Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

The leaders of NATO met in The Hague on June 25th for a rather truncated meeting with a limited agenda. Unlike recent NATO summits, this one did not focus much on the war in Ukraine, countering China, or other broad international security concerns. Rather, this meeting was dedicated to securing a commitment by most NATO members to double their defense spending from 2.5% to 5% of member states' GDP....

Will the ceasefire between Israel and Iran actually hold? How might Iran respond to the unprecedented American attacks on its nuclear program? And more broadly, how have events over the last two weeks  changed the entire security dynamic of the Middle East?

I’m privileged to bring you a conversation with one of the foremost experts on these questions. Dalia Dassa Kaye is a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International R...

Donald Trump's decision to bomb Iran lays bare a major rift within Republican foreign policy. Until recently, the more isolationist “America First” wing seemed ascendant, sidelining the hawks. But that dynamic decisively shifted on Saturday when Trump ordered American strikes on several targets in Iran

My guest today is Andrew Prokop of Vox, who recently wrote a deep dive into the GOP’s foreign policy divide. In our conversation, w...

From June 9th to 13th, some 15,000 participants—including more than 60 Heads of State and Government—convened in Nice, on France's Mediterranean coast, for a major UN-sponsored conference on oceans. So what happened at the UN Oceans Summit, and why does it matter? Joining me to answer these questions and more is Bruna Campos of the Center for International Environmental Law. We caught up last week as the conference was coming to a ...

After years of threats, the Israeli government launched a major attack overnight, targeting both Iran’s nuclear program and several senior Iranian military and political leaders. At the time of writing, Iran had yet to respond in a major way, though the expectation is that the regime will hit back—and much harder than it did last year after a previous (and more limited) Israeli strike on Iran.

The key question now, according to my ...

There are nearly 70,000 UN peacekeeping personnel serving in 11 missions around the world. My guest today, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, is in charge of them all. He has served as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations for the last eight years, giving him deep visibility into the unique role that UN Peacekeeping plays in maintaining international peace and security. In our conversa...

Global Dispatches is entering a new era—and I need your help to keep it going. For years, I’ve been able to produce this show thanks to institutional support, especially from the UN Foundation, which has backed my work for two decades. But due to recent funding cuts, that support is ending, and I now need to raise $140,000 to keep the show going at current levels. If this podcast has helped you ma...

After an 80-day total blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza, a new scheme to distribute food to desperate Gazans began operations this week. The “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” is an Israeli-American creation, designed by consultants, backed by American security contractors, and headed by an evangelical Christian supporter of Donald Trump who has little experience in humanitarian aid. They have set up four aid distribution sites, m...

The General Assembly selected five new members of the Security Council and one new President of the General Assembly this week in not-so-hotly contested elections. These new Security Council members will take their seats in January, and former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will assume the PGA gavel at UNGA in September.

So what can we expect from these new faces in the UN’s two key bodies? Anja...

On May 20th, after years of negotiation, World Health Organization member states adopted the Pandemic Agreement — the first international treaty focused on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. Developed in response to the shortcomings revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the agreement emphasizes equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments, and promotes international coop...

The Pope is not just a religious leader—he's also a Head of State. The Holy See maintains formal diplomatic relations with most countries on Earth and holds the status of a permanent observer at the United Nations. In recent years, the Pope has leveraged his dual role as the leader of the Catholic Church and a head of state to pursue a purposeful foreign policy vision and play a key diplomatic rol...

My guest today, Zia Mian is co-director of Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security. He's a physicist who has long studied nuclear weapons and nuclear security. In our conversation Zia Mian explains how scientists have impacted policy discussions about nuclear weapons since the dawn of the nuclear age, and how as the nuclear security landscape is evolving--and as science is advancing, scientists can continue to...

On April 22, militants launched a brutal assault on a tourist site in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing 26 civilians in what became the deadliest terrorist attack in India in nearly 15 years. What followed was the most intense military confrontation between India and Pakistan in decades—airstrikes, drone attacks, and a terrifying cycle of escalation that threatened to spiral out of control. Then, suddenly, came a ceasefire on May ...

What would actually happen if a nuclear weapon were detonated in space?

This isn't just the stuff of science fiction — it's a scenario that researchers have studied closely, and the implications are deeply unsettling. From disrupting satellite a nuclear detonation in space would have immediate, global consequences — even without a single casualt...

I've been hanging around the United Nations these past few days attending events related to consultations on lethal autonomous weapons systems—so-called killer robots. These are AI-powered weapons systems that can select and strike targets without human control. This is not the stuff of science fiction. These weapons exist today, and they are becoming m...

Eliana Johns hunts for nuclear weapons. She’s a senior research associate at the Federation of American Scientists, where her team uses open-source intelligence — or OSINT — to uncover secrets about countries’ nuclear capabilities and intentions. In fact, much of what we know today about China’s nuclear arsenal comes from her colleagues’ work, which used commercial satellite imagery to reveal that China is undertaking a massive nuc...

The race to succeed António Guterres is unofficially underway. His term as UN Secretary-General ends in December 2026, but the backroom jockeying has already begun.  In this episode, Mark and Anjali are joined by Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group to break down the early contenders, how shifting geopolitics could shake up the selection process, and the daunting mess the next Secretary-General is likely to inherit. But ...

The legendary international relations scholar Joseph Nye passed away on May 7th at the age of 88. He’s best known, of course, for developing and advancing the idea of “soft power”—the ability to influence others and shape outcomes through attraction, persuasion, and cultural or ideological appeal rather than coercion or force. But over his singularly illustrious career, he authored hundreds of scholarly ar...

In just the first four months of the Trump administration, several pillars of American foreign policy have been upended — USAID dismantled, most foreign aid frozen, and the rules-based international trade system thrown into disarray. Could nuclear policy be next?

To find out, I spoke with Alexandra Bell, President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and a former senior State Department official on nuclear issues. She b...