Global Connections Television Podcast

Rachel Pittman serves as Executive Director of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA), a grassroots movement of more than 20,000 Americans in over 200 chapters across the U.S. who are dedicated to supporting the work of the United Nations in communities, on campuses, and on Capitol Hill.  Prior to joining UNA-USA, Rachel served on multiple leadership teams for several professional associations that represented lawyers,...

Somaya Faruqi is the former Captain of the Afghan Girls’ Robotic Team – nicknamed the ‘Afghan Dreamers’.  She and her team made international headlines when they built a ventilator from used car parts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan. Faruqi was born in Herat, Afghanistan in 2002. She cultivated her love of engineering in her father’s mechanic shop. Her high school career was cut short by the Taliban takeover in ...

Charles Moxley is the principal of Moxley ADR, a law firm specializing in arbitration and mediation. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham Law School. His recent treatise on “Nuclear Weapons and International Law” highlights the major challenges with nuclear weapons.   The UN’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty has kept the numbers down somewhat; however, some countries are looking at upgrading their aging nuclear stockpiles t...

Professor Thomas Just serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor within the Future Security Initiative at Arizona State University. Professor Just served as Assistant to the Director of African and Middle Eastern Affairs within Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is the author of “Combating Antisemitism in Germany and Poland: Strategies Since 1990.”   Antisemitism is often defined as  hostile acts against Jews based on religio...

Dr. Margaret P. (Peggy) Karns is a Senior Fellow in the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security and Global Governance at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Professor Emerita of Political Science at the University of Dayton.  She is coauthor of “International Organizations: The Politics and Processes of Global Governance (4th ed., 2024)” and “The United Nations in the 21st Century (6th ed., 2022).”  She lived and t...

Dr. Winston Langley is Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science and International Relations and

Senior Fellow at McCormack Graduate School for Policy & Global Studies. He has written widely on the United Nations, disarmament, human rights and women’s rights in the US. His recent book is “Abolishing War.” A major problem is that we have a “Culture of War” that glorifies war and makes heroes of its participants; the Mil...

Paula Caballero is the Regional Managing Director for Latin America at The Nature Conservancy. Previously, Paula Caballero was Senior Director of the World Bank Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice, and she was the creator of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Her recent book is “Redefining Development: The Extraordinary Genesis of the Sustainable Development Goals.”  Colombia created the concept of the ...

Peter Yeo, President of the Better World Campaign and Senior Vice President at the United Nations Foundation, leads the Foundation’s strategic engagement with the U.S. Congress and Administrations to advance policy changes that support the UN’s work for global progress. Although there are many myths about the UN, recent polling shows that 52% of Americans have a favorability rating of the UN. The UN affects all inhabitants of the p...

Kathleen Mogelgaard is President and CEO of the Population Institute, where she directs the organization’s advocacy and public education activities.  Population Institute advocates for gender equality and universal access to sexual and reproductive health services to improve lives, promote human rights, save the planet, and build a better tomorrow. In 2022, the world’s population surpassed 8 billion people, and according to demogra...

Laura Hagg, Director for Capacity Building and Governance with the International City County Management Association (ICMA), has a career of more than 30 years of experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors in the United States and internationally in the fields of local governance, economic development, public outreach, communications, and strategic policy efforts. Technical assistance programs are mutually beneficial ...

Norman Solomon, American journalist, media critic, author and activist, discusses his latest book, “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.”  Mr. Solomon was actively involved in launching RootsAction and the Institute for Public Accuracy. His main contention is that the governments and media inundate the public with unrealistic and false propaganda regarding the horrific nature and devastation...

Dr. Dale C. Copeland is a professor of international relations with a focus on trade, war and economic interdependence. His recent book is “A World Safe for Commerce: American Foreign Policy from the Revolution to the Rise of China.”  He discusses how trade dynamics have influenced America's approach to peace and conflict throughout history. By focusing on the current geopolitical landscape, particularly with regards to China,...

Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute, highlights the need to focus on the Rule of Law rather than Rule of War. The United Nations, although it is not perfect, is the only international organization that brings together countries of the world to deal with nuclear proliferation, climate change, human trafficking, poverty, hunger, empowering women, and scores of other challenges. Currently, there are about 13,0...

 Dr Peter Layton is a Visiting Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane Australia; a Royal United Services Institute Associate Fellow; London and a Fellow of the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group Canberra. He has extensive aviation and defense experience. His research interests include grand strategy, national security policies particularly relating to middle powers, defence force structure conce...

John Feffer, author of Splinterlands and current director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, summarizes how Donald Trump pursued illiberal internationalism versus liberal internationalism of Joe Biden.  Trump was semi-isolationist, cavorted with authoritarian leaders, and wanted to militarize the border between the US and Mexico.  Biden’s emphasis was to engage the US in the world through involvement in...

Dr. Augusto Lopez-Claros, Executive Director of the Global Governance Forum, highlights his recent book,, “Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century.” Global institutions, such as the United Nations, confront the world’s major problems, such as climate change, Israeli-Hamas War, Russian invasion of Ukraine, attacks on democracies, and nuclear proliferation. The United Nations has been the epice...

David Betz is Professor of War in the Modern World in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, and is a Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Centre. His most recent book is “The Guarded Age: Fortification in the 21st Century.”  A fortification can be defined as a piece of militarized architecture that focuses an enemy into doing something they normally would not do. Major examples of this might include the Grea...

Dr. Robert Farley has taught security and diplomacy courses at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky since 2005. Dr. Farley is the author of Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force  and Patents for Power: Intellectual Property Law and the Diffusion of Military Technology.

    The Ukraine and Gaza conflicts are two of most intractable problems confronting lead...

Kris Kimel is the Founder of Humanity in Deep Space, an initiative exploring the challenges and hard problems facing humans as we transition to deep spacefaring species. He is the Co-founder of the commercial space company Space Tango.  His major focus is how humans can do deep space exploration physically, safely, and ethically. Legal, ethical and physiological concerns are some of the most challenging.   Today, the United Nations...