Archives for January 2017

Episode 137: Princeton Lyman

Princeton Lyman was a long serving US Diplomat who has become a leading expert on African politics and policy. He most recently served as President Obama’s special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan from 2011 to 2013; but before that had an extensive career in the foreign service that included stints as US Ambassador to Nigeria and to South Africa during the negotiations that lead to the end of Apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela. And we do have an extensive conversation about his participation in those historic negotiations.

We spoke the day that news broke that Donald Trump was readying an executive order that would severely curtail refugee resettlement to the US, including from a number of Muslim majority countries. Princeton served as the top US official for refugee issues during the George H.W. Bush administration so we kick off discussing how those potential restrictions fit into the history of US refugee resettlement policy.

We then pivot to a longer conversation about his life and career, including his rather unique first name. It’s a good story — a classic one, actually.

Trump Just Re-Instated the “Global Gag Rule.” Here’s what that means.

On his third day on office President Trump signed a memorandum re-instating what is known as the “Global Gag Rule” or sometimes alternatively as the “Mexico City Policy.” This is a policy that Republican Presidents enact and Democratic presidents lift when they come to office. Simply put the rule places restrictions on NGOs that receive US government assistance about what they can say about abortion.

As you can imagine, this policy is very much caught up in domestic US politics about abortion, but when Donald Trump signed the order re-instating the rule, his version of it went much, much farther than the George W. Bush administration or any republican administration since the Regan era.

On the line with me to discuss the Global Gag Rule, it’s history and impact on women’s lives is Seema Jalan, the Executive Director of the Universal Access Project and Policy, Women and Population, at the United Nations Foundation. She does an excellent job of explaining the policy why the Donald Trump version of it is a big departure from previous republican administrations and in fact may affect every aspect of US global health assistance around the world.

Live from Chicago! Amb. Zalmay Khalilzad

 

In many ways Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad was the ideal person with whom to speak at the dawn of the next Republican administration. He served in senior positions in the George W. Bush White House, including as ambassador to his native Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations. He was also on the shortlist for Secretary of State as Donald Trump assembled his cabinet. He’s had a long career in foreign policy, and in this live taping of the Global Dispatches podcast recorded the night before Donald Trump’s inauguration, he offers a unique perspective on the myriad of global challenges facing Donald Trump as he takes office,

We kick off discussing what to expect from Trump’s foreign policy before pivoting to discuss his own fascinating personal story that took him from poverty in Afghanistan to the heights of power in Washington DC. These stories are included in his recently published memoir: Then Envoy: From Kabul to the White House: My Journey through a Turbulent World.

This episode is presented in partnership with IVY: The Social University. Through a robust curriculum spanning policy, entrepreneurship, social impact, and the arts — IVY members enjoy access to a lifetime of new experiences, friendships, and ideas. Whether it’s in-person talks with world-class leaders including Ambassador Cameron Munter, GE Chairman Jack Welch, and Pulitzer Prize Winner Nicholas Kristof; cultural expeditions to Cuba and Iceland; or tickets to the Opera or Ballet — IVY provides its members a lifetime of learning. Over the past three years, the IVY community has grown to 20,000 inspiring members in seven cities across the nation including New York, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Miami. Register on IVY.com to begin the application process (2 minutes, no commitment) — and you’ll receive a $100 event credit if you join IVY and mention GlobalDispatches in the referral section when registering.

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What’s Next for Israel and Palestine?

Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyau and Palestinien President Abas at the White House Washington 01/09/2010
Photo Moshe Milner GPO

The Two State Solution–the idea that a sovereign, secure and independent Palestine can co-exist with a sovereign secure and independent jewish state of Israel is arguably as far from being realized now than at anytime in the past twenty five years. With the election of Donald Trump, the unrelenting expansion of Israeli settlements and political incertitude in Palestine it appears we soon may be signing the requiem for the two state solution.

But what comes next? Are we living in the post-Two State Solution era? What does this mean for Palestinian rights? For Israeli security? For Israeli and Palestinian foreign policy? I put these questions and more to Michael Omer-Man, the editor in chief of the excellent 972 magazine.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn what the future holds for Israel and Palestine, have a listen.

Episode 136: Karen Greenberg

Karen Greenberg has spent the last 15 years studying the intersection of national security, terrorism and civil liberties. She’s currently the director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School.

She’s authored several books on the subject including most recently Rogue Justice: the Making of the Security State. In 2009 she wrote the critically acclaimed Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days. We kick off discussing why was it that President Obama, having come to office eight years ago promising to shut down the Guantanamo prison, failed to do so. And we preview what to expect from President Trump. Will he really add prisoners to Gitmo?

Karen is someone who has been on my radar since the early Bush years and the debate over the Patriot Act, but I was fascinated and interested to learn how her career in foreign policy and national security was really launched while working with dissidents from Eastern Europe during the Soviet era. It’s a great conversation– Animated for sure. And I think you’ll like it.

Quick announcement before we start: if you are listening to this contemporaneously and are in Chicagoland come to a live recording of the podcast with special guest former US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad on January 19. Send me an email via the contact page on GlobalDispatchespodcast.com and I can get you a complimentary ticket! 

Get a Master of Arts in Social Innovation from the University of San Diego

This is a special episode of the podcast sponsored by the Master of Arts in Social Innovation program at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego. This is a brand new program that seeks original thinkers who are looking to make a lasting impact in the world to join the inaugural class. On the line with me to discuss the program, including the curriculum, the faculty and the kind of experience and education students can expect is the dean of the Kroc school, Patricia Marquez.  Applications are due March 15. Learn more!

Turkey in Crisis

Turkey is in crisis. A number of terrorist attacks in recent weeks has rattled Turkish society, there is a persistent and ongoing crackdown on civil society, and President Erdogan is engineering constitutional changes to further consolidate power.
On the line with me to discuss recent events in Turkey and offer some deeper context into the political situation and the future of US-Turkey relations is Elmira Bayrasli. She is an author and the co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted which seeks to amplify the voices of women in foreign policy debates and she was also my guest in Episode 81.  I learned a great deal from this conversation and suspect you will as well.

Announcement: On Thursday January 19th at 7pm I will be hosting a live taping of the podcast at the University of Chicago with former UN ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. If you are in Chicago and want to attend in person please send me an email via the contact page on GlobalDIspatchesPodcast.com. This is a ticketed event and the organizers have reserved tickets for my most loyal listeners so if you are interested, send me an email and I’ll send you the registration info. 

Episode 135: Maria J Stephan

Maria Stephan is a pioneering academic and public intellectual who studies authoritarian regimes and how they fall. She’s the co-author with Erica Chenoweth of the groundbreaking and award winning book Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict which was a first-of-its kind study that offered empirical evidence that non-violent resistance is more effective than conflict and civil war in toppling oppressive regimes. She recently lead a study with the Atlantic Council showing that authoritarianism is on the rise globally and we kick off with an extended conversation about that study and how the recent US election fits into her overall thesis.

Maria grew up in rural Vermont and we have a great conversation about the roots of her intellectual curiosity and how that took her to study and compare resistance movements around the world, including East Timor and Palestine.

The stories, crises and provocations that will drive the global agenda in 2017

On the line with me to preview the big stories, ideas, trends and crises and provocations that will set the agenda at the United Nations and beyond is Richard Gowen. He’s a fellow with the European Council on Foreign Affairs and a regular guest of this very podcast. We have a lively conversation about Trump’s relationship with the UN, the new incoming secretary general and more.

We recorded this conversation in late December, before the big vote on Israel settlements into which the president elect weighed on twitter. So that vote does not factor into this conversation, but I would say that the big implication of that vote is that it’s likely makes the UN more vulnerable to moves by the incoming congress to restrict or undermine US support for the UN, including the possible withholding of funding. If you want to read my full thoughts on that, check out UN Dispatch. For now though, here is Richard Gowen and I chatting about the big stories at the UN and around the world in 2017.