William Perry was the 19th Secretary of Defense, serving in the Clinton administration from 1994 to 1997. But in 1962, he was a 35 year old mathematician working in the defense industry and living in California. And one day in October, his phone rang. It was the deputy director of the CIA who summoned him immediately to Washington, DC. He needed Perry to analyze photos of missile systems captured by a U2 spy plane flying over Cuba. And for 13 days in October, he did just that–believing everyday was going to be his last.
We have really interesting digressions about the morality of nuclear weapons, of the firebombing of Tokyo, and why young people these days need more deeply fear nuclear weapons.
The Paris Agreement
Episode 91: Lee Hamilton
Lee Hamilton was a member of the United States Congress from 1965 to 1999, and in the entirety of his 34 years in Congress he served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, eventually becoming the committee chair. He’s served on more national advisory board and commissions than I could possibly mention, but the big ones include the 9/11 Commission and the Iraq Study Group
In November 2015, just a couple weeks before we recorded this interview, he was honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom for having been “one of the most influential voices on international relations and American national security over the course of his more than 40 year career.”
In this episode we discuss much of that career and beyond. Hamilton reflects on his childhood, growing up the son of a methodist minister, the influence of his first trip abroad, which was to Germany as a student in the early 1950s; and how a trip to Vietnam as a congressman in the late 1960s convinced him to oppose the war.
We have a great conversation about the role of Congress in shaping US foreign policy, and the many lessons he’s learned over the course of his career. He kicks off discussing what it was like to stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Barbara Streisand and James Taylor to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Why Are So Many Eritreans Are Fleeing Their Country?
After Syrians and Afghans, the largest nationality of people who are fleeing as refugees to Europe are Eritreans. And the vast majority of Eritreans who are fleeing to Europe are young people between the ages of 18 and 24 who are escaping an oppressive system of compulsory national service.
National service itself is not a problem. Lots of liberal democracies have some of draft or conscription. But “national service” in Eritrea takes this to the extreme and has become a system of forced labor and population control.
Amnesty International recently published a report called Just Deserters: Why Indefinite National Service in Eritrea has Created a Generation of Refugees that explores in depth the human rights abuses of this system and its implications for global security. On the to discuss this issue is the report’s lead author, Claire Beston.
We discuss how this system works, why so many young Eritreans are fleeing the country, and why countries in Europe are turning a blind eye to this major driver of refugees to their shore.
Eritrea is sometimes called “The North Korea of Africa” because it’s also run by a paranoid government, seemingly intent on controlling all aspects of their citizens lives. But human rights abuses in Eritrea have so far escaped public imagination in the west in the same way as North Korea. As a consequence, the international community is not doing what it can to compel this oppressive regime to change ways.
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Episode 90: Emma Sky
Emma Sky was an Arabist, working at the British Council in 2003 when the United Kingdom joined the US led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Though she strongly opposed the war, she opted to join the coalition provisional authority, which administered Iraq after the fall of Saddam. Here’s why
She served as the top coalition official in the-oil rich and ethnically diverse province of Kirkuk, and later returned to Iraq as the top civilian advisor to advisor to general Ray Odierno as they managed what’s now known as the Sunni Awakening. She tells stories from those experiences in the episode you are about to hear. She also has them down in her new memoir called The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq
Sky had an unusual upbringing. She was raised by a single mom who worked at an all boys school. So young emma sky’s formative years very much included being the only girl in the room, and she discusses how that experience affected her later on in life.
We kick off with a discussion about the current state of affairs in Iraq and Syria, before pivoting to a longer discussion about her life and career, which includes a long stint in Israel at the height of the peace process in the 1990s and its unraveling.
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COP21 is an International Political Tipping Point. Here’s Why
Unlike any other global climate or environment conference I’ve covered over the years, civil society and the activist community this time around is genuinely enthused about the Paris Climate Talks. Cautious optimism, or at the very least, not gloom and doom, seems to be prevailing mood.
I asked the leader of one of the most important and largest global climate activist organizations, May Boeve of 350.org, why that is. And her reply is interesting and telling. May says that we are in the midst of a political tipping point in the international debate about climate change and Paris is one manifestation of this historic moment.
I caught up with May while she was in Paris during the first week of the talks, and we discuss some of the issues she was following closely as the talks enter a more technical phase. But we have a longer conversation about the role of activism in bringing delegates to this point and what the activist community has planned for after paris.
For those of you interested in the particulars on the Paris talks, you will be sure to get a lot out of this conversation. But even if you are less interested in the minutia of climate politics, this episode offers a fascinating insight into the role of civil society and activisms in shaping the outcome of a major international negotiation. The role of civil society in the Paris climate talks is sure to be the subject of PhD thesis for decades to come. This conversation shows you why.
Episode 89: Katie Meyler
Katie Meyler is the founder of the NGO More than Me, which provides schooling and counseling to adolescent girls in Monrovia, Liberia. Katie founded the NGO in 2009, but during the Ebola outbreak last year it transformed into a community hub in the West Point neighborhood of Monrovia, which was the hardest hit neighborhood in the hardest hit city in the hardest hit country by the outbreak.
We have a powerful discussion of why she opted to stay put in Liberia during the Ebola crisis, even though she became symptomatic. And how she dealt with all the death and despair that was surrounding her.
Katie grew up poor in a very wealthy town in New Jersey and she discusses how service trips with her church first exposed her to extreme poverty around the world. She tells an ultimately inspiring story about the founding of More than Me and how with the partnership of the government of Liberia, she is trying to replicate the success of More than Me in other parts of the country. We kick off though, discussing a new resurgence of Ebola in Liberia several months after the country was declared Ebola free.
