On this week's episode of the Trade Guys, we discuss the trade implications of President Trump's dispute with the president of Colombia. We also look at the potential for increased focus on trade remedies in the U.S. and a European shift towards deregulation. 

Apoorva Mandavilli, the award-winning New York Times science and global health reporter, is on the front lines of several fast-breaking stories. “We should be worried” about the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). It was “already on the chopping block” before the hugely disruptive Trump pause on national grants and contracts. Secretary Rubio did issue a waiver, but there has been no follow-up clarification. PEPFAR remains in peril. Many bad things happen rapidly when a sensitive, complex program of this scale is disrupted. “The virus comes roaring back.” Though Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearing to be HHS Secretary appears inconclusive, Apoorva was “not expecting the level of fireworks.” RFK Jr. was “damned by his own history” of false statements on vaccines, which “haunted him.” U.S. withdrawal from WHO is bad news for Americans in several concrete ways that will harm U.S. national interests. She has brought to our attention that scientists believe we have entered a new, far more dangerous phase in the evolution of the H5N1 threat, while the U.S. response remains woeful. 

In this episode of Pekingology from March 2023, Freeman Chair Jude Blanchette is joined by Dr. Lynette H. Ong, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, jointly appointed to the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy’s Asian Institute and also a Faculty Fellow at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. They discuss her recent book Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China.  

This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Sinem Adar, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), where she works at the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies. Together, they discuss Turkey's evolving interests in Syria and their connection to Turkey’s wider foreign policy agenda. Then, Jon continues the conversation with Martin Pimentel and Will Todman to discuss the hard choices the United States needs to make about Turkey and Kurdish forces that have been fighting alongside U.S. troops in eastern Syria. Transcript: "Sinem Adar: Turkey's Syria Challenge," CSIS, January 28, 2025. Sinem Adar's recent work: "Turkey in MENA, MENA in Turkey," SWP, March 13, 2024.

On this week's episode of the Trade Guys, we run through the early trade actions of the new administration and what may come next. We also unpack the record-high U.S. share of global foreign direct investment (FDI).

Last Sunday, Hamas released three female Israeli hostages that it had kidnapped on October 7, in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody. The deal was the first step in the first phase of a three-phase agreement between Israel and Hamas that the Biden and Trump administrations brokered together, alongside the governments of Egypt and Qatar. Asher Grant-Sasson speaks with Jon Alterman, director of the CSIS Middle East Program, about where this conflict stands after 15 months of warfare and what we should expect in the coming weeks and months.

On this week's episode of the Trade Guys, we step back and assess the Biden administration's record on trade policy, including a preview of what may change under Trump. We also discuss Indonesia's ascension to full membership in BRICS and the latest export controls on AI GPUs. 

With the removal of the only term limit on office in March 2018, Xi Jinping stands to rule indefinitely. But what happens if he suddenly dies in office? How will China's political and economic system respond? In this episode from September 2020, Jude Blanchette is joined by Michigan State University's Erica Frantz to discuss her co-authored paper, "When Dictators Die." 

This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with eL Seed, an award-winning French-Tunisian artist whose monumental artwork blending the styles of Arabic calligraphy and graffiti is spreading in the Arab world and far beyond. His smaller works are in some of the most important museum collections around the world, but he takes special pride in his process of working with communities to select meaningful quotations to inspire his art and then to execute that artwork together. Jon and eL Seed discuss the cultural and political forces that shaped eL Seed's artistic evolution, as well as art’s role in spurring social change. Then, Jon continues the conversation with Martin Pimentel and Natasha Hall to discuss the ways art anchors Middle Eastern diaspora communities to their homelands and interacts with political movements across the Arab world.Transcript, "eL Seed: Arabic Calligraffiti," CSIS, January 14, 2025.

On this week's episode of the Trade Guys, we look at recent Chinese export controls on critical minerals and entity listings of U.S. companies. We also weigh in on President Biden's blocking of the Nippon Steel acquisition of U.S. Steel and the recent controversy surrounding H1-B visas.