Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters
The longest running independent international affairs podcast features in-depth interviews with policymakers, journalists and experts around the world who discuss global news, international relations, global development and key trends driving world affairs. Named by The Guardian as "a podcast to make you smarter," Global Dispatches is a podcast for people who crave a deeper understanding of international news.
Episodes
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, there was a brief moment when it seemed possible that this crisis might inspire European governments to turn away from fossil fuels. Russia was a huge supplier of natural gas to many European markets, and with those supplies suddenly cut off, there was an opportunity to replace Russian fossil fuel with clean energy.
That did not happen. In fact, just the opposite occurred. According to...
Throughout this week there has been a notable lack of female leaders. By my count just seven of the 99 Presidents or Prime Ministers to address the General Assembly were women. This is a recurring issue in every UN General Assembly I've covered since 2005. In our second segment today, I discuss the issue of women's political representation with Hibaaq Osman, founder and CEO of Karama a movement working in the Arab Region on ending...
Today is Wednesday, September 20th and it was a very busy day at the United Nations. Of all the days this week, today was arguably the most packed with high level consequential meetings. Throughout the day today was the Secretary General's Climate Ambition Summit. We will bring you full coverage of that in tomorrow's episode. Also today, the Security Council held a meeting on Ukraine, which featured Zelenskyy's first time addressin...
Tuesday, September 19th marks the start of the United Nations General Assembly "General Debate." This is the parade of Presidents and Prime Ministers who address the world from the rostrum in the United Nations General Assembly hall. The day follows a familiar pattern each year: the Secretary General kicks off, followed by the new President of the General Assembly, who is Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago. By tradition the Pres...
Monday, September 18 marks the kickoff to what is known around the United Nations as "High Level Week." The main event today was the Sustainable Development Goals Summit, which was intended to revive progress towards the SDGs following years of reversals during COVID. In the words of Antonio Guterres' opening remarks today, "the world needs an SDG rescue plan."
Joining us on the second half of the show to discuss the SDG Summit is ...
Interpol is the International Criminal Police Organzation. It was established 100 years ago to facilitate the cross border cooperation of national police agencies. Interpol is an international organization with very high name recognition, but few people have a decent understanding of how it works.
As it happens, before I became a foreign policy journalist I did an internship at Interpol's headquarters in Lyon, France. And it is t...
PEPFAR is an acronym that stands for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. It is the largest foreign aid program targeted at a specific disease, and it is widely considered to be one of the most successful US foreign aid programs ever.
George W Bush who started the program in 2003. It continued and expanded under President Obama and even thrived during the Trump years. But today its fate is uncertain. Funding for P...
Bill Richardson passed away on September 1st at the age of 75. He was a long serving member of Congress and Governor of New Mexico, former Secretary of Energy and US Ambassador to the United Nations. But his most lasting impact on international affairs was his freelance work as an international hostage negotiator. He woul...
On August 20th a former academic, diplomat and now anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arevalo stunned the world with a landslide victory in Guatemala's presidential election. Arevalo won with over 60% of the vote, besting a former first lady who represented Guatemala's long dominant conservative -- and corrupt -- political establishment.
This was a truly unexpected result. People who professionally observe Central American politics,...
BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. It is a significant grouping for the sheer size of the countries involved. BRICS account for 40% of the world's population and nearly one third of global GDP. In late August BRICS held a much anticipated summit in Pretoria in which they agreed to add six more countries into the club: Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
You woul...
Peter Bergen is one of the world's foremost experts on global jihadist movements like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda. He is a journalist who has covered this beat for decades, including the first television interview with Osama Bin Laden in 1997. Peter Bergen discusses where Qaeda and the Islamic State stand today, including how the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has impacted these global Jihadist movements. We also discuss why t...
Pangolins are small mammals with hard scales and vital to biodiversity in forested regions. They are also the most trafficked mammal in the world. Although they are a protected species in international law, transnational organized criminal groups profit from trafficking Pangolins
This includes the Congo Basin in Central Africa. International organized criminal groups run poaching and trafficking networks in which most poached pango...
The number of migrants and refugees who are dying at sea while crossing the mediterranean is at a four year high. Nearly 2,000 people are confirmed to have died in the medditeran thus far in 2023, although the real number is likely higher. In one tragedy alone, about 600 people drowned off the coast of Greece in June.
The most popular migrant route in recent months has been from Tunisia to Italy. That was where the MSF/Doctors W...
In 2003 a militia drawn from ethnic Arab tribes in Darfur, known as the Janjaweed, partnered with the government of Sudan in a genocidal campaign against non-Arab tribes in the region. An estimated 300,000 people were killed in the 2003-2004 Darfur genocide. In August 2023, there is mounting evidence of ethnic cleansing is again underway in Darfur, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum is warning that there is risk of a full b...
For the last eight years a decrepit old oil tanker off the coast of Yemen has been like a ticking time bomb, threatening to unleash unprecedented disaster in the Red Sea. The 47 year old oil tanker, the FSO Safer, was fraying and decaying -- and filled with one million barrels of oil. For reference, this is about four times the amount that the Exonn Valdez spilled in 1989. The UN estimated that a spill from the SFO Safer woul...
Haiti is in the midst of the worst humanitarian and security crisis in years. Gang related violence is surging - and the Haitian National Police are overwhelmed and incapable of restoring order. According to some estimates gangs now control about 80 percent of Port-au-Prince. This rampant insecurity is driving a humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes. About half the country is exp...
On July 26th, the democratically elected president of Niger Mohamed Bazoum was deposed in a military coup. This coup seemingly came out of nowhere. Now, a country that had been a key US ally and a French ally in the region is suddenly in turmoil. There is also a good deal of concern that the new Nigerienne junta may turn to Moscow for support, just like the coup leaders in Mali and Burkina Faso.
Joining me to discuss the coup in N...
The Wagner group was a key fighting force in Ukraine until its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, attempted a mutiny. 20 years before Wagner was tapped to fight in Ukraine, the United States turned to the private security firm, Blackwater, during its occupation of Iraq. Like Wagner, Blackwater was a for-profit entity that was fighting alongside one of the most powerful militaries in the world. And also like Wagner, Blackwater was credibly...
Oleksandra Matviichuk is a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. She is a human rights lawyer who leads the Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian human rights organization.
Oleksandra Matviichuk has been systematically documenting Russian war crimes and crimes against humanity since 2014, when Russia first annexed parts of Ukraine. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, her work has intensified and includes advocating f...
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