Archives for December 2017

Meet the US Youth Observer to the UN

Munira Khalif is the US Youth Observer to the United Nations. This is a position created in partnership between the State Department and the United Nations Association of the United States to help give youth a voice in official and semi-official diplomatic settings. Khalif is a student at Harvard, though she is taking some time off to focus on this new role, in which she will serve for a year.

In this conversation Munira Khalif discusses her work as youth observer and what is involved in giving youth a voice at the UN and in diplomatic settings. She explains why she is using her position to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls around the world.

When we spoke, Khalif had recently returned from India where she participated in the Global Entrepreneurship and we kick off discussing that trip. We then have a broader conversation of what it means to engage youth around issues of importance to the broader UN-system.
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A Lopsided Vote Against the United States Portends Big Changes At the United Nations

On Thursday, December 21 the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning the United States’ decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The resolution passed 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions, despite the fact that in the days leading up to the vote Donald Trump and Nikki Haley threatened to cut off US aid to any countries who voted against the United States.

Meanwhile, a day earlier, the High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al Hussein announced that he is stepping down next year. This was a shock. Zeid is universally admired in the human rights community as a blunt voice unafraid of speaking truth to power — indeed he has been sharply critical of Donald Trump. That could be why he’s stepping down. In a letter to staff, he cited an in hospitable geo-political environment for human rights advocacy as his reason for leaving the post.

On the line to discuss these issues, plus have a look back at the big stories that drove the UN agenda in 2017 is Richard Gowan, a UN expert with the European Council on Foreign Relations. This is a lively conversation that examines how some big trends that started in 2017 will shape world affairs and diplomacy at the UN in 2018.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the implications of this lopsided vote against the United States at the United Nations, why Zeid’s resignation is a big deal, and what to expect in the UN in 2018 have a listen.

The Calestous Juma episode

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Episode 175: Dr. Mozhdeh Ghasemiyani is a Psychologist who Escaped a Genocide

Dr. Mozhdeh Ghasemiyani is a psychologist with Doctors without Borders who escaped a genocide. She is a Kurdish refugee to Denmark and recently delivered a TED Talk describing her refugee experience. In the talk she draws on her knowledge as a psychologist specializing in trauma and PTSD to explain how the traumatic experiences of refugee children can have life long effects.

This episode is in two parts.

First, you will hear that TED talk  (also posted above). Then, Mozhdeh Ghasemiyani  and I have an extended conversation about some of the stories she alludes to in her talk. We discuss the broader political environment that caused her family to flee first from Iran right after the 1979 revolution, and then from Saddam Hussein’s campaign of genocide against the Kurds.

We also have a long conversation about her current work as a psychologist who specializes in working with refugee children and the specific mental health needs of refugee children.

The long term consequence of traumas endured by a record number of refugee children could be a driving force of international affairs for a generation. To understand why, listen to this episode.

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Episode 174: Michael McFaul, Former US Ambassador to Russia

Michael McFaul served as US Ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration from 2012 to 2014. Prior to that he served on the National Security Council where he helped shape was known at the time as the “Reset” with Russia.

He has a book coming out this spring, From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia which, among other things, discusses how his time in Russia and in the White House coincided with a worsening of relations between the United States and Russia–including how the reset went wrong. We discuss this at length, and also have a good conversation about how he first became interested in Russia as a high school student in Montana and how, during his frequent visits to Russia he became a pro-democracy activist, which caused many Russian officials to assume he was a CIA agent.

We spoke just about an hour after the International Olympic Committee announced that Russia would be banned from the 2018 winter games because of rampant doping. We kick off with a reaction to that news, which bleeds into a conversation about Putin’s general malfeasance.

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Trump’s Jerusalem Gamble

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The United States will formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol and intends to move its embassy there from Tel Aviv — thus, decreed President Trump from the White House yesterday.

The move bucks decades of US policy, which sought to include the status of Jerusalem as part of a broader peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Meanwhile, virtually the entire world warned President Trump against this declaration, fearing that it will sow instability throughout the region and erect yet another obstacle in the way of an already failing peace process.

On the line with me to discuss the implications of this announcement to both the Arab-Israeli peace process and to regional politics more broadly is Marc Lynch. Lynch is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliot School; Director, Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) and one of my favorite middle east analysts.

He explains why previous US administration’s have held off on making this move. And, he puts this decision by Trump administration in the context of its broader policies towards the region. Lynch argues that Trump is making a high-stakes gamble with this Jerusalem gambit–the outcome of which is highly uncertain.

If you have 20 minutes and want to understand the broader implications of the US decision to declare Jerusalem the capitol of Israel, have a listen.

Episode 174: Dr.Joanne Liu, head of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders

Dr. Joanne Liu is the International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), otherwise known as Doctors without Borders. She is a Canadian Pedestrian by training and has been with MSF for almost her entire career. She became the international head of MSF in 2013.

We spoke not long after she visited MSF’s operations in a stretch of land in Bangladesh called Cox’s Bazar. This is where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled from neighboring Myanmar in recent months. It is the site of one of the world’s most urgent global humanitarian emergencies. Dr. Liu discusses the conditions there–and the kind of unique medical needs that stem from such a massive population displacement in such a short period of time.

We discuss some of the current big challenges facing MSF, including a seeming increase in the number of attacks on humanitarian and health facilities around the world. Dr. Liu describes one incident in particular–the October 2015 US airstrike on an MSF hospital in Afghanistan.

Dr. Liu tells a few very powerful stories, including a recent visit to a detention center for African migrants in Libya a place she calls “the most inhuman incarnation of men’s cruelty”

This episode shifts between wonky explanations of issues in world affairs, and her own very personal experience with those issues. If you have 40 minutes and want to learn how  MSF earned a reputation as one of the more fearless global humanitarian organizations have a listen.

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