Deep Dish on Global Affairs

Ukraine is home to millennia-old culture, including some of the holiest sites of the Orthodox faith. Now, facing a brutal artillery campaign and intentional cultural persecution by Russia, Ukraine’s identity is under attack. But Ukraine is not alone in having its heritage threatened by war, despite this being a war crime. Kyiv-based museum director Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta and Jim Cuno, former President of the Getty Trust, join Deep Dish to help us understand why protecting cultural heritage in Ukraine, and in other conflicts is so important, and what the international community can do to help.  Reading List: Inheritance, Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, Ukraine Crisis Media Center, March 16, 2022  Protecting Cultural Heritage in Ukraine and Beyond, James Cuno and Thomas G. Weiss, Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2022  Cultural Heritage and Mass Atrocities, Edited by James Cuno and Thomas G. Weiss, Getty Publications, September 20, 2022  How the War Changed a Kyiv Museum’s View of Its Past, Jason Farago, New York Times, August 10, 2022 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's controversial Taiwan trip came amid increasingly harsh warnings of retaliations from Beijing and escalating US-China tensions. Nonresident Senior Fellow Paul Heer joins Deep Dish to argue the importance of engagement with China as a necessary component of US foreign policy. If we do not pursue it, he says, we are missing opportunities for a more peaceful coexistence between both countries and the world.  Reading List: The Next Taiwan Strait Crisis Has Arrived, Paul Heer, The National Interest, August 2, 2022  Engagement With China Has Not Failed, Paul Heer, The National Interest, July 14, 2022  Understanding U.S.-China Strategic Competition, Paul Heer, The National Interest, October 20, 2020

Two weeks ago, Sri Lankans stormed the residence of the President and Prime Minister, following months of protests against corruption and worsening economic conditions. Saddled with billions of dollars of foreign debt and facing the lingering economic effects of the pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine, Sri Lankans face rampant inflation and dire shortages of fuel, foods, and medicines. Dialogue Advisory Group’s Ram Manikkalingam joins Deep Dish to explore how this island nation, whose economy was once held up as a success story in South Asia, has come apart, and what this experience reveals about the pressures faced by other nations across the Global South.  Like the show? Leave us a rating and review!

In recent years, the United States has accounted for nearly three-quarters of the world’s mass shootings and forty-six percent of all private gun ownership worldwide — more than 10 times its share of the global population. University of Sydney Professor Phillip Alpers joins a special live edition of Deep Dish to discuss how other nations have tried to prevent mass shootings and firearm homicides, how successful those attempts have been, and what the US can learn from other countries’ approaches to gun violence.  Like the show? Leave us a rating and review. Reading List: Firearm Registration, Gun Owner Licensing and the Right to Possess Firearms - Global Comparisons, Philip Alpers, GunPolicy.org, July 16, 2022 

Joe Biden is currently on his first trip to the Middle East as President, which will include a controversial meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On the campaign trail, Biden pledged to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah”, but with gas prices punishing American consumers, and Russia and China court Riyadh, Biden’s tone and policy toward the Kingdom has rapidly evolved. Council on Foreign Relations’ Martin Indyk and Democracy for the Arab World Now’s Sarah Leah Whitson join Deep Dish to discuss the human rights, energy, and geopolitical dimensions of the US–Saudi relationship.  Like the show? Leave us a rating and review wherever you get your podcasts. Reading List: The Case for a New U.S.-Saudi Strategic Compact, Steven A. Cook and Martin S. Indyk, Council on Foreign Relations, June 2022  America’s Middle East ‘Withdrawal’ Breathes Its Last Breath, Sarah Leah Whitson, The American Prospect, June 24, 2022 

Recent US Supreme Court rulings on abortion, religion in school, gun control, and climate regulation will have far-reaching implications for Americans. How does the role that the Supreme Court plays in US democracy compare to Supreme Courts in other democracies? Constitutional law experts Daniel Brinks and Tom Ginsburg join Deep Dish to explore the uniqueness of the US Supreme Court and what we can learn from the functioning of the judicial branch of other nations’ governments. Like the show? Leave us a rating and review!

As global institutions focused on research, innovation, and ideas, universities have historically been closely tied to geopolitical power. Today, America’s world-leading universities face growing competition, particularly from China, with far-reaching implications. Chronicle of Higher Education senior writer Karin Fischer and Harvard Business School professor and author William Kirby join Deep Dish to discuss how America's universities achieved their global preeminence, why this is now threatened, and how they might respond. Like the show? Leave us a rating and review! Reading List: Latitudes, Karin Fischer, The Chronicle of Higher Education Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China, William C. Kirby, Harvard University Press

What does Russia's war in Ukraine reveal about competing theories of foreign policy thought? The Council’s Elizabeth Shackelford is joined by Emma Ashford, senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, and James Goldgeier, visiting scholar at Stanford University, to debate the war, and what might happen next, from the perspectives of liberal internationalism, the predominant foreign policy doctrine which champions cooperation, and realism, a doctrine that views competition and conflict as inevitable. Like the show? Leave us a rating and review.

Mercenaries from the Wagner Group have been in the headlines recently for their alleged role in war crimes in Ukraine. But the Kremlin-linked paramilitary group has been active in Africa for several years, where it provides a wide range of services to governments across the continent. For this week's Deep Dish, the Council’s Elizabeth Shackelford is joined by Federica Saini Fasanotti of the Institute for International Political Studies in Milan to discuss how Wagner’s growing footprint in Africa supports Russia’s strategic and commercial interests.  Reading List: Russia’s Wagner Group in Africa: Influence, commercial concessions, rights violations, and counterinsurgency failure, Federica Saini Fasanotti, Brookings Institution To Beat Russian Influence in Africa, the West Must Offer Something Better, Elizabeth Shackelford, Chicago Tribune Like the show? Leave us a rating and review.

With richly fertile soil and easy access to international markets, Ukraine has been called the breadbasket of Europe. Following Russia’s invasion, the country’s grain exports have plummeted, leading to worldwide food price increases of 23 percent and hundreds of thousands facing starvation in the Middle East and Africa. As a global hunger crisis soars, food security experts Ertharin Cousin and Teresa Welsh join Deep Dish to dissect the root causes of modern food insecurity and analyze actions we must take to protect the world’s most vulnerable populations. Join the Council's upcoming virtual Event on June 23: Global Food Security Symposium 2022 Interested in learning more about transforming the global food system? Sign up for Devex Dish's newsletter here.