Archives for March 2018

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, is facing a crisis. This is the humanitarian agency that provides relief for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. This includes running hospitals and schools that serve about half a million children.

Typically, the United States has provided about one third of UNRWA’s overall budget, judging the organization to be a source of stability in an otherwise volatile region.  The Trump administration, however, has frozen US payments to the humanitarian agency. It did so in retaliation to a vote at the UN General Assembly in which member states overwhelmingly condemned the Trump administration’s decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel and move its embassy there. Withholding promised funding for humanitarian relief for Palestinian refugees was the Trump administration’s payback for this vote.

On the line with me to discuss what this budget crisis means on the ground for Palestinian refugees is Peter Mulrean, Director of UNRWA’s Representative Office in New York. We also discuss the history of UNRWA, the role is serves in Palestinian society and in the politics of the region, and how it might overcome this funding crisis imposed by the Trump administration.

Download this episode to listen later. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify or get the Global Dispatches mobile app.  

 

I got my start in journalism covering John Bolton when he was the US Ambassador to the United Nations.  At the time, I was a reporter for the political monthly The American Prospect. My reporting at the time culminated in a cover story that was published in January 2006 that detailed Bolton’s tenure thus far at the UN and broke a few scoops about his conduct.

In this special episode of the podcast I am going to share a few anecdotes from my reporting at the time that might shed some light on how he will conduct himself as the National Security Advisor to Donald Trump.

I’ll also survey some key issues around the world, including North Korea, Iran, Trans-Atlantic Relations and the United Nations to see what Bolton’s past interactions with these issues might suggest for the future of US policy.  I’ll also explain the position of National Security Advisor to help you understand where, exactly, Bolton will fit in in the bureaucratic politics of US foreign policy making.

That this is a different kind of Global Dispatches episode. This podcast is typically an interview-based show in which I have conversations with experts about topical issues, or I have longer discussions with people who have had interesting careers in foreign policy. In these conversations, I’ll occasionally interject my own views. But for the most part, the other person is talking. 

But this time around, I am something of the expert. And I think other people see me as such, based on my past reporting.  So this episode is just me talking. 

If you have 25 minutes and want to learn the implications of John Bolton ascending to the most important foreign policy position in the US government, have a listen. 

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My Iran Deal episode with Spencer Ackerman

My Daily Beast piece on Bolton

 

By the end of this month the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia will no longer exist. The mission, known as UNMIL, is closing shop after nearly 15 years in operation.  This is a a major milestone and success story for both Liberia and the United Nations.

In 2003, it was hard to imagine this day would ever come.

Around 250,000 people had been killed in a singularly brutal civil war. The infrastructure that existed in the country was decimated. Most Liberians who had the opportunity to leave country had fled.

Fifteen years later, thanks in large part to UNMIL, Liberia is a stable democracy with a rapidly developing economy. It was a hard slog, but Liberia has made incredible strides and is emerging as a beacon of political stability in a volatile region.

In 2006, Liberia it was the first country in Africa to elect a female head of State, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. After serving two terms she stepped down peacefully and ceded power to her political rival, George Weah, who won free and fair elections. This was no small feat. Throughout the region, leaders tend to cling to power beyond their constitutionally mandated limits.  If they do cede power, it is typically to political allies. Liberia bucked this trend. To be sure, Liberia is still a very poor country, but it now has the basic security and political stability needed to thrive as a democracy in Africa.

On the line with me to discuss how UNMIL was able to work itself out of a job is retired Col. Christopher Holshek. Col. Holshek was one of the few Americans to serve in UNMIL and he explains just how the UN’s role in Liberia transitioned from peace keeping to peace building. There are so few American military officers who serve in UN peacekeeping missions, his perspective on this question is very unique.

The folding of the UN Mission in Liberia is a good news story coming out of the UN. It demonstrates that UN Peacekeeping is a powerful tool the international community can deploy to help countries manage the fragile transition from conflict to peace.

If you have 25 minutes and want to learn why UNMIL was a success, have a listen.

Download this episode to listen later. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify or get the Global Dispatches mobile app. 

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As the United States enters its next election cycle, American democracy is still extremely vulnerable to disinformation campaigns from Russia. Other democracies, particularly in Europe, are also vulnerable to this kind of threat and, indeed, have also been the target of Russian meddling. So how can countries protect themselves against nefarious attempts to sow illiberal discord?

A new report from The Atlantic Council identifies some concrete ways that the United States and Europe can defend against foreign propaganda, disinformation, and election related hacking. On the line with me to discuss this report and its findings is one of the report’s co-authors, Ambassador Daniel Fried. He was a longtime US diplomatic who’s career largely focused Russia and central and eastern Europe. The report was co-authored by Alina Polyakova of the Brookings Institute.

The report provides a useful heuristic for understanding the problem: it breaks down and categorizes the various kinds of election meddling we’ve seen thus far. Also, what makes this report particularly unique is that the authors’ propose that countering this kind of election meddling can be a platform for transatlantic cooperation; that is, in response to this Russian meddling Europe and the United States have an opportunity to form a new kind of strategic alliance.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn how Russian election meddling can be a catalyst for international cooperation, have a listen.

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A provocative new book examines the politics of the debate on foreign aid.

Pablo Yanguas is a research fellow at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. He is the author of the new book “Why We Lie About Aid: Development and the Messy Politics of Change.”
The book argues that there is a profound gap between the politics of development and how economic development is actually achieved on the ground in the developing world. And no matter what our ideological leanings might be, the politics surrounding aid and development provide incentives for us to misrepresent what works in reducing poverty and improving livelihoods.

This thesis rings true to my experience covering global development as a journalist for over a decade now. And I must say I found this conversation very clarifying — Yanguas identifies and ascribes political motives to trends that I have certainly seen covering these issues.

Even if you are not a global development nerd, I think you will find this conversation a very useful explanation of the politics of foreign aid.

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