Archives for August 2017

New Research Finds a Link Between the Cost of Getting Married and the Outbreak Violent Conflict

The high price of getting married can lead young men to take up arms.

That is the conclusion of a new cutting-edge research paper that finds a correlation between what is known as “brideprice” and the outbreak of violent conflict. Some 75% of the world’s population live in societies that practice some form of wealth transfer, like a dowry payment, from young men to the families of women they want to marry. Researchers Hillary Matfess and Valerie Hudson have found that fluctuations in these payments can instigate conflict.

Their research is published in the Summer 2017 issue of the academic journal International Security.  Hillary Matfess is on the line to discuss her findings, including case studies in Nigeria, South Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

Anyone who has ever taken an international relations or security class knows that there are volumes of research on what causes the outbreak of violent conflict. Matfess and Hudson identify one new linkage with very real-world policy implications.

If you have 30 minutes and want to learn more about the intersection of the economics of marriage, violent conflict and women’s rights, have a listen.

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Former Senator Sam Nunn Explains How a New “Fuel Bank” Can Curb Nuclear Proliferation

The world may just have gotten a little bit safer.

In Kazakstan this week, the International Atomic Energy Agency is opening a new facility that will serve as a bank for Low Enriched Uranium. If it works at intended, fewer countries around the world will feel the need to enrich their own uranium, meaning that fewer countries will possess the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon.

This facility is known as the “LEU fuel bank” and its opening is the result of over a decade of work by my guest today, former US Senator (and longtime nuclear security advocate) Sam Nunn.

Credit: Nuclear Threat Initiative

The idea behind the LEU fuel bank is basically this: countries that want to use civilian nuclear power must either build their own enrichment facilities, or must purchase enriched uranium on the open market. The concern with the former is that facilities that enrich uranium for civilian purposes could also be used to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb. The bank is basically an insurance policy to dissuade countries from wanting to build their own enrichment facilities; because if for some reason the market is disrupted and supplies cut off, the county can get their fuel from this bank, which stores enough fuel to power a mid sized city for three years.

In this episode, Senator Nunn explains how this idea for a fuel bank, which had been around for decades, was turned into a reality on the ground. Here, the NGO he co-chairs, the Nuclear Threat Initiative deserves much credit. For years, the Nuclear Threat Initiative has been working behind the scenes to set up this bank and they got a big boost when Warren Buffet pledged $50 million to the cause.

If you have 20 minutes and want to hear non-proliferation legend Sam Nunn tell the story behind the LEU bank and why its advent is an important boon for international security and non-proliferation, have a listen.

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Poland is in the Midst of a Democratic Backslide

Demonstrations in front of the Polish parliament against the new law violating the independence of the judiciary, 18th July 2017 Flickr user Grzegorz Żukowski

Poland is in the midst of a democratic backslide. The country’s politics is dominated by the far right Law and Justice Party, which has embarked on a series of moves to curb the independence of the judiciary and free press. This has put Poland on a collision course with the European Union, of which it is a member. It has also earned the government the praise and support of Donald Trump–indeed Trump visited Poland this summer and delivered a rabble rousing speech appealing directly to right wing elements in Polish politics.

So how did we get here? And how threatened is liberal democracy in the heart of Europe? On the line with me to discuss the situation in Poland and why what happens in Poland matters to the rest of the world is Konsanty Gebert

Konstanty Gebert is an Associate Fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations and an international reporter and columnist at Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s largest daily publication.  He was also a speaker at the Humanity in Action International Conference in Berlin this year.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn why democracy in Poland is under threat right now, have a listen.

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Can North Korea Be Deterred?

Tensions are very clearly escalating on the Korean Peninsula, with the North making unrelenting progress on their nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and the United States president now overtly threatening a new war.

In the meantime, the United Nations Security Council, which of course includes China, the United States and Russia, passed a new round of sanctions on North Korea intended to force Pyongyang back to the negotiating table — but as of yet it is unclear if these new sanction will succeed in that regard.

So what are the policy options right now?

And if North Korea does succeed in developing the capacity to reliably hit the United States with a nuclear weapon can it even be deterred from doing so? Would traditional ideas of nuclear deterrence be applicable to the North Korea situation? Is a first strike by the United States, as threatened by President Trump, even plausible?  What would result? And most importantly, what diplomatic paths are still open right now to prevent further escalation?

On the line to discuss these questions and more is Dr. Jim Walsh of MIT. He is a nuclear security expert who has studied North Korea’s nuclear programs for years–even traveling to Pyongyang for meetings with officials there.

He discusses the current situation, the diplomatic options still available, and why deterrence might be the least bad option we face.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn how North Korea can be stopped, short of unleashing a massive war on the Korean Peninsula, have a listen.

Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher or get the app to listen later. 

 

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There is a deadly Climate-Conflict Nexus in Somalia

Somalia is ground zero for an emerging trend in global affairs– the nexus between climate change and conflict. My guest today, journalist Laura Heaton spent years reporting on how climate change and conflict feed off each other in profoundly destabilizing ways in horn of Africa.

She’s the author of a feature story in Foreign Policy magazine that uses the work and life story of a British Scientist named Murray Watson to explain how climate change in Somalia has exacerbated conflict — both local and international — and how that conflict and insecurity has inhibited policies to mitigate the destabilizing effect of climate change.

Watson went missing on 2008 after being kidnapped in Somalia, and it was assumed that his trove of ecological research went missing with him — until Laura uncovered its existence in an attic in the British countryside.

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