Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

We are in a period of profound domestic turmoil here in the United States. I clearly don't need to run down the list of everything out of the ordinary that is happening in DC -- you know full well this is not normal.    But I am curious to learn how some of America's longstanding allies in Europe are interpreting this unique moment of US history and I was also curious to learn how diplomacy with the United States has changed over the last year and half since Trump took office.     So, I could not think of anyone better to whom I should put some of these questions than Klaus Scharioth. He is a veteran German diplomat, having served in the ministry of foreign affairs since the 1970s. He was the German ambassador to the United States from 2006 to 2011, so spanning both the Bush and Obama administrations.  He is now a professor of practice at the fletcher school at Tufts University. The Ambassador is also a member of the board of directors of Humanity in Action-Germany.    We kick off with a conversation about the ways in which the day-to-day practice of diplomacy with the United States has changed since Trump took office. We then have a wider discussion about the evolving nature of transatlantic relations and how the fundamental worldview of Europe is clashing with that of the Trump administration. I recorded the conversation a couple of days ago and one thing that has stuck with me about our conversation was the Ambassador's emphasizing that America's capacity for self-correction is among its most widely admired attributes in Europe.     Support the show! 

Suzanne DiMaggio specializes in what is called Track Two diplomacy with countries that have limited or no diplomatic relations with the United Stats. In practice, this has meant that she's spent countless hours over the last nearly twenty years in meetings with North Koreans and Iranians and those encounters have lead to some major diplomatic breakthroughs.    We kick off defining our terms. She explains what Track Two diplomacy means, as opposed to, say "back channel" diplomacy. We then preview an upcoming major summit between the Kim Jong UN and South Korean president Moon Jae-in. And that meeting, of course, will lay the groundwork for the Trump-Kim meeting, which we discuss in detail.   As diplomacy with North Korea intensifies in the coming months, Suzanne DiMaggio is someone you will see quoted often on TV and radio and so I also wanted to use our conversation to learn how she first got involved with this kind of unique diplomatic endeavor. She has some great stories to tell.

What happened to Iraq's oil wealth? That is the central question of the book: Pipe Dreams: The Plundering of Iraq's oil Wealth by my guest today Erin Banco.   Erin Banco is an investigative reporter at the Star Ledger in New Jersey, where she covers the intersection of money and government. She has reported from the middle east for years and puts her investigative skills to use by examining documents and cultivating sources who explain the sordid tale of corruption surrounding Iraq's oil wealth, particularly in the Kurdish region.    Iraq sits on the world's fifth largest oil reserves, but oil wealth has not trickled down to the Iraqi people. Erin Banco explains why.

My guest today is the renowned journalist Steve Coll. He is a staff writer at the New Yorker, dean of the Colombia School of Journalism and former president of the New America Foundation think tank.  In 2005 he wont he Pulitzer for his book Ghost Wars, which examines the secret history of the CIA in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to right before the September 11 attacks. It is the foundational text that provides the history and context for understanding America's involvement in Afghanistan in the era leading up to the September 11 attacks.  It took DC by storm when it was published and its basically a canonical text.    Needless to say, official Washington and beyond was eagerly anticipating his sequel to Ghost Wars, which was published just a few weeks ago. The book, Directorate S: The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan picks up where Ghost Wars leaves off, spanning from the September 11th attacks to the first few months of the Trump administration.    We kick off with an extended discussion of these two books and what went so wrong for the United States in Afghanistan. We then discuss his own life and career as a journalist, including how an accident of assignment lead him to South Asia at a very critical time.    Links:    Ghost Wars   Directorate S    Support the show! 

A few weeks ago I was having lunch with a former high ranking US diplomat whose work focused on Russia and Europe. I asked him where he thought Vladimir Putin might target next to sow instability and without missing a beat he said: Bosnia. A scattering of recent think tank and press reports offer some insights into Russian meddling in Bosnia. It is an extremely under-covered global story, but one that has the potential to cause unrest not only in the Balkans, but across Europe. On the line with me to discuss this situation is Michael Carpenter. He is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Eastern Europe and the Balkans and is now Senior Director for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the Penn Biden Center Carpenter explains some of the motivations driving Vladimir Putin --  above all, he describes how fomenting unrest in Bosnia is Putin's best insurance policy against perceived threats by the West. Bosnia, as Carpenter puts it, is the soft underbelly of Europe that is ripe for exploitation. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn the implications of Russian meddling in Bosnia for all of Europe, have a listen.      Links: Support the Show  Leave a review! 

On September 21, 2001, Rais Bhuiyan was working behind the counter at a gas station outside Dallas, Texas when a man named Mark Stroman walked in brandishing a sawed-off shotgun. Stroman was a self-proclaimed white supremacist in the midst of a deadly hate crime spree. Seeking revenge for the recent September 11th attacks just days earlier, he roamed the area looking for what he believed to be Arabs to kill. In that killing spree Stroman took the lives of an Indian immigrant named Vasudev Patel and Waqar Hassan, a Pakistani immigrant.  Stroman shot Rais in the face. But Rais, who was a former Bangladeshi air force pilot, survived the attack. Stroman was eventually arrested, convicted of murder and sent to death row. As Stroman awaited execution, Rais embarked on an improbable campaign to spare the life of his attacker.  This story was masterfully told in the 2014 book "The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas" by Anand Ghirdiharas. A major hollywood movie based on the book is currently in production. Today, Rais is the founder and president of the NGO, World Without Hate. When we caught up, Rais had recently returned from a trip to Canada, sponsored by the US State Department, where he told his story. That trip also included a visit to the Islamic Center of Quebec City which was the scene of a mass shooting hate crime just one year ago. We kick off discussing this trip and Rais' work with the State Department before entering into a long and powerful conversation about Rais' experience.  Links:  http://worldwithouthate.org/  Support the Show  Leave a review!  "The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas"  

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, is facing a crisis. This is the humanitarian agency that provides relief for Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. This includes running hospitals and schools that serve about half a million children. Typically, the United States has provided about one third of UNRWA's overall budget, judging the organization to be a source of stability in an otherwise volatile region.  The Trump administration, however, has frozen US payments to the humanitarian agency. It did so in retaliation to a vote at the UN General Assembly in which member states overwhelmingly condemned the Trump administration's decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel and move its embassy there. Withholding promised funding for humanitarian relief for Palestinian refugees was the Trump administration's payback for this vote. On the line with me to discuss what this budget crisis means on the ground for Palestinian refugees is Peter Mulrean, Director of UNRWA's Representative Office in New York. We also discuss the history of UNRWA, the role is serves in Palestinian society and in the politics of the region, and how it might overcome this funding crisis imposed by the Trump administration.   Links: Become a premium subscriber  Leave a review! 

I got my start in journalism covering John Bolton when he was the US Ambassador to the United Nations.  At the time, I was a reporter for the political monthly The American Prospect. I sometimes quip that I owe my career to Bolton because covering his time at the UN was my entry point into covering the United Nations more broadly. My reporting at the time culminated in a cover story that was published in January 2006 that detailed Bolton's tenure thus far at the UN and broke a few scoops about his conduct. In this special episode of the podcast I am going to share a few anecdotes from my reporting at the time that might shed some light on how he will conduct himself as the National Security Advisor to Donald Trump. I’ll also survey some key issues around the world, including North Korea, Iran, Trans-Atlantic Relations and the United Nations to see what Bolton’s past interactions with these issues might suggest for the future of US policy.  I’ll also explain the position of National Security Advisor to help you understand where, exactly, Bolton will fit in in the bureaucratic politics of US foreign policy making. That this is a different kind of Global Dispatches episode. This podcast is typically an interview-based show in which I have conversations with experts about topical issues, or I have longer discussions with people who have had interesting careers in foreign policy. In these conversations, I’ll occasionally interject my own views. But for the most the other person is talking.  But this time around, I am something of the expert. And I think other people see me as such, based on my past reporting.  I was on BBC’s Nightly News program last Friday after the news about Bolton broke. And I also had a piece up on The Daily Beast.  So this episode is just me talking.    Links: Become a premium subscriber  Leave a review!  My Iran Deal episode with Spencer Ackerman My Daily Beast piece on Bolton  

Wanjira Mathai is a Kenyan environmental and civic leader. She is the chair of the Wangari Mathai Foundation, which is named after her mother who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.   Much of Wanjira's work focuses on the intersection of women's empowerment and environmental sustainability. We kick off with a discussion about her work with a group called the Partnership on Women's Entrepreneurship in Renewables (wPOWER). Much of our conversation discusses the challenges and opportunities around renewable energy in the developing world.   We also discuss the work of her mother, the environmental justice pioneer who founded the Green Belt Movement.  This episode is presented in partnership with the Global Challenges Foundation, whose aim is to contribute to reducing the main global problems and risks that threaten humanity. Last year, the Global Challenges Foundation held an open call to find new models of global cooperation better capable of handling the most pressing global risks. In May this year at the New Shape Forum in Stockholm, the top proposals will be presented publicly and further refined through discussions with key thought leaders and experts. US$5 million will be awarded to the best ideas that re-envision global governance for the 21st century.  Wanjira Mathai is a Global Challenges Foundation ambassador and in the conversation we discuss this prize and why new ideas for global governance are important for the future of environmental sustainability.  Links Global Challenges Foundation  Become a Premium Subscriber 

By the end of this month the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia will no longer exist. The mission, known as UNMIL, is closing shop after nearly 15 years in operation, and its closing this is a major milestone and success for both Liberia and the United Nations. In 2003, it was hard to imagine this day would ever come. Around 250,000 people had been killed in a singularly brutal civil war, the infrastructure that existed in the country was decimated and most Liberians who had the opportunity to leave country had fled. Fifteen years later, thanks in large part to this UN Peacekeeping Force, Liberia is a stable democracy with a rapidly developing economy. In 2006 it was the first country in Africa to elect a female head of State, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and after serving two terms she stepped down peacefully and ceded power to her political rival, George Weah. To be sure, Liberia is still a very poor country. But these last 15 years have seen tremendous progress. On the line with me to discuss how UNMIL was able to work itself out of a job is retired Col. Christopher Holshek. Col. Holshek was one of the few Americans to serve in UNMIL and he explains just how the UN's role in Liberia transitioned from peace keeping to peace building.  And because there are so few American military officers who serve in UN peacekeeping missions, his perspective on this question is very unique. The folding of the UN Mission in Liberia is a good news story coming out of the UN and I am glad to share it with you.