Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

It was twenty years ago this month that the George W Bush administration began its ill-fated invasion and occupation of Iraq. The ostensible justification for this war of choice was that the Iraqi regime had weapons of mass destruction that it might someday use against the United States. This premise proved to be false and today the Iraq war is widely regarded to have been a massive strategic blunder. It resulted in the deaths of over 4,000 American service members and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. I'm joined today by journalist Spencer Ackerman. In our conversation we ask the question, now with 20 years of hindsight, "why did the US launch this war?" We also discuss the many lasting legacies of this decision on US foreign policy and international relations today? Spencer Ackerman is a foreign policy columnist for The Nation the writes the newsletter Forever Wars. He is the author of Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump, now out in paperback.

Other than Ukraine itself, no country has been more deeply impacted by Russia's invasion than Moldova. Moldova has absorbed more Ukrainian refugees per capita than any other country in the world and Moldova is uniquely dependent on Russian gas and electricity. Inflation is running at 30%. Moldova is governed by a stridently pro-European ruling party, and in recent weeks Russia has ramped up efforts to destabilize the country through protests and disinformation campaigns Joining me from Moldova's capital is journalist Paula Erizanu. We kick off discussing destabilization efforts by the Kremlin, before having a wider discussion of the ways in which Moldova has been impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Rob Bailis is a senior scientist for the Stockholm Environment Institute. He is a leading researcher on the intersection between energy use, health and the environment in the developing world. This includes the use of household cooking appliances -- cookstoves -- and the impact of the kind of fuel used in cookstoves on human health and the environment. Rob Balis contributed to new research, supported by the Clean Cooking Alliance that demonstrated how a transition away from burning biomass in cookstoves to using stoves powered by liquified petroleum gas or electricity would have a positive impact on combating climate change and sharply deaths and illnesses associated with dirty burning fuels. We kick off discussing the health and climate impacts of dirty burning household cooking appliances before having a longer discussion about his research on the counter-intuitively positive impact that fossil fuels could have in supporting an energy transition around household cooking in the developing world.

The annual Commission on the Status of Women CSW is the second largest diplomatic gathering at the United Nations each year, after the General Assembly in September. Thousands of delegates from hundreds of countries come to UN headquarters in New York in what is the major moment on the diplomatic calendar centered on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. Joining me to preview what will drive the agenda at the 67th Commission on the Status of Women is Michelle Milford Morse Vice President for Girls and Women Strategy at the United Nations Foundation.

On March 1st Bola Tinubu was declared the winner of Nigeria's sharply contested presidential election. In a three way race, Tinubu received 37% of the votes, enough to win him the presidency. Bola Tinubu is from the same party as outgoing president Mohammadu Buhari. The election results are being challenged in court by his rivals. But if the results stand, he will be inaugurated in May. Joining me to discuss the results of this election, and the key challenges ahead for the incoming Nigerian government is Amaka Anku, head of the Africa Practice at the Eurasia Group.

Before joining the United States House of Representatives in 2021, Congresswoman Sara Jacobs worked at the United Nations and US State Department. As she explains, this experience gave her unique insights into the valuable role the United States can play at the UN and the value the UN brings to US foreign policy. Congresswoman Sara Jacobs is a Democrat from southern California who serves on House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she is the top democrat on the Subcommittee on Africa and on the House Armed Services Committee. She is the youngest member of the Democratic party's Congressional leadership team.

On February 23rd, President Biden nominated former MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga to serve as the next World Bank president. His nomination came as a surprise to many in the international development community, including my guest today Amanda Glassman. Amanda Glassman is executive vice president and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. We kick off discussing the circumstances around the early departure of current World Bank president David Malpass. We then discuss the biography of Ajay Banga, and why he is something of an unconventional pick for World Bank president. We then have a longer conversation about the key challenges ahead for the World Bank this year, including why this may be a make or break year for the World Bank.

To mark the one year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Global Dispatches has teamed up with the podcast Inside Geneva to bring you a live recording in which host Imogen Foulkes is joined by conflict resolution experts to discuss the prospects for peace – and how it can be won. "The fact that we're talking about the possibility of using nuclear weapons, the fact that we're talking about the possibility of the United States and China going to war over Taiwan; it's frightening," says Katia Papagianni, director of Policy and Mediation Support at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. "There is a concept that has been floating around in academia for many years called a hurting stalemate, when the two parties decide that enough is enough. And we are clearly not at this hurting stalemate," says Keith Krause, director of the Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding at the Graduate Institute Geneva (IHEID). What does a lasting peace look like? "Peace is beyond the absence of violence. It's really about access to justice, economic opportunities, security, and pluralism," says Hiba Qasas, executive director of the Principles for Peace Initiative. "Sustainable peace needs to include the youth, it needs to inform the youth, and it needs to educate the youth; so inclusion, information, and education," says Shefali Kaur Nandhra, a graduate student in sustainable development at IHEID. Are there good examples from the past? "There are, of course, some success stories. I think the Colombian process, we have a lot to learn from that, and not just because it was locally driven," says Krause. "As someone who grew up in conflict, my concern is not only about the battlefield, but also about all the insidious impacts that come after the guns have been silenced," says Qasas. Once you listen to this episode, please be sure to subscribe to Inside Geneva wherever you find podcasts. Inside Geneva is produced by SwissInfo, a public service media company based in Bern, Switzerland.

In April 2019, Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir was ousted in a coup after nearly 30 years in power. The coup followed months of mass civilian protests against his regime. The transition from dictatorship to democracy has been extremely rocky, but in December 2022 civilian and military leaders entered into an agreement under heavy international pressure. Guest Hala al-Karib, is a Sudanese activist, research practitioner and director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa. We kick off discussing who negotiated that December 5 agreement and its key provisions before discussing the many layers of challenges to a successful democratic transition in Sudan.

Humanity is tantalizingly close to killing off the last Guinea Worm. This is a water born parasite that when ingested grows and grows until it painfully exits the body through a lesion in the skin. There is no treatment for it. There is no cure for it. But it can be prevented. And if prevented everywhere, Guinea Worm Disease will be eradicated. We are now on the cusp of that moment. In 2022, there were just 13 confirmed human cases of Guinea Worm Disease around the world. This is down from three and a half million cases in the early 1980s. At the center of the global campaign to eradicate guinea worm disease is the Carter Center. And joining me from Mali is Adam Joseph Weiss, director of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program at the Carter Center.