A Grounds-Eye View of Hong Kong’s Frighteningly Fast Slide Towards Authoritarianism

Hana Meihan Davis comes from a long line of democracy activists in Hong Kong. Today, they are all either in exile, facing arrest, or somewhere in between.

Hana Meihan Davis is the author of the new book For The Love of Hong Kong: A Memoir From My City Under Siege, which tells the story of Hana’s family and friends who have been on the frontline of an epic struggle to defend democracy, freedom of speech and human rights in the face of increasing repression by Chinese government authorities.

This is the first book under the new Global Dispatches publishing imprint.

In this episode, Hana Meihan Davis discusses the history of Hong Kong and the city’s rapid democratic decline.

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Is “Progressive Realism” the Future of US Foreign Policy?

The American foreign policy tradition has been recently dominated by just a few ideologies: neoconservatism of the Regan and George W. Bush eras and the liberal internationalism of the Clinton and Obama administrations. 

Robert Wright, has helped to introduce and popularize a new kind of intellectual tradition to the public square called “Progressive Realism.”  He explains some key principals of a progressive-realist foreign policy and how this ideology might be applied to some key foreign policy challenges, including competition with China and conflict in the middle east. 

Guest:  Robert Wright is the author of several books, including  NonZero: The Logic of Human Destiny and runs a newsletter of the same name.

 

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An Historic Moment in the Fight Against COVID Shows Why Cold Chains Are Key to Global Health and Development

Owusu Akoto, CEO of Freezelink, receives Africa’s first doses of vaccines from COVAX

On February 24 the very first shipments of a COVID-19 vaccine from COVAX arrived in Ghana. COVAX is the international cooperative effort around the development and distribution safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. Ghana became the first country to receive COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX when 600,000 doses landed at the airport in Accra. 

On hand to receive these doses was an old friend of mine, Owusu Akoto. He is the founder and CEO of a Ghanian cold chain logistics company called Freezelink. 

It was an historic day for COVAX, a hopeful day for Ghana and an exciting moment for my friend who started this company just a couple years ago as a social enterprise to combat food waste in Ghana.  He explains the sometimes unheralded role that cold chain technologies and logistics play in a country’s economic and social development.

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Legendary US Diplomat Thomas Pickering Explains How the US Can Get Its Multilateral Groove Back

The United States Permanent Representative, Thomas R. Pickering, votes against permitting the observer for Palestine to participate in the Security Council discussion on the current situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Ambassador Thomas Pickering is a legendary retired US foreign service officer. He had a four decade career in diplomacy, including stints as United States ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, Nigeria, and El Salvador, among other key postings.

In 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed him United States Ambassador to the United Nations where he played a critical role in marshaling broad international support against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

The diplomacy that accompanied the international effort to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the early 1990s is considered to be a high water mark for US multilateral engagement.This is why I was curious to learn from Ambassador Pickering about what opportunities may exist for the incoming Biden administration to re-establish US global leadership and multilateral engagement?

We kick off discussing the Trump administration’s approach to multilateralism before having a broader conversation about the changing nature of the UN and ways the Biden administration can productively work with with allies and adversaries to advance American interests and the global good.

If you have 20 minutes and want to learn from one of America’s most decorated diplomats, have a listen.

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Today’s episode is produced in partnership with the Better World Campaign as part of a series  examining the opportunities for strengthening multilateral engagement by the new Biden-Harris administration and the incoming 117th Congress. To learn more and access additional episodes in this series, please visit http://getusback.org/

What’s Next for the Iran Nuclear Deal?

When President Trump came to office in 2017, he inherited from President Obama the Iran Nuclear Deal. Trump rejected the deal and embarked on a fruitless “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. 

Such is the state of relations between the United States and Iran that Joe Biden will inherit when he takes office in January. Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute discusses whether or not it is even possible for a Biden administration to revive the nuclear deal; and what steps a Biden administration can take to get diplomacy with Iran back on track. 

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The Link Between Climate Change and Inequality in Indonesia — Taped Live

Today’s episode was taped live in front a virtual audience as part of a series of a series of episodes examining the relationship between climate and security, produced in partnership with CGIAR, the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network.

The episode today, which is the eighth and final in our series, examines the relationship between climate security and inequality in Indonesia.

In Indonesia, most farming households live below the poverty line and rely on agriculture for their subsistence. Therefore, climate induced losses on crop and livestock productivity are inherently regressive in nature  — they can severely worsen the life of the poorest, further increasing economic inequality. 

New research finds that climate variability reduces household income, and communities experiencing extreme temperatures see their income affected the most. The impact of climate variability on income is also most acutely felt by  female-headed households and older populations. 

These are  just some key findings that we will be discussing today. 

And with that, let’s get into a discussion about the intersection of Climate Variability and inequality in Indonesia.  It is my pleasure to introduce our panelists. 

Athia Yumna, Deputy Director of Research and Outreach, The SMERU Research Institute

Mubariq Ahmad, Country Director, Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) Indonesia

Maliki, Director for Poverty Alleviation and Community Empowerment, Ministry of National Development Planning- National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas)

Henriette Faergemann, First Counsellor, Environment, Climate Action and ICT, Delegation of the European Union to Indonesia

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This episode is a dissemination event that is part of the research project “Climate variability in Indonesia and Vietnam” from the EU-AFD Research Facility on inequalities, developed with the financial support of the European Commission and the coordination of the French Development Agency (AFD). The research initiative presented today is a complement to other climate initiatives in Indonesia that AFD supports, such as a non-sovereign loan to strengthen the capacities of the Meteorological, climatological and geophysical agency (BMKG) for marine meteorology data acquisition and modeling;  and two credit lines to PTSMI dedicated to adaptation and mitigation of climate change with some allocations to health and social projects.

The Link Between Climate Change and Inequality in Vietnam — Taped Live

Vietnam has been deeply impacted by climate change over the last 20 years. With more than 70% of its population living in coastal areas and low-lying deltas, Vietnam is highly vulnerable to riverine and coastal flooding. Meanwhile, El Nino events have caused droughts and water shortages in many provinces. 

Vietnam is also a country that has experienced rapid economic growth over the past several decades. Still, that growth has not been equitably experienced by all. Rural and agrarian communities and members of ethnic minority groups have not seen their livelihoods increase at the same pace. 

Today’s conversation will explore the linkages between climate variability and inequality in Vietnam. Our conversation is informed by a report by the EU-AFD Research Facility on Inequalities, titled “Who bears the burden of climate variability? Unpacking the impact of weather conditions on inequality in Vietnam.” As in our conversation today, this paper explores various ways that climate variability impacts poorer populations in Vietnam.

Our conversation today is a dissemination event that is part of the research project called “Climate variability in Indonesia and Vietnam” from the EU-AFD Research Facility on inequalities, developed with the financial support of the European Commission and the coordination of the French Development Agency (AFD). The research project presented today is a complement to other climate research initiatives in Vietnam that AFD supports, such as the GEMMES project Vietnam, modeling the socio-economic impacts of climate change in Vietnam as well as adaptation strategies up to 2050.

Cecile Leroy –  EU Programme Manager, European Union Development Cooperation in Vietnam

Hai-Anh Dang – Senior Economist, World Bank

Phuong Vu, Senior  Officer at the International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam

Janto Hess,  Climate Change Adaptation Technical Specialist, UN Development Program

Nguyen Ngoc Huy | Senior Climate Change Advisor, Oxfam in Vietnam

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How the World Will Get a COVID-19 Vaccine (Part 2)

Image credit: CEPI

When a COVID-19 Vaccine is available, most of the world will have access to it thanks to a unique platform for international cooperation called The COVAX Facility. 

The COVAX Facility is a platform for pooled investments in the development, manufacture and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. At time of recording, 172 countries have entered into an initial agreement with COVAX, representing about 70% of the world’s population.  The goal of the COVAX Facility is to provide 2 billion doses of a vaccine to cover 20% of the population of all participating countries by the end of 2021.  

 GAVI–The Vaccine Alliance administers COVAX and on the line with me today to explain how COVAX works is the Managing Director for Country Programs at GAVI Thabani Maphosa

This episode is part two of a series examining how the COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to new forms of international cooperation to accelerate the end of the pandemic. Part one, released last week is my interview with the CEO of the Coalition for Pandemic Preparedness Innovations, CEPI, which has made early and ongoing investments in the development and manufacture of the vaccines.

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How the World Will Get a COVID-19 Vaccine (Part 1)

Image credit: CEPI

When a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, chances are that the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will have played a big role in bringing it into the world. 

CEPI is a partnership between governments, philanthropies and civil society organizations to support the development of vaccines and medicines for infectious diseases that have the potential to become pandemics. When COVID-19 emerged, CEPI made early investments in vaccine research and development and in building infrastructure around the mass production of a vaccine. 

In this episode, the CEO of CEPI Richard Hatchett explains how this platform for international cooperation is supporting the development of a COVID-19 Vaccine that will be made available worldwide as a public good. 

This episode is Part 1 of of a series examining how international cooperation and “vaccine multilateralism” is accelerating an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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