Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, released a report in August demonstrating the harmful relationship between climate change and how we humans are using land for food and agriculture.  The warnings are dire. Agriculture and deforestation account for nearly a quarter of all human made greenhouse gas emissions -- and big changes in how we produce and consume food need to take place if we are to curb the worst effects of climate change. At the same time, the world population is increasing and poverty is declining, meaning food consumption patterns, particularly around meat, are changing.      Big changes in how we produce and consume food need to take place if we are to curb the worst effects of climate change. On the line with me to discuss how we can feed the world without destroying the planet is Timothy Searchinger. He' s a research scholar at Princeton University and fellow with the World Resources Institute. He was recently the lead author on a report by WRI Creating a Sustainable Food Future: A Menu of Solutions to Feed Nearly 10 Billion People by 2050.  We kick off discussing the IPCC report and the significance of its findings before having a solutions- focused conversation about policies that can be enacted to help better balance our relationship between food and how humans use the finite resource of land.    If you have 20 minutes and want to learn how we can feed the world without destroying the planet, have a listen.   Unlock Rewards. Become a Premium Subscriber

In August 2017, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya muslims from Myanmar fled across the border to Bangladesh. The Rohingya are a minority population that have long faced discrimination by the Buddhist Burmese majority. In the summer of 2017, things got very bad, very quickly.  A Rohingya militant group attacked some police outposts in Myanmar. The government and military responded by attacking Rohingya towns and villages, unleashing massive violence against a civilian population. This drove over 600,000 Rohingya to refugee camps in a region of Bangladesh known as Cox's Bazar. Some 700,000 Rohingya refugees remain there, to this day.  The violence that drove these people from their home was certainly a crime against humanity -- a UN official called it "a text book example of an ethnic cleansing."  And maybe even a genocide.  That of course demands the question: who will pay for these crimes. What does accountability look like in a situation like this. And can perpetrators of these crimes even be brought to justice in the first place? On the line with me to discuss these questions in the context of the current plight of the Rohingya refugees is Param-Preet Singh, Associate Director, International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch.  We kick off discussing the events of August 2017 before having a longer conversation about possible avenues for justice for these crimes.  This episode pairs well with my conversation last week with former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes, who discusses the fall from grace of Aung San Suu Kyi, the nobel peace prize winner who was the de-facto head of state of Myanmar while these crimes against humanity occurred--and who remained a notably silent bystander to ethnic cleansing.   

In the summer of 2014, ISIS forces swept through parts of Iraq that were home to the Yazidi people. This is an ethnic minority that has lived in Northwestern Iraq for centuries -- and suddenly they were under attack.  What transpired was a genocide. Men and boys were murdered for being Yazidi; women and girls were kidnapped and taken as sex slaves for ISIS fighters.     At the time, my guest today Emma Beals was reporting from Erbil, a city in the Kurdish region of Iraq near to where these atrocities were taking place. She was reeling from the news that a fellow journalist, James Foley, had been brutally murdered when she received a call from a human rights organization asking her to investigate rumors of a massacre in the Yazidi town of Kocho.  Emma Beals describes whats next in a series of powerful essays, titled Kocho's Living Ghosts.There were 19 surviving men from the town's original population of 1,888. In our conversation Emma Beals recounts the massacre through the testimony of the survivors she interviewed.   

When Ben Rhodes first met Aung San Suu Kyi she exuded the all traits that made her such an international icon for human rights and democracy. It was 2012, and Ben Rhodes, who was the deputy national security advisor, was accompanying Barack Obama in an historic visit to Myanmar. As he puts it, this meeting was the high water mark for her moral authority. There was a hopefulness, surrounding her, he says. Now seven years later, she has stripped of many international accolades, honors and prizes.  At issue is the fact that as the most powerful civilian leader in Myanmar she refused to intervene against, or even publicly condemn, a genocide committed by the government against a religious and ethnic minority.  Some 700,000 ethnic Rohingya have fled Myanmar amid what a UN official has called a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. All the the while, Aung San Suu Kyi was silent.  So what happened to Aung San Suu Kyi? How did a Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent decades under house arrest in an elegant pursuit of democracy and justice in Myanmar fall so from grace? And was the international community, including the Obama administration, wrong about her all along?  Ben Rhodes grapples with these questions and more in a new piece in the Atlantic that combines some of his own self-reflection with fresh reporting. He's on the podcast today to discuss the piece. We kick off setting the historic context for Aung San Suu Kyi's rise to prominence and the circumstances of her persecution and house arrest before having a longer conversation about the causes and implications of her becoming a bystander to genocide.  I do want to note that next week on the podcast, I'll be doing whole episode more directly focusing on the Rohingya genocide, including ongoing human rights abuses and the current humanitarian challenges facing hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. So, stay tuned to that--it will compliment this conversation with Ben Rhodes. Before I begin: A big thank you to premium subscribers who support the show through recurring monthly contributions on Patreon.com/GlobalDispatches. You help me do what I do and get rewards in return, including bonus episodes. The bonus episode I'm posting this week is my conversation with George Mitchell, a former US Senator from Maine and international peacemaker who is largely responsible for the Northern Ireland peace agreement. You can unlock access to that episode and many more by becoming a premium subscriber. Check out the tiers of support and the rewards you earn, including access to a daily global humanitarian news clips service I run, by going to patreon.com/GlobalDispatches.   https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches 

  The Horn of Africa region, which includes parts of Somalia, Kenya,  Ethiopia, is experiencing a severe drought. This region has been particularly vulnerable to droughts in recent years--but the situation this summer has become increasingly dire and is raising the prospect of a widespread humanitarian emergency.  A little background: In the summer of 2011, there was a similar drought in the region. But warnings about the humanitarian consequences of this drought went largely unheeded until the drought lead to a famine -- the first of the 21st century. Over the subsequent weeks and months over 260,000 people died, making this famine one of the worst mass atrocities of this decade. That was 2011. In 2017, there was another drought. But this time, the international community and governments in the region responded with urgency. They were able to provide humanitarian assistance and other aid and interventions that prevented the tragedy of 2011 from being repeated. This brings us So that is all some recent historic background to an email that landed in my inbox from Oxfam, which compared data around the humanitarian response in 2011 to the response to the current ongoing drought, which shows that compared to 2011, the humanitarian needs are greater and the international response is far less robust. This of course suggests that unless something changes, the current drought could lead to another famine. On the line with me to discuss the current humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa is Dustin Barter, the regional drought policy and advocacy lead, Oxfam. He authored a report comparing the impact of the 2011, 2017 and current drought and the international humanitarian response. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn why the international community ought to be paying attention to an incipient humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa, have a listen   Support the show https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches 

Ethiopia is in the midst of a fairly remarkable democratic renewal. Since taking office in April 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has accelerated a process of political opening, including a greater freedom of press, the release of political prisoners, a detente with Eritrea, and other meaningful reforms.  But Ethiopia's transition to a liberal, open and multi-party democracy has faced some significant challenges in recent weeks. On June 22, an a general tried to orchestrate a coup attempt, which resulted in two high profile assassinations. That coup attempt, which failed, came on the heels of inter-communal clashes that forced nearly 3 million people from their homes.  Now, the transition underway in Ethiopia is very much being challenged.  On the line to help explain why Ethiopian politics is at such a pivotal moment right now William Davidson, senior Ethiopia analyst with the International Crisis Group. He offers listeners some helpful context and background for understanding the current situation, including what is driving change and the counter-reactions to the process of democratic renewal. To that end, argues William Davidson, it is crucial to understand how rivalries within the ruling coalition, known as the  the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, are driving politics.    Thank you to all the premium subscribers who have filled out the survey I sent about discounts you'd like to receive to publications, products, membership organizations and the like. I'll be reaching out to those in the coming few weeks to see what kind of group discounts we can secure for you guys.    Support the Show https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches   

One of the largest cities in India is running out of water. Is this our climate future? Monsoons typically provide the bulk of water for Chennai, which is one of the largest cities in India. It is on the south eastern coast of the country, in the Tamil Nadu province which is an area that relies on seasonal monsoons to supply the bulk of water.  But last year's monsoons were exceptionally weak, causing aquifers and other water sources to run dry.  Now, in some neighborhoods if taps run at all, only a trickle comes out. Many neighborhoods are reliant on water trucks-- if they can afford it. Meanwhile many people are fleeing the city while this crisis persists. The proximate cause of this crisis is poor rains. But according to my guest today, Meera Subramanian, deeper political and social factors have exacerbated this crisis. This includes poor city planning and a focus on massive infrastructure projects of limited utility.  Meera Subramanian is a freelance journalist and independent author. She is the author of a book about water issues in India titled: A River Runs Again: India’s Natural World in Crisis, from the Barren Cliffs of Rajasthan to the Farmlands of Karnataka.  In July she authored an op-ed piece in the New York Times which makes the case that disaggregated water resource management could be far more effective in combating crisis like the one we are seeing in Chennai today.  If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the implications of the fact that one of the largest cities in one of the most populous countries is running out of water, have a listen. Go Premium!  https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

Since taking office the Trump administration has taken unprecedented steps to sharply reduce both the number of refugees who are resettled in the United States and also the number of people who can claim asylum. This has included significantly lowering what is known as the "ceiling" on refugee admissions to the smallest number ever and placing onerous restrictions on exactly who can be admitted as a refugee. Meanwhile, the administration is implementing several policies of dubious legality that would effectively make it impossible for people entering the southern US border to claim asylum. The Trump administration's restrictive policies toward refugees and asylum seekers are reaching a new phase. In this episode one of the world's leading experts on refugee and asylum policies is on the line to both discuss the mechanics of what the Trump administration is doing. Eric Schwartz is the president of Refugees International and also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration in the Obama administration. He has deep experience working on humanitarian and refugee issues, which he summons in our conversation to help put this administration's assault on refugees and asylum seekers in context. We also discuss the very real global implications of the fact that the United States can not be meaningfully relied on to advocate for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers around the world. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the implications of the Trump administration's increasingly hostile approach to refugees and asylum, have a listen. Unlock Rewards. Support the Show. Become a Patron  https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches   

North Korea is under the world's most stringent set of international sanctions. This includes, since 2006, a ban on exporting of luxury goods to North Korea. This has not stopped Kim Jong Un from amassing a fleet of high end cars. He is regularly seen in Mercedes and Rolls Royces both in North Korea and on his trips abroad. And now a fascinating report in the New York Times offers some key insights into how Kim Jong Un smuggles his luxury cars into North Korea. Reporters from the New York Times teamed up with researchers at the non profit Center for Advanced Defense Studies to track two Mercedes Maybachs from their manufacture in Germany to the streets of Pyongyang. The route was a circuitous one, involving multiple shipping vessels docking in at least five countries over the course of several months. But using open source data and satellite imagery, the reporters and researchers were able to paint a pretty clear picture of how those cars ended up in North Korea. And in so doing, they reveal how the North Korean regime is able to evade some sanctions. On the line with me to discuss his reporting is one of the journalists on the story, Christoph Koettl. He is a visual investigations journalist with the New York Times video team, specializing in geospatial and open-source research. We spend most of this conversation discussing the step-by-step journey of these cars. And I think going through each leg of this trip is important because this story reveals a weakness in international sanctions in general and on North Korea in particular. And that's this: which is that that are only robust to the extent that countries are willing and able to enforce them.   Support the Show. Become a Premium Subscriber. Unlock Rewards   https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches

In 2015, the world adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. These are 17 goals around improving health, welfare and the environment that members of the United Nations agreed to achieve by 2030. The "SDGs," as they are known, built upon a previous set of global goals, called the Millennium Development Goals, which expired in 2015. The idea behind the SDGs was to create an ambitious but achievable set of quantifiable targets around which governments, civil society organizations and the UN can organize their development and environmental policies. These targets include things like eliminating extreme poverty, as defined by people who live on less than $1.25/day; reducing maternal mortality to less than 70 per 100,000 live births; ending the aids epidemic; significantly reduce ocean acidification; among many others. In all there are 162 targets built around those 17 goals. This week at the United Nations there is an major meeting called the High Level Political Forum on the SDGs in which top government officials and civil society participate in a stock taking of where we stand in terms of progress on these goals. A number of foreign ministers and other officials are in New York to discuss progress--or lack there of -- on the SDGs, so I thought this might be a good moment to have a conversation that examines where the world stands four years into the sustainable development goals. On the line with me to discuss progress on the SDGs and how, four years in the SDGs are affecting global affairs and international relations is John McArthur, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Senior Advisor to the UN Foundation. Become a Premium Subscriber. Unlock Rewards https://www.patreon.com/GlobalDispatches