Conversations about Foreign Policy and World Affairs
On Sunday May 23rd a Belarusian fighter jet intercepted a civilian Ryan Air flight and forced it land in Minsk, Belarus. Authorities promptly arrested a dissident journalist onboard and his girlfriend.
Often described as “Europe’s Last Dictator,” this incident was an audacious example of the lengths that the regime of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko would go to silence opposition voices and dissidents.
Guest: Sofya Orlosky, senior program manager for Europe and Eurasia at Freedom House.
As the world turns towards greener economies there will be a surge in demand for natural resources that enable a less carbon intensive future. This includes the mineral cobalt, which is key component of batteries.
Most of the world’s supply of Cobalt is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This raises the prospect that increasing demand for Cobalt might contribute to insecurity in the DRC.
On the line to explain the link between mineral extraction and conflict in the DRC and how cobalt mining can lead to peace and sustainable development is Laurent Kasindi, Program Quality Specialist at Search for Common Ground.
Elected in 2019 as a 37 year old third party candidate, the president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele is a political phenom. He has a hipster’s disposition, but an authoritarian’s proclivities.
On the line to explain the rise of Nayib Bukele and the demise of democratic checks and balances in El Salvador is Frida Ghitis, She is a world affairs analyst and columnist for World Politics Review. We kick off discussing the sudden rise of Bukele in Salvadorian politics before entering into a discussion about the implications of his authoritarian tendencies.
The last time World Food Program Chief Economist Arif Husain came on the show to discuss global trends in food security was 15 months ago. Needless to say, since January 2020 and the onset of the pandemic food insecurity and hunger around the world have gotten much worse. We kick off this conversation discussing a new report on global hunger and food security before have a longer discussion about what, exactly, is driving a current surge in food insecurity and hunger around the world today — and what can be done about it.
It was a combination of imperial ambition and white supremacy that inspired the advent of the field of global health in the 19th century — and that colonialist legacy can still be seen in the practice of global health today.
As my guest today Dr. Ashti Doobay-Persaud explains, the colonialist legacy of the field of global health still influences how funding decisions are made and how medical students are sometimes trained, among other things.
We kick off discussing the colonialist history of the practice of global health. We then have a broad conversation about what can be done to decolonize global health, including the role of academic institutions in this effort.
Guest: Dr. Ashti Doobay-Persaud is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at Northwestern University where she co-directs the Center for Global Health Education and is the Faculty Director of the Master of Science in Global Health program.
Today’s episode is produced in partnership with Northwestern University’s Online Masters of Science in Global Health, which has been a longtime parter of this podcast. You can learn more about this program by visiting SPS. northwestern.edu/global
The longtime ruler of Chad, Idriss Deby, died from wounds sustained while visiting troops on the battlefield. Deby had been the president of Chad for over 30 years and was considered a stalwart ally of the United States and France, who viewed him as the lynchpin of regional counter-terrorism efforts.
On the line to discuss what the death of Chad president Idriss Deby means for regional and international security — and for the future of Chad is Reed Brody, Counsel for Human Rights Watch.
This includes Poland, where even before the pandemic levels of gender based violence were extremely high. During the first month of the lockdown in March 2020, the country’s largest women’s rights center received a 50% increase in calls to its emergency domestic abuse hotline.
This COVID-induced spike in gender-based violence in Poland comes as the country is deep into a democratic backslide. The government of Poland is controlled by the ruling Law and Justice Party which has eroded media freedom and eviscerated the independence of the judiciary, among other anti-democratic moves. The government is also reactionary in its worldview, including on issues related to gender. It has imposed a near-total ban on abortion and is seeking to withdraw from a key treaty to combat violence against women known as the Istanbul Convention.
My guest today, Annie Hylton is an independent investigative journalist who examined the increase in gender-based violence in Poland in the context of the country’s vulnerability to atrocity crimes. “Atrocity crimes” is generally understood to encompass genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
As she explains, there is research suggesting that the erosion of women’s rights precedes atrocity crimes. And we discuss her reporting from Poland at length in this conversation.
