Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

On Tuesday January 16th, Iran launched airstrikes in Pakistan targeting a terrorist group it claimed carried out attacks in Iran. Two days later, Pakistan responded with its own strikes in Iranian territory, targeting a separatist group that has carried out attacks against Pakistan.  These attacks were notable for both their scale--these were major missile and drone strikes --  and for the fact that Iran and Pakistan otherwise have normal, stable and even cordial diplomatic relations. These are not hostile neighbors, yet in the course of one week they conducted military strikes on each others' territory. These hostilities come amid escalating instability throughout the broader middle east. My guest today Michael Kugelman is Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center. We kick off discussing Pakistani-Iranian relations and why this episode is such a departure from normal. Michael Kugelman explains how this flare up is influenced by the fraught situation in the Middle East, and offers some insights into how this crisis may evolve in the coming days and weeks.     

Taiwan held elections for President and the Legislature on January 13. These elections were highly anticipated for the fact that the leading candidates have differing views on how to manage Taiwan's relationship with China. The current vice President, Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party won the elections and is considered to be more pro-west, pro-independence, and skeptical of China.  My guest today, Kharis Templeman, spent the last several weeks in Taiwan leading up to the vote. He explains the results, including the fact that while the DPP candidate Lai Ching-te won the presidency, the DPP does not have a majority in the legislature. We discuss the significance  of this split government and what Lai ching-te's presidency means for cross strait relations with China. Kharis Templeman is Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the manager of the Project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region. He is also a Lecturer at the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University.  

Since mid-November, the de-facto authorities in most of Yemen, the Houthis, have launched dozens of attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis say they are doing this in response to Israel's war in Gaza and these attacks have severely disrupted a key global shipping lane. The United States and the United Kingdom have launched missile strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen in retaliation, and to deter future attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.  My guest today, Gregory D. Johnsen, is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He is currently the associate director of the Institute for Future Conflict at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is a longtime Yemen watcher who served on the UN Security Council's Panel of Experts on Yemen.  We kick off with a brief background on the Houthis and their role in Yemen's civil wars. We spend most of this conversation discussing the motivation behind the Houthi attacks and why airstrikes are not likely to deter future Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. 

As I'm recording this, Antony Blinken is on a whirlwind trip to at least eight countries in the Middle East and Mediterranean region. This flurry of diplomatic activity comes in the wake of worrying signs that the conflict in Israel and Gaza may spread throughout the region. The Houthis have mounted a series of attacks on commercial shipping off the coast of Yemen in the red sea. Meanwhile, Israel has targeted a senior Hamas and a senior Hezobollah leader with missile strikes in Lebanon. The risk of widespread regional escalation is suddenly very acute, according to my guest today Natan Sachs, the director of the Center for Middle East Policy and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings. We kick off discussing Antony Blinken's trip and what he hopes to accomplish. And this includes planning for a post-Hamas political order in Gaza. And here, Natan Sachs explains, there is significant differences between the preferences of the Biden administration and Netanyahu -- and deep divisions within Israeli politics.  

Yaroslav Trofimov is the chief foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and author of the new book "Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence."  Yaroslav Trofimov is a veteran journalist who has covered conflicts around the world. He also happens to have been born and raised in Ukraine. In the book, he offers a first-hand account of the war, and really explains the conflict from a Ukrainian perspective. We spoke amid news of a major prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia, so I kick off asking him about the significance of prisoner exchanges and what it means, if anything, for the trajectory of the conflict. We also discuss the recent major missile barrage on Kyiv, which was the largest single attack since the start of the war, and Ukraine's response.  Much of our conversation focuses on some of the trends to follow in 2024, particularly as there is serious doubt about whether or not the United States Congress can pass a funding bill to support Ukraine's defense.     

As we enter 2024, the conflict in Sudan is shaping up to be one of the worst crises in the world. Nearly 7 million people have been displaced, hunger is widespread and a hallmark of this civil war has been ethnic cleansing that may have crossed the threshold to genocide. Despite being a calamitous catastrophe, Sudan has not received much media attention, nor sustained high level engagement by policy makers, particularly in the West.  To begin 2024, I am bringing you my conversation with Kholood Khair, the founder and managing director of Confluence Advisory, a think and do tank formerly based in Khartoum. We kick off discussing her analysis of why conflict broke out in April between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. We then discuss how this conflict evolved to the point where the Rapid Support Forces appear to very much have the upper hand and why international diplomacy has thus far failed to end this civil war.   

Ten years ago the podcast industry was in its infancy and the format of Global Dispatches was a bit different than it is today. I would sit down with people who had interesting lives or careers in international affairs and interview them about their life and career, with digressions about the historic foreign policy moments in which their or career intersected. I did around 200 of these longform biographical interviews over the first several years of the podcast. These interviews are mostly behind a paywall at this point, and unlocked for paying subscribers via Apple Podcasts or Spotify. For today, I wanted to bring everyone my 2016 conversation with Clarissa Ward, CNN's Chief International Correspondent. At the time, Clarissa Ward had recently snuck into rebel held territory in Syria.  We kick off with a conversation about the mechanics of sneaking into a conflict zone and the risks that war reporting entails. We then have a long conversation about how and why she became a journalist, including her time in Beirut and Baghdad.   Get more episodes like this by becoming a premium subscriber. For Apple Podcasts, upgrade directly in the app. To access these bonus episodes on Spotify, go here. https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches 

Former White House chef Sam Kass joins the podcast to discuss the impact of climate change on foods like snow crabs, peaches, coffee, and wine. He explores the decline in snow crab and salmon populations due to warming oceans, the loss of peaches in Georgia, and the potential migration north of plants and animals impacting stone fruit production. The role of carbon markets and offsets in driving change towards regenerative practices is also discussed.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is holding national elections on December 20th. The DRC is a massive country, with some 100 million people. It is also one of the most resource-rich countries on the planet, particularly the kinds of metals required in consumer electronics and in the batteries used in electric vehicles. Needless to say, the politics of the DRC are an issue of global importance. Incumbent Felix Tshisekedi is seeking re-election, five years after the DRC's first peaceful transfer of power since the 1960s. However, there are serious doubts that this election will be free or fair; meanwhile in the Eastern part of the country an ongoing conflict may prevent millions of people from casting their votes.  I'm joined today by Zaynab Hoosen, a political economist at Oxford Economics Africa in Capetown.  We discuss the major candidates and several of the key issues that are dominating the debate as Congolese head to the polls.     

The international climate change conference, COP28, concluded in Dubai on December 13th, one day later than its scheduled end-date. Negotiators went into overtime to hammer out an agreement  that for the first time addressed the politically fraught question of phasing out fossil fuels.  Joining me to discuss that key outcome and other significant results of COP28  is Pete Ogden, Vice President for Climate and Environment at the United Nations Foundation. We kick off discussing why this particular meeting in Dubai was an important moment for the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to at least 1.5 degrees celsius. We then discuss the contentious politics and diplomacy around an agreement to phase out fossil fuels and other key outcomes of this UN Climate Conference.