Hudson Institute Events Podcast

Yevgeny Prigozhin took a shocking step on Friday, redirecting units of his Wagner Private Military Company from Ukraine into Russia. Footage of Wagner forces charging toward Moscow seized the world, and Vladimir Putin dug in to defend his capital. The day ended in an unspecified deal, apparently brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, but little is known about its terms. What is clear is that this is a momentous event for the Russian government, the war in Ukraine, and Putin’s rule. Please join Hudson’s Peter Rough as he sits down with Senior Fellows Rebeccah Heinrichs, Can Kasapoğlu, and Luke Coffey to sort through what it all means and what policymakers should focus on next.

Freedom, prosperity, and security are increasingly interconnected with technology. Nathaniel C. Fick’s role as the inaugural United States ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy is a testament to our current age of rapidly developing technology—and how the State Department views various implications for foreign policy.What does US international leadership in tech diplomacy mean? How does the State Department plan to increase its capacity and influence the international arena in cyber, digital freedom, telecommunications, and emerging technology policy? What are the priorities, opportunities, and hazards in expanding America’s role in tech diplomacy? What is required for success?Ambassador Fick graduated from Dartmouth College and earned his MPA and MBA from Harvard. He completed combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq before becoming a think tank leader and tech entrepreneur.Please join Hudson Institute Asia-Pacific Security Chair Dr. Patrick Cronin for a conversation with Ambassador Fick on the intersection of strategy, technology, and diplomacy.   

The preponderance of circumstantial evidence supports the hypothesis that an unintentional research-related incident initiated the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party refuses to release any of the data required to verify the alternate, zoonotic hypothesis. In April, the Republicans on the Senate HELP (Health, Environment, and Pensions) Committee released Muddy Waters, a report on the origins of COVID-19. The report, principally authored by Dr. Robert Kadlec and Dr. Robert Foster, examines the nexus of COVID-19 in unprecedented detail and looks systematically at China’s responsibility for the COVID-19 coverup.Please join Hudson Senior Fellow David Asher for a conversation with Dr. Kadlec on the report’s findings.

A cover story in The Economist billed it as the "Most Important Election of 2023.” On May 28, Turkish voters headed back to the polls to decide a contest that pitted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan against opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The election was a referendum on, among other things, Erdoğan’s economic policies, response to the earthquake, and balancing of Moscow and Washington. And Erdoğan won, hands down. Please join Hudson Senior Fellow Michael Doran as he moderates a discussion with a panel of experts on Turkish politics to unpack what this decisive victory means for US-Turkey relations, the war in Ukraine, and the balance of power in the Middle East.

For decades, global technological standards have enabled the development of a thriving, innovative, and competitive ecosystem that has benefited markets and consumers worldwide. As the geopolitical race for leadership in critical technologies expands, nearly every major country is evaluating policy measures to expand its role in the development of global standards. What are the key challenges the United States and other countries face? Should the international community maintain a global standardization system? What is needed to encourage robust continued participation in global standardization efforts?

On June 6, please join Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs on the National Security Council Kurt Campbell and Hudson Institute Distinguished Fellow Walter Russell Mead for a discussion on United States foreign policy and America’s role in the world. Dr. Campbell will offer his perspective on American strategy in the Indo-Pacific region.Dr. Campbell has served in several government positions, including as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific, director on the NSC staff, and deputy special counselor to the president for NAFTA. He also served on surface ships as a US Navy Reserve officer, and in the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Advisory Unit.Dialogues on American Foreign Policy and World Affairs is a Hudson discussion series moderated by Walter Russell Mead, one of America’s leading analysts of international affairs and the “Global View” columnist for the Wall Street Journal. The series features influential policymakers and opinion leaders in candid conversation on timely questions of international affairs and national security.

Please join Hudson’s China Center for a panel discussion with the architects of the AUKUS agreement—former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Seventieth US Secretary of State and Distinguished Fellow Michael R. Pompeo—on what this monumental diplomatic and security achievement.

In an increasingly complex world, energy remains the one constant. We need it to drive our cars, turn on the lights, power our militaries, and everything in between. The rest of the twenty-first century will bring unprecedented challenges and changes to the way we power our lives. What does the future hold, and how can the United States rise to the occasion?Please join Hudson Senior Fellow and Director of the Initiative on American Energy Security Brigham McCown for a conversation with industry experts on the best ways to tackle current and emerging energy policy issues.

The Daniel Ortega regime arrested Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa, a former foreign minister and ambassador to the United States from Nicaragua, as part of a crackdown on domestic opponents in 2021. The government sentenced him for alleged crimes against national sovereignty and held him in El Chipote prison until February 2023, when he and 221 other political prisoners were released and deported to the United States.  Please join Hudson Institute Adjunct Fellow Daniel Batlle for a conversation with Aguirre-Sacasa on his experience as a political prisoner and the repressive nature of the Ortega regime. 

Force structure—which includes the allocation of personnel, equipment, and weapons—is one of the most important and overlooked components of military readiness. With rising threats abroad, the US military needs to maintain a force structure that allows it to project combat power whenever and wherever it is required. Please join Jon Askonas, a military scholar and assistant professor of politics at the Catholic University of America, and Hudson Media Fellow Jeremy Hunt for a conversation about the state of our military’s force structure and what it means for our national security.