingers were very much on the Parisienne pulse. Very recently, in this year of Covid19, I have done something similar in Geneva, a city struggling to get back on its feet after the lockdown/confinement. My Guests, to discuss a wide range of relevant and very hard issues in Geneva’s hotel and hospitality industry, are...

This week Michael McKay speaks to Professor Bill Durodie - chair of Risk and Security in International Relations at the University of Bath in the UK. As Michael discovers, there's a lot more to risk than you may think.

On the return of the McKay Interview after the summer break - no matter where you were on the 4th August, you must surely have been aware of the huge explosion in Beirut. According to Lebanon’s team at the United Nations, the explosion was like 15 years of war in 15 seconds, comparing its impact to the devastation from the country's civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990. We all know that Lebanon...