Archives for July 2015

South Sudan is in a Freefall

South SudanSouth Sudan is in a tailspin. On July 9, the country commemorated its 4th anniversary of independence but it was hardly a celebration. Since December 2013 the country has been in a freefall stemming from when a political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar turned into open conflict and civil war. Millions have been forced from their homes, a famine might loom over the country, and there is no end in sight. 

Here to help explain how things went so badly, so quickly for this young country is Rebecca Hamilton. She’s the author of the book Fighting for Darfur and a teacher at Columbia University’s Law School.  Rebecca does a great job explaining the wider regional context of this conflict; and also showing how a government that was once championed by the USA fell out of favor with the Obama administration.

Episode 74: Jessica Jackley

jackley-j10Jessica Jackley co-founded Kiva and revolutionized micro-lending. Her new memoir Clay, Water, Brick tells the story of the founding of Kiva and her own personal journey from a religious family in Pittsburgh to becoming a successful social entrepreneur. This is a great conversation about personal development, entrepreneurship, starting Kiva–and then figuring out how to handle its explosive growth.

Also: a podcast milestone! Jessica, and her husband Reza Aslan, have become the first wife and husband team to appear independently on this show. My conversation with Reza is episode 64.

Obama’s Kenya Homecoming

President Obama is visiting Kenya this week. This is his first trip to his father’s country of birth since becoming president, and people in Kenya are certainly treating it like a homecoming.

Here with me to discuss the symbolic and political relevance of this historic trip is Wycliffe Muga, the Weekend Editor of the Star Newspaper in Kenya.

Wycliffe and I have a rather lively conversation about what this trip means to ordinary Kenyans, what impact it might have on the Presidency of Uhuru Kenyatta (who recently had war crimes charges against him dropped by the International Criminal Court) and why Obama may disappoint some distant relatives from his father’s family village.

This is a great curtain raiser to his trip and a great discussion about US-Africa relations, and why Obama is falling short of his two predecessors in designing big, game changing African development programs.

Episode 73: Moises Naim

naimMoises Naim is an all around big thinker, author, commentator, longtime editor of Foreign Policy magazine, former World Bank Executive  and a former cabinet minister in Venezuela.

His family fled Libya in the 1950s and settled in Venezuela, where Naim struggled in high school but excelled in university. We discuss his family history, his path from Caracas to MIT then back again, and about the big books, individuals and experiences that shaped his worldview from a young age.

HIs most recent book is called the End of Power, and in January this year Mark Zuckerberg picked it as the inaugural book of his book club, inviting his 30 million Facebook fans to discuss it.

This is a great conversation with a versatile thinker. Enjoy!

And here are all his books. 

The IAEA and Iran

iaea_and_iran_roadmap_signatureThe nuclear deal with Iran is essentially grand bargain: Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for a gradual easing of international and national sanctions. But as President Obama is fond of saying, the agreement is not based on trust. It’s based on verification. And the entity responsible for verifying Iran’s compliance with the nuclear accord is the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Here with me to discuss how the IAEA will go about this mission is Tom Collina, policy director of the Ploughshares fund. We discuss the diplomatic pressures under which the IAEA will operate and the technical tools at inspectors’ disposal. We also discuss the personality of its executive director Yukia Amano, a Japanese diplomat who is suddenly one of the most important and consequential players in Middle East diplomacy

(For those of you really interested in the history of the IAEA and also want more mechanics on how inspections work, I recommend you check out my April interview with Thomas Shea, a former IAEA nuclear weapons inspector. We recorded that interview just as the Framework Agreement, which lead to this final agreement, was being negotiated.)

 

Can a UN Conference in Ethiopia Solve the Riddle of Financing Sustainable International Development


A hugely consequential UN conference kicks off in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia next week. It has has not gotten a tremendous amount of media attention, but it is pretty big deal for most of the world. At the heart of this conference is one very big question: can the idealism embedded in principles of sustainable development actually be paid for? Who will pony up the funds? And how?

The conference is officially called the “Third International Conference on Financing for Development”  The decisions and announcements made at this conference will have a profound effect on whether or not the world can fulfill the promises of the Sustainable Development Goals, including eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.

Here to put the conference in context and explain what official and unofficial outcomes might look like is Minh-Thu Pham of the United Nations Foundation. We discuss the big points of convergence and contention between countries as they were negotiating the outcome document of this conference, and we have a deeper discussion of how this conference signals a profound shift away from thinking about international development as driven primarily by foreign aid.

This conference has the potential to revolutionize how the international community, local stakeholders and the private sector implement the Sustainable Development Goals. It is the first of three big conferences in 2030 that will shape the international development and climate change agenda for a generation.

International development enthusiasts and people concerned about ridding the world of extreme poverty will enjoy this episode.

 

Episode 72: Anand Gopal

o-ANAND-GOPAL-facebookAnand Gopal’s first book, No Good Men Among the Living: America, The Taliban and The War through Afghan Eyes, was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize. And deservedly so — this book is easily one of the best and most important foreign policy books of the last decade and certainly the most enlightening book written about the Afghan War.

As its title suggests, Gopal offers a rarely seen perspective on the US-led intervention in Afghanistan by profiling individuals–both civilian and Taliban — and by telling the story of shifting alliances of one region in southern Afghanistan. 

Gopal discusses how he went about reporting these amazing stories; what compelled him to travel to Afghanistan on a whim in 2008; and how his complexion both helps and complicates his reporting in Afghanistan and in the Middle East.

I think you can tell I was so thrilled to speak with Anand. If you have not already done so, definitely read his book. You’ll look at the Afghan war–and perhaps even interventionism–in a totally different way.

UN Peacekeeping is Facing Some Big Challenges. Can It Adapt?

07-30-dr-congoA panel of independent experts recently published an exhaustive and hotly awaited report on the future of UN Peacekeeping. The panel was lead by Jose Ramos Horta, the Nobel Laureate and former president of East Timor–a country where peacekeeping played a key role in its turbulent early ears.

The report was a pretty big deal in UN circles. And its release provides a good inflection point to discuss UN peacekeeping, the big challenges it faces, and how current trends in global security are going to force the UN to adapt.

My guest today, Richard Gowan, is a columnist at World Politics review and an editor of the Global Peace Operations Review. He is one of my favorite UN pundits and I am thrilled to have him back on the podcast to discuss this new report and all things UN Peacekeeping.

This episode is sponsored by World Politics Review, which provides uncompromising analysis of critical global trends to give policy makers, business people, and academics the context they need to have the confidence they want. The good people at World Politics Review are offering Global Dispatches Podcast listeners a two week free trial and then a 50% discount on an annual subscription. To redeem this offer go to about.worldpoliticsreview.com/dispatches.