Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

When people don’t trust their institutions, the social fabric of a society is weakened.

But that “trust deficit” can — and must — be closed.

In this episode of our Future of Africa series, we explore innovative and practical approaches to enhancing trust and cooperation between people and their institutions -- from grassroots communities to global multilateral forums. Featuring Samson Itodo, a renowned adv...

A new study out of Kenya shows that one of the most impactful ways to reduce infant and child mortality is to provide cash—no strings attached—to pregnant women. A randomized controlled trial by economists from UC Berkeley and Oxford University found that unconditional cash transfers reduced infant mortality by 48% and under-5 child mortality by 45% in rural Kenya. These results suggest that this ...

Making promises on financing for development is the easy part. Following through on them is hard. Ambassador Chola Milambo speaks frankly about turning global financing commitments into tangible benefits for African communities. Chidi Okpala highlights the role of innovative private-sector partnerships, while Tumi Mkhizi Malebo offers a youth perspective on making finance work for the next generation and N...

In 2023, the United Kingdom hosted the world’s first major international summit on the risks of advanced artificial intelligence. That Bletchley Park gathering kicked off a series of high-profile summits — in Seoul in 2024, in Paris earlier this year, and with India set to host the next in 2026.

But here’s the big question: are these summits actually building the...

What does it mean to make peace with nature — and why could that be the key to lasting peace between people? Former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos shares the extraordinary indigenous mandate that shaped his leadership, while Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim explains how climate shocks in Africa are driving conflict and migration. Khouloud Ben Mansour brings in the youth, peace, and security lens, stressing that climate j...

The past week has seen a frenzy of diplomatic activity on Ukraine, culminating in Donald Trump’s extraordinary announcement that he will host Vladimir Putin in Alaska for talks on the war. Setting aside the propriety of Putin visiting the United States (he launched this war of aggression and is wanted by the ICC for the systematic abduction of Ukrainian children) what could such a summit actually achieve? ...

Africa is the world’s youngest continent — and its future is everyone’s future. By 2030, 70% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population will be under the age of 30. By century’s end, one in three people on the planet will be African. What happens in Africa will shape the course of the 21st century.

That’s why Global Dispatches is proud to launch a bold new podcast series: The Future of Africa. Produced in partners...

“The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.”

That was the conclusion of a July 29 report by the leading global authority on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The report found that more than one in three people in Gaza (39 percent) are now going days at a time without eating. More than 500,000 people—nearly a quarter of the population—are enduring famine-like c...

In 1997, Jessica Matthews' landmark Foreign Affairs essay “Power Shift” captured the growing influence of NGOs and other non-state actors in shaping global affairs. But nearly three decades later, that tide has turned. A provocative new piece in Foreign Affairs argues that the age of NGOs is over—and states are reasserting domi...

A groundbreaking new study published in the British medical journal The Lancet Global Health finds that unilateral economic sanctions—most of which are imposed by the United States—lead to approximately 564,000 excess deaths worldwide each year. Up to half of these deaths are children.

While sanctions are often touted as an alte...

I caught up with Comfort Ero at the Aspen Security Forum last week. She is the President of the International Crisis Group, and in that role, she brings a truly global perspective on the drivers of conflict worldwide. Earlier in the forum, she participated in a panel on international aid—timely, given the massive scaling back of foreign assistance by the Trump administration and other traditional donors in Europe. So, for most of t...

My guest today, Thordis Gylfadottir, served as Iceland's foreign minister until 2024. We spoke last week at the Aspen Security Forum, where she delivered a forceful case for the necessity of continued military and diplomatic support for Ukraine. However, that view—once broadly shared across Europe and the Atlantic—is no longer as ubiquitous as it once was. In our conversation, I wanted to learn fr...

Trump’s pick for UN Ambassador, Mike Waltz, faced questions from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week. You may recall he previously served as National Security Advisor before being sidelined by Trump after “Signalgate.” But Waltz was never officially fired — he was banished to the United Nations instead. For over two hours, he fielded questions from senators.

So, what did we learn about how the Trump administration migh...

A furious backlash against gender equality, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights is sweeping the globe. In a new report for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, my guest today, Saskia Brechenmacher, shows that this backlash is not just a temporary reaction to recent progressive reforms but a key front in a larger cultural and political realignment taking place across a diverse set of countri...

The farmer-herder conflict in Nigeria is a long-running and deadly struggle over land and resources, primarily between nomadic herders—mostly from the Fulani ethnic group—and settled farming communities. Driven by factors such as desertification, population growth, and shrinking grazing land, herders increasingly move south in search of pasture, leading to violent clashes with farmers over farmland...

The major Financing for Development Conference wrapped up in Seville last week with the so-called Compromiso de Sevilla, which commits countries to accelerating efforts to fund the Sustainable Development Goals and support economic and social development in lower-income countries. In our first segment, we are joined by Michael Sheldrick, co-founder of Global Citizen, who explains what was accomplished at t...