Foreign Exchanges: the Podcast

Stories from Qatar, Bangladesh, Kosovo, and elsewhere This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

Stories from the United Arab Emirates, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ukraine, and elsewhere This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

Stories from Iran, Tunisia, Russia, and elsewhere This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

Stories from Syria, China, Venezuela, and elsewhere This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

I’m joined by historian Michael Franczak, Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Order at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, to recap the COP26 summit. Michael covered the first week of the conference for Foreign Exchanges, and if you missed his three dispatches please give them a read here, here, and here. We discuss the history of the international environmental movement and the US role in it, Mike’s own experiences in Glasgow, and his assessment of what took place after he left—including a final agreement so watered down that the summit’s own president, Alok Sharma, actually apologized for it. So I guess that means it was…really good?Mike has a book coming out next June titled Global Inequality and American Foreign Policy in the 1970s, from Cornell University Press. It’s too soon for pre-orders but please keep an eye out for the book!Our coverage of the summit was made possible by the support of FX subscribers. If you’ve appreciated that coverage please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Between this month’s special discount and a couple of other perks it’s never been a better time to subscribe. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

This week I’m pleased to welcome back The Intercept’s Andrew Fishman for an update on Foreign Exchanges’ favorite world leader, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. We’ll talk about Bolsonaro’s cratering poll numbers, fueled by a bungling response to COVID and anger over rampant corruption.We’ll talk about Lula’s legal vindication and his reemergence as the favorite to become Brazil’s next president. We’ll talk about the alterations Bolsonaro and his oligarch buddies are attempting to make to the Brazilian electoral system and about the likelihood of a coup should, as expected, Lula win next year’s presidential election. And we’ll talk about what may be Bolsonaro’s greatest contribution to mankind, the possibly irreversible destruction of the Amazon rain forest. Possibly one of the more depressing episodes this podcast has ever produced, and that’s saying something. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

I’m very grateful that the University of Florida’s Terje Østebø was able to make his third Foreign Exchanges appearance this week to talk about the rapidly changing situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. When Terje and I last spoke the Ethiopian military, alongside elements of the Eritrean military and Amhara regional security forces, had driven the Tigray People’s Liberation Front out of Mekelle and seemed to be in control of most of the region. In the past couple of weeks that situation has been completely upended, with the TPLF now back in control of nearly all but the western portion of Tigray, currently held by the Amhara. Terje and I discuss the shocking speed of the TPLF’s turnaround, the dire humanitarian situation in Tigray, and the likelihood of further conflict.Terje Østebø received his PhD in the History of Religion from Stockholm University, and is currently the chair of the Department of Religion and associate professor at the Center for African Studies and the Department of Religion, University of Florida. He is also the founding director of the UF Center for Global Islamic Studies. His research interests are Islam in contemporary Ethiopia, Islam, politics, and Islamic reformism in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, ethnicity and religion, as well as Salafism in Africa. He has lived in Ethiopia for 6 years, and has extensive field-research experience.Terje’s major publications include “African Salafism: Religious Purity and the Politicization of Purity” in Islamic Africa, 6, 1-2, 2015; Muslim Ethiopia: The Christian Legacy, Identity Politics, and Islamic Reformism (co-edited with Patrick Desplat), (Palgrave-Macmillan 2013); Localising Salafism: Religious Change among Oromo Muslims in Bale, Ethiopia (Brill 2012); Islamism in the Horn of Africa: Assessing Ideology, Actors, and Objectives,International Law and Policy Institute (2010). His latest book, Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia: The Bale Insurgency (1963-1970), is now available for purchase. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

This week I’m joined by attorney and activist Elizabeth Beavers, who has just written a piece for Fellow Travelers titled “Ilhan Omar was Right: The Ugly Reality of International ‘Justice’” that delves into the sordid relationship the United States has had with the International Criminal Court and really with the very concept of accountability for war crimes. We’ll talk about what she aptly calls “global justice apartheid,” unpack the frequently made claim that the domestic US legal system is capable of adjudicating American war crimes, and ask whether there’s any way to subject the US to to the same standards of international accountability that Washington demands of every other nation. You can find links to Elizabeth’s writing at her website and follow her on Twitter.Please stick around until the end for an important programming announcement. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

This week I’m joined by Andrew Leber from Harvard's Department of Government and defense technology journalist Kelsey Atherton to talk about a new briefing book produced by their excellent Fellow Travelers Blog. The book compiles several policy briefs commissioned by FTB over the past several months and is intended to provide some substance for progressive members of Congress looking to steer US foreign policy in a more progressive direction. Toward that end, they’ve started a GoFundMe to support publication and distribution costs, and if you’re able to help out in that regard please do so.Because I can’t have Kelsey on without talking at least a little bit about drones, we spend a few minutes toward the end of our discussion on recent and somewhat sketchy reports of autonomous drones targeting fighters in Libya and the still nascent movement to craft some international rules of the road about the use of weapons platforms that don’t necessarily require human intervention. We’ll also discuss the proliferation of relatively inexpensive mid-level drones (or in Kelsey’s words “the Honda Civic of drones”) and what it suggests about the future of warfare.You can find Andrew and Kelsey on Twitter, and I highly recommend checking out Kelsey’s own Substack, Wars of Future Past. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe

What happens when an Islamic Republic decides that the “Republic” part maybe isn’t such a big deal? Journalist and returning guest Séamus Malekafzali and Sina Toossi, senior research analyst at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), join the program to discuss this Friday’s Iranian presidential election. We’ll talk about the field, such as it is, and how it came to be the way it is, and we’ll get into presumptive winner Ebrahim Raisi’s past and his potential future. Additionally we’ll discuss what Raisi’s (likely) presidency could mean for future US-Iranian relations.You can find Sina on Twitter and at NIAC, where his Iran Unfiltered series is a great look into a media environment to which us Westerners don’t have many points of access. Séamus is also on Twitter and his Substack newsletter is definitely worth a look if you’re interested in Iran. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.foreignexchanges.news/subscribe