Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters

There is yet another crisis in the middle east. This week, Saudi Arabia and its close allies in the region moved against Qatar, cutting off sea and air travel and moving to isolate their fellow sunni Gulf country. Like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional group of erstwhile allies that coordinate security policies against Iran and other common threats. But tensions have been brewing for many years between Qatar and other countries on the Arabian Peninsula and these tensions have apparently come to a head in the wake of Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia. Qatar is home to both Al Jazeera and the region's largest US military airbase -- which is currently the strategic nerve center of the US air campaign against ISIS. This fact did not apparently stop President Trump for issuing statements, on Twitter of course, in support of Saudi allegations that Qatar is a nemesis that supports terrorist groups. On the line with me to unpack this situation and explain the roots of these regional rivalries, which has much to do with both the Al Jazeera television station and Qatar's backing of different proxies during the aftermath of Egypt's Arab Spring is Marc Lynch. Marc has been on the show before, most recently to discus his newest book The New Arab Wars, Uprisings and Anarchy in the Middle East. He is a professor at George Washington University and someone I rely on to help me make sense of tangled middle eastern politics. You can--and should follow him on Twitter at @AbuAardvark. If you have 20 minutes and want to learn about why this spat between Qatar and its neighbors is so profoundly consequential to global politics, then have a listen. Leave a review on iTunes! You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) #9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)

Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement In the wake of this decision, I wanted to get a sense of the consequences of this decision to both the climate change goals embedded in the Paris Agreement and also to the wider diplomacy and geopolitics that surrounds global climate change. I bring you two perspectives on these very timely questions. First, I speak with Paula Caballero of the World Resources Institute who does a good job explaining the kinds of global implications of this decision. Then, I speak with Pete Ogden of the United Nations Foundation and we discuss the linkages between federal and sub-national domestic politics, like the actions of mayors and governors, to this decision. If you have 30 minutes and want a deeper understanding of the implications of the US decision to walk out of the world's most important climate change agreement, have a listen. Leave a review on iTunes! You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) #9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)

One overlooked aspect of the global conversation on conflict, disaster and humanitarian affairs is internal displacement and the plight of internally displaced people, or IDPs. Like refugees, IDPs have been forced from their home by conflict or disaster. But unlike refugees, they have not crossed an international border and are not afforded the kind of legal protections embedded in widely adopted international treaties like the refugee convention. But as my guest Alexandra Bilak a explains, the number of IDPs around the world is actually greater than the number of refugees. Alexandra is director of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and we caught up as her organization released its latest flagship annual report on Global Trends in Internal Displacement. We run through the numbers, the key policy challenges and discuss how the international community can do a better job of keeping the priorities of IDPs in the front and center of broader conversations about refugees and migration. Leave a review on iTunes! You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) #9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)

Sharon Weinberger is the author of the new book The Imagineers of War:The Untold Story of DARPA. DARPA, for the un-initiated, stands for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and it is the branch of the Pentagon that is famous for developing some far-out-there technologies, some of which were total flops but others that have become central to not only modern warfare, but also daily life. We have a fascinating conversation about the history of technology in modern warfare and the implications of having a military institution conducting research that can have big-society wide consequences. Sharon has been a journalist on my radar for many years since she founded this great national security focused section of Wired magazine called Danger Room. And we discuss Sharon's pathway into journalism and another book called A Nuclear Family Vacation, with co-author Nathan Hodge that offers something of a tourist perspective on nuclear sites around the United States and its territories. Leave a review on iTunes! You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) #9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)

We are nearly six months into the year and already 9 journalists have been killed in 2017, including 4 in Mexico alone. That figure comes from reporters without borders and is part of a larger data set that my guest Sabine Carey is collecting on the murders of journalists around the world. Sabine is a political scientist at Mannheim University in Germany, and co-author with Anita Gohdes of a new study about the killing of journalists around the world. Their research finds that the murder of journalists can predict the deterioration of human rights in a country within two years of the murder. Their study is is titled "Canaries in the Coal Mine: What the Killing of Journalists Tell Us About Future repression" and can be found in the academic Journal of Peace Research. And in this conversation Sabine walks me through her research and the broader political and policy implications of her findings. Leave a review on iTunes! You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) #9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)

Jill Filipovic is author of the new book The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness. She is a Nairobi based journalist, but we caught up while she was on book tour in her hometown of Seattle. Jill is someone I've known both online and in real life for many years. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and regular contributor to the Guardian among many other publications. She is one of the original pioneers of political blogging; her contributions to the blog Feministe helped inspire the growth of a very vibrant feminist blogosphere that exists to this day. We kick off with a discussion about some her global health reporting from Ghana and Niger. Jill and I spoke a few days after the State Department issued some clarifying guidance on how the Trump administration would interpret what is known as the Global Gag Rule; and jill explains what the Global Gag Rule is and how Trump's interpretation of it is a profound deviation from how previous Republican administrations sought to prevent US global health aid from contributing to abortions. We then pivot to a conversation about her life, career, and her book--which is getting rave reviews. You can find a link to the book on Global Dispatches Podcast.com Leave a review on iTunes! You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) #9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)

As I'm typing, the White House is busy doing damage control over revelations that Donald Trump revealed sensitive information to the Russians when he met wth the Russian ambassador and foreign minister the day after he fired the FBI director. But at the same time, the White House is also preparing for Trump's first foreign trip as president. The first stop is Saudi Arabia, followed by Israel and then to Europe, including to Brussels for a NATO summit. On the line with me to discuss the strategic and political implications of this trip is Dave DesRoches, an associate professor at National Defense University. We discuss the significance of choosing Saudi Arabia as Trump's first foreign destination and what is on the agenda during that visit. On Israel, we discuss the lingering question over the location of the United States embassy and what potential consequences around the world could result from a decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem; and finally we discuss what to expect from the NATO summit. This episode is short but sweet--and a good overview of the key issues on the agenda during Trump's first foreign foray. You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) #9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)

Dr. James Walsh of MIT is a nuclear security security expert and one of the few Americans who have travelled to both Iran and North Korea for talks on nuclear issues. To this day, Jim meets frequently with North Korean officials to discuss nuclear issues. I spoke with Jim the day that Moon Jae-In was elected as president of South Korea, potentially setting up a very different dynamic for nuclear diplomacy with North Korea. We kick off with a discussion about this new South Korean leader and how his approach to the North differs from that of his predecessor. We then pivot to a longer conversation about how Jim became involved in nuclear issues and his decades long study of North Korea's nuclear programs. You will learn a whole lot about North Korea and nuclear security issues in this rather lively episode. You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) #9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)

By now, of course, you are well aware that Emmanuel Macron won a stunning election victory in France, besting by huge margins the far right candidate Marine Le Pen. But if you are like me, you probably did not know too much about Macron -- who he is, where he came from, and how he emerged from the political wilderness to become one of the most intriguing personalities in politics today. On the line with me to discuss the election, give a biographical sketch of Macron and offer insights into the implications of his entrance to the political scene is Christopher Mesnooh a lawyer and media personality in France. I caught up with Christopher from his office in Paris just a few days after the election. If you have 20 minutes and want a deeper understanding of the domestic and international consequences of this election, including on the debate over immigration, the European Union and France's role in the world then have listen. You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) #9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)

Lisa Palmer is author of the new book Hot Hungry Planet: The Fight to Stop a Global Food Crisis in the Face of Climate Change. As the title suggests, the book examines the intersection of climate change, population growth and the politics of food all -- of which we discuss in this episode. Lisa is a journalist who writes for both popular and academic outlets. She's been covering climate change and environmental issues for many years and she discusses how her upbringing in an agrarian community informed her career path. We discuss how fighting food insecurity requires a very broad based approach that touches on politics, technology, women's empowerment and many, many other issues. You can EMAIL Mark by clicking here. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show! Bonus episodes for premium subscribers include: #1: International Relations Theory, explained. #2: A Brief History of Nuclear Non-proliferation #3: A Brief History of NATO #4: The Syrian Civil War, explained. #5: Meet the Kim family of North Korea. #6: Better Know Vladimir Putin #7: The Six Day War, Explained. (Coming soon!) #9: "Sustainable Development," explained (Coming soon!)