Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

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! 

David Kaye, is the author of the UN's first ever report on the regulation of user generated online content. That is, how governments and companies like Facebook and Twitter police their users.  David Kaye is the UN's special rapporteur for the freedom of expression and a law professor at UC Irvine, and in our conversation he explains how human rights principles can inform debates about how to approach "fake news," disinformation and online extremism all while maintaining a fidelity to the ideals of free speech.    I'll a post a link to the report on global dispatches podcast.com and I really recommend people take a look at it because it is so unique. It examines policies in both more authoritarian countries and more liberal countries, as well as the disparate policies of social media platforms and is really the first global examiniation of this issue.

Ivan Duque won a run-off election on June 17th to become the next president of Colombia. Duque is a right of center politician who has been a sharp critic of the peace deal negotiated by president Juan Manuel Santos that ended a half century long conflict with the FARC rebels.    Duque will be sworn in on August 7th, and that of course raises the question: what happens to this peace deal now that the president of Colombia is on the record opposing it. Can the deal survive? And what comes next for the country?    On the line with me to answer these questions and more is Provash Budden, the America's regional director for the NGO Mercy Corps.    We kick off discussing the unique political history of Ivan Duque and then have a longer conversation about what his election means for the peace accords.

The year is 1985. Ronald Regan is president. Margaret Thatcher is prime minister of the United Kingdom. Michael Jackson, White Snake and George Michael are dominating the billboard charts. Back to the Future is a smash hit at the box office. And scientists have just discovered a giant hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. Scientists were warning that if left unchecked, this hole in the ozone would grow ever larger, letting through harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun that would wreak havoc on human health. Skin cancer rates would skyrocket, as would cataracts. In cities like Los Angeles and Washington, DC going outside for just a short period of time in the summer would be dangerous. Meanwhile, the basic ecology of the world’s oceans could change as plankton that make up the bottom of the food chain would die off. But in two years time, before even Universal Pictures released the sequel to Back to the Future, the international community had come together to create a binding international treaty that would lead to the healing of the ozone layer. That agreement is known as the Montreal Protocol. It is widely considered the world’s most successful global environmental treaty. In this special episode of Global Dispatches podcast, produced in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, we bring you the inside story of how the world came together to create an internationally binding treaty to protect the ozone layer-- and ultimately human health. You will hear from scientists who discovered the link between cloroflorocarbons and ozone depletion; key diplomats and government leaders who pressed for the international regulation of CFCs in 1987; and academics and civil society leaders who explain why this 31 year old agreement is as relevant today as it was the day it was signed. The Montreal Protocol is a success of multilateral cooperation. This podcast episode tells its remarkable story.

At the United Nations in mid-July officials gathered for an annual checkup on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs, as they are known, are a set of 17 anti-poverty, health and environmental goals that in 2015 the world agreed to achieve by 2030.  We are now two and a half years into these goals, and this gathering at the United Nations, which is known as the High Level Political Forum, is a moment in which top officials take stock of both global and domestic progress towards these goals.  On the podcast today, we ask the question: how are we doing?  We examine how far we have come and how much more the world needs to do to achieve the goals it set for itself three years ago.  On the line with me to discuss this all is John McArthur, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and senior adviser to the United Nations Foundation.” We kick off discussing areas where progress has been most pronounced and most lacking. We then discuss the High Level Political Forum itself, and also what comes next for the SDGs.

Sunitha Krishnan literally rescues girls from sex slavery. She is the founder of the Indian NGO Prajwala which both physically removes girls from sexual bondage and provides social, medical and psychological support for their rehabilitation.  She's been beaten. She's been jailed. But nevertheless she persists.  And as she tells me in our conversation what motivates her in this dangerous work is anger. And that anger stems from her own experience with sexual assault at the age of 15, when she was the victim of a gang rape.    I met Sunitha Krishnan in June in Yerevan, Armenia where she was being recognized for her heroic work by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.  She was one of three finalists for the 2018 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. And though she did not end up winning that award, it went to a Rohingya human rights lawyer named Kyaw Hla Aung, her work in the slums of of India gained wider attention.     Sunitha Krishnan is a true hero and it was an honor to get to know her.

Nicaragua is in the midst of a deepening political and security crisis. Over the last three months the government has been increasingly violent in its response to a growing protest movement.  Over 240 people have been killed since April, when protests against a social security reform measure began. Those protests have morphed to a broader political challenge against the longtime Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega. On the line with me to discuss recent events in Nicaragua and explain why the country is facing its most profound crisis in decades is Jason Marczak, Director, Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Atlantic Council. He explains the roots of the current crisis and offers some suggestions for how some key players in the region, including the United States, might use diplomacy to prevent this crisis from escalating further,    All in all, this is a useful conversation about a crisis that is not getting the attention it deserves, but is one that could most certainly have big implications across the region--including the United States. Nicaragua is not currently a large source country of migrants and asylum seekers at the southern US border, but if things continue as is, Nicaraguans could start to flee in large numbers.

Parfait Onanga-Anyanga is the Special Representative of the Secretary General in the Central African Republic. This makes him the top UN official in CAR, which includes overseeing a UN Peacekeeping mission of over 14,000 personnel.     That mission is known as MINUSCA and in recent weeks it has suffered a series of casualties as armed groups vie for control of the country's natural resources.    The peacekeeping mission was first deployed in 2014 as part of an international effort to prevent CAR from sliding into deeper conflict that, at the time, experts warned could descent into genocide.  Thanks in part to this international intervention, a genocide was averted, but much of the country remains unstable. The central government     I caught up with the SRSG, as the position is known in UN lingo, just as he was leaving New York to return to the Central African Republic.