Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

My guest today Ivo Daalder served as the United States ambassador to NATO under President Obama from 2009 to 2013. He is now the president of the Chicago council on foreign relations and he is the co-author, with James Lindsey, of the new book, The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership. The book offers a comprehensive accounting of the first two years of President Trump's foreign policy and in so doing, it offers an unsparing criticism of what the authors argue is a grand strategic failure of the Trump administration. Now, for those of you who have been around the foreign policy world for a while, you may recall that Ivo Daalder and James Lindsey last teamed up for the 2005 book America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy. This book won all sorts of awards and rightly so--it was the first book to really offer a full picture of the immense scope of the foreign policy failures of the first term of the George W Bush administration. So, we kick off this conversation comparing that era to the one we are currently in.

My guest today, Nicola Banks, is a lecturer in global urbanism and urban development at the University of Manchester. She has conducted some pioneering research on the role of the NGO sector in global development. Some of her findings, including that development NGOs be more politically engaged, are being adopted and tested by some major aid agencies. Dr. Banks is also undertaking an ambitious project, along with Professor Dan Brockington of the University of Sheffield, of mapping the UK's NGO sector and we discuss some of her findings from that study. This episode is part of a new content partnership between the podcast and the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. For the next several months we will be featuring from, time to time, experts from the Global Development Institute who will discuss their research and also the pressing news of the day as it relates to global inequalities and development. If you'd like to learn more about the Global Development Institute you can go to GDI.Manchester.ac.uk or click on the add on globaldispatchespodcast.com

I met the Foreign Minister of Kosovo Behgjet Pacolli in a hotel lobby not far from the United Nations where the foreign minister had spent several days during the UN General Assembly last week. I was interested in learning from the foreign minister both some of the substantive issues on his plate--that is, what are Kosovo's foreign policy priorities today, and also just what life is like during UN week for the foreign minister of a small state like Kosovo. So, the conversation you about to hear veers between those two threads. Kosovo is in a unique diplomatic situation. About 116 countries recognize Kosovo as an independent state. This includes major powers like the United States and most of Europe. Russia and many other countries however, do not consider it an independent country, but rather a breakaway region of Serbia. The quest for formal and full admittance to the United Nations hits a roadblock at the Security Council, where Russia holds a veto. As you'll see from our conversation Foreign Minister Pacoli's paramount is to gain full status for Kosovo at the UN and secure bi-lateral recognition from as many states as possible and it was interesting to hear from him how he goes about doing that.

If you want a glimpse of a dystopian future in which authoritarian leaders harness the power of social media to carry out human rights abuses and suppress their political opponents, you need to look no further than the Philippines today. There are few countries in the world as hyper connected on Facebook as the Philippines. And here, President Rodrigo Duterte and his allies are using Facebook to advance their so-called war on drugs which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, mostly through extra-judicial killings. All the while, so called Facebook "influencers" are spreading false information -- even a faked pornographic image to undermine leaders in the Philippines who are critical of Duterte. It is a nightmare situation and one in which Facebook is an accomplice. On the line with me to discuss the deleterious effect of Facebook on democracy in the Philippines is Davey Alba. She is a reporter with Buzzfeed who wrote a deeply reported longform article examining the mechanics of how Duterte and his allies have harnessed Facebook to advance an authoritarian agenda while undermining domestic political opposition. Facebook has very much become a tool of Duterte's drug war and what is happening in the Philippines right now should serve as a warning about Facebook's potential to undermine democracy.

Every year during UN Week there are a number of substantive and important issues discussed, new initiatives launched and new partnerships formed, typically around some big important global issues. It is a week in the diplomatic calendar in which a lot of problem solving gets done. The problem is, this aspect of UN Week rarely gets covered by the mainstream media, which so often chases the big headlines in general--and Donald Trump in particular. But there is so much happening beyond Trump, so today I wanted shine a spotlight one particular initiative launched this week to help the international community and countries of the developing world collect better data around agricultural productivity. The initiative is called 50x2030, the 50 refers to 50 countries from the developing world which will participate in this data collection initiative and 2030 refers to the end date in which the Sustainable Development Goals are due. Key partners on the initiative include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United States Agency or International Development (USAID), Government of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Government of Germany's Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and International Fund for Agricultural Development. It was launched at the United Nations this week. I attended the launch and it included something very different. In advance of a panel discussion, two individuals told powerful personal stories that helped make this discussion very real. These individual were trained by the Moth Global Community Program. So to kick off this episode, we are going to hear a seven minute personal story from Edward Mabaya, a development economist from Zimbabwe who told his story from the floor of the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations. That story provides important grounding for my longer conversation about strengthening the quality if data around agricultural productivity with Claire Melamed, who is the CEO of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.

All eyes turn to the New York and the United Nations as world leaders gather for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, better known UNGA. This is always the busiest week of the diplomatic calendar and on the line the help make sense of it all is Richard Gowan. He is a Senior Fellow at the UN University Centre for Policy Research, and a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. This year, like last year, much of the oxygen in Turtle Bay and beyond will be sucked up by the Donald Trump, who is scheduled to be in New York for three consecutive days. We discuss some of the key moments to watch, including a scheduled Security Council meeting over which Donald Trump will preside. We also discuss some of the other events and issues that probably wont make headlines, but are nonetheless important outcomes of this year's UN summit. This includes a key high level meeting on UN Peacekeeping, which we discuss at length. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the key stories to follow this UN Week, have a listen. Links mentioned Action For Peace Delta8.7

In this special episode of Global Dispatches Podcast we are bringing you the story of how UN Peacekeepers partnered with the people and government of Liberia to help transform the country from one of the bleakest places on the planet, to one of the more hopeful today. When peacekeepers were first deployed to Liberia in 2003, the west African country had just experienced a devastating civil war. Fifteen years later, the last Blue Helmets left the country. Through interviews and archival audio, you will hear from Liberians, UN officials and experts who explain how the UN Mission in Liberia, known as UNMIL, was able to work itself out of a job. This episode is produced in partnership with the United Nations Foundation as part of the special series that examines success stories of multilateral engagement. When the world works together, powerful and lasting change can take place. UNMIL is a success of UN Peacekeeping. This episode tells its story.

My guest today, Anand Giridharadas, is the author of the new book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. The book is a piercing examination of how the global elite have co-opted our mechanisms of social change. This trend manifests itself in many ways, including the belief that market forces are more important than government in affecting change. The book is an extremely challenging, and at times discomfiting, critique of a trend that I've witnessed and certainly been on the periphery of. Conferences like the World Economic Forum, Aspen Ideas Fest, or the Clinton Global Initiative, the book argues, exemplifies an approach to social change that ends up entrenching a highly inequitable status quo. The book has a chapter dedicated to UN Week when heads of state come to New York for the opening of the UN General Assembly, and also attend all manner of side events. And we kick off discussing the significance of many of these events to his overall thesis. I must say, this book has definitely struck a nerve. At time of publication it's number 6 on the New York times best seller list-- and I think this conversation will help you understand why we expect this book to be so impactful.

The world is experiencing a dam building boom. According to research by my guest today David Hulme there are plans underway around for the construction of over 3,700 new dams around the world. And this explosion in dam building comes after a period in which there was a lull in the construction of new dam projects. So what accounts for this new interest in dams? Where are these new dams being built? Do dams contribute to sustainable development or do they detract from it? We discuss these questions and more in the episode you are about to hear. David Hulme is an academic who leads the FutureDAMS consortium at the University of Manchester's Global Development Institute. And in this capacity he helps policy makers make better informed decisions about dam projects, and we discuss at length what academic research can teach us about what makes dam projects succeed or fail in their stated goals. "This episode is part of a new content partnership between the podcast and the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. For the next several months we will be featuring from, time to time, experts from the Global Development Institute who will discuss their research and also the pressing news of the day as it relates to global inequalities and development. If you'd like to learn more about the Global Development Institute you can go to GDI.Manchester.ac.uk or click on the add on globaldispatchespodcast.com" I'm excited that this is the discussion on which we will kick off this partnership."

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 dillemas facing individual refugees as they make this decision. It should be noted: 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.