The Moria Refugee Camp on the island of Lesvos, Greece is the largest refugee camp in Europe. The camp has an official capacity of just over 2,000 people. But the population is now more than 17,000, with most people living in makeshift shelters in fields and olive groves on the island.

In recent months the number of refugees arriving at Lesvos by boat from Turkey has sharply increased. This is following the breakdown of a 2016 agreement between Turkey and the European Union in which Turkey largely stopped boat departures from its shores. Now, thousands of refugees are once again arriving on the Greek Islands. Over 3,000 people have arrived in November alone.

Needless to say, the conditions on the island of Lesvos are horrendous. People are stuck there, seemingly in perpetual limbo as they asylum claims are processed and they await transfer to the mainland.

On the line with me to discuss the situation on Lesvos is Dr. Siyana Shaffi. She is the founder of the NGO Kitrinos Healthcare which provides healthcare to refugees in Greece. She recently returned from Camp Moria when we spoke in November and in this conversation she gives you a real sense of the harsh conditions faced by refugees stranded on an island in Europe.

Since we spoke, the government of Greece announced somewhat nebulous plans to close the camp and transfer its residents to effective prisons on the mainland. It is unclear, though, if that will actually happen. This episode gives you a grounds-eye view of how Europe’s harsh treatment of refugees stranded on an island in Greece.

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Delegates, civil society and government officials from around the world are gathering in Madrid, Spain this week for the next big international climate change conference, known as COP 25. On the agenda are strategies to accelerate progress towards the Paris Agreement Goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius.

But to reach the Paris Agreement goals, new research shows that countries need to dramatically reduce what is called the fossil fuel production gap.

This gap is the difference between the fossil fuels that countries are planning to produce in the coming years and the necessary reduction in fossil fuel production required to halt global warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius.

The study was co-produced by a number of international non profit and research organizations and the United Nations Environment Program. The lead partner on this report was the Stockholm Environment Institute, and on the line with me is a scientist from the Stockholm Environment Institute, Peter Erickson.

We kick off discussing the concept of a “production gap” before having a longer conversation about the report’s findings and why this report is such an important contribution to our collective understanding of actions that need to be taken in order to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

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On November 12th, longtime Bolivian president Evo Morales fled to Mexico, prompting a political and security crisis in the Bolivia. Evo Morales fled his country amid protests against alleged election rigging and after being threatened by Bolivia’s military and security services. The circumstances of his ouster have lead some to conclude this was a coup.

In his place, an interim and right-wing government has stepped up violent attacks against pro-Morales protesters. Several people have been killed by the security services in the protests that followed Morales’ ouster.

At time of recording, the situation remained fluid, with some talks between pro-Maduro and anti-Maduro factions on potential new elections. But the prospect of more violence is very much a reality.

On the line to explain the roots of the crisis in Bolivia is Ivan Briscoe, Latin America director of the International Crisis Group. We kick off with a discussion of the unique place that Evo Morales holds in Latin American history as Bolivia’s first indigenous president and a broadly effective left-wing leader. We then have a in-depth discussion about the circumstances surrounding his ouster, including what the international community can do — and in some cases can’t do — to help bring about a peaceful resolution to this crisis.

If you have 25 minutes and want to understand what is driving this crisis in Bolivia, have a listen

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There are just five people in the world who decide each year who wins the Nobel Peace Prize — and Asle Toje is one of them.

Asle Toje is a foreign policy scholar and author. As of last year, he is also the newest member of the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee.

In our conversation, we discuss how one wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Asle Toje discusses some of the behind-the-scenes work of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, including the kinds of considerations that he and the other jurors make when deciding who should win the Nobel Peace Prize. To the extent possible, this conversation brings you inside the room where every Nobel Peace Prize winner has been decided for most of the last 105 years.

We kick off with what with a discussion about the history of the Nobel Peace Prize and Alfred Nobel, before having an extended conversation about the process behind selecting the winner, certain controversies surrounding their decision over the years, and whether or not awarding the Nobel Peace Prize can influence broader political or policy outcomes in the service of peace.

This Global Dispatches Podcast episode is an incredibly unique opportunity to hear directly  from a Nobel Peace Prize juror and I think you will love it.

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Asle Toje’s newest book is called The Causes of Peace: What We Know Now

Listen to the Global Dispatches podcast interview with the 2017 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Beatrice Finh of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Listen to a conversation about how 2019 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed, has helped to spark a democratic renewal in Ethiopia and secure a peace agreement with Eritrea.

The small west African country of the Gambia has lodged a suit at the International Court of Justice against Myanmar for committing a genocide against the Rohingya people.

The Rohingya are an ethnic and religious minority in Myanmar who have long faced discrimination and persecution. But it was not until the summer and fall of 2017 that this persecution became a mass atrocity event —  and arguably a genocide. Some 700,000 Rohingya fled violence in this time, and now more than a million live as refugees in neighboring Bangladesh.

Justice for the Rohingya victims of genocide has so far been elusive. But this action at the International Court of Justice, which is a UN body based in the Hague, could be a significant turning point.

On the line with me to discuss the significance of this lawsuit is Param-Preet Singh, associate director of Human Rights Watch in the International Justice Program. In our conversation she explains what exactly this law suit alleges, why Gambia is the country bringing the suit, and how this action advances the cause of justice for victims of crimes against humanity.

We kick off with a brief discussion of the International Court of Justice and how the judicial process at the ICJ works.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the geopolitics of this action and how it may advance the cause of justice for victims of genocide and mass atrocity, have a listen.

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One of the driving forces of international relations over the last several years has been a rivalry between Arab states. This is sometimes called the “Gulf Crisis” and put simply, it refers to tensions and hostilities between Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on the one hand; and Qatar on the other.

The roots of this rivalry run deep, but around the time of the Arab Spring these tensions came very much to the surface. The United States has historically had a profound interest in mitigating hostilities between Gulf Arab states, principally because each of these countries are key US allies. The US, for example, has a major Navy base in Bahrain and a major Air Force base in Qatar. But the Trump administration has been less adept at keeping a lid on the hostilities between these countries. Now these tensions are not only affecting relations between Arab gulf states, but are also leaving a mark in other regions.

As my guest today, Elizabeth Dickinson explains, the Gulf Crisis has been exported. The true fallout from this feud has not been felt on the Arabian Peninsula, she argues, but on battlefields across the greater Middle East and in the fragile politics of countries in the Horn of Africa, specifically Sudan and Somalia.

Elizabeth Dickinson is a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group and in our conversation she explains both the roots of this rivalry in the gulf and how this crisis in the gulf is stoking instability across several regions of the world.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn how Gulf rivalries are shaping the politics outside the region, have a listen.

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Gulalai Ismail won’t tell me how she came to New York. Doing so, she says, will put too many lives at risk.

Gulalai Ismail is a longtime human rights activist in Pakistan. Her organization, Aware Girls, helped to train the likes of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai and hundreds of other Pakistani girls, mostly in the very conservative parts of the country rife with Islamist militants.

She has faced numerous death threats over the years for her outspoken promotion of the rights of women and girls, but it was not until she began speaking out against the Pakistani government that she felt compelled to flee the country.

As Gulalai Ismail explains, she was put on a most-wanted list for her leadership and participation in a protest movement this year seeking accountability for human rights abuses committed by the Pakistani security forces during counter-terrorism operations. This was when harassment and threats directly from the government forced her into hiding.

She publicly resurfaced in New York in September, where she is now seeking political asylum.

The story she shares in this podcast episode is one of perseverance and dedication to the advancement of the rights of women and girls, despite great personal risk.

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