The Elucidators: Decoding Global News

This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we’re digging into one of our very favorite topics: the future of nuclear weapons! As of this past weekend, 50 countries have ratified the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, a UN-backed effort to relegate nukes to the dustbin of history. But stuffing the nuclear genie back into its bottle won’t be easy, especially with a potential arms race brewing between the US, Russia...

This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we journey to Thailand, which most Westerners associate with pristine beaches and a welcoming, peaceful culture. Little do most outsiders know that the “Land of Smiles,” despite its many charms, has long been one of the least politically stable countries in the world. This year, tens of thousands of protestors have been in the streets of Bangkok and other major Thai citie...

This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we take a brief detour to one of the nastier places in modern politics: the Far Right. Right-wing extremists ranging from anti-government militias to neo-Nazi parties have been increasingly vocal in the United States and Europe in recent years, and this year’s chaos seems to have kicked extremist activity up another notch. Who are these people? Where are they active? What...

This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we’re checking in on Brexit! The seemingly endless wrangling between the United Kingdom and the European Union to decide their post-divorce economic relationship is nearing a hard stop at the end of this year. The next few weeks may be the last, best chance for the two sides to avoid an economically catastrophic no-deal outcome. Will UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deli...

This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we step into the Caucasus, a mountainous Eurasian region where an ongoing rivalry between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh has erupted into open fighting. Could neighboring Great Powers Turkey and Russia be drawn into a larger war that neither really wants to fight? Boy... We sure hope not!

Episode art credit: Achemish / Wikimedia Common...

This week on the Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we journey to one of the most dangerous places on Earth, the Taiwan Strait, a narrow body of water that separates the island nation of Taiwan from the People’s Republic of China. This past weekend, China sent dozens of warplanes across the Strait’s median line, sending an unmistakably threatening message to the vibrant democracy it has always regarded as a renegade provin...

This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, friend of the show Prof. Ryan Weldzius of Villanova University swings by to give us the 411 on the global economy in 2020 and beyond. The COVID pandemic has disrupted every major economy in the world, from the United States to the European Union to China, and kicked off what appears to be a new era of fragmentation in international economic relationships. What does all th...

This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we’re checking into the situation in Rwanda, where Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager whose heroism during the 1994 Genocide inspired the Oscar-nominated movie Hotel Rwanda, has been arrested and accused of terrorism. What does this surprising move on the part of authoritarian President Paul Kagame mean for this small country that is sometimes called “the Switzerland of...

This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we go to Japan, where Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving Prime Minister in modern Japanese history, is stepping down after eight years in office. After Japan suffered through decades of economic stagnation and decline, Abe attempted to make major reforms in both the domestic and foreign policy arenas to get the country moving again. Has he succeeded in bringing America’s mos...

This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we dive into the deep blue waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, where Turkey’s strongman President Erdogan is in a dispute with historic enemy (and fellow NATO member) Greece, along many other neighboring countries, over access to newly discovered oil and gas resources on the sea floor. Is Erdogan still making Turkey great again, or has he bitten off more beef than he can...

This week on The Elucidators: Decoding Global News, we’re going to discuss a big, symbolic diplomatic move that occurred in the Middle East last week: the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, two countries that have been in a formal state of hostilities for decades. 

In one of the few successes the Trump Administration can claim for its foreign policy, it looks like the Arabs and Israelis ...

This week on the Elucidators, we’re recording on Tuesday August 11th, a week after a massive blast hit Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut, one of the most culturally important metros in the Arab world, and a place that was once known as “The Paris of the Middle East.” 

Sadly, a lethal blend of incompetence, corruption, oligarchic politics and explosive industrial chemicals has left Beirut and Lebanon on the brink of collapse....

This week on The Elucidators, we’re hitting three topics of note across the world of international relations. First off, the Russians claim to have won the race to a coronavirus vaccine... but they may have cut a few important corners on the way to first place. Second, in a predictable but still shockingly fast development, Hong Kong has used its new National Security Law to issue arrest warrants for 6 pro-democracy activi...

Modern hydroelectric dams are among the most economically consequential structures countries build. When they work well, they can protect downstream areas from devastating floods, while also providing steady water flow for agriculture and vast amounts of electricity for economic development. 

On the other hand, their construction is often politically controversial, both within states and between them — and should one of the...

Most Americans’ direct experience with the European Union is probably limited to the colorful Euro bills--featuring pictures of Roman arches and statues and such--that we use to buy stuff when touring Athens, or Paris, or Berlin, saving us from having to change money into a new national currency every time we switch cities. 

But the European Union is so much more than the Euro: it’s a supranational institution of 27 differe...

Iran's not in great shape. 

A deeply unpopular government run by aging Islamic theocrats... a bad economy crippled by American sanctions... and a runaway COVID-19 pandemic have already combined to  push this big, important Middle Eastern power towards the edge. 

And now, on top of everything else, some of Iran's most sensitive  military sites -- including the research center where the regime builds advanced centrifuges for p...

We've been keeping an eye on the situation in Hong Kong since last year, when hundreds of thousands of mostly youthful Hong Kongers hit the streets to demonstrate for increased autonomy and democracy. About a week ago, China's response arrived in the form of a very powerful new National Security Law, the import of which can be boiled down to one word: NOPE. In terms of basic freedoms like speaking one's mind, access to a j...

This week, Steve and Soumi conduct a quick look back at 11 months of The Elucidators. 

We started all the way back in August 2019, when giants walked the Earth, with our hot take on a mysterious nuclear explosion in northern Russia. 

Then over the course of 44 near-weekly episodes, we jumped through every continent but Antarctica -- which is kind of lame so no big loss there -- tackling protests, pandemics, policy (of the fo...

Black Lives Matter.

Due to social media technology, the filmed police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis traveled around the world in minutes. Now, what started out as a homegrown American movement a few years ago has gone global, with very large (and peaceful) anti-racism protests rippling from South Africa to South America. 

Is this merely a striking moment that is destined to fade away over time? Or are we seeing the b...