Carnegie Council Podcasts

Freedom House CEO Jamie Fly and Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal interrogate why democracy is both a moral and a political principle, the regression of freedom globally, and the effects of emerging tech on political processes and institutions. What can be done to counter the rise of authoritarian and anti-democratic forces?

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What does ethical leadership require in an era of polarization, institutional distrust, and geopolitical upheaval?

In this episode of "Values & Interests," Kevin Maloney speaks with Noah Bopp, founder of The School for Ethics and Global Leadership, about educating the next generation for public life. Reflecting on the legacy of 9/11, the decline of civic institutions, and the challenges facing Gen Z, Bopp argues that today's yo...

Artificial intelligence is increasingly framed as an unstoppable force that will reshape economies, societies, and even human civilization. But what if that narrative is part of the problem?

In this episode of "Values & Interests," Virginia Dignum, professor of responsible artificial intelligence at Umeå University and author of "The AI Paradox," traces the interests behind today's AI race, from the economics driving it to the ...

What makes power endure? University of Bonn's Hendrik W. Ohnesorge explores the relationship between influence, values, and international leadership, arguing that attraction and legitimacy often outlast coercion and force. Drawing on examples from classical antiquity, literature, and modern geopolitics, he traces the evolution of soft power and its role in shaping international affairs.

As leaders increasingly favor transactional a...

Iran and the United States have been adversaries for decades. But caught in the middle are the 92 million Iranians with "90 million opinions" on their government, foreign intervention, and state of their society.

In this episode of "Values & Interests," Neda Bolourchi, senior non-resident fellow at the Institute for Global Affairs at Eurasia Group, draws on history and personal values to explore competing visions of change in I...

In the last twenty years rights and liberties have eroded across more of the world than they have advanced. The cumulative effect is a transformed international order in which authoritarian governments are more assertive and the democracies that shaped the postwar system are at risk of diminishing influence.

Yana Gorokhovskaia, research director at Freedom House, joins the Values & Interests podcast to discuss the fin...

We are walking a fraying nuclear tightrope. Russia, China, and the U.S. are expanding their nuclear capabilities; extended deterrence is strained to the breaking point; and proliferation among middle and smaller powers appears inevitable.

But as history has clearly shown, the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons are anything but hypothetical. The recently released PBS documentary "Bombshell" captures the human, political, a...

In a world experiencing a seismic shift in the values and principles that guide geopolitics, how can we practice strategic empathy without succumbing to moral relativism?

Brian Wong, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Hong Kong, joins the "Values & Interests" podcast to discuss how we can challenge our own moral and political beliefs, the future of global justice, and the technological forces disrupting our ...

Gilles Michaud, UN under-secretary-general for safety and security, joins the "Values & Interests" podcast to examine the moral and political challenges facing UN personnel in some of the world's most difficult security environments. Drawing on a multi-decade career at the intersection of law enforcement and geopolitics, Michaud reflects on lessons learned, the future of the UN, and how anyone can cultivate moral and profession...

America's post–World War II calculus guiding the relationship between power and principle has shifted dramatically. The result is a moment in which U.S. leaders may no longer be asking a vital question at the intersection of ethics and international relations: power, but to what end? 

In this conversation for the "Values & Interests" series, James Story, former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, and Carnegie Council President ...

The adoption of AI agents is expanding rapidly, particularly within multilateral and diplomatic spaces. Such integration presents a myriad of new ethical questions and challenges for both the practitioners of today and next-gen leaders.

In this "Ethics Empowered: Leadership in Practice" event, Eleonore Fournier-Tombs, New York State's chief AI officer, leads a discussion on this pressing issue.

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In a fracturing world awash with belligerent rhetoric, where are the real geopolitical pressure points and what forces are driving them? Aarathi Krishnan, CEO of Raksha Intelligence Futures, joins the "Values & Interests" podcast to pull back the curtain on the political, economic, and technological dynamics shaping this moment of uncertainty and transition in the global system.

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What is fueling the post-truth era in American politics, and why is it working?

Professor Mathias Risse of the Harvard Kennedy School argues that "gaslighting"—"persuasion through systematic besmirching, belittling, and the inversion of shared norms"—has become a dominant rhetorical force in American politics. Embraced by leaders such as Donald Trump and JD Vance, this disingenuous approach erodes the very fabric of civ...

For decades, America couched its foreign policy not only in the language of interests, but in universal values such as freedom and human rights. But what happens when that moral framing of liberal values falls away?

From the streets of Caracas to the skies over Tehran, U.S. power is no longer justified through a narrative of liberal internationalism or advanced via appeals—even performative ones—to institutions such as ...

Since the establishment of the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, space has been understood to be a "global commons" in which no country has sovereignty. But today, with over 90 countries and dozens of private companies operating in space—with the backdrop of a challenging and dangerous geopolitical environment on Earth&md...

Realism—the international relations theory centered on power, national interests, and anarchy—is having a political moment. From the halls of the Munich Security Conference to the pages of the U.S. National Security Strategy, "realism" has taken center stage in debates about U.S. foreign policy. But what does realism actually mean in a historical context, and how is it being applied today?

Paul Poast, associate professo...