Rabia Chaudry is best known for bringing the irregularities surrounding the murder conviction of Anand Syed to the attention of This American Life reporter Sarah Keonig, who then turned the saga in into the wildly popular Serial podcast.
But Rabia is well known and highly regarded in national security circles for her work to train law enforcement on countering violent extremism. She is the founder of the Safe Nation Collaborative, is a former New America Foundation and Truman National Security Fellow, and is soon starting a project with the US Institute of Peace.
We have a great conversation that is particularly timely in amidst a new wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in the USA in the wake of the Paris attacks. We discuss her own family’s story of immigration, how growing up in rural towns — often the only person of color — shaped her worldview, and how the September 11th attacks and its aftermath inspired her to a career in public policy.
We kick off discussing the current backlash against Muslims in the USA and then pivot to a longer conversation about her fascinating life and career working.
Will the Paris Attacks Lead to a Dayton-Style Peace Plan for Syria?
Could the horrible attack in Paris might provide the kind of exogenous shock to the international system that could unstick international diplomacy on Syria? After a key meeting in Vienna of the USA, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and all the relevant regional players it would appear that there is finally some movement on the diplomatic front.
The Life and Times of James P Grant, former UNICEF Director, as told by his biographer
James P Grant is not a household name. But he most certainly should be. Grant lead UNICEF from 1979 until his death in 1995, and as Nick Kristof once wrote he “probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined.” He was a force in the UN bureaucracy and on the international stage. And now, for the first time, there is a full accounting of his life and work in the new biography titled A Mighty Purpose: How UNICEF’s James P Grant Sold the World on Saving Its Children.
On the line with me to discuss Grant is his biographer, Adam Fifield. Fifield describes how Grant spearheaded what is now known as the “child survival revolution” in the 1980s that lead to, among other things, the quadrupling of worldwide childhood immunization rates. Fifield vividly describes how Grant accomplished this achievement and many others on behalf of children of the world, often times through sheer force of nature.
Paris Climate Talks: What You Need to Know
The Paris Climate talks kick off in just a few short weeks. On November 30, president Obama and many other heads of state are going to start weeks of negotiations that if all goes according to plan, will usher in a new kind of international climate change regime.These talks a huge deal for diplomacy and for the planet. On the line with me to discuss the contours of the talks, expected outcomes, diplomatic intriguies and possible speed bumps along the way is Elliot Diringer, executive vice president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
For those of you who are less steeped in the complexities of climate diplomacy, this episode is a useful primer to the Paris talks. But as our conversation progresses we go deeper and deeper into the weeds, so there’s good fodder for you climate wonks as well.
Episode 87: Robert Pape
Robert Pape is a scholar at the University of Chicago probably best known for two important studies, both of which we discuss in detail. In the mid 1990s Pape wrote Bombing to Win which called into question big assumptions about the efficacy of airpower. In the mid 2000s, he wrote Dying to Win which was the first big examination of the logic and motivations of suicide bombing campaigns; and his conclusion was somewhat intuitive.
Pape comes from very a humble background, raised by a single mom who valued her son’s education above all else, and we go pretty deep into his personal background and journey from modest beginnings in Erie, Pennsylvania to the heights of academia. We start off though, discussing a question he’s been thinking about recently: do suicide terror attacks spike during Muslim holidays?
And if you are the kind of IR nerd who loves learning a bit about the life story of academics, check out my conversations with Bob Jervis, Stephen Walt, James Fearon Christine Fair, Joseph Nye and Laura Seay among others.
Playing the Devil’s Advocate In International Relations
Episode 86: Robert Jervis
Robert Jervis is on every international relations syllabus. In this episode, you will learn how he got there. But first, we talk time travel and IR theory.
Jervis is probably best known for his book Perception and Misperception in International Politics which was a groundbreaking work that applied principles of cognitive psychology to international relations theory. He traces the origin of this book to a question he asked his parents when young Jervis was just 7 years old.
