Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

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.

In mid-August a UN human rights body called the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said that up to 1 million ethnic Uighurs in China were imprisoned in massive internment camps. Subsequent reporting in places like the Wall Street Journal offered a degree of confirmation that Uighurs were being rounded up, seemingly at random, and sent to "re-education" centers where they are forced to chant communist party slogans, study the speeches of Xi Jinping and also subjected to torture. Uighurs are a religious and linguistic minority in China. The majority practice a form of sunni Islam and most live in Xinjiang province in the far northwest of China. They have been the subject of discrimination for decades, but abuses against this community seem to be accelerating. On the line with me to discuss this situation is Sophie Richardson, the China Director for Human Rights Watch. She explains the methods by which the Chinese government is repressing this community, including mass internment at these so-called re-education centers. We also discuss the history of China's repression of ethnic minorities, including against Tibetans and finally, we discuss what the rest of the world can do to help protect vulnerable Uighurs.

Ambassador Princeton Lyman passed away on August 24th at the age of 83. In January 2017, he came on the podcast to discuss his remarkable life and career, which included serving as the US ambassador to South Africa during the end of apartheid and transition to democracy. We listen back to that interview.

The Syrian war may be entering its final phase. Rebel fighters, from various factions, are now concentrated in Idlib, in northern Syria. Idlib is the place to which civilians and members of armed groups were permitted to escape as part of evacuation deals from places like Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta as they fell to government forces. Millions of displaced Syrians and some armed groups are now concentrated there. But now there is every indication that Syrian forces, backed by Russia, are preparing for battle. My guest today is trying to warn the world how disasterous such a battle would be for civilians caught in the crossfire. Jan Egeland is a senior advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria and heads the UN's humanitarian task force for Syria. As such, it is his job to negotiate access to besieged populations for relief workers and facilitate humanitarian relief in war zones. A battle over Idlib would be a bloodbath, he says, that could jeopardize the lives of 3 million people. In our conversation, Jan Egeland describes the significance of Idlib to the trajectory of the war , and the geopolitics underpinning a potential decision by the Syrians to lay siege to it. We also discuss what NGOs in Idlib are doing to prepare for a potential attack. Jan Egeland is a longtime humanitarian professional. He is current the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council and served as the top UN humanitarian relief official from 2003 to 2006. This meant he reported directly to Kofi Annan so we kick off with a brief conversation about the late Secretary General's legacy before discussing Syria at length.

On March 21, 2020 North Korea shoots down a South Korean civilian airliner, mistaking it for a US bomber. This sets off a series of events that leads to the launching 13 nuclear armed ballistic missiles towards the United States. Several of these missiles miss their target. But not all. One bomb levels Manhattan, another hits Northern Virginia and a third lands near Mar a Lago, in Florida. 1.4 million Americans are killed. The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States by Jeffrey Lewis explains how this tragedy transpired. The book, of course, is fiction -- Jeffrey Lewis calls it a "speculative novel." But it is all too believable. nd that's because Jeffrey Lewis is a nuclear security expert who has spent decades studying the North Korean nuclear program. He is the director of the Center for Non Proliferation Studies at the Monterrey Institute and is a pioneer in open source intelligence gathering and geospatial analysis. He and his team famously identified the location of North Korean missile test sites using tools available to ordinary citizens. And 'm sure many you know him as the host of the excellent Arms Control Wonk podcast. But now, he has taken his hand at fiction -- and his book, which takes the perspective of a government report explaining the series of mistakes and miscalculations that lead to this nuclear attack, is one of the most vital international relations books of many years -- despite the fact that it's fiction. I suspect it will be standard on international relations syllabi. That is because the scenario he lays out is entirely plausible and the politics that enable this tragedy are very real. We discuss the plot at length, including the miscommunications, misperceptions and just plain mistakes that lead to the events of March 22 2020.

Dr. Vanessa Kerry is the Co-founder and CEO of Seed Global Health. This is an international NGO that works in five sub-Saharan countries to bolster the education of medical professionals. We kick off discussing the newest ebola outbreak in the DRC. This is a very alarming outbreak for the fact that it is occurring a region of the DRC that is very much a hot conflict zone. We then have a broader conversation about the challenge of strengthening health systems in poorer countries and we of course discuss the specific work of Seed Global Health to that end. Dr. Kerry came to national attention in 2004, when she introduced her father, John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention, and she describes how her interest in global health issues was sparked by a trip to Vietnam many years ago, with her father. If you are a global health and development nerd -- and I know many of you are -- I think you will very much appreciate this episode.

On August 19th 2003 the United Nations headquarters in Iraq at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, was hit with a truck bomb. At least 22 people lost their lives in this attack, including the UN's top official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. In subsequent years, August 19th has been commemorated at the United Nations as World Humanitarian Day, in which the sacrifices of humanitarian workers are honored. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the attacks on the UN headquarters in Iraq, which ushered an era in which the United Nations, and humanitarian workers more broadly, are more and more often the targets of terrorist violence. On the line with me to discuss the 2003 bombing and its legacy today is Ambassador Elizabeth Cousens. She knew many of the victims of this attack, having worked with the UN in the middle east. She is a former top ranking official at the US mission to the United Nations and is now the deputy CEO of the United Nations Foundation. We kick off discussing her experiences the day of the bombing and have a broader conversation about how this terrible event forever changed how the UN operates around the world.

In 2014, I spoke with New Yorker writer Robin Wright about her life and career as a foreign affairs journalist.

On August 7th, 1998 my guest today John Lange was the acting United States Ambassador to Tanzania when a truck bomb exploded outside the embassy in Dar es Salaam. He did not know it at the time, but this bombing was part of a coordinated attack on US embassies in the region. Minutes early in Nairobi, Kenya the US embassy was bombed as well. Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks that killed over 200 people. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of these attacks, I invited Ambassador Lange on the show to share his experiences from that day and also reflect on how those attacks changed US diplomacy. Today, Ambassador Lange is a senior fellow for global health diplomacy at the United Nations Foundation. and he is a contributor, along with 40 other survivors of these attacks to a special commemorative issue of The Foreign Service Journal. The US embassy bombings were a pivotal moment for US diplomacy and world history. It was very much a pre-cursor to the September 11th attacks that drew the United States into conflict in Afghanistan that is ongoing to this day. And I want to thank Ambassador Lange for being so candid about his experiences and his reflections on the meaning of these attacks 20 years later.

Michael Scott Moore spent 977 days as a hostage of Somali pirates. He is a journalist and in 2012 he set out for the Somali coast on a reporting trip when he was kidnapped. What followed was a two and a half year ordeal that he masterfully recounts in his new book: "The Desert and the Sea." The book is beautifully written-- it's a page turner and he really puts you in his shoes as he struggles to survive. In our conversation we discuss his capture and time in captivity, as well as broader issues surrounding piracy off the coast of Somalia. And one thing that does come through is that the gang that held Michael was part of an organized crime network whose business was kidnapping for ransom. The foot soldiers of this gang are far from what we might typically consider as "pirates." Become a premium subscriber!