World Bank president Jim Yong Kim is stepping down at the end January. He made that announcement on January 7th, surprising most observers for the fact that he is resigning from his post with three years left in his second term.

This vacancy presents a key inflection point for the World Bank.

An American has always headed the World Bank. This is owing to a deal struck between the United States and Europe in which the US backs the European nominee for head of the International Monetary Fund while Europe backs the US nominee for head of the World Bank. That longstanding tradition may now come to an end.

Scott Morris is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and longtime observer and analyst of the World Bank. In this conversation we discuss Jim Kim’s legacy at the Bank and why his departure now sets the stage for a potential clash between the Trump administration and other governments over who will next lead the Bank.

If you have 20 minutes and want a deeper understanding of the broader international implications of Jim Yong Kim’s departure from the World Bank–and what it signals about the World Bank’s work during the Trump era —  have a listen.

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About Scott Morris

Scott Morris is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and director of the US Development Policy Initiative. In addition to managing the center’s work on US development policy, his research addresses development finance issues, debt policy, governance issues at international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF, and China’s role as a development actor.

Morris served as deputy assistant secretary for development finance and debt at the US Treasury Department during the first term of the Obama Administration. In that capacity, he led US engagement with the multilateral development bank, as well as US participation in the Paris Club of official creditors. He also represented the US government in the G-20’s Development Working Group and was the Treasury’s “+1” on the board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. During his time at Treasury, Morris led negotiations for four general capital increases at the multilateral development banks and replenishments of the International Development Association (IDA), Asian Development Fund, and African Development Fund.

Morris was a senior staff member on the Financial Services Committee in the US House of Representatives, where he was responsible for the Committee’s international policy issues, including the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007 (the landmark reform of the CFIUS process), as well multiple reauthorizations of the US Export-Import Bank charter and approval of a $108 billion financing agreement for the International Monetary Fund in 2009. Previously, Morris was a vice president at the Committee for Economic Development in Washington, DC.

One of the worst mass atrocities in recent times took place in Sri Lanka during the final days of that country’s long civil war. In May 2009, tens of thousands of people were killed by Sri Lankan armed forces over the course of just a few days as the military sought to deal a final blow to an insurgent group known as the Tamil Tigers. In the process, they killed as many as 40,000 civilians.

No one was brought to justice for this crime against humanity. And the lack of accountability for those crimes is a key factor in that my guest, Kate Cronin- Furman, argues is contributing to political instability in Sri Lanka today.

Kate Cronin-Furman is an assistant professor of Human Rights in the Department of Political Science, University College London. In this conversation, she explains what happened during the final days of that civil war when this massacre occurred. We then discuss how the forces that carried out that crime against humanity are posing a big challenge to the political life of Sri Lanka, which entered an extremely tumultuous period this fall in which two people claimed to be prime minister at the same time.

We kick off discussing the Sri Lankan civil war and its brutal end days before having a longer discussion about the ways in which the lack of accountability for those events are undermining the political stability of Sri Lanka today.

This massacre of 40,000 people was second only to the genocide in Darfur as the worst mass atrocity event of the first decade of the 21st century. As you will learn in this episode, Sri Lankan politics is still defined by this atrocity in ways harmful to a healthy democracy.

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Diplomats, scientists, advocates and other concerned parties are gathering in Katowice, Poland for a major international climate conference that is serving as a followup to the Paris Climate Agreement. The meeting is formally called the 24th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is better known in UN lingo as COP24 and it stretches from December 2nd to the 14th.

This conference is a big moment in international diplomacy and a key inflection point for the implementation of the goals set forth in the Paris Accord.

On the line with me to discuss what is happening at this conference and why it matters is Yamide Dagnet, a senior associate at the World Resources Institute. And as she explains, there are three main tasks before delegates to this conference, which together are intended to facilitate global cooperation toward the Paris agreement goal of limiting the pace of global warming.

We also discuss how the United States fits into these negotiations given that it is both a major emitter and that President Trump has decided the US will pull out of the Paris Agreement.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the major tasks — and stakes —  of this key moment in the global effort to confront climate change, have a listen.

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Michelle Gelfand is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland and author of the new book Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire our World. The book, which is written for a popular audience, is based on a scientific study conducted by Gelfand in 33 countries in which she examines cultural norms around rule following.

As she explains, certain countries have a higher tolerance for norm and rules breaking than others–and these differences can have important consequences for international relations.

Dr. Gelfand’s study is a groundbreaking way to look at key cultural differences between countries. In this conversation we discuss what accounts for cultural proclivities for following rules, and what accounts for certain cultures to be more tolerant of deviance.

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1.5 million Syrian refugees are in Lebanon today. But as the fighting quells in areas of Syria, some of these refugees are considering returning home.

Who gets to return, the places to which they will return, and the circumstances under which refugees move back to Syria are intensely political decisions. As journalist Charlotte Alfred explains, the return of refugees, albeit in small numbers, has begun. And it is becoming a tactic of the civil war.

Charlotte Alfred is the managing director of the news website Refugees Deeply. Her recent longform article Dangerous Exit: Who Decides How Syrians in Lebanon Go Home explains the geopolitical calculations and the tactical military considerations behind these refugee returns; and on an individual level she explores the deeply personal dilemmas facing individual refugees as they make this decision.

The UN Refugee Agency is not aiding in the return of refugees to Syria. They have concluded that the situation in Syria is not safe enough to guarantee the security of returning refugees, and in fact, they have warned countries against returning refugees. But Lebanese and Syrian forces are working together to facilitate some returns.

The return of refugees and the politics around may define the next phase of this civil war and Charlotte Alfred has written the most important explanation of what that means.

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