Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

The Horn of Africa region, which includes parts of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, is experiencing a severe drought. This region has been particularly vulnerable to droughts in recent years--but the situation this summer has become increasingly dire and is raising the prospect of a widespread humanitarian emergency. A little background: In the summer of 2011, there was a similar drought in the region. But warnings about the humanitarian consequences of this drought went largely unheeded until the drought lead to a famine -- the first of the 21st century. Over the subsequent weeks and months over 260,000 people died, making this famine one of the worst mass atrocities of this decade. That was 2011. In 2017, there was another drought. But this time, the international community and governments in the region responded with urgency. They were able to provide humanitarian assistance and other aid and interventions that prevented the tragedy of 2011 from being repeated. This brings us So that is all some recent historic background to an email that landed in my inbox from Oxfam, which compared data around the humanitarian response in 2011 to the response to the current ongoing drought, which shows that compared to 2011, the humanitarian needs are greater and the international response is far less robust. This of course suggests that unless something changes, the current drought could lead to another famine. On the line with me to discuss the current humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa is Dustin Barter, the regional drought policy and advocacy lead, Oxfam. He authored a report comparing the impact of the 2011, 2017 and current drought and the international humanitarian response. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn why the international community ought to be paying attention to an incipient humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa, have a listen Support the show https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

Ethiopia is in the midst of a fairly remarkable democratic renewal. Since taking office in April 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has accelerated a process of political opening, including a greater freedom of press, the release of political prisoners, a detente with Eritrea, and other meaningful reforms. But Ethiopia's transition to a liberal, open and multi-party democracy has faced some significant challenges in recent weeks. On June 22, an a general tried to orchestrate a coup attempt, which resulted in two high profile assassinations. That coup attempt, which failed, came on the heels of inter-communal clashes that forced nearly 3 million people from their homes. Now, the transition underway in Ethiopia is very much being challenged. On the line to help explain why Ethiopian politics is at such a pivotal moment right now William Davidson, senior Ethiopia analyst with the International Crisis Group. He offers listeners some helpful context and background for understanding the current situation, including what is driving change and the counter-reactions to the process of democratic renewal. To that end, argues William Davidson, it is crucial to understand how rivalries within the ruling coalition, known as the the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, are driving politics. Thank you to all the premium subscribers who have filled out the survey I sent about discounts you'd like to receive to publications, products, membership organizations and the like. I'll be reaching out to those in the coming few weeks to see what kind of group discounts we can secure for you guys. Support the Show https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

One of the largest cities in India is running out of water. Is this our climate future? Monsoons typically provide the bulk of water for Chennai, which is one of the largest cities in India. It is on the south eastern coast of the country, in the Tamil Nadu province which is an area that relies on seasonal monsoons to supply the bulk of water. But last year's monsoons were exceptionally weak, causing aquifers and other water sources to run dry. Now, in some neighborhoods if taps run at all, only a trickle comes out. Many neighborhoods are reliant on water trucks-- if they can afford it. Meanwhile many people are fleeing the city while this crisis persists. The proximate cause of this crisis is poor rains. But according to my guest today, Meera Subramanian, deeper political and social factors have exacerbated this crisis. This includes poor city planning and a focus on massive infrastructure projects of limited utility. Meera Subramanian is a freelance journalist and independent author. She is the author of a book about water issues in India titled: A River Runs Again: India's Natural World in Crisis, from the Barren Cliffs of Rajasthan to the Farmlands of Karnataka. In July she authored an op-ed piece in the New York Times which makes the case that disaggregated water resource management could be far more effective in combating crisis like the one we are seeing in Chennai today. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the implications of the fact that one of the largest cities in one of the most populous countries is running out of water, have a listen. Go Premium! https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

Since taking office the Trump administration has taken unprecedented steps to sharply reduce both the number of refugees who are resettled in the United States and also the number of people who can claim asylum. This has included significantly lowering what is known as the "ceiling" on refugee admissions to the smallest number ever and placing onerous restrictions on exactly who can be admitted as a refugee. Meanwhile, the administration is implementing several policies of dubious legality that would effectively make it impossible for people entering the southern US border to claim asylum. The Trump administration's restrictive policies toward refugees and asylum seekers are reaching a new phase. In this episode one of the world's leading experts on refugee and asylum policies is on the line to both discuss the mechanics of what the Trump administration is doing. Eric Schwartz is the president of Refugees International and also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration in the Obama administration. He has deep experience working on humanitarian and refugee issues, which he summons in our conversation to help put this administration's assault on refugees and asylum seekers in context. We also discuss the very real global implications of the fact that the United States can not be meaningfully relied on to advocate for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers around the world. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the implications of the Trump administration's increasingly hostile approach to refugees and asylum, have a listen. Unlock Rewards. Support the Show. Become a Patron https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

North Korea is under the world's most stringent set of international sanctions. This includes, since 2006, a ban on exporting of luxury goods to North Korea. This has not stopped Kim Jong Un from amassing a fleet of high end cars. He is regularly seen in Mercedes and Rolls Royces both in North Korea and on his trips abroad. And now a fascinating report in the New York Times offers some key insights into how Kim Jong Un smuggles his luxury cars into North Korea. Reporters from the New York Times teamed up with researchers at the non profit Center for Advanced Defense Studies to track two Mercedes Maybachs from their manufacture in Germany to the streets of Pyongyang. The route was a circuitous one, involving multiple shipping vessels docking in at least five countries over the course of several months. But using open source data and satellite imagery, the reporters and researchers were able to paint a pretty clear picture of how those cars ended up in North Korea. And in so doing, they reveal how the North Korean regime is able to evade some sanctions. On the line with me to discuss his reporting is one of the journalists on the story, Christoph Koettl. He is a visual investigations journalist with the New York Times video team, specializing in geospatial and open-source research. We spend most of this conversation discussing the step-by-step journey of these cars. And I think going through each leg of this trip is important because this story reveals a weakness in international sanctions in general and on North Korea in particular. And that's this: which is that that are only robust to the extent that countries are willing and able to enforce them. Support the Show. Become a Premium Subscriber. Unlock Rewards https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

In 2015, the world adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. These are 17 goals around improving health, welfare and the environment that members of the United Nations agreed to achieve by 2030. The "SDGs," as they are known, built upon a previous set of global goals, called the Millennium Development Goals, which expired in 2015. The idea behind the SDGs was to create an ambitious but achievable set of quantifiable targets around which governments, civil society organizations and the UN can organize their development and environmental policies. These targets include things like eliminating extreme poverty, as defined by people who live on less than $1.25/day; reducing maternal mortality to less than 70 per 100,000 live births; ending the aids epidemic; significantly reduce ocean acidification; among many others. In all there are 162 targets built around those 17 goals. This week at the United Nations there is an major meeting called the High Level Political Forum on the SDGs in which top government officials and civil society participate in a stock taking of where we stand in terms of progress on these goals. A number of foreign ministers and other officials are in New York to discuss progress--or lack there of -- on the SDGs, so I thought this might be a good moment to have a conversation that examines where the world stands four years into the sustainable development goals. On the line with me to discuss progress on the SDGs and how, four years in the SDGs are affecting global affairs and international relations is John McArthur, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Senior Advisor to the UN Foundation. Become a Premium Subscriber. Unlock Rewards https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

Ash Carter served as President Obama's Secretary of Defense from 2015 to 2017. What made Ash Carter so unique among his predecessors was that by the time he became the Secretary of Defense, he'd already spent nearly 30 years working at the Pentagon. This included stints as both the deputy Secretary of Defense and as the number three in the department, a position often referred to as the acquisitions Tsar. Ash Carter is out with a new book "Inside the Five-Sided Box: Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership in the Pentagon." This is not your conventional Washington, DC memoir. Rather, what I found so valuable about the book is that offers a grounds-eye view of how the world's largest national security bureaucracy operates. Decisions made at the Pentagon -- from the kinds of weapons bought, to the bases that are opened, to personnel decisions -- really do have world-shaping implication. This book takes you inside that decision making process. In our conversation, we kick off discussing the sheer vastness of the pentagon. The annual budget of the pentagon is about half of all discretionary spending in the US--that is, money spent on government programs excluding things like social security and medicare. This comes to over $700 billion. For comparison's sake the budget of the State Department is about $50 billion; and UN peacekeeping budget is under $7 billion. We then discuss what he thinks the US--and world--get for that huge investment. We also discuss his views of the role of the United Nations and UN Peacekeeping; and also the significance of the fact that the US has not had a secretary of defense since Jim Mattis left on December 31. If you have 25 minutes and want to learn insights from the former Secretary of Defense, have a listen. Unlock Premium Content and Other Rewards https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

When Reccep Tayyep Erdogan party, the AKP, won a landslide victory in Turkey's 2002 general elections he became a very different kind of Turkish leader from his predecessors. The AKP is a religious party in what was an avowedly secular political tradition. For a time, Erdogan presided over a booming economy and was hailed for being a modernizing muslim leader in a troubled region. His relations with Europe and the United States were strong, and he sought to play a stabilizing role in the middle east. But all the while, Erdogan was consolidating his power. It started slowly at first and in recent years the degradation of Turkey;s independent institutions has accelerated. This includes clampdown on media and the corruption of the courts and a massive political purge following what Erdogan alleged was an attempted coup in 2016. Erdogan was become the quintessential example of a new kind of leader around the world--the illiberal authoritarian democrat. That is, someone who is democratically elected, but then systematically uses the power of the state to entrench himself in power. This brings us to recent events in Turkey. On March 31, an opposition leader Ekrem Immoglu won election as Mayor of Istanbul, a position incidentally that Ergoan held before he became Prime minister. Election authorities, clearly at Erdogan's request, invalidated those results and called for a re-run of the election and weeks later, Immoglu won again--this time by a wider margin. So what does this election tell us about Ergodan's hold on power and the trajectory of Turkish politics? On the line with me to explain the global significance of municipal elections in Turkey is Howard Eisentstat, he is an associate professor of middle eastern history atSt Lawrence University and senior non-resident fellow a the Project on Middle East Democracy. Become a premium subscriber https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

Events are unfolding rapidly between the United States and Iran. At time of recording, it was reported that Trump ordered and then called off a military strike against Iran in retaliation for the downing of a US surveillance drone over the gulf of Oman. Meanwhile, Iran is threatening to take actions that would put it in direct violation of the nuclear deal, otherwise known as the JCPOA and Europe is trying is darndest to hold the deal together. There are a lot of moving pieces right now, so I wanted to bring you an episode that gives you some context and background for understanding and interpreting events as they unfold in the coming weeks and months. To that end, I could think of no better interlocutor than Laicie Heeley. She is the host of a fantastic podcast called Things That Go Boom. She just wrapped up her second season, which was all about the Iran Nuclear Deal. The podcast tells the story behind the Iran nuclear deal in a really interesting and entertaining way, and I'd urge people to check it out. In our conversation today, we kick off discussing Europe's efforts to salvage the deal and the tough position Europe finds itself in. And then we have a forward looking conversation about some of the key decisions that Iran, the United States and Europe will be forced to make that could determine whether this crisis leads to war. Support the Show!

Congressman Mike Gallagher is a Republican representing the eighth district of Wisconsin, which includes the city of Green Bay. Congressman Gallagher has an interesting profile, which includes a PHD in International Relations. He's very thoughtful and I think this conversation offers listeners some key insights into how an emerging leader in Republican foreign policy circles considers the US role in the world, the value of multilateralism and international institutions, and more. We kick off discussing Iran, before having a broader conversation about US foreign policy writ large. If you are a regular listener to the show my own foreign policy and political views are fairly apparent. You also know that I don't do adversarial interviews--I don't debate people. Rather, I find more value in drawing out the perspective of the person I'm interviewing. And I think that is why you will find this conversation with Congressman Gallagher useful in terms of understanding how a key Republican foreign policy maker sees the world. The bonus episodes I've posted this week for premium subscribers includes my conversations with Joseph Nye and Carolyn Miles. Joseph Nye is the international relations theorist who coined the term "soft power" and Carolyn Miles is the longtime CEO of the global humanitarian organization Save the Children. In both conversations they trace their career path with me and tell stories from their life and career. To access those episodes, and other rewards like complimentary subscription to my news clips service, please visit Patreon.com/GlobalDispatches or follow the links on GlobalDispatchesPodcast.com Support the show! Become a Premium Subscriber! Unlock Rewards!